This past month I tried to visit some of the graduates who have been involved in our ministry in the past and whom I do not get to visit during the semesters when we are mostly involved with students. The Lord has encouraged me greatly by three of them who are closely walking with the Lord and growing in Him. Two of them are married and have children and their husbands are missionaries. The other one who is not married has gone on a short term mission trip in a part of Romania which is well known for its sorcerers and occult practices. I was so glad to see their great desire to obey the Lord and serve Him with their lives! I was so encouraged to see how the Lord is growing His children over the years.

But not all visits were so encouraging. I visited a girl I met about three years ago. Back then she had just come back from the States, where she met some people from the Church of Christ. She started reading the Bible and professed faith in Christ. So when I met her she was at the beginning and we had long discussions about the Gospel and following the Lord. I also talked to her a lot about the fact that baptism does not save (I knew that some Churches of Christ teach that). Her family opposed her new faith as she started attending a Baptist church in her town. We would meet occasionally as she was from a different town. The last time we met several weeks ago she told me she gave up following God because the fight was too hard. She is in depression and seems not to care about anything such as living or dying or going to hell. May the Lord have mercy on her and bring her to repentance. I am thinking with sadness about two other people who profess faith but do not walk with God. May the Lord have mercy on them too. I realize it is only God's grace that keeps us in the faith and that we cannot keep ourselves.

Lately, I have been meeting with a girl who has moved to Bucharest from another town. I realized again the importance of the believers' fellowship in keeping us on God's way, as it is written in Hebrews: "and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near". (Hebrews 10:24,25)  Leaving her town, believing friends and church and moving into a big city caused her to lose the close walk with the Lord. I was glad to see that the Lord is working in her heart to bring her back to Him.

This past month we started meeting again with the evangelistic Bible study group I was writing about in the spring. I am so encouraged by the Lord's work in Ioana's life. When we met again at the beginning of the month she was hungry for Christian fellowship. She was out of town many Sundays during the summer and missed church and we had no meetings with the students. She was in a Christian camp, and sadly, she missed fellowship there also. She told me she eagerly went to meet and have fellowship with other Christians and expected them all to be a witness together for the unbelievers there, but neither one of the two happened. Although she is very young in the faith, the Lord is teaching her the important things. She wants to be a witness for her family and friends. We continue praying for her friend who has been attending our Bible study since March. We have been studying from the book of John and I have told her the Gospel many times in different ways. Ioana also witnesses to her about the faith in the Lord Jesus. We are glad that she continues coming and asking questions, and we pray that the Lord would reveal Himself to her, and draw her to Himself. It is so clear for us that only He can do that!  We realized we are not able to even explain the Gospel so that she would remember it the following week!

A couple of weeks ago we met in the park to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Ioana, her friend and another friend came along. Dan, the guy who is leading the Bible study told us a lot about India as he is getting ready to go there on a mission trip. He is going to Orissa where the Christians were killed two years ago. He told us about the sufferings and persecution the Christians suffer there. It was a very good time. At the end of the evening a discussion started about the saints in the Orthodox church, and how the Orthodox people pray to them to be helped. Ioana and I had the opportunity to share what the Bible teaches that "there is only one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" 1 Timothy 2:5. We also had the opportunity to share the Gospel. It is so interesting to see that man's way is always more appealing to people than God's way, and man's teaching have more authority to them than God's Word! May the Lord use this seed planted in their hearts!