Ancuta was one of the first people to be saved and baptized by The Hope Church. She has a heart for the lost and provides passion for The Hope Church's evangelistic efforts. Because of women and men like her, The Hope Church has overcome humble beginnings and has now effectively created over 700 new fruit-bearing believers in Olt county in the past eight years! Here is some of her story…
How did you become a Christian?
“I was 14 years old and I didn’t know about Jesus Christ – that he died for us. I didn’t know that I had sins, and I didn’t know that I needed to be forgiven by God. I had a hard life because of my father who drank a lot, and because I was the youngest of four children. It was very hard for me to see families argue and to see the police come to our door. I had a hurt heart and I was a girl who needed unconditional love in that time in my life.
A young boy who told me about God and His love for me asked me if I died in that moment, where would I go? I did not know the answer. Even though I believed that there was a God, I didn’t know about him and his worth for us. So this Christian helped me accept his invitation to the church service the next day. My other friend didn’t want to come with me because his parents told us they were bad people and I wouldn’t escape them. So I went alone and at that meeting I saw a man with a black book in his hand. I didn’t know that it was a Bible.
That moment I heard about Jesus— that he is our salvation, and I believed all of God’s words from that evening. I did not know that that means “born again”, but I went home and I was very happy— my heart was changed in that moment. I don’t know how, but this happened. I started to come to the church and got baptized in April the next year after repenting in August. I started to talk to my family about God and my mother started to come with me to church and she repented too. My sisters came with me and they repented too. My brothers later came and they repented too. Only my father is still in his sins. I can say that now I do not hate him, but I love him and I pray for him….”
Have you witnessed persecution since? If so, what kind?
“In this context, people don’t know God- how he is in the Bible, and how he is written about in the Bible. Because of that, we have a lot of wrong thinking about what it means to be a Christian. And because they don’t know, they judge a lot and they don’t want to search for the truth. They thought in the beginning that Christians want to convert people but had hidden motives—they don’t understand the true love and interest for their souls, without any conditions.
My friends and colleagues in high school had a lot of wrong thinking about the people who I met with at the church. They thought that we go there for clothes or material help and they thought that they trafficked us and brainwashed us. In time, I had many occasions to speak with them to explain about what the Bible said, what God wants for us, and at the same time I had many discussions with my teachers in high school about what the Bible says being a believer is. It was something crazy for my friends to understand me—why I don’t go to parties and smoke and have relations with boys—because we are used to being named Christian but we don’t know what it means to be a Christian—that means to be a follower a Christ.”
How have you seen Hope Church grow here?
“It is a hard ministry and grew slowly. We had 4 or 5 girls that were baptized, but went back to worldliness. It was slowly growing, because of prejudice and because people were ashamed and afraid to seek the truth, but I am honored because I had special people around me with true love for God—they were an example for me that I could stay on God’s way. Ministry here began 8 years ago—it is hard work because this is the context. We want people here to be patient and to invest in lost souls. People here have to see that what you say, you also live that way. If I say, “don’t lie” but lie, they will not trust you anymore. Another important thing is to practical things for people—if you say I love you, you must do practical things for them to show them this truth.”
What has been the greatest success of Hope Church?
“The construction was amazing. At first we met in a small room, and then we moved into a center—we rented an ex-bar and met there. Then we started to pray about a central place to meet and to buy land but we didn’t know where. There was a house in the center of the city that we renovated and we bought that land. This is amazing. Now the Hope Church is in the center of the city—there is Hope in the center of the city! People can walk past and see how we act and how we work and can see that we are a group of people that seek God’s face. We can be a light in this way.”
What is Hope Church’s plan for reaching lost souls in this county?
“First of all, I think we have to fight for our relation with God. If we don’t have a right relation with God, we cannot have power to love others. If we don’t have this right relation, we won’t have a love that burns in our souls for lost souls. We remember that we were there once and someone spoke to us and that is how we know Jesus. We make street evangelists, we have a project of giving a New Testament to every house, and we give information and we invest in children’s souls because they will be the next generation and we see them as precious and we think that they can know Jesus, and to be a testimony in their families. We make programs for the children and we have activities with the youth—sports activities and Bible meetings.”
How can we pray for you?
“You can pray for us to always have a desire to grow in our love for Christ and our love for the people around us. Pray for our families or members from our families who don’t know Jesus. There are a lot of women in our church whose husbands are not Christians and men whose wives are not Christians—pray that God completes these families. Pray for people that want to come here and invest in jobs for the people, so we don’t have to go outside the town or country to work and we cannot concentrate on the ministry. You can pray for people to be open to the Gospel and for people to be saved. There are many people that know about Jesus but maybe it is time for the Holy Spirit to bring life in them. It is not in our power to do this. We can tell the people, but we need God’s power for them to believe.”
