The highlight of our ministry in February was the evangelistic Ski Camp, February 14th -19th. We prayed and asked the Lord to bring lost students and reveal Himself to them. The weeks before the camp we had worked a lot in planning the camp, advertising it through posters and hundreds of fliers in the dorms, writing down the structure of the morning messages and evening Bible studies, and planning the evening activities. As many times in the past, the Lord was very gracious to us and answered our prayers in so many ways! He provided the finances we needed for the camp. He brought exactly 40 people as we had hoped and prayed, He gave us snow for skiing, and we believe, He touched some of the unbelievers who attended. He even brought to this camp a girl who read about the camp on a poster and came even though she did not know anybody. I learned during the camp that her boyfriend was studying Orthodox Theology and I was so amazed she came with us, evangelicals, who are considered a cult by the Orthodox Church.

The four morning messages explained the gospel from John 14:1-11, Luke 15:11-32, John 3:1-21 and Luke 9:18-27. The Lord has especially and powerfully used the last two messages which explained the new birth, the cross of Christ, and the call to follow Christ. After skiing for several hours we had dinner, followed by small group Bible studies. We studied from Matthew 13:44-46, Philippians 3:4-14, Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 16:19-31; 17:22-37. The Bible studies were also focused on the gospel and on the eternal consequences of believing it or rejecting it.

We thank the Lord for some people who seemed touched by the Holy Spirit. There was a girl, Miky, who asked many, many questions in her small group, and because of that, that particular group would discuss for 2 hours or more! One night after the Bible study I met with Miky and her friend Ioana (the girl who came last year in the camp as an unbeliever and who brought three unbelievers to this camp to hear the gospel!). Ioana told Miky, "Ask Ruxi about what we discussed in our Bible study". They had talked about the sinfulness of man, and their leader told them that men are completely depraved. She could not believe it, so we talked one more hour or so about the gospel. She listened very carefully as I told her about God's standard of holiness, and that even a bad thought is enough to condemn us, so that we cannot do anything to save ourselves. I told her that we can be saved only through Jesus' sacrifice in our place. I talked to her about faith and repentance. She was listening very carefully, and she asked me questions about the practices of the Orthodox church. I think the Lord revealed to her something about man's inability to live up to God's commands, because she wrote in her evaluation form: "I learned that God is just and I will be punished for my sins, and getting angry with someone is as killing them." After coming back home, Miky told Ioana: "Since I came back from the ski camp, nothing attracts me... I don't enjoy anything... I was thinking about what our Bible study leader was tellimg us about the God shaped emptiness in our souls...about the shortness of life... today we are 20, tomorrow 30, the day after tomorrow 40... it makes me think... I want to read the Bible...". Her colleagues asked her: "What's wrong with you? You changed, you do not want to come with us anymore, you are quiet." They asked Ioana: "What have you done to her in that camp?!" As Ioana was telling me about what is going on with Miky, she told me: "I am afraid she would go to an Orthodox priest to ask him about the right path". Once again, I was amazed at the work the Lord had done in her during this past year. I told her: "This is exactly what I was thinking when you went to talk to a priest last spring." She went to him to to see
whether she was on the right path. I am so grateful that the Lord protected her from the priest
leading her astray as we saw many being led away from the Lord by priests. We praise the Lord for His work in the hearts of people! Please pray for Miky as it seems that she is thinking about what she has heard from the Bible. Please also pray for her boyfriend Alex who also seemed to be opened to the gospel. Please pray that the Lord will save them!

In my small group we had Bebe, another friend of Ioana. They have been friends since childhood, and Bebe is very perplexed seeing Ioana changing so much since last year's ski camp. Ioana stopped doing some things that they both used to do, and Bebe told Ioana: "You became a weirdo since you went to that camp!" So Bebe came this year to the camp. She kept asking excellent questions in our Bible study group, and we discussed the gospel for hours. She couldn't understand the change that takes place in regeneration, and she told us: "You keep telling me that you change so that you don't want to do what you liked to do before, that you started loving God, but I have not had this experience, I do not know what it is like." Even outside the group some people talked to her as well, and Bebe told Ioana: "Why is everybody telling me the same thing?" It was overwhelming for her. Nevertheless, she attended our Tuesday night worship meeting right after the camp, and she told us that she missed us, she wanted to see us again. Please pray for Bebe that she would continue to come to our meetings and events and join a Bible study group, and that the Lord would save her.

Another very encouraging thing was that Laura attended the camp. She is the sister of Mihaela, a friend of mine. Mihaela was saved several years ago, and she witnessed to her family, but they do not want to listen. She tried to talk to her sister many times about God, but she was totally uninterested. I was very glad when I heard that she accepted to come with us to the ski camp. At the end of the camp she told us that she did not expect to find such wonderful people and that the camp was way above her expectations. She said she would like to come back next year with her sister. Cosmina was also very impressed by the witness of the community. She told my coworker, Loredana, "I cannot believe that such people exist, they even listen to me when I talk to them!" We thank the Lord for the wonderful witness of the ski instructors, who have been very patient, encouraging and served us tremendously. The Lord has also used them in the past to show the unbelievers the love of Christ. Please also pray for the salvation of these two girls.

We thank the Lord for these people, but not everybody responded positively. The girl whose boyfriend is studying Othodox Theology told me that if she had organized the camp, she would have not included "the religious stuff". She was in Loredana's small group, and during the last Bible study, while studying about the rich man and Lazarus, she asked permission to leave. There were also some non-Christian guys who did not seem interested, and who would almost ignore our Christian guys when they wanted to talk to them. It was so interesting to see how these four guys who had not known each other before the camp got along so well and hung out together, and did not want to have much to do with our Christian guys. It seems that as we believers feel the unity of the Spirit with other believers, and feel close to them even without knowing them very well, the unbelievers feel another kind of unity and fellowship among themselves! Please also pray for Calin, Andrei, Gabi, Gabi, Catalin, Dana, that the Lord will have mercy on them.