September is always a month full of challenges and new beginnings. We started to meet with the teenagers again. I am now working with the teens that my wife used to work with. I must confess I had to pray for that because I was a little afraid of these changes. I thought some of the teens would quit coming. But most of them showed up on our Friday meeting. Several new people are coming too. These teenagers deal with the great challenge that most of their parents are not Christians. They do not encourage them to come to our meetings to hear the gospel. I believe it is only God's grace that draws them.

I also think that my wife had a great contribution to what these people are right now as God used her greatly to touch their lives. We would like to challenge other people to get involved in this ministry. We've already talked to two families from our church. We thought of families because we wanted to have a certain balance of both  male and female models. Many children and teenagers from our town don't have good role models. Some of them live only with one parent, the other may be gone to work abroad. Sometimes, I have the feeling that it is more difficult when you have new people to work along side of because my efforts are doubled.  My prayer is that the ministry will be even more effective for everyone during this time.

Regarding the youth ministry, we have started to get together again every Thursday. We are still going through a transitional time.  Although it is a little more difficult, we are happy to be able to  work with several Christian students, some of which have a Christian background. The temptation is pretty big for those who come to study here because they can easily be influenced by the world and its values while they're away from their families and their home churches.

I continue to offer counseling to the young people. Another way to help the young people is via internet. Although it may have its inconveniences, I realize that many times this is the only way to stay in touch with them. Anatol and I send them different lessons over the internet and they answer back. It is interesting to see that their replies over the internet are even more detailed than they would be in a face-to-face dialogue. It is not an easy thing but we can manage to keep in touch with several young people even when they live far away. That is why there are people from Romania, people I worked with some years ago, that keep in touch with me. I have succeeded in pursuing a premarital counseling study with some of them. An example in this respect would be Alexandra and Cristi. I am glad that their pastor continues to help and support them. There are other people I encouraged this way as well.

I keep praying for my disciple Cornel. The process is a little hard, especially after the summer vacation that he at spent home. I make efforts to help him to get on the right track regarding his attending the church and being part of the ministry. I would like him to be part of the teen ministry. That is what motivated me to invite him to a conference about teen ministry. I wanted him to hear some good testimonies and be encouraged to join me.

As a coordinator youth pastor for the Baptist southern community, I managed to get together with the other leaders. These meetings are meant to offer spiritual and moral support. We also decided to have a prayer and fasting weekend for all the Christian youth in our area.  That happened last weekend when we had 45 young people who embraced the initiative. I pray that they'll have a greater desire to seek the Lord. We prayed for personal holiness, for our country and for several other requests presented to us by some missionaries.

Another ministry I've been indirectly helping with, is the English classes at our church. The teachers are Chris and Silvia. We prayed  that the unbelieving students will also hear the gospel along with the English classes. We already have 70 students and more of them are still enrolling. There are many young people who are in touch with our church this way. Last year, Chris and our group organized a non-formal evangelistic event for them. We'll have several meetings this year and see how we can personally approach each of them.