The national conference was probably the highlight of the month of November. Over 100 students and graduates met in a wonderful resort in the mountains of Romania to worship together, to pray and get to know each other, and to work and have fellowship together. The conference’ theme was “the Gospel” and the core messages were about God’s love for the undeserving shameful people, the need to preach the Gospel daily to ourselves, and the importance of sharing the Gospel with others. Even though it was a Christian conference, there were non-Christians in our midst. One of the students in our group did not know the Lord. He was generally very reserved. We were surprised to hear him in a prayer time in small groups saying that even though he never thanked God for anything, he wanted to thank Him that He brought him to this conference. Please pray for Adi that the Gospel he heard would bring fruit in his life.

It was also very encouraging to see that the students from Bucharest were very challenged to do evangelism as a result of the conference. They were so enthusiastic that on their way back to Bucharest from the conference they shared the Gospel with some of the people they met on the train, even though it was night time! Meeting students from other cities and hearing about the creative ways they do evangelism was also good for our students. We might try to do more informal meetings where non-Christians can see our Christian community and build relationships with us.

The small groups we had at the conference were very encouraging. We shared about how we became Christians and how God worked in our lives since we met Jesus. We had very good and deep discussions because students were very open to share about their lives. In my small group there was a student who needed counseling. She had recently gone through a terrible shock and she was still under the impression of it. She shared with us that a little time ago she went for counseling to the pastor in her home church. He told her that she committed the unpardonable sin and had lost her salvation. He said that there was no chance for salvation for her anymore for the rest of her life. At that point she was totally devastated and confused. Then she started to talk to her friends and other people and they told her that the pastor was wrong in what he said. She shared all of that with us at the conference and couldn’t stop crying. I talked to her afterwards, went through some truths with her and challenged her to read “Justification and Regeneration” by Charles Leiter. She was very encouraged by our conversation and said she could not wait to get home to read the book. “The truth will set you free.” (John 14) I could see her face brightning as she slowly understood the truth.

The weather was colder this month therefore we went only twice to the student dorms to do outreach in the open air, giving out tracts, New Testaments and evangelistic books. It was interesting to see that Leonard, whom I told you in my last newsletter, came every time we were at the book table. He continued to bring into discussion the Seven Day Church doctrines about hell, future times, the second coming of Christ in 1844, and so on. I showed him Scriptures about the eternality of hell and told him the Gospel again and again. He said that his doctrines are essentials to him and he cannot deny them, even though they deny the Scriptures. It was sad to see another student who preferes to keep his ideas instead of reading and trusting the Word of God. I am also sad because I tried to contact Simona, a girl who seemed very open to talk about spiritual matters, but she didn’t answer the phone. I think I will always be amazed about the deep Orthodox prejudices in our society who keep people away from having a discussion to us. Please continue to pray for Leonard, Irina, Marian, Alberta, Simona, Iulian, Robert, and all the students who heard the Gospel this semester and for new opportunities to followup with them. I am very encouraged to see one of the students in my discipleship group, Raquel, investing time in her relationship with her colleague, Linda, who came to our evangelistic summer camp. God worked powerfully in her heart during the camp. This fall Raquel invited Linda to Church and to our events many times and she said she wants to come, but she cancels at the last minute. We continue to pray for her salvation. Please pray that Linda would come with her boyfriend to Church and to the Christmas events in December. Pray that the Lord would save them this very year for His glory.

Another encouraging thing this month was to see the Christian students eager to meet for prayer!! They decided to meet for prayer every Thursday at 7 A.M.! At the first prayer meeting there were over 10 students who came to pray, and we had a blessed time together, praying for our non-Christian friends, for the events we organize and for personal issues. It was very encouraging to see that many who came. Usually we were about 2-4 people coming to prayer meetings. I praise the Lord for calling students to prayer because prayer is absolutely vital to the mission of sharing the Gospel.

The Freshmen event on November 2 was a most blessed event. Many freshmen students came to the event on the theme “Be the Light!” and some of them also came to the national conference. They are very enthusiastic about our group and motivated to do evangelism. We are thankful to the Lord that He brings new students in our midst and we continue to pray for that purpose. We also pray that we learn to integrate the new students because in our evaluations we found out that we fall short of that.

An interesting thing this month was to meet a young woman who came by herself to my Church. I usually don’t go on Thursdays to Church, but that evening I didn’t have a student meeting so I went. She said she wants to “accept Jesus” and make a change in her life. The next day we went together to the youth meeting and talked a lot more about life in general. She is very open to our community and everything we do, but as far as I can tell she doesn’t really understand what Christianity is. I’ll continue to meet with her and be a witness to her. I praise the Lord for the opportunities He gives us!

One of the members of our community, Dan, went to India for a month, together with other Romanians. He has sent us a few newsletters so far and they are full of joys and struggles. They had many opportunities to preach the Gospel and it looks like a small revival is happening in that area. Indians come from other villages and are eager to hear the Gospel. They also went to Orissa, the area where hundreds of Christians were killed and every single Church destroyed a few years ago. He said it's a humiliating experience to see the Indian Christians with no theological background, dancing with joy and full of courage, ready to die for Christ at any time. Many of them have lost family members in the massacre. "It's fearful and wonderful at the same time!", he said.