January NMI Prayer Focus

Roberta Bustin, serving in Romania, shares the following requests with NMI Prayer Mobilization Line:

• Pray for the Romania District as they endeavor to move into new areas and plant new Churches of the Nazarene.
• Pray that God will provide more Romanian leaders for all the churches.
• Pray for the construction project at the Sighisoara Church. Construction has begun on an addition, which will house a kitchen, fellowship hall, and Sunday School rooms. Pray for God to send teams to help complete the project.

Christmas parcels are a huge blessing to needy families in Tigmandru, Romania

"For us the shipment was a huge blessing – for us, for the community, for the church!" Magda Cini explains as we are getting ready to take some Christmas parcels to families in her village. Magda is the pastor of the Nazarene church in Țigmandru, a small village in the Transylvania region of Romania, and has started a number of projects in the community.

One of them is a mothers-and-babies club – Magda has been trained in baby massage and is using this skill along with her experience in parenting to meet a great need in this community – and we are planning to visit several of the families that are part of this program.

This year’s shipment for Romania and Bulgaria included a total of 640 Christmas parcels and 611 boxes with aid goods. Each selected family with a small baby will receive one Christmas parcel – a box full of food supplies and hygiene articles that none of the families can afford on their own – and a baby blanket made by members and friends of a Nazarene church in Germany.

“These are so beautiful!” Magda exclaims when we unpack the blankets, “When I had my babies I didn't have such nice blankets for them!”

The first family we visit is a couple with two children who live together in one tiny room – just big enough to fit a bed and a stove. The older son is two years old, the mother herself is only 15.

“Many girls here marry at a very young age – usually because they are trying to escape a bad situation at home,” we are told. Marriage is the only option for most women in this area, though it hardly serves to make their lives much easier. There are few prospects for positive change and little hope for an escape from poverty. Some of the families are so embarrassed about their poverty that they have asked not to be visited.

Almost every home we visit is similar: a tiny room, totally over-heated – in December there's still enough firewood, though it may not last the winter – with a young mother, often herself only a child, and a timid toddler who gazes at us with shy curiosity.

“These are children that [never saw toys before],” Magda says. When the children come to the club with their mothers, they can choose from a variety of toys appropriate to their age, and play as much as they like. “They cry when they have to leave.”

They are also children that have never seen chocolate or gummi bears before. Little Fetița excitedly grabs a chocolate bar and sticks it into her mouth, wrapper and all. Two-year-old Janoț stares a little skeptically at the heap of gummi bears on the chair before he carefully selects one and starts sucking it with curiosity.

Their mothers are more grateful for the parcels’ less sugary contents – rice, pasta, coffee, shampoo, hand lotion and other good things considered “luxury items” in this poor community. In Țigmandru, only two or three of the men have a permanent job. The others work on the fields in the summer and cut wood in the forest in winter, but their income is barely sufficient for the basic necessities of life. Over the past years, Magda has started several income generating workshops with the women – like sewing and gardening – and is hoping to start more, in order to enable the families to earn some extra income. One of her dreams is to establish a bakery.

Some of the families in Țigmandru are receiving Christmas parcels for the second year now.

“When Fetița's family got a package last year for the first time, they were really shocked that they would receive such a wonderful package! They were so excited,” Magda remembers. Fetița’s father is one of the only men here who has a proper job. Nevertheless, his income is so low that while the family can afford electricity and firewood, there is no money for special food items like chocolate or coffee, not even for milk or butter. “They're very nice packages – very useful. The families like everything that’s in the package. To all of us it’s a huge blessing!”

When we leave, we feel the most blessed: blessed with sincere gratitude that we are asked to convey to all contributors of the Christmas shipment in Germany, blessed with a thousand impressions that remind us of our own reasons to feel grateful, blessed with the knowledge of having been allowed to be a blessing to others.

Republished from eurasiaregion.org

Blankets from Büsingen

Tigmandru is a predominantly Roma town with a population of about 5000 people. Most of the population does not have steady work; people make a living by working as day laborers in agriculture in the summer and by cutting and selling forest wood in the winter. Many people live in small, basic houses with no running water.

