The assembly in Brasov was encouraged by a visit from a group of believers from the UK from October 18 to 25, 2014. Approximately 4,000 John 3:16 texts were distributed throughout the week and we pray that the seed sown will bring forth fruit for the glory of God. A similar visit is being planned for the first week in October 2015 and we are praying about possible opportunities in the gospel for that occasion in addition to the distribution of gospel texts. We long to see the Lord's hand blessing in salvation that the assembly may be built up both numerically and spiritually. We have also been enjoying having Robert & Sally Beckett from England with us. They are a blessing to the assembly and Robert has been giving regular teaching on the epistle to the Colossians. I am going through the Acts of the Apostles with the assembly.
We are grateful to the Lord for a new opportunity which has opened up with a group of students here in Brasov. They are mostly believers from various backgrounds and I have completed a series of weekly studies with them on the will of God. A new study has now been commenced on future events. Between 10 and 15 attend and there is a good interest for the study of Scripture, with many questions and subjects raised. We look to the Lord to make His Word a blessing to these young people and that they will be led more fully into the ways and truth of God in their lives. The bi-weekly Bible Class meeting at Ploiesti continues, with some encouragement. The time of the meeting was recently changed to make it easier for the teenagers from the orphanage to attend (they live out of Ploiesti and depend on transport timetables). Judging by the increasing numbers attending, this new arrangement seems to have suited others better as well. We are going through the life of David as a young man during the reign of Saul, with the desire that the many relevant lessons for young people from this section of the Word of God will lead to His workings in the lives of those who attend.
If the Lord will, our annual camp will be held this year from August 17-22. We are thankful to the Lord for His blessing upon the camp held in August last year. There were 82 who attended, many of whom were young people. Three different subjects from the Word of God were dealt with throughout the week. Robert Beckett spoke on "Heart issues in the life of Hezekiah". Daniel Enea (my Romanian fellow labourer) took up, "Holiness and its motivations," and I spoke on, "The transformation of a life". The interest shown was encouraging and we look to the Lord to draw many hearts closer to Himself. More have started attending the Bible Class meeting since the camp, including a young woman who had no assembly background. She has since been baptized, together with a young married sister who also attended the camp.
We praise the Lord for an open door to labor among several small assemblies in the Republic of Moldova. There are a small number of companies of the Lord's people in Moldova, which despite some pressure to be affiliated to an evangelical denomination based in Romania, are maintaining autonomous ground. Robert Beckett and I have an exercise to go once a month, especially for consecutive teaching on the epistle to the Ephesians which was requested by the assemblies in Dorotcaia and Miresti. We also have made encouraging visits to the assembly in Balceana and we are happy for the opportunity to serve the saints in the Word there too. In addition, we visit a brother and his wife from a village where there is no assembly and we plan to continue doing this as time and opportunity allow. Our next visits are planned for the last week of April and the last week of May, if the Lord will. Please pray that the teaching of the Word of God will be unto the blessing and edification of the saints and that the work in Moldova may expand and develop.
Our magazine work is now entering its 22nd year. It consists mainly of articles which have previously appeared in assembly magazines in English. These are translated into Romanian as part of the process of the production of the magazine. My own personal involvement is doing the initial translation correction - making sure that the same sense that is conveyed in English comes across in the same way in Romanian - and the final proof check before the magazine goes to print. It is distributed bi-monthly, free of charge to any who request it. There are currently around 2,500 copies of each issue being distributed in Romania and in the Republic of Moldova. It goes to a wide variety of people, most of whom we do not know. While it is difficult to ascertain what impact the teaching contained in the magazine has on its readers, we did recently receive an encouraging note from one reader who said he was a passionate reader and collector of the Green Pastures magazine for 20 years". We trust that many have been helped spiritually over the years as a result of this work.
Prayer would be much appreciated for every aspect
Spring 2015
Written by David Weir - ROMANIA