In December we had an unique evangelistic Christmas event for students, something that we've never organized before. Usually we have our Christmas celebrations at the church where we meet for our weekly worship meetings. Knowing that most Orthodox students are afraid to enter an evangelical church because they have lots of prejudices against us, we wanted to be more accessible to them and to reach more students with the Gospel. Therefore, we decided to rent a public hall, next to the University, and have a free Christmas Concert with a Gospel presentation included in the carolling program. God greatly blessed this project as the theatre hall was crowded with people. There were over 400 participants, probably half of them students who did not know the Lord.

The involvement of the Christian students in the publicity of the concert was also impressive. They invited their colleagues and spread almost 10.000 flyers about the concert throughout the faculties. We are thankful to the Lord for the large number of students that heard about "the Child who came to die..." and we give Him all the glory!  This is what a non-Christian student said about the event:

"As never before I felt the need to surround myself with the Christmas atmosphere and that is what happened to me at the Christmas Concert organized by OSCEB! For more than an hour I could forget about myself and remember what the Christmas holiday really means: the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The choir with their divine voices, through the message of the carols, challenged me to desire to be better, more tolerant and more optimistic in a world that is too busy and forgetful about the real message of Christmas, as we heard in the beginning of the concert."

This month we continued to go to the students' dorms to share the Gospel, this time using questionnaires about Christmas. We also gave out New Testaments and brochures. I personally had many good discussions with students and I was again utterly amazed at the ignorance and darkness of their minds and lives. One time I saw two girls who were chatting in the hallway and I started to talk to them. One of them (Raluca) was listening very attentively so I continued to talk with her.  She did not interrupt me. After about an hour, she said, "It makes so much sense what you're saying. You really know what you're talking about. I could listen to you for three days." I really felt the Holy Spirit was speaking to her during our discussion. The Gospel was flowing like a river towards her. It was really powerful! She was so hungry for the truth! I intend to keep in touch with her, so please pray for me for wisdom!

Another time I spent an hour talking with four guys in their room, challenging them to read the Bible and think seriously about their souls. One of them (Silviu) was very serious and attentive, and in the end he asked me what was my opinion about Baptists, because he was visited by two Baptists from "Maranatha" church (I mentioned about it in my last newsletter). It seemed to me that God was also working in Silviu. Another team of Christian students were very excited about a student who was so challenged by their discussion that he asked them to invite him to absolutely everything that we organize. There are many encouraging stories from the outreach in the students' dorms. Please pray for the salvation of Raluca, Silviu and all the students who heard the Gospel during the outreach.

In December we continued with the monthly training meetings of two generations of students. We also had a New Year's Eve Retreat in a town fairly close to Bucharest. We had a wonderful time of fellowship together, praying, worshipping, playing games, and especially sharing about the joys and struggles of 2009 and the plans that we have for the new year. All these activities help us build better relationships with each other and a community of Christian students who seek the Lord with all their hearts and share the Gospel in their faculties.

This month God gave me many opportunities to share the Gospel. I was also very encouraged to visit the non-Christian parents of one of my disciples, Simona. They live in another city and I visited them two years ago. One night we stayed up late to talk about God and I was amazed to see the changes in her father's mentality. He used to talk non-stop about his relativist ideas. Now he has many questions about God. At the end of our discussion he said that now he had more answers and light. It's very encouraging to see how God uses the Christian children as a witness within their families.