The following report was submitted by Ioana Vasile, the oldest daughter of Pastor Ion Vasile, with whom we have labored these many years.  She is my official volunteer assistant for all our Romania work, and still goes into the field of souls to share the gospel.  She also acted as an on-location reporter for me, sending me updates almost daily.  This is the first GNI mission executed without personnel support from the GNI USA team.  This is Ioana's mission report, as it was sent to me...my reflections follow her report.

note: statements in [] are clarifications inserted by me for your benefit

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Mark,

Words are not enough to describe the 2005 GNI mission in Romania. It is so difficult to put down what we all felt during these days, because the work of our Lord makes you speechless sometimes.

The statistics show a total of 4077 contacts, 2833 shared gospel and 911 professions of faith. Praise the Lord!

The Victory Day in Campina was wonderful and yet saying 'wonderful' is not enough! We had such a great time, sharing experiences with one another and resting in the House of the Lord, laughing and crying, talking about the great things God has done through us and in us. My father read your letter with such great passion, it was as if you were here... and we know you were. There is no doubt that “God Bless Romania!” became the anthem of our mission. You feel like the walls of the church building are about to fall down, whenever you hear the GNI volunteers singing this song.


Pastor Octavian in Alexandria said: "I could not believe that this kind of mission takes place in Romania anymore".  We were not only volunteers to go and reach out lost souls, but also, by God's grace, we've been an encouragement for the mission centers. One of the churches even said that waiting until next year for such a mission would be too much, so they are planning another one on their own.  Even more, through them we got strength to go on whenever we felt tired or discouraged.

Before we left our homes to go to the mission centers, we all prayed to have a good weather. It rained for 2 days almost all over the country [seventy-five percent of the country was flooded or under a flood watch from these rains and the rains previous to the mission], but this didn't prevent us from sharing the Word of God. We took this experience as coming from the Lord, trusting that this was His plan for us, and we went on. Even if the streets were flooded or we had to use our umbrellas, we went out on the streets and shared. The merits are not ours, but they belong to God, as He was and continues to be the One who gives us boldness and courage to go and spread the Good News. It was no greater joy for us than seeing people saying "Yes!" to Jesus!


I am looking forward to translating the post-mission testimonies, because I know that each of them represents a unique experience with the Lord, or something that changed lives or another chapter of the Book of Acts [we at GNI often refer to the Lord's continuing mission work as the "29th Chapter of Acts"].

Going to the 5 mission centers this year has already opened new doors towards new locations for the Romania 2006 GNI mission. We might be able to go to the county of Dolj and the county of Sibiu and open another center in the county of Buzau.

We are so thankful to the Lord for everything He did! He is the One to be praised for providing for our needs, for encouraging us, for changing our lives!
We also want to thank you for working so hard to raise up the funds for this mission. You are a true blessing for us all!


Mai vorbim [we shall talk (later)],

Asistenta ta [your assistant],

Ioana

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Beloved of the Lord,

Your investment in prayer, prayer, prayer, and financial resources is paying great dividends in Romania.  This year's team of Romanians consisted of 55 men and women ages 17 to 58, all going out to do the same thing: share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible in these unchurched villages and towns.  The tremendous results we have seen by all involved and engaged are works of the Lord Himself, upheld prayerfully before the throne of grace by believers like you.  Your giving to GNI's International Scholarship Fund (ISF) makes their going into the highways and byways preaching the Gospel possible.

The mission center churches will follow-up with each person making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and begin a Bible study in that village or town.  Over time, the Bible study group will congeal into a house church.  The Body in the new house church will then begin to do their own outreach.

Not only have lives been touched through the proclamation of the Gospel, but those proclaiming this GoodNews have been positively impacted as well, as evidenced by Ioana's report.  Pastors and their ministries have been impacted, the members of the Body have been impacted, even the lives of those in the Body who did not go out have been touched by the testimonies of the power of God at work in the field of souls.

This strong group of disciplers and evangelists, through God's power and grace, enable GNI to continue its thrust deeper into Romania and farther into the Balkans.  I will discuss our Balkan strategy at length in a future newsletter.

Thank you again for all you have done to make this mission possible.