Country in Focus: Romania

Romania is an Eastern European country with a Latin people descended from Romans settled in Dacia. The Latin heritage of the language and culture was preserved and carried through history despite being surrounded by Slavic nations. Placed in the center of Europe, Romania has been necessarily bold and has survived being at the edge of three major European Empires: Ottoman, Russian and Austro-Hungarian. More recently, the population of 23 million (81% Romanians, 8% Hungarian, 9% Gypsy, 2% others) survived one of the most cruel and oppressive Communist regimes. In the present time, as European Union member, in the way of development, Romania finds itself again at the gate between two systems: West and East.

The spiritual life of this generation Romanians is marked by the continuous fight between the ghost of the atheistic Communism and the illusion of the prosperous Materialism. The nation has claimed to be a Christian nation for 2000 years mainly because – according to tradition – the apostle Andrew evangelized southern Romania. However, now it is becoming increasingly secularized and practices basically nominal Christianity.

Throughout the history of Romania, while the Orthodox Church (80% of population) continually failed to provide spiritual input, the protestant and evangelical churches (8% of population) grew, even under severe persecution. Now, under relative political and economical stability and religious freedom, the Church is still growing. CBSI plays a solid role in the spiritual life of the Church. With a well-developed structure, CBSI Romania conducts more than 50 Bible studies, enriching hundreds of people’s lives and impacting many others by revealing the Truth. In doing this for more than 15 years, CBSI has found its place among the respected and appreciated tools of the Christian spirituality.

Quick Facts

Size: 92,043 sq mi (slightly smaller than Oregon)
Population: 22,246,862
Religious Affiliations: Eastern Orthodox (including all sub-denominations) 86.8%, Protestant (various denominations including Reformate and Pentecostal) 7.5%, Roman Catholic 4.7%, other (mostly Muslim) and unspecified 0.9%, none 0.1% (source: CIA World Factbook)
Official Language: Romanian
Government: Unitary semi-presidential republic

Leadership

Regional Director: Daniel Iosub
National Director: Eliezer Macesaru
Caleb Serving: Kitty Ehret
Number of Bible Studies: 55
Numbers of people participating: 520
Major Cities with Bible Studies: 36 cities throughout the country
Languages of Operation: Romanian

Needs

• A scanner for the National Service Center.
• Visual images (pictures) from classes to have a better understanding of the ministry.

Prayer Concerns

• Pray for building up the National Servant Team.
• Pray for the better shepherding of the classes by building a network of area leadership.
• Pray for the two upcoming training seminars (in the spring), so that both the existing class leadership and the new leaders would receive encouragement, be motivated and gain a solid understanding.
• Pray that the financial participation of the class members will grow, so the ministry will move towards being self-supported.

Events and Activities

• Training in Medias, Ploiesti and Suceava –three different regional locations.
• Translation of Romans.