The local Nazarene church in Tigmandru serves its neighborhood with a mother/baby care program. Each week lay pastor Magda Cini gathers mothers and their babies for simple lessons on hygiene and child care. During this time, Magda builds trust and relationships, and shares about the Lord.

Magda said the families need baby blankets to keep their infants and young children warm. Members of the Büsingen Church of the Nazarene responded this fall by hand-sewing or donating 20 blankets, which they gathered on Sunday, 28 October, to send to Tigmandru. Each blanket is labeled with “Made for You- Psalm 139:14.”

Reprinted from Where Words Meet, November 2012.

Missionary Profile: Jonathan Phillips

The following missionary profile was published in Engage magazine.

Since August 2009, Jonathan Phillips has been serving as a missionary in Romania, where he develops discipleship ministries and conducts lay ministry training on the Romania District. He also teaches theological education courses for European Nazarene College.


In 2001, while a sophomore at Eastern Nazarene College (ENC), Jonathan spent a semester abroad in Sighisoara, Romania, with the Romanian Studies Program. That experience laid the foundation for him to return with Nazarenes in Volunteer Service (now Mission Corps) for a year after graduating from ENC in 2003 to work with the Sighisoara Church of the Nazarene and Veritas.

Engage: How did you first recognize God’s call to be involved in missions?

Jonathan: I grew up in the church and always enjoyed missions services. There was something refreshing about hearing the stories of what God was doing around the world. Although I felt a call to ministry as a teenager, I didn’t feel a specific call to cross-cultural ministry until spending a semester abroad in Romania in 2001.

Engage: What is your favorite aspect of what you do in your present assignment?

Jonathan: One of my favorite aspects of discipleship ministry is simply getting to know people for who they are. That means spending unhurried time with them and learning about them and where they’re coming from. As I visit the different Nazarene ministries and churches in Romania, I get to interact with a wide range of individuals – coming from different socio-economic, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Spending time with them helps me know how to best minister to each one amid the immense diversity.

Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work?

Jonathan: Learning to say “no.” I’m the kind of person that would love to be involved in every ministry opportunity that comes my way, so I have to force myself to be realistic about my commitments. I’ve come to learn (from experience) that when I stretch myself too thin, I’m not effective in anything I’m doing. I’ve come to realize that seasons of ministry change, and often a present “no” becomes a future “yes,” as God prepares the ground for more fruitful ministry.

Another related challenge is what I call the urgent over important – when whole days that were supposed to be spent in ministry are spent instead resolving practical issues like repairing a leaky pipe or renewing a visa. This is best summed up by a Romanian saying: “We live in Romania, and this takes up all of our time.”

Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.

Jonathan: Last year I began leading a discipleship group for men in the village of Tigmandru. The three men who attended regularly were relatively new Christians with minimal biblical knowledge and church connection. Over the course of the year, as we studied the Old Testament together, they not only added to their biblical knowledge, but also became more active in living and sharing their faith, and in their church involvement. It has been so encouraging to see them respond to God’s call upon their lives. I actually wrote an article for Engage about this ministry.

Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God and your family in the midst of the demands of missionary service?

Jonathan: The basis of a close relationship with God is spending time each day with Him through reading the Bible and in prayer. Another discipline which has helped me over the past few years is to have a friend who serves as my accountability partner. We check up on each other, even though we now live in different countries, making sure that we’re staying close in our relationship with God. One other way I am spiritually fed is by downloading and listening to sermon podcasts from a friend who pastors in the U.S.

I’m able to maintain close relationships with my family through the ease of the technology we have available to us today. Through email, MagicJack, and Skype, my family is just a few clicks away. My parents and I have an established time each week when we talk. It’s like I’m across town from them rather than halfway around the world.

Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?

