EuNC: Courses taught and books bought in Romania

By Jonathan Phillips

European Nazarene College "In Touch" Newsletter, April 2016

Students in Sighisoara interact with
students in Bucharest
via video-conferencing
in the Christian worship course.
(March 2016)

2016 has gotten off to a good start for the Romania Learning Centre. In February and March, students took the course on Christian Worship. The course was team-taught by Jonathan Phillips, Roberta Bustin, Michael Hudson (learning centre coordinator), and Tamara Hudson; all of whom serve as missionaries in Romania. The five students in Sighişoara and the four students in Bucharest connected via videoconferencing for each of the four class sessions.

First session of the "Pastoral Care &
 Counseling" course (April 2016) 

Students are now taking the course “Pastoral Care and Counseling”, which began early in April. It is being taught by Dr. Ron Mauer, Trevecca Nazarene University professor emeritus. Ron and his wife, Jacque, are spending three months this spring as volunteers in Sighişoara.

In addition to these courses, significant progress is being made regarding the library setup. Since Bucharest and Sighişoara are five hours apart, we are developing libraries in both of these teaching locations. At present, approximately half of the books are in English, having been donated by former and current missionaries. The rest are Romanian books, many of which have recently been purchased with EuNC funds designated for library development.

Cataloging books in Sighisoara
(April 2016)

Cataloged books in Bucharest
(March 2016)

Due to the generosity of a Christian bookstore manager, we have received a 15-20% discount on all the books we ordered last year! When the shipment of books arrived in the fall, the students couldn’t wait for the books to be catalogued before they started asking to borrow them. We hope that in the next few weeks we will be able to upload our complete records to the online catalogue.

Video: Creative ministry in Central Europe

In the Central Europe Field, with its vastly different cultures and economies, the Churches of the Nazarene are developing creative ways to meet the needs of people in their communities, from coffee shops and small business start-up help to anti-trafficking work and an aquaponics garden.

Central Europe Field Video from Eurasia Media on Vimeo.

To download this 5 minute video, or watch other video stories, visit the Eurasia Region's video page:https://vimeo.com/146630648
This video was released at the 2015 Eurasia Regional Conference and published in Engage Magazine.

Prayer for the Central Europe Field

The Central Europe Field is made up of the countries of Denmark, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Kosovo, and Norway. 

Please pray for the following requests:

• Pray that the obstacles Central Europeans have to coming to faith would be removed and that many would come to Christ. 
• Pray for the effective ministry of Nazarene churches. Pray for the pastors and leaders to have a wider vision to reach their communities for Christ. 
• Pray for the efforts of those trying to plant new churches. May their efforts be multiplied across the field. 
• Pray that young people (and not so young people) would respond to God’s call to ministry in their lives. 
• Pray for those studying in the pastoral training programs on the districts. Pray that many more students. 
• Pray for those producing and translating literature across the districts. 
• Pray for unity in vision in the churches, districts, and field. 
• Pray for the planning taking place to enter a new country—Serbia.
• Pray for those serving the refugees across the field, may the refugees feel the presence of Christ. 

Taken from NMI's Prayer Mobilization Line, December 4, 2015.

Nazarene Essentials in Romanian

Nazarene Essentials, a document that explains the basics of the Church of the Nazarene's teaching, history, theology, mission, funding, and connections, is now available in Romanian.

Released in English by the Board of General Superintendents in February, Nazarene Essentials is currently being translated for use around the world to educate pastors, other leaders, members of the Church of the Nazarene, and anyone interested in learning more about the denomination.

The Romanian version, a 48-page color magazine, was distributed at the Romania District Assembly on November 14. It is available for free download at nazarene.org/essentials and at the Wesleyan-Holiness Digital Library.

Video: Eugen's Story

Staff and volunteers at the Veritas Family Center impact the lives of children and families in Sighisoara, Romania.. This short documentary tells the story of a father who participated in the children's program as a child and now brings his own child to the Veritas kindergarten.

