The Open Door

by Teanna Sunberg
Reprinted from Engage Magazine

The house sits quietly on a very normal looking street in the heart of Bucharest where the coming and going of families is a predictable Romanian rhythm. Grandmas with head scarves and aprons sweep away the dust from doorways each morning and then produce the tantalizing smells of onions and carrots frying for a midday soup. Dogs bark, kittens scurry, children with backpacks walk to the city bus. It is simply one of many normal houses producing the normal sights and sounds of an every day sort of household. On the morning we visit, two once-upon-a-time Romanian, Nazarene boys are busily finishing a paint job on the edge of the roof. They roll their eyes when we make them move from their job and then, with nonchalant shrugs and warm hugs, they welcome us to The Open Door.

These boys, who used to greet us with shy smiles and quiet Romanian ‘hellos’ at the prompting of their mothers have grown into young men who show us around the brick and mortar that they are renovating. Just inside the door, a two-year old little boy dashes by with his mother close behind as we admire the careful changes that have already turned this house into a home.

Moving into the living room, the landscape begins to alter and it somehow feels that we may have stepped into a corner of Germany. The furniture is solidly wooden and warm as if there is sanctuary and safety in the simple embrace of cushions. A sense of goodness, security, normality are present in the very air we breathe inside this house and yet, for those living here, this is a very new reality.

The five young Romanian women and one active two-year-old now living in this home have recently been rescued from neighboring countries where they were trafficked for sex.

The statistics are staggering. According to the International Labour Organization's June 2012 Press Release, Central Europe and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent Statees) have the highest number of trafficking victims per thousand inhabitants globally. These two parts of Europe account for 7 percent of the global trafficking market. In other words, 1.6 million people from Romania and the Eastern European neighborhood are trapped in forced labour situations today. (http://goo.gl/b81rwp)

The Open Door is a powerful example of the potential for rescue and rehabilitation when denominations work together for impact against the human slave trade. The organization's director is Monica Boseff, wife of Pastor Cristi Boseff (Bucharest Blessings Church of the Nazarene), the majority of employees are Nazarene young people who spent their formative years growing up amidst the pioneering work of the Nazarene church after the fall of Communism. Today, they fill the roles of psychologist, assistant director, security and maintenance. Most of the furniture came from a community effort organized by the Gelnhausen Nazarene Church in Germany. People from the community literally donated entire rooms. Funding and leadership come from a variety of sources including but not limited to Nazarenes and that is an important point. In the face of such a global power structure, one organization, one denomination, one non-government organization is a tiny whisper, but the united body of Christ, dependent upon His Holy provision, becomes a voice for transformation, one life at a time.

The Open Door is simply and profoundly a home. According to the in-house psychologist, the vast majority of girls become prey for traffickers when a life change makes them vulnerable. It might be the death of a parent or a sudden economic plunge, but suddenly the walls that once protected are breached.

In the kitchen, the women who currently call The Open Door home are busily preparing a midday meal of schnitzel and mashed potatoes. Part of their rehabilitation is a re-learning of the normal routines of healthy lifestyles. Monica Boseff reports that both Starbucks and the Radisson Hotel have offered job training to the women. A variety of local businesses have donated practical supplies, such as washing powder, that power the daily rhythms of a busy family.

As I step outside to breathe the fresh air, I notice that the walls around this home are quite high. A street dog who wandered into the yard months ago now claims it and all of its inhabitants as his. He guards them with a fierce territorial growl. I am profoundly aware that the absolute normality of this every day home on this average Romanian street is the greatest testimony to a miracle in progress.

A long time ago, a young boy wrapped up his very normal Jewish lunch and lived and died in such a way that hope and security and heart transformation and home are realities of a new kingdom. His geneology sounded something like this:

Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Issac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his borthers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. (Matthew 1:2-5, NIV)

Covenant Discipleship in