A new Mission School started in Suceava, north-east Romania in May 2008 with over thirty students attending the opening five days of lectures, on the subjects of ‘Biblical Overview’ and ‘New Testament Survey’. The SGA team was very encouraged to see consistent commitment from students drawn from Baptist, Pentecostal and Brethren Churches. Some of these students who work as village evangelists and missionaries, travelled up to sixty miles to attend.
The Director of the School is Pastor Catalin Croitor, Pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church, Suceava. He had previously studied at the Irish Baptist College in Northern Ireland some years ago. Catalin is also involved in running the ‘Voice of the Gospel’ radio station in Suceava, where he regularly preaches on air.
“I firmly believe that we were created and then saved with the purpose of glorifying God by bringing as many people as possible to Christ,” explains Catalin. “To use a quote, ‘we were called to be fishers of men, not only caretakers of some aquariums’. Sadly, too many Christian workers today concentrate their efforts only towards their local congregations, feeding the fish that are already caught, instead of also casting into the many waters around them.
Since I came to Christ my vision has always been to ‘fish’ as many people as I could for the Kingdom of God, to mentor them, to help them develop a Christlike character, and to send them to the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel, in order to win other souls for Christ.
From this point of view, the north–east part of Romania can be considered a great mission field. There are many villages in Suceava with no evangelical testimony and thousands of people do not know Christ as their Saviour and Lord. This is why I have a heart for evangelism and mission throughout these lost villages, trying to send out teams of Christian workers with the Gospel.
What do you do when you do not have enough trained workers?
But what do you do when you do not have enough Christian men and women trained and equipped for such a task? What do you do when the fields are ready for the harvest but the labourers are so few and unprepared?
Well, the best thing to do in such a situation is to call SGA! And that is exactly what we did. After seeking God in prayer we were guided into asking SGA to come to Suceava in order to establish a Mission School. As a result, in May 2008 more than thirty Christian workers were able to start a course which equips them for the ministries in the villages.
Many of them travelled long distances every day in order to attend the classes. Some were not able to come because of the costs for food and travel, but all those who were able to come were grateful for the opportunity to study the Word of God and to be trained for the ministry to which God has called them.
Titus Guriuc, one of the students who travelled thirty miles by bus every day in order to get to the classes and another thirty miles to get back home, said: ‘I needed this Mission School badly. I pray to God that I will be able to finish the course that I have started.’ The reasoning behind this prayer is the fact that being a Christian worker in today’s Romania is one of the most financially disadvantaged situations. Many Romanian missionaries are forced to leave their school and ministry in order to provide for their families by working abroad. This has devastating consequences on both their families and ministries.
With your help we can continue to encourage and support young men like Titus to finish what they have started for the Lord. We are really thankful to God and to SGA for making it possible for us to cover a part of the great mission field around us, but we also pray that the Lord will help us truly become a missionary force, too!” |
Pastor Catalin Croitor and his wife Paula. |
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The whole student group in Suceava. |
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The students from Suceava in class during lectures. |