Wood shop ministry provides training in Romania

Reprinted from Engage Magazine.

After two years of planning and hard work, the new wood shop of the Țigmandru Church of the Nazarene is open for business. Every afternoon from 1 to 5 p.m., the sounds of voices, sawing and planing come from the building that houses the shop on the main street of Țigmandru .

In this part of Romania, many people struggle with unemployment. The Church of the Nazarene has been working on various creative projects to meet this need through developing vocational skills, building an aquaponics greenhouse to provide gardening skills as well as fresh produce to the community, providing music classes, and now opening a wood shop.

“For many years Pastor Magda Cini and others have prayed for some kind of industry that could be set up in the gypsy village of Țigmandru where especially young men could find employment, rather than either leaving the village for other countries where they can find work, or turning to alcohol,” wrote volunteer missionaries Jay and Sheri Hartzler on their ministry blog. “One of these dreams included a woodworking shop and it was one of the ideas that was given to us when we were considering coming to Romania.”

Jay was a teacher at Eastern Mennonite School in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Sheri had experience teaching piano, so they began their ministry in 2013 teaching piano, and guitar, and leading choirs in Țigmandru and in Sighisoara. Jay, who has experience in woodworking, also began to set up the shop in Țigmandru .

On their blog, Sheri described the process, which has been no easy task.

September 2013: Identify a location for the woodshop, renovating two “rooms” at the back of a property owned by the Țigmandru Nazarene Church. See our Facebook post HERE for more pictures of the space and beginning work.

Oct./Nov. 2013: Renovating/making the building for the woodshop begins. With horse and wagon, materials are brought to the site, cement is poured, bricks laid, windows and doors are put in, insulation is added. A wood stove is put in, but it’s too cold to apply the stucco. We wait.

March 2014: Stucco applied, but need even warmer weather to paint walls. (The paint slid off the wall.) Floors are laid while we wait.

May 2014: Purchase table saw and router/jointer, only to discover that the three-phase electric needed is not available and will cost approximately $3,000 and take three months to do the paperwork required and get the transformer installed and wires run.

August 2014: The building is completed and we return to the U.S. for another year of Jay teaching at Eastern Mennonite, hoping that by summer of 2015 the electric work will be completed.

June 2015: We arrive back in Romania. No three-phase electric. Plus now there is an 8-square-foot spot of mold in the ceiling from where water came in through the roof tiles.

July 2015: Repair the roof, put in new drywall for the ceiling, re-paint. And finally the three-phase electric gets installed. Jay goes out to the shop to check things out and the plug that was installed for the three phase is the same plug on the saw. Another call to the electrician, another week of waiting to get it changed.

July 31, 2015: Work in the shop begins with four apprentices, ages 37, 17, 35 and 55 – Neluțu, Gabi, Mihai, and Atilla.

It’s been two months shy of two years since we began the process to get a shop going. A grant from the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Europe has been gratefully received and additional tools have been purchased.

August 2015: The first product – a small box – has been made. A cabinet to store the tools is in process.

Of course the electric saga continues. The outlets that were installed weren’t industrial strength. At present there are no lights in the ceiling. And so it goes.

At this point, a man in Sighisoara who runs two tourist shops has ordered 40 small boxes. He wants to carve them and then sell them in his store. Jay has also had requests for kitchen cabinets and some small furniture items.

“The apprentices are eager to learn how to work with wood and are fun to be with,” wrote Jay on their blog. “I feel like I can barely stay ahead of the four as they run the tools. After all the delays, the sound of the saw running was music to my ears. (Watch a YouTube video of the woodshop.)

“The first week (August 10-14) was a good one learning how to saw boards and plane them. The tools are very above average for here and I’m thankful for the financial help many of you have given to purchase them. As we got to the third day of work, the jointer didn’t turn on. After an hour we discovered someone had pulled the plug from the wall by holding onto the cord – which disconnected the wire. Nothing is easy.