Jonathan: By far, the most rewarding aspect of ministry in Romania is seeing Romanians grow deeper in their relationship with God and living in obedient service to Him. It’s especially rewarding to see Romanians who have grown up in nominally Christian homes begin to connect their faith to how they live their lives.

Engage: What are some aspects of the culture where you live that you have come to love or embrace?

Jonathan: I enjoy learning about Romania’s rich history, including the ethnic diversity found here in Transylvania.

Engage: What do you like to do for fun?

Jonathan: I enjoy reading and playing board games. Another interest has been researching my family genealogy and learning about our past.

Engage: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

Jonathan: I don’t like to travel. I think there’s a perception that missionaries love traveling, but I don’t. In fact, I find it to be exhausting. I enjoy reaching the destination and investing in the lives of the people in that place.

Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?

Jonathan: First of all, make sure your life is God-focused. Spend time with Him reading the Bible, in prayer, and practicing other spiritual disciplines. This will help you discern His leading as you explore your call to ministry.

Second, don’t underestimate the value of the period of preparation before you begin your first missionary assignment. The years spent in school and receiving training to become a professional in your field of study are an investment which will pay off as you’re able to minister more effectively with that training.

Finally, read as much as you can about what it means to live and minister in culture different from your own so you are prepared for adapting to another culture.

June Missionary Prayer Focus Requests

Jonathan Phillips, serving in Romania, shares the following prayer requests with NMI's Prayer Mobilization Line. Jonathan is part of the PML's June Prayer Focus.

• Pray for Romanians who are preparing for pastoral and lay ministry in the Church of the Nazarene.
• Pray for those who are ministered to by Nazarene Compassionate Ministries in Romania, that they will experience the love of God and respond in faithful obedience.
• Pray for the paperwork and approvals needed to begin construction on a new building at the Sighisoara Church of the Nazarene.
• Pray for the paperwork and approvals needed to begin a new organization that will help to develop small businesses providing jobs for local Nazarenes and supporting local churches financially. The organization will begin with a sewing workshop, as well as a garden and a greenhouse to grow vegetables and flowers to sell.

Missionary profile: Michael and Tamara Hudson

The following missionary profile was published in Engage Magazine on April 10, 2012. 


Michael and Tamara Hudson, missionaries in the Romania District, are serving through youth mentoring, church planting and church development. Michael is the theological education coordinator, and also assists with finance, literature development and church planting. In November 2011, Tamara was appointed the district superintendent -- the first woman in Europe to hold this position in the denomination. Hailing from Canada, both are ordained elders in the Church of the Nazarene.

They previously co-pastored the Nazarene church in Brampton, Ontario, Canada (2007 - 2009); before that, they served as missionaries in Albania for nine years (1996 - 2005) and Romania for two years (2005 - 2007.) They returned to Romania in 2009. They have three daughters: Julia, 16; Emily, 14; Elena, 10.

Engage: How did you first recognize God’s call to be involved in missions?

Tamara: I was called to be a missionary at age 9 when a missionary visited my home church.  I clearly felt the Lord was telling me, “You are going to be a missionary when you grow up.” I was able to be involved in various ministry and mission experiences including youth teams and Youth in Mission. These experiences confirmed the call of God to cross cultural ministry.

Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.

Tamara: Last fall 13 people were baptized in the Blessing Church in Bucharest, including our own daughter, Elena. What a joy it was to participate in that occasion and to baptize our youngest daughter.

Engage: What is your favorite aspect of what you do in your present assignment?

Tamara: Our ministry is about investing in people. We love to spend time teaching and equipping others for ministry. We love to spend time praying, worshipping and serving together with our Romanian brothers and sisters. The most significant moments in ministry often occur around a dinner table or over a cup of coffee.

Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work?

Tamara: The work load is sometimes difficult to handle and finding balance in life and ministry can be challenge.

Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God and your family in the midst of the demands of missionary service?

Tamara: Personal prayer and devotions is essential. We have developed family traditions (dinner table prayer and activities) which help us learn and grow together. We take time to play and have fun together on a regular basis.

Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?

