The most important event of the month was the evangelistic ski camp, February 14-19, where we spent a week with our non-Christian friends whom we invited in our midst in order to tell them about the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Two weeks before the camp there were 25 people registered.  Very few of them were non-believers.  So I started to pray that God would bring 40 participants to the camp and that there would be more non-Christians. I was amazed to see God at work.  Up until the last minute He sent the people He wanted with us. The first full day of the camp there were 40 people, out of which 12 of them were non-Christians! It was quite a miracle and we rejoiced in God's answer! Praise the Lord!

Every day we had a busy schedule, starting with breakfast, a Gospel presentation, skiing lessons for about six hours, and then dinner, the Bible discussion and the evening activity. We had four Gospel presentations from John 14 - Jesus is the only way to the truth and to the Father, Luke 15 - the grace of God to people, John 3 - the work of Jesus on the cross for our salvation, Luke 9 - the calling of Jesus to follow Him. The three Bible discussions were from Matthew 13:44-46, Phil. 3:4-14 - the Kingdom of God and knowing Christ is the most important thing in life, Tit 2:11-14, 3:3-7 - in Christ we have redemption from our sins, Luke 16:13-31, 17:22-37 - the consequences of our earthly lives are everlasting, God will judge us and send us to Heaven or Hell. In the evenings we had some get-to-know-each other games, we watched the movie about the life of Martin Luther and two video messages about the Universe and how great God is with Louie Giglio. One night we stayed up until midnight worshiping God. It was really wonderful! The skiing was very good because we had lots of snow and wonderful ski instructors who were full of wisdom and patience, especially with the beginners' class. The response of the people was wonderful! God worked powerfully in our midst, and His presence was very much experienced by the non-Christians who were with us. My friend Cosmina, a Philosophy student, told me every day that she has never met such wonderful people, so sincere, friendly, open and kind. Her ski instructor especially overwhelmed her with his incredible patience and perseverance when she was very discouraged with her performance and wanted to quit learning to ski. "He would not let me go", she said.  The camp was way above all her dreams and expectations. She was so impressed with the atmosphere in our midst, the love and kindness she experienced, starting with the train to the camp until the last day of the camp. One evening she told me once she tried to imagine something like this but she thought in real life that would be an utopia, a perfect ideal that could never exist. Every day she told me this camp was an extraordinary experience that she will never forget. It was also incredible to her to see herself caring for the people who were strangers to her only a few days ago. I explained to her that what she experiences is the presence of God in the midst of our Christian community, that Christ is in our lives and in our midst and that makes all the difference, but she preferred to think that we are special people trying to do our best in this world. During the last evening we had a sharing time and other non-Christians said they had an extraordinary time in the camp. They used words to describe the camp such as authentic, wonderful, unforgettable, indescribable, and challengin. We know that God was at work in our midst and we have nothing to be proud of. We give Him all the glory!!! Through the Gospel presentations we tried to explain to them that God makes the difference in our lives, because He saved us through the blood of Jesus and we can only praise HIM for His love and grace.

All the group discussions went very well as most people were open to talk about spiritual matters. Most of them understood some things about the Gospel as we can quote from the evaluation forms: "I understood that Christ is the only way to everlasting life." (Dana) "I learned about the important role that Jesus plays in the life of a Christian." (Andrei) "I learned that one sin weights heavily in the balance of justice." (Alex) "I learned that God is just and I will be punished for my sins, and even my anger towards somebody is seen as a crime by God." (Miki) "I still need to read and understand a lot more in order to be convinced; there is ‘something' that keeps me from ‘seeing'." (Laura) "I learned that we need to follow His way and have a life without sin." (Bebe) "We need to follow His will and His Word." (Calin)

In the camp I spent hours discussing with Cosmina about Christ. She was trying really hard to understand "our culture" that she loved so much. We told her it's not about a culture, but about the truth, the reality of Jesus Christ, His judgment over sin, Heaven and Hell. She stumbled in the fact that we kept saying that our only authority is the Bible, quoting a lot from the Bible, as she considers the Bible a restrictive way of thinking that narrows our free will and identity. It's quite clear that three years of intensive reading of most philosophers of this world shaped her thinking towards humanism, atheism, and materialism. She doesn't see the inconsistencies in her thinking and world view. I was very sad to see the deep darkness of her mind. All people need a miracle, a new mind to understand the things of God, but it looks like some people need to be drawn from a deeper darkness than others. I am glad that she is open to discussions and I pray that we start a Bible study together and God cleanses her mind of all the humanistic ideas and she sees the truth that would make her life truly free.

In my small group I had another student (Dana) who came to the camp through a poster that she saw in one facility. She understood the Bible texts quite well but she was very reluctant towards the Gospel as we presented it, as a free gift from God. Her boyfriend is studying Orthodox theology. She loved the skiing part of the camp but she preferred to spend most of the time in her room, with little interaction with us.

We praise God for all the students who came to the camp and heard the Gospel. There were a few people in the camp that were not touched by God. A student (Adi) who also came to English camp and other events, said the following: "The ski camp was a spiritual guide to me. The messages and the group discussions taught me things that helped me draw closer to God. I could write many pages with everything that I learned in the camp, but I will tell you a few of them that stuck with me:  It's useless to be rich and have a bountiful life if you don't have God. The Kingdom of Heaven is such a precious treasure that you give up everything to get it, and when you find it you have everything. Whoever finds this treasure will never be satisfied by something else. It doesn't matter how strictly you obey God's law if the Lord Jesus isn't your Savior. Without the Lord Jesus you have absolutely no chance to get to God."

We are grateful that God worked in our midst. Praise Him! We continue to pray for the salvation of every non-Christian who was in the camp. Please pray with us that they would come to the Bible studies that we want to start in the weeks ahead.