“As for the projects, the boxes are a good start. Beyond the boxes we really don’t have anything specific except to make some kitchen cabinets for the Nazarene Church in Tigmandru. The problem is that I can’t find plywood. The three [building] stores here in Romania only carry ¼-inch ply. There is no ¾ – or 2 cm anywhere that I know of. I’ll keep looking. Wood is an issue here. If I have a supply of wood that I’m working with, I need to have ‘stamped’ documentation of where it came from – for every board. I’m working with English walnut, cherry, beech, and pine – all of which I picked up from a friend and have no papers. We’ll see how that works out.”

In another six weeks we’ll be returning to the U.S. More training needs to happen before the woodshop can operate without Jay’s supervision. So what does that mean for our future? We continue to feel as though God has something for us to do with the people of Tigmandru. Please pray with us that we will know how to follow God’s leading as we finish this four-month stay and consider the future.

It’s an exciting time especially because it’s been such a long journey to get to this point. Since we arrived back in Sighisoara in June, it seemed like every week for the first month Jay made a contact with other woodworkers, with people who suggested items that could be made in the shop, or with potential sources of wood. We felt God’s leading in these connections, and we recognize that the woodshop is a reality because of the prayers of God’s people. We are grateful.”

-- Adapted with permission from their ministry blog. Photos courtesy the Hartzlers.

OCTOBER 2015 UPDATE:
On September 10, Jay wrote: 

So far:

• 20 boxes
• 1 computer table
• 1 table top
• 1 work table
• 1 storage cabinet
• Numerous shelves
• Many smiles
• Still all of our fingers!

Below are pictures of some of the items made in the wood shop before the Hartzlers returned to the US at the end of September.

Simple wooden boxes which have been sold to a wood carver to finish
and sell at his souvenir shop

A wooden box with carvings, for sale in the souvenir shop

Cabinets for the Tigmandru church kitchen

When the Global Village Prays

By Debbie Salter Goodwin
Abridged from Holiness Today, Special Edition 2015

When pioneer missionary Harmon Schmelzenbach made his transoceanic voyage to take the gospel to Africa, he did not have multiple avenues of instant communication to send back prayer requests and family news. Some needs couldn’t wait for the time it would take for a letter to cross the miles. Instead, he had to depend on prayer because only God could provide the timely nudging.

Today, while missionaries are grateful for Skype, email, and other instant forms of communication, to a person they will tell you that no technological advancement improves upon what God can do through the prayers of His people. When God delivers His prayer list to people who are open to His prompts, the results include encouragement, growth, and resources in many forms. 

Monthly Prayer

Nothing ramps up mission interest in a church more than when one of their own joins a missionary endeavor. When Jonathan Phillips answered God’s call to serve in Eastern Europe through Mission Corps, his home church did more than promise support. They formed a group to meet monthly to pray for Jonathan and the Church of the Nazarene in Romania.

They keep Jonathan’s needs before the church. When necessary, they do more than pray. They become the answer God sends as they raise money to provide resources that Mission Corps cannot address. It’s a partnership forged by prayer.

Prayer crosses miles and time zones like nothing else. Though every method of communication is a helpful tool to share information about needs as well as God’s answers, nothing will ever improve on the work of prayer. Paul depended on the prayers of the early church. So has every church planter, missionary, and teacher since.

This is good news for every Christian who wants to support God’s mission to the world. It is even better news for every missionary who has answered God’s call to serve in some remote village or in some modern city. We can always do more to support our missionaries, but we must never do less than pray. When everyone joins the global circle to wrap every missionary, preaching point, new believer, and indigenous leader in prayer, answers will come because nothing trumps prayer.


Debbie Salter Goodwin is a freelance writer from Beaverton, Oregon. She participates in the global prayer circle as she serves with her pastor husband at Portland First Church of the Nazarene.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.