This month I continued the counseling with Gheorghe and Aliona (premarital counseling). Now they are arranging their wedding and I am trying to help them. We continue to pray for Aliona's parents. I encouraged them in their relations with their parents. Aliona's father is totally against a Christian wedding. He agrees with their decision to marry one another, but not a Christian wedding. We prayed together and discussed several possibilities of presenting favorably a Christian wedding to her father. It is not easy but I appreciated the fact that they have taken plenty of initiative on this matter. They don't want to compromise any of their Christian principles.

Besides Paul, I started to meet with Eugen (age 15) to help him with his English. But I also had several discussions regarding their relationship with the Lord.

This month we continued to do evangelistic outreach.  Our church had started an evangelism project. Our main purpose is to train disciples. After a while we hope to have more than twelve people from Emanuel that can proclaim the Gospel. One afternoon I went out with two people on the streets. We presented the Gospel verbally to over 25 people. We met two groups of teenagers and shared the plan of salvation with them. One group was a group of boys that played soccer. It is so important that they hear about the church. We invited them to our special meetings for young people. We know that not all of them will come, but now they have a place to attend when the Holy Spirit speaks to them.  Many of them were students at the high school where I taught classes on alcohol, AIDS, drugs, etc. It was another opportunity for me to meet them. The street evangelism strengthens and enables me to grow spiritually.  I learn how to tell people about God in a better way. Also, I become aware of my blind spots in presenting the Gospel. I also get to know the people better and their need for Jesus. It is a different method than staying in church and waiting people to come to me.

Another blessing was the youth camp on July 5th-11th. We had several meetings for organizing things. We trained the young people from the church to help others to know the Lord. It was one of the most blessed camps that we ever organized. The Holy Spirit worked in the hearts of the youth that we had invited. They were open to discussions. I was able to share the Gospel with eight boys during the camp. The last evening over 15 young people responded. It was a tiresome time, but spiritually strengthening. We felt the Lord's rest over our souls. I saw the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Alina. I had had many counseling meetings with her and now she made a special dedication. This taught me the importance of personally investing in individual lives beside the groups. I saw others who needed personal counseling. Most of the people that we called for counseling think that it was for disciplinary action.  But after five or six meetings they shared that the counseling sessions helped them.