NEVER take what you have for granted!

I want to start by thanking everyone who supports the ministries in Romania and Ukraine. When you give, you enable the work of God to grow. When you pray, God hears and moves mountains. I cannot express enough how crucial you are to the mission we are trying to fulfill. I and all of our missionaries are extremely grateful for everything you do.

Since Covid-19 spread throughout the world, everyone has seen upheaval in their daily lives. This includes our missionaries, who have been challenged to share Christ in an extremely restricted environment. For a year and a half, things like travel and meetings, which were formerly taken for granted, became all but impossible. Many people have had to deal with immense stress because they have not known what the future holds. Some have wondered if these are signs of the end times. What we have learned during the Pandemic is that we cannot lean on our own understanding, but must rely on the strength of God. As Covid-19 restrictions are released, we strive to move forward confident in the knowledge that God is with us. If Jesus does come soon, praise God! But until then, we have work to do.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” -Proverbs 3:5-6

As we are in the middle of the summer, ministries are in full motion in Romania and Ukraine. Missionaries feel the need now more than ever to spread the Gospel to their people. There are many who yearn to find peace, and souls are being drawn to God. At the same time, the missionaries take care of their flocks, discipling those who have already come to know Christ. The mission continues!

Romania

VBS/Alba-Iulia

The border has opened to foreign travelers for the first time since the Pandemic started! I have have already bought tickets to go to Romania in August with a couple of others. While we are there we will have a conference with all the missionaries and their families. If it is possible, we will have the missionaries from Ukraine join us as well. This will be a time of great encouragement for the missionaries, who have felt isolated for the last year and a half.

Medical supply

The Romania National Director Timotei Stanea has some exciting news! He recently received Covid-19 medical equipment from Europe to distribute to missionaries for their local clinics. The shipment included disinfectant, gloves, masks, and other protective equipment. This is a big deal for the missionaries, because it will bring recognition in their villages and hopefully lead to more people asking questions about what they do. Deliveries were sent to Campani (Florin Botar, Relu Rodean), Ocna Mures (Daniel Petrut), Alba Iulia (Traian Nemes), Sibiu (Cornel Fogorosiu), Fagaras & Victoria (Timotei Stenea), Curtea de Arges (Traian Chilau), Draganesti Olt (Florina Darvell), Alexandria (Mihai Geabou), Beciu (Florin Sfetcu), and the church in Craiova (Liviu Costea, not PIEI affiliated).

In the spring, Timotei asked Gabi to do an online Course with the women. She has just finished a second course.

  1 Corinthians 15:57

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is such a joy to see our second online bible study completed, and the women who have faithfully attended this study be so thankful and built up in the Lord.  Personally, I had so much to learn from this study, and I am so thankful that I had this opportunity to meet with my sisters on a weekly basis to discover truth from God’s Word that would reveal, week by week, the beauty of God’s heart and His love for us in our individual part of His workmanship.  It was like peeling the layers of an invisible “onion”, one by one, getting deeper to the center of it, where we found such treasure, the heart of God, His declaration of love to us, in such amazing words, gentle, beautiful, tender, where we felt loved with a sacrificial love to the highest level that only our Savior could ever love us.

The love of Christ that passes all understanding, His care and detailed provision for us, and especially the significance and place He has given each of us in His plan - our individual part - of His body, His church, His bride, His workmanship, His MASTERPIECE!  Keeping our minds on the things above certainly make our troubles down here seem so much smaller and less significant, especially in comparison to the eternity awaiting us.  We gained a new perspective of what is important and what is of priority in our lives. 

What is next?  Per request of one of our sisters, we plan to do a practical study on evangelism.  How to share the message of the Gospel with loved ones, with anyone who needs to hear.  Many people do not share because they do not know how to do it.  Well, we plan to do just that, learn the message and how to share it! 

