God's grace is continuing to amaze us with every new step that we take in our ministry and marriage. We are constantly reminded of the words of the apostle Paul, who wrote to the Corinthians,"My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9). Every year, month, week, and day we have the proof of God's infinite love and mercy for us.

I began the month of September with some study and writing. By God's grace I continued to write on the commentary on Ephesians. It is exciting to me to think of the day this commentary with be published and made accessible to the Romanian churches. We have two commentaries on Ephesians (one that is good but has some theological problems, and another one written by John Stott, which is very good). But, it is my conviction that a commentary is more relevant when it is written for a people from a certain culture, by a person from that particular culture.

There are some ways of expressing Biblical truths that make more sense when you belong to that specific culture in which you explain the things of God. I am about to finish chapter one, but there is still much more ahead. Please pray that the Lord will increase my desire to continue to dig deeper and deeper in the Word and have wisdom to put it into words that are relevant to the people of God.

Another part of the work I did at the beginning of September was some paper work for the legalization of HeartCry in Romania. With this crisis that we are passing through it's becoming more and more difficult to work without having a "legal" structure. Not that we worked illegally in Romania, but I tried to avoid having to maintain an office, accountant, lawyer, and other additional staff people to run the ministry. It's becoming obvious that we need to create this structure so that we can develop our ministry without any problems with the state. I had to meet a lawyer, write the by-laws, and think of all kind of aspects that are to be considered in this process of legalization. We have started and now we're getting the approval for the association, which will be called "The Christian Association HeartCry Europe". The Tomeci family (John, Ani, Flavius and Rebecca) has moved to Brasov at the beginning of the month. We were involved in helping them to move things into their apartment in Brasov. It is a great joy to have them with us in this new ministry of planting a new church in the city of Brasov.

We had a conference during September 9-11. Harvest Bible Church of Houston is involved in the mission ministry in Romania, helping at the moment the missions from Pucioasa and Fieni. They are also willing to extend their interest and help to other missions from Romania. We organized this conference for the areas of ministry they are involved in. We had two good teachers and other brothers that were on the team. Lance led us through the book of 1 Peter, and Roy taught about the transmission of the Biblical text (canon, infallibility, language, etc). It was a very fruitful time with our brothers who brought good and sound teaching.   The next major event of September was the outreach in the county of Buzau. I went to join the HeartCry teams that came together to do a massive outreach in Pitulicea, Glodeanu-Sarat, Amaru, Florica, and other villages around this area. It was amazing to see how much we were able to do in two days. We covered five villages, going from door to door and talking with people in their homes or on the streets. We had opposition in some places, but we were generally well received.

We were in teams of two, taking a village and visiting each street. The five teams approached hundreds of people to whom they explained the Gospel. I was particularly impressed with how the Lord turned the heart of some people that seemed very reluctant at the beginning. They listened with much interest and even said they would try to attend the church where missionary Marian J. serves. We saw people that were touched in their hearts, having tears in their eyes. Was that conversion? God knows. But if it was, we will see it later, when all these people that seemed touched emotionally, come to testify of Christ by taking up the cross and following Him. 

On Sept. 19, I preached the Word of God in a celebration of a church in the city of Tirgoviste that was started one year ago. There was a large participation in the meetings. I was particularly happy to see unbelievers that attended the service. God poured his grace upon the meeting and the Word was preached with power.

The last week of September, I was invited by the Romanian church in Barcelona, which is ministered by a former colleague from University. Many Romanians immigrated to the Western Europe and today we have some large Romanian communities in Spain, Italy, Frace, England, etc. Praise God that the Christians that left for work started churches in all these countries. Today, just a few years from the founding of this church, the Romanian church in Barcelona numbers over 100 believers. They are a dynamic group of believers with a great desire of spreading the Gospel. They have been helping one of the HeartCry missions from Romania (Ramnicu-Sarat), send out teams to do outreach and help this ministry with specific needs. I had meeting with this church, lead a Bible study, meet with the youth, and some families,and preached God's Word to the congregation.

During September we had the first meetings with our team in Brasov. We planned what we will do over the next months till Christmas. It is a joy to have this perspective of developing a new church in Romania. Pray that God will be the One who will work and use us for accomplishing this task.

We are thankful for your love and support. God is using you to spread the Gospel of salvation to the nations. We always pray to the Lord for you, and thank Him for having brothers and sisters behind us to help so we can take the Gospel to the lost. The Spirit of God is moving!