Romania is an historic nation whose 21 million people comprise more than 20 nationalities and ethnic groups. Most challenging to us is that over 10,700 villages and towns of Romania have no resident gospel witness. More than 1,800 of that number have a population over 1,000. EHC’s national director in Romania, Rev. Samy Tutac, reports, “Fifty years of communism hardened people’s souls and many today are on a materialistic quest. Still, many are open to receive the Gospel—especially young people, but also the more educated.”
Romania is a needy mission field, but by God’s grace it is also a great mission opportunity. 2008 was a year of significant expansion in EHC/Romania’s home-to-home outreach. From April to December the average monthly total of homes reached increased from 7,000 to nearly 17,000. Outreaches are moving forward in three regions—the Timis and Caras Severin counties, Hunedoara and Alba county and in the Sibiu county. Samy writes,
“It is wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the people involved in distribution and the joy on people’s faces when they receive the literature. People in the villages are especially open to listening to the Gospel. In the past three months, our teams visited every home in over 100 villages and also worked on the streets, in public schools and different vacation clubs for children. We are happy that the number of the responses received increased every month. I believe that God will give us a rich harvest.
“Every year we have a special day when young people can get involved in evangelistic ministry. This year, over 200 of them participated in distributing booklets on the streets of Timisoara. They went from house to house, in the parks, in shops and elsewhere as they distributed over 8,000 booklets and, of course, talked with the people and shared the Gospel. The experience had a lasting, positive effect on the various communities and on the young people themselves.
“We are thankful to God for the opportunities in ministry that we have today in Romania. And we are grateful for your partnership with us. May God bless you!”