Baptism in Maldaieni/Teleorman

Last Sunday Cornel Moldoveanu held a baptism service. They invited 70 people, and 120 showed up! Many people were curious about baptism, and had the desire to hear more. The missionaries had the opportunity to share the Gospel with many new people. They had planned to baptize 4 people, but by the end of the event they baptized 8 souls! This amazing story shows that despite all the restrictions, God works in the hearts of men.

God’s amazing ability to reveal His glory in adversity does not mean that there has been no strife. Indeed, this has been an incredibly stressful time for the missionaries, and some have dealt with personal struggles that have interfered with God’s work. Allow me to share the story of one of our missionaries.

Florin and Alina/Missionary in the southern part of Romania

Florin Sfetcu moved from Italy to Romania to be a missionary to his home village. He has dedicated his life to the work of the Lord. However, he does not have any dedicated sponsors that send him funds on a regular basis. PIEI gives him financial support from our General Funds every month, but it’s not enough. When I talk to him, we talk about his desire to bring the Gospel to every person in his village. He also has the desire to work with kids, and start several other ministries. However, when a person with his heart does not have his family needs taken care of, it is very difficult for him to do ministry. We have discussed projects that he wants to complete, but he can’t afford to buy a drill or even pay for gas right now. Without the basic necessities that he and his family needs to live and function, he is unable to accomplish the goals he has set.

The uncomfortable truth is that there are people who have, and there are people who have not. We often think nothing of going to the store to buy a tool, or medication, or even food. We forget that those simple acts we take for granted are nearly impossible for others, and cause them great anxiety and stress. Florin is a missionary who knows the culture, the language, and the customs of his people and is ready to do God’s work, but he NEEDS partners. If you want to donate towards providing some of his basic needs, DONATE and support Florin Sfetcu (or any of our missionaries).

Ukraine

VBS/Tarasauti-Ukrine

You may not be aware that the war on the border between Ukraine and Russia is still ongoing. Though you no longer hear updates on the news, people are dying in the war every day. Neither side is advancing, but both sides continue hostilities. This has taken a huge toll on the people of Ukraine, especially on top of the struggles with the Pandemic. Despite all that, God’s work continues!

Pavel Petihachny, the national director in Ukraine, has scheduled a number of evangelistic events, and is still planting churches. Last Sunday 17 people came to know Christ in the church in Chernauti. In Terasauti 3 people came to Christ. In several villages there are baptisms scheduled, and non-Christians are very curious. They come to those baptisms, and in so doing hear the Gospel for themselves, giving the missionaries more opportunity to spread the Good News.

Baptism in Cernauti-Ukrainian church-pastor Pastushak

The children’s ministry in Ukraine is going very well. Every missionary in Ukraine started hosting VBS for kids from 10-1 every day. They take the kids to the outskirts of their village to share the Gospel without distractions. About half the kids who go to VBS are from non-Christian families, and hear the Gospel for the first time. In addition, the government has approved the missionaries to host their Camp this year on July 26-31! This is a big deal in Ukraine, because just like for VBS, half of the kids who attend are non-Christians. In fact, kids ministry and the camp in particular brings more souls to Christ than any other ministry in Ukraine. God not only touches the hearts of many children, but through them exposes their families to His mercy and grace as well! If you would like to sponsor a child to go to camp, it costs $13/day for 5 days, and you can DONATE to the Ukraine Camp.

Prayer Requests:

• There is always a need for General Funds for missionaries. In addition, many missionaries are in need of regular sponsors as well. Pray that we find the funds we need to support what the missionaries are doing. If you feel called, donate below.

• Pray for the missionaries to be encouraged when we meet with them for the conference in August.

• Pray for the protection of each missionary’s family from the Evil One.

• Pray that more teams can go to Romania and Ukraine for short-term mission trips. If you are interested, please email me at cornelstef@gmail.com.

With grace and peace in Christ,

Cornel Stef

Donate

Online Women Bible Study with my Sisters in Romania

The LORD has given me this great opportunity to teach a bible study online with the women in Romania and not only.  It has been a tremendous experience, and I would like to share a few of the highlights of this time we spent together during this study.

