I’ve been so blessed this month to be able to minister to our contacts by using my writing/photography/graphic design experience. Hope Church in Draganesti Olt is having their grand opening celebration starting this Sunday and continuing into next week. It’s been a labor of love for the last three years to build their beautiful church in the middle of town and we are so excited to be a part of it.
This week I’ve been designing a brochure for the 30-40 non-Romanian guests who will be attending the grand opening. I finished it today and here it is:
(outside)
(inside)
Raul, the wonderful pastor here, told me about the history of the church building and I included it in the brochure:
On June 15, 2003, Hope Church began as a small group of believers who met, prayed and worshiped together. Their first meeting place was an empty bar they had purchased as part of an effort to minimize the number of bars in the area. They outgrew the bar within a year and began to ask God to provide a new house for them to gather in and glorify His name. For two years, they diligently prayed, but not one dollar or lei came. One morning, Pastor Raul Costea was doing a devotional out of Haggai. In this particular passage, the Israelites came from Babylon and started to build a temple, but eventually stopped and began to put their own priorities before God’s. As Raul thought about how this could apply to him, God revealed to him that he had been putting his own priorities ahead of the church building. The roof of his apartment had been leaking and for three months, he had been saving money to fix it. While he had been waiting for God to send money to help build a new church building, God had been desiring for him to take the first step of faith by donating his own savings. Raul presented what God had told him to his team of missionaries. He didn’t expect his words to have any impact on them, but the missionaries went home that night and began to pray. They began to hear God’s voice speaking to them as well; a gentle prompting to examine their own priorities and what they could give to the church building.
And they gave.
One missionary gave €3000 she had been saving since she came to Draganesti. Another couple gave $5000 from their savings. Soon, a wave of giving took place. People in the community, children, non-believers and widows gave to the church building; people in other countries, such as Italy, England and Germany contributed. Churches in Sumter, South Carolina and Houston, Texas not only gave money but became partners with Hope Church.
With the money they needed, people of God joined together in unity, building and working together. As the church was built from the ground up, the name God was raised up in the middle of
Draganesti Olt.
And so, Hope Church was built on a foundation of God’s faithfulness and provision, things Raul and his team still rely on today.
Please pray for the missionaries here during this exciting time. They are all very busy and are really hoping to be able to witness to some non-believers during the grand opening celebration. The other racers have been handing out invitations all over town and we're really hoping to see some new faces on Sunday.