Tamara: Seeing young people called and equipped to answer the call of God in their lives.

Engage: What are some aspects of the culture where you live that you have come to love or embrace?

Tamara: We have learned to love Romanian food and all the time it takes to prepare it together with friends. We also love the history of the country and love to visit old castles and fortified churches. 

Engage: What do you like to do for fun?

Tamara: We enjoy outdoor activities, especially hiking in the mountains.

Engage: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

Tamara: One of my first student jobs was handing out rain coats at Niagara Falls in Canada.

Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?

Tamara: The call of God is what keeps us firm when challenges come. Be sure of His call and stay close to Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing!

EuNC - Central Europe Field

In the early 1990's, the world saw the church enter multiple new countries in the heart of Europe and in the CIS within a short period of years. Today, Central Europe is beginning to reap the harvest of the seeds that were planted here more than a decade ago. Beginning in 2009, men and women called to ministry and committed to remain in their home country throughout the course of their study have begun to celebrate the fruition of their years of theological preparation. Graduations and ordinations are starting to be a consistent part of district assemblies across the field.

In October, Elke Kaci was ordained. She is the second EuNC graduate and elder for the Albanian-Kosova District. Elke is the mother of two and deeply involved in ministry as the pastor of the Lushnje church. At the Albania-Kosova assembly, her husband Ilir Kaci, who is a physical education teacher, received the CM certificate for his years of study.

In Romania, Cristi Boseff, pastor of the Bucharest Blessings church and district licensed minister, Dan Cristea, were honored for their continuing commitment to theological preparation. The Romania district celebrated with them as Antonie Holleman recognized the years and the progress both of these men have invested in their studies.

In Hungary, the Wesleyan partnership has coordinated efforts to be a well organized and effective Learning Center that serves a wide range of students from several sister denominations. The Hungary Learning Center is a convincing example of the academic levels that can be reached in theological education and pastoral preparation with a commitment to excellence.

Tim Green from Trevecca Nazarene
University teaches in Romania

The Bulgaria district has several students close to completion of their course of study. The 2011 assembly celebrated the graduation of three Bulgarian students and the 2012 assembly anticipates more graduation celebration.

While students from the earliest cohorts progress toward completion, three districts are watching a new influx of Nazarene students. The Albania-Kosova district has 18 very motivated learners who have completed a record 6 classes in the 2011/12 academic year. Romanian Nazarenes are excited to see God calling many youth to ministry - youth who are now answering their calls both by taking classes and by becoming actively involved in leadership. In Bulgaria and in Romania, church growth and development in Romani communities is creating opportunities to provide contextualized theological education as Roma men and women deepen their faith foundations. It is probable that in those earliest years, the seed planters had hopes for what God would faithfully do. They could not have definitively known how He would accomplish the spread of His gospel nor could they have written a more beautiful story. Over these two decades, men and women have sacrificed time, energy, and resources in order to immerse themselves in study and preparation for ministry. Most often, they did this in conjunction with the faithful fulfillment of their roles as parents, spouses, professionals, and ministers. Their dedication is inspiring. Their celebration is earned. Most importantly, their testimony speaks clearly of a faithful Gardener who provides the resources necessary for a kingdom harvest. Today, the Central Europe field is praising the Lord of the harvest for His goodness even as we labour to plant more seeds in anticipation for the future.

Cezarina Cufaj, EuNC alumni 2011 and administrator of the Albania learning centre writes: “Coming back to Albania after 10 years and working on education was easy and amazingly challenging for me. The quality education I received at EuNC changed my life and equipped me for ministry. I want the same for the people of Albania. When I came to Albania I found a fertile ground for education and this made my work fruitful. My role was to be a facilitator because the students of Albania are hungry for knowledge and very committed to their studies. Their sacrifices for education have motivated my sleepless nights to prepare classes for them. So far, this journey has been transformational for the students and for me. God is doing great things in Albania, and I feel so privileged to be a part of it!”


This article was originally published in European Nazarene College's "In Touch" newsletter, April 2012 edition.