Thank You, Pastor Timotei!

First of all, I would like to thank pastor Timotei Stînea, the national director of our ministry in Romania for this initiative, for the care he has for the Christian women and their spiritual needs, and for inviting me and trusting me to teach this study for the women.  He was also very sensitive to offer me a very precious helper, a young and vibrant young lady to be my assistant, sister Damaris Joldos from Alba Iulia, very gifted with technology, very capable, with much tenderness towards our ladies and very ready to assist me in whatever way I needed, from recruiting, registering the women, encouraging me, to the very end, constantly in communication with the women through the WhatsApp group that she created for us.  A real treasure!

“Search Me” A Bible Study about God’s Redemptive Plan in Psalm 139

This bible study that was a study of four weeks, I chose to have it spread out in seven weeks. 

First week was dedicated to get to know each other, women young and not so young, from so many different places, and introduce myself, as well as introduce this study to them.

I translated this study from English three years ago.  I personally know the author, Mandi Cornett and her daughter Maggie, who have together written this study.  Mandi is a speaker, writer, author to several studies and books that can be purchased on amazon, and is the founder of CLEANSE. FILL. POUR, a Christian ministry for women.  Mandi and I are members of the same church in NW Indiana in the United States.  In the Spring of 2018 both Mandi and her daughter were part of a short term mission trip that our PIEI ministry organized and they came with us to Romania where we organized several women conferences and evangelistic events for women.  It was then that I translated this bible study, so this is how I got the desire to use this study for the ladies in Romania now, knowing that we had this material already translated and it was such an appropriate study for women.

We studied four weeks of lessons about God’s Redemptive Plan in Psalm 139, after which we added two more weeks, one in which we met the author, Mandi Cornett, who was so gracious and loving, and gave an overall teaching of David and the writing of the Psalm 139, and the last week was dedicated to prayer and all the prayer requests that the women have been writing on the WhatsApp group over all these seven weeks.  There have been personal, for loved ones, for salvation, for healing, for suffering and loss, for friends and relatives, and the women have been so loving in praying one for another.

About the Bible Study

The Bible study was divided in theme stanzas, and in each of them we studied a Biblical character, such as the woman Hagar, a woman whose circumstances did not change, but from her we learned that we have a God who sees us and knows us in a personal, intimate way.  Then we studied Peter, his spiritual progression, saw the change that took place in him, and the fact that the Lord has chosen him with intention before he became the restored “Peter”. We have been chosen and called also with intention, and each have our own unique character, and are a work in progress.  Then in the third lesson we studied the sin problem that is our problem and the redeeming solution offered by our Savior Jesus Christ, the message of salvation.  In our last lesson we studied David, the author of the Psalm, a few events from his life, and we also opened our own hearts asking God to search us deeply, to know our thoughts, our ways, helping us realize what paths we are on, to make sure that we are on the path that leads to everlasting life.

About the Women

We had two groups of study, one in the morning, and one in the evening (Romania time), middle of the night and afternoon U.S. time! We had a colorful group of women, from many different parts of Romania and not only, even from over the border, from Germany, Spain, Italy, Republic of Moldova, and overseas, Chicago, U.S.A., all Romanian women, of different ages.  Some young moms with small babies and children, some mothers with adult daughters, some grandmothers, some sisters, a wonderful tapestry that the Lord has put together on the screen of beauty part of His workmanship.  I had like a moment of revelation as if we were seeing through the eyes of the Lord, as He sees, at the same time, all of us, no matter where we are, who we are, at what time zone, He knows us by name, and sees us!  How marvelous  this eyes of technology enabling us to have fellowship, worship, prayer, study, from our own homes.

My sisters are so precious, they have value, are loved, and each of them are a very important part of God’s work of art, His masterpiece.  They are unique, loving, patient, and each have had hardships, sufferings, some quite trying that have tested their faith and continue to struggle.  We have heroines of faith among them, who, in spite of trying times, are still standing, by faith.  They have encouraged me, encouraged one another,  and the Word of God is and remains the source of power, light, and strength from which we all drink.  The prayers that were lifted up in the last two sessions we had in the last week were like the breath we breath, going up to the throne of grace to our God according to His will and to His glory and honor.

Amen.

by Gabriela Stef

CLICK BELOW TO DONATE TO ROMANIA MINISTRIES!

Virtual Fellowship with the Missionaries in Ukraine

This morning I had a fantastic virtual meeting with all the missionaries in Ukraine. We did a devotional on the End Times, and discussed how the ministry has been effected by the Pandemic. Every one of them was incredibly grateful for all the support that PIEI has provided during these times- most would have been unable to do any ministry at all without the help of PIEI. They have all missed working with teams from America, and long for the next time they can see us.

Pavel Petihachni

• So grateful that there has been such great harmony working with PIEI for so many years.

• Work continues in Ukraine, though it has changed.

• Very sad that we couldn’t have camp last August. Fewer people have come to Christ this year because camp is such an important part of our ministry.

• We have prepared for camp this year- Pandemic or not, we are determined to have camp!

• I long to see a team from America come back. We are craving that fellowship and connection that we have been missing for over a year.

Grigory Postusak

• Thank you to PIEI and the encouragement and motivation you give- you keep us accountable for the work of the Lord.

• Despite the Pandemic, people are still coming to know Christ. However, many people no longer come to church. We are trying to think of different ways to witness to those who choose not to come to church.

• Youth meetings and Sunday School continue, and we are still doing our ministry.

• As I teach at seminary, we notice that only 12-15% of our graduates go on to work in ministry-related positions. We are a bit discouraged, and pray for those numbers to go up.

Alexe Pascari

• I long to see you again, our partners from America. I anticipate the day I can work with a team again.

• We couldn’t do our baptism at our church, because we would be fined. We went to Cernauti and did it there instead.

• The work continues, though we can’t do as much visitations, and we have to be cautious in everything we do.

• Thank you to PIEI for your involvement. Thank you Bill and Sherine Dornbos for you steadfast support.

Mihai Gortopan

• On the way to the meeting, the radio was playing songs from Family Stef’s singing group. I remember those days when we did evangelism in the street, using music to spread the Gospel. Many things have changed, but our goal is still to bring people to the cross.

Valery Popov

• I am thankful to PIEI for providing badly needed resources for the ministry. Thank you for your prayers, we can feel them as we do our ministry.

• Due to covid, we have had to change how we approach ministry. Most people no longer come to us, so we go to them.

Igor Dziadyk

• I graduated from the Theological Institute in 2013. Now I am planting churches.

• I remember meeting Cornel when I was only 7-8 years old. I watched him sing in different villages, and it stayed in my memory. It’s such a blessing to now be working with the same group of people.

• I want to thank PIEI for having me on board and helping me work with my own teachers in the ministry.

Vasile Preutesa

• When are you coming back? We miss you! Thank you for taking care of us during this time. Specific thanks to Bob and Peggy Goldston.

• We continue to do visitations, people are still open to hearing the Gospel.

Grigory Kioresko

• I am so happy that technology has allowed us to speak to and see each other, even though it’s remotely!

• I am so thankful that the support of PIEI helps not only our evangelistic ministry, but also the work of the church.

• We baptized 2 people. 3 of our members died from Covid-19.

• Pray that our family and church will draw closer to God.

• Greetings to all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Alex Postusak

• We may be far away, but how wonderful it is to see each other! Thank God for his grace!

• Blessings to everyone, I thank God for allowing me to work in the ministry in Ukraine.

• This year I took responsibility for a congregation in Herta. I was ordained so that I can lead the church.

• It’s very difficult to do ministry, but I have been making use of the radio station. It’s been going really well, with lots of people calling in and responding to us.

• I have been using my skills with media and photography for the ministry too.

• Thank you so much for all the support we get from PIEI.

Click below to donate to any of our Ukrainian Missionaries!

CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE; OUR GOD REIGNS!!

We greet you with grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul open every single of his letters with a similar greeting, only to Timothy he added mercy to his greetings of grace and peace, in both of his letters. So, 14 epistles, 14 greetings of grace and peace!

It is so fitting that still today, most of the born-again believers in Romania and Ukraine, and some other parts of the world continue to practice greeting each other with peace or peace of the Lord, but some have departed from this practice and no longer find it useful or necessary. One more thing that we leave behind and become more like the world in our daily practices.

“Grace to you and peace** from God our Father* and the Lord Jesus Christ.“ Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, Colossians 1: 2b*, 1 Thess. 1:1b**, 2 Thess. 1:2, Titus 1:4, Philemon 1:3

“Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” 1 and 2nd Timothy 1:3

Year 2020 has ended. Many people are thankful that this year is over! It had been a difficult one, perhaps the most difficult year of their lives for many people. We all shared some struggles and experienced some of these difficulties, no matter where we were. When we meet with someone and have news to share, sometimes we ask, do you want the good news first, or the bad news? This is something like that! With God in control of all things, there is always good news no matter how bad things get.

The Covid-19 Pandemic: everywhere. Yes, indeed, this was the number one thing that has, and continues to impact our lives. How did this impact our own lives? I am sure that we have so many similarities!

• Unable to travel to Romania and Ukraine. We had several trips scheduled, starting with the month of March 2019. We purchased airfare to fly into Cluj, Romania in March, and were not able to go at all. We cancelled the remaining scheduled trips in June, July, and August.

• The conference with the PIE missionaries was cancelled as well as several scheduled meetings with the committee. We cancelled camps both in Romania and Ukraine, and cancelled short term mission teams from the U.S. Cancellations left and right!

• Restrictions on travel, social distancing, church cancellations in the U.S. and also in Europe. All kinds of restrictions on jobs, visits, shopping, curfew, meetings, etc.

  The Presidential Election in the U.S. gone wild! No need to write much about that; we are exhausted just mentioning it. A country divided like never before. So much hate, so much corruption, all happening during the pandemic, and people wondering if we are living apocalyptic times!

  For the first time since living in the U.S. we have experienced the government closing down the churches, not allowing worship and gathering of people. Fear has been at an all time high, people staying isolated in their homes due to fear.

  “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your comfort delights my soul.” Psalm 94:19

  As I am writing this text, this is the verse of the day from the Bible app, and I considered it so appropriate to quote it here:

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.” Isaiah 1:16-17

The good news: God is in control of all things!

Many people were able to hold on to their jobs and work from home. Both of our children continued to work from home during this pandemic. My wife and I are so thankful for our children who are grown now, and are both involved with us in the ministry. They grew up going on short term mission trips with us to Romania and Ukraine. Now they are helping us by serving as volunteers in the organizations, and also as financial contributors, partners in ministry.

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Our son Jonathan has been involved with PIEI for several years. He is a member of the PIEI administrative committee, also a volunteer, and he was able to dedicate many hours and more work on the maintenance of the PIEI website, for all 13 countries / 17 ministries of PIEI. We are so thankful to the Lord for his humble nature, his amazing computer and people skills, and for his willingness to put in time and energy to serve with us. https://www.piei.org/

This summer we were blessed to have his oldest son, our grandson (3 1⁄2 yrs old) spend a week with us in Indiana all by himself, which was a huge thing for him to be away from his mom and dad during the pandemic, and we enjoyed having him so very much!

Our daughter Sarah is also involved with PIEI as a volunteer, she does all the online updates for Romania and Ukraine for all the missionaries. Just recently she helped out with our two new videos, and she is there for us whenever we need help.

https://www.piei.org/romania

https://www.piei.org/romania-mission-trips

She is also a supporting partner, she is not only contributing her time and talent to the ministry, but also is a financial contributor. Sarah lives 15 minutes from us, and she is always there for us, serving with joy, helping with love.

This Christmas season we spent two weeks together with both, Jonathan and his family (his wife and two boys) and with Sarah, and we had such a meaningful, blessed time!

We are so blessed with our family! For us the Bible verse from Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” has become true and a tremendous blessing.

I am also so blessed to have a great relationship with the PIE Partnership Committee for Romania and
Ukraine. We’ve been meeting more often than ordinary during this pandemic. Our meetings have been mostly on Google Meet, but we also met in person in Chicago for prayer meetings a few times.

For those of you who might not know, please meet our US Partnership committee:
Cornel Stef, Alex and Rodica Popa, Walter Windsor, Liviu Dragomir, and Daniel Stef.

One of the new things in 2020 was a change in the leadership of the PIE national committee in Romania. After much prayer and leading of the Holy Spirit, we are so blessed and happy to announce that our new committee has been elected, and we could not be more pleased! https://www.piei.org/about-timotei-stanea

The president remains Eugen Stef, he has been the president from the beginning, so we have stability!

We have a new National Director: Pastor Timotei Stânea. Pastor Timotei was PIE’s first national missionary in Romania when we first started the ministry! He has a long-lasting history with PIE, a tremendous leadership experience as a regional church leader, has a master in theology (please visit his new page at ). Timotei has a big heart for PIE-Romania, and is not intimidated by the current pandemic. He is motivating our national missionaries, has already visited them in their field of ministry, and is very resourceful in finding new ways of outreach that are effective during this time so that the missionaries can carry out their evangelistic call even in times as these.

There are two new members of the national committee:

Tani Nemes: a PIE-Romania national missionary for several years; https://www.piei.org/tani-nemes. He has been a very effective missionary, has a central location and has worked closely with the committee in the past, and has hosted the general annual PIE conference two years ago. We are so blessed that he has stepped up to become a member of the committee. Check out his page on the piei’s website.

Emanuel Joldos is the newest and the youngest member of the committee. He has two masters in Theology, a heart of reaching the young people, and is centrally located. Emanuel is very proficient in English, and will be a great asset to the committee. You can find his page on the piei’s website for more info. https://www.piei.org/about-emanuel-joldos

As for me, I am busy with communication on a daily basis.

I am in constant communication with our partnership committee, and with Timotei I meet on a weekly basis. I am very encouraged to see that he is very resourceful and has already contacted pastors and churches in the larger community, and plans to reach out and expand our national relationships, also starting teaching online and explore whatever possible means in order to do outreach and equipping.

I am also conferencing with the missionaries. I am so thankful for the technology that is allowing us to talk and see each other.

Gabi keeps busy as well! She talks to the girls at the Orphanage several times a week. A few of them call her “mommy”! They often feel scared of the virus and also scared of being tested. They feel so much better after talking to her. They share Scripture verses, they share their daily struggles, and were so happy to receive their Christmas packages we sent to them that arrived two days before Christmas! So much joy!

Missionary Traian and his wife were sick with the Covid-19 virus, but God was gracious to heal them! Several of the girls were sick also, were isolated in the Orphanage’s infirmary, but they all recovered completely. We praised the Lord for his healing power and mercy! Brother Traian and his wife have been, as they do every year, busy packing Christmas gifts and going out and giving numerous gifts to everyone, in the poor villages, mainly to the underprivileged Ethnic groups that he ministers to in remote locations by the mountains.

We have been involved in our own local church in NW Indiana, where we have a tremendous supportive church. We are part of our church prayer team, and our church has been praying for our ministry, and especially for our leadership transition during this time. We hope that as soon as this viral epidemic will be under control, we’ll have another team from our own church to go with us to Romania. Gabi continues to do translation work and is involved in communication and prayer.

It’s winter, and during these winter months we are staying in Florida, mostly because it helps Gabi to feel better with her bad arthritis. We have a wonderful church here in SW Florida that we also consider our church, we are so blessed to be part of it, and hope to sometime form a team to go to Romania with us also. Gabi has enjoyed being part of the ladies’ Bible study group, getting to know the women, who have been so generous in giving. We have both been so encouraged each time we attend.

We have plans to take several teams to Romania this year. We hope and pray that we will be able to travel as early as the beginning of March, followed by trip in June, July, and August. However, the Lord thoughts and His
ways we must follow, not our own plans. As He leads, we will follow!

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8

We are so excited about feasting from His Word, sweeter than honey, the Living Word of God, who has become Flesh and dwelt among us! To Him we give all the praise!

Yours, for the sake of the Gospel

Chairman for PIEI-Romania/Ukraine

Cornel and Gabi

GRACE AND PEACE

Philemon 1:3 - “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”

In the midst of this global crisis, with no precedent in our lifetime, we greet you with peace! In the middle of so much tragedy, human loss, fear, and confusion, God is in control of all things.

Many people are overcome by fear: fear of death, fear of financial loss, fear for the health and future of their families. We as people of faith ought not to be so.

John 10:10- “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Perhaps it is difficult in such as times as these to fully understand the meaning of abundant life, but Jesus wants us to know that in having Him we have everything. This is a time when our faith is tested.

Proverbs 3:5 - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

GOD IS IN CONTROL

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has affected us in a way we did not foresee just a short time ago. We had tickets to come to Romania on March 23rd. We planned a full summer of several short-term mission trips with different teams. These USA teams planned a variety of ministries to work hand-in-hand with our national missionaries in June and July.

In March we were looking forward to our PIE Annual Retreat with our missionaries and their families. This event is cherished by all. Last year the retreat was such a blessing. We met for three days at the PIE Center in Alba Iulia and also in the surrounding area of outreach ministry.

This year especially Gabi met a group of ladies at a Bible study in Florida that were very generous in giving and making some beautiful items for the missionaries’ wives and also donating some chocolates and other household items. We were excited to have this special time to encourage one another and enjoy a sweet time of fellowship. We came together as a group of ordinary people serving an extraordinary God.

This summer we had plans for both June and July. We know that some of you were signed up to go, perhaps for the first time, feel disappointed. Do not let the enemy bring that disappointment into your heart. Remember that God is sovereign, and reigns over all things.

Colossians 1:15-17- “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

We are perplexed that we do not understand why God has allowed this to happen, and on a global scale. We also acknowledge that our ways are not His ways, and we do not see the big picture as God sees it. It is most possible that our full summer plans are going to be cancelled, because God has other plans for us. Perhaps He desires for us to have a travel sabbatical so that we rest more, spend more time in His word, be more a Mary than a Martha, because He is preparing us for something exciting that is yet to come. Pray with us that we can encourage the missionaries to stay strong and courageous, and for God’s protection upon each family.

HOPE

John 14:1 -“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

We celebrated Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, in unique ways, the majority of us being at home, watching a service online, and having fellowship with one another on some type of social media. The best way to celebrate remembers what God’s Word tells us that Jesus has done for us. The majority of our missionaries will observe Easter next Sunday. So this week begins Holy Week for them.

The missionaries are also facing uncertain times. Pray that in spite of massive loss of jobs everywhere that the Lord will provide for their financial needs and carry them through this difficult time. Remember them in our prayers as we spend more time talking with our Heavenly Father. Some of them are going through physical needs, others through various other hardships. May the Lord be gracious toward each of them, protect them for His glory and for His kingdom’s sake. Take some time to look over their pictures, their names, their stories, and thank the Lord for calling them to serve Him.

We also are thanking the Lord for each of you faithful servants, our partners in ministry, brothers and sisters in the Lord, as we serve together to glorify our Risen Lord.

Cornel and Gabriela Stef- Chairman for Romania ministry