Ionuc Groza, teamleader Slobozia
‘Barnabas did a very powerful action in the village
of Crunţi. This made great impact on the church and also on the Christians. Also
the team built relations with the young people. They reached those youngsters who
are difficult to approach.
Results
The youth continues now the evangelistic actions
in Crunţi. One young boy, Lucian (17) led the children's work. Daniel was leading
the first church meeting in Crunţi in the house of one of the families who opened
their house. There were ten members in the house-church.’
Cristi Frunza, teamleader,
Iaşi
‘At the moment of calling, the summer camp has just finished. We organised 2
children's camps. Both camps were attended by about 20 children. The age of the children
was between 10 and 14. Each camp lasted six days. The camp was held in the mountains
in a wood cabin. It was beautiful weather, so we did most of the activities outside.
They were children from poor families from north of Romania. In each camp the skills
of the Barnabas festival were used. In the morning we had a devotional time and in
the afternoon we had games and sports and also Bible time with workshops for the
kids. Every night we had a fire. Around the fire there were many discussions.
Results
Half of the children were from non-Christian families and come from very bad
backgrounds; parents with an alcohol addiction and unemployed. On arrival they had
bad language and many fights. At the end these kids changed. They became happy and
they could sing the songs with us. Also in the evening they sang on their own. All
of the non-Christian children became Christians during the camp. At the Bible lessons
these wild kids responded themselves and they wanted to contribute. On the last day,
we got many questions on reading the Bible and going to church. At the end these
wild kids made decisions to love their family. At the end they made me promise to
invite them again to join the camp next year. They came to me and gave very much
thanks that they could join this camp.
One girl, Lorena (12) her parents went to
Spain and just returned after 4 years of living in Spain. She did not go to church
for a very long time. She was amazed to hear about Christ. The theme we had was 'The
adventure with God'. The leading person was Elisha. When the girl heard about this,
she wanted to have an adventure with God like Elisha. Then I said that every person
has his own adventure with God. From that moment she asked many things concerning
the adventure with God. She asked about the adventure in school and when she is ill.
At the end of the camp we asked who wanted to follow Jesus. This girl immediately
responded. She also involved other children to become involved in the 'adventure
with God.’
One boy, Mirel (8) who comes from very a bad background, his parents are
alcohol addicts and beat each other and the children. He wanted to hear every time
the story about Jesus and the blind Bartimeus. He wanted to hear that story time
and time again. I asked him why. He said because it is the first time that somebody
gave attention to me. I am always alone and I have no friends. He felt like the blind
Bartimeus. And he wanted to see. He also repented on the last night.’
Cristi also made enquiries after the camp what happened to the children. There was
a funeral service in that week, but everybody started to talk about the summer camp.
The summer camp is now the talk of the day. Barnabas had an important role to play
in this.
