November 1, 2004

 

Dear Family and Friends,

 

One week ago today I returned from a five-day trip to two

of the most distant points in Romania: Alexandria and Mangalia.

Though the first sounds like an ancient city in Egypt and the second

sounds like a country next to China, both are in SE Romania. As you may

recall from my May 2004 letter, Mangalia is on the Black Sea coast; Alexandria is south of Bucharest in the middle of nowhere. Mark Gibson and I traveled together and held seminars dealing with “the church as an equipping center”.

 

For our seminar in Alexandria, we expected 12-14 men. A full 32 were present. They were a wonderful mix of Baptists, Pentecostals and Brethren; of both Romanians and gypsies. Octavian Ivanica, pastor of the Alexandria Baptist Church, has been God’s man to reach out and to promote the unity of Christ’s body in his area. Warmly and genuinely exhibiting Christ’s love, he has initiated:

 

• A weekly interdenominational prayer meeting for pastors and church leaders.
• Evangelistic events co-sponsored by all evangelical denominations.
• A joint service of all area evangelical churches once a year. 

Octavian contends that “we have more similarities than differences.” So he is able to look beyond some of the differences between Baptists, Pentecostals and Brethren, so as to accentuate their similarities and their unity.

 

…being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

~ Ephesians 4:3

 

In Mangalia two young Pentecostal pastors are the key men. Dorel and Marius have a vision for planting churches throughout Mangalia and the surrounding area. In fact, they already oversee four churches, with plans for quite a few more. Those four churches present an intriguing array:

 

    ~ A city church in the resort city of Mangalia.

    ~ A village church in the very small, poor village of Daraban 20 miles away.

    ~ A gypsy church in Mangalia.

    ~ A Turkish church in Mangalia made up entirely of former Muslims.

 

Faradin, pastor of the Turkish church and himself a former Muslim, is seeking to reach the Muslim Turkish Romanians there in the far SE corner of Romania. A nucleus has already formed. The potential is much larger. And Faradin’s vision is one day to send Turkish Romanians as missionaries to Turkey.

 

What a privilege to serve these folks! In addition to our seminar all day Saturday, I preached in two of their churches Sunday: the mother church in Mangalia in the morning and the village church that evening. The Mangalia church holds services in a nice building that is still under construction; we met in the basement. The village church meets in a small, country house, the interior walls of which have been knocked out. I wish you could have heard the passion resonating in the prayers and the singing in both churches. My experience in both places was strikingly similar. While I am neither Romanian nor Pentecostal, I had the strongest sense in both churches that I was “at home”, that I was with my family, that I belong to them and they belong to me. I can imagine that you, too, have had similar experiences among God’s people, for, as Paul taught,

 

…we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

~ Romans 12:4

 

Our return trip to Cluj required 15 hours of travel (5:30 AM -- 8:30 PM). And no, we were not walking. Ironic isn't it, that it takes almost as long to travel from Cluj to Mangalia as from Cluj to Columbia, SC?

Through Him and for Him,

Jerry & Meda, for all of us

Please pray for…

Ø      Evangelism & church development in both Alexandria & the Mangalia area. There is resistance.

Ø      Marius’ son David, 14 months of age, who has hydrocephaly and faces an operation in England later in November.

Ø      Our family—We have had sickness lately.

Jerry Wells
Str. Bistritei 32, Apt. 27
400430 Cluj Napoca
Romania
011-40-264-442556 (home phone)
011-40-723-178285 (cell phone)

 

 

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