Bless God for the grace that He gave me to serve Him another month in this area. It was a difficult month. We had to make the best of our time, because it was a favorable time for ministry. We celebrate Christmas on January 7 in this area. The first part of the month we visited over fifty families. We had evangelistic discussions with them. Most of the people listened to us, no one rejected us, but also no one turned to the Lord. There were two special situations in two families. During those two visits both families started to cry. This year we organized differently in the caroling. We decided which families to visit and prayed specifically for them.

We started for the first time a charity ministry in three villages from our area. We discerned the families that needed help. Then we raised money and bought food for two people for a month. We made 25 packages and distributed them to needy families. Before we started this ministry we didn't know there were so many poor people next to us. The families that we helped were especially old people and people who had serious health problems. These visits became very difficult for me. I saw too much suffering and I was helpless. On the other hand we managed to bring encouragement in these homes. We tried to give them hope.

In Pasat everything is well. In December I mentioned that we had faced some problems because of a man from the church who got drunk. Through the Lord's grace this man stopped drinking. We will wait and see if he will be steadfast. I am glad that he doesn't want to give up on God and that he is sorry for what he did. The church is doing well. We have managed to perservere through this trial. I was happy to see the people from the church encouraging one another during this difficult period. They visited and urged one another to overcome the situation. On the other hand the priest found out about Ion's drinking and visited his family. He invited them to church, telling them that he would forgive their errancy. He told them that they should only comeback to the Orthodox church. It was a difficult time for us. With God's help we overcame that situation by supporting one another.

We continued the ministry in Stanesti. We managed to start some projects that brought passion into the church. The church got involved in the ministry. The church had been focusing on itself. Now they started to think how they could help the ministry. They take on enthusiastically each new challenge and come regularly to help me in Pasat. They are a great help and encourage- ment for me and the church.

My vision regarding the church in Stanesti is that this church will get involved and support the ministry in Herta, the neighboring region.