Our whole energy was focused this month on an event we had in our town. It was about the 400th anniversary of the Baptist faith in Europe. The event took place on the 29th of November. I think this was the greatest event organized by our church. We went to a printing house and ordered 4000 flyers and put up two banners. We left an invitation at every house/apartment in our town. This action mobilized the entire church. We went out two by two a few days in a row. The event was meant to have a double purpose.  First of all, it was to cover the whole town with information material.  The flyer with the invitation contained the answer to two questions which were who are the Baptists and what do they believe. This way, through a flyer, many people could find out briefly who we are, what we do here and what we promote. Our church address was on the back of the flyer, the time of our meeting and also an offer for a Bible. There was also information about the kids' and youth meetings. The second purpose was to promote the event itself at the Cultural center.

We had two special guests. One of them was a public person (he is a Christian) who works in the national television. He provided a cultural and historical background about Baptist believers. The other guest was a Baptist pastor who used to be the president of the Baptist Union. He also suffered persecution during communism. His presentation was very powerful as he talked about faith being a relationship with God. The passage from Romans 1 touched the audience and the unbelievers were urged to have a personal relationship with Christ.

God has blessed us abundantly. Besides the 250-300 people who came (more than half were new), the city hall secretary presented her acknowledgements regarding our community. That meant a lot for our church. I never knew how well people had known about us. We humbly see that as coming from the Lord. The secretary said that even though we were few, we succeeded in having a visible impact on our community. She also appreciated the values we promote through our words and way of living (her speech was welcoming, especially for those who had to overcome their prejudices). Her speech was not without effects. The orthodox priests held her accountable for what she had done. And once again, she had the opportunity to say good things about us even though she is not part of our church. We have had many opportunities to share the Gospel with this lady. As a family, we have got to meet her and her family often in the park (our kids are the same age). We are praying for the salvation of her soul.

More people were interested in having a Bible. Pray for this kind of gathering that it would help others to find the Light. We are not the light but we are supposed to tell about the True Light, just like John the Baptist

Because it's already December, I want to tell you that the Lord has granted us great joy by giving us the opportunity to work with some kids from a school in the village of Varfuri. We've had a program in which we told them about the meaning of the birth of Jesus. Both the kids and the teachers enjoyed the Christmas carols and message. We also gave them a little gift from our church. We pray that the Bible studies we do there ("Andy, the Lion Cub" - a project from the Bible League) will lead to the salvation of the families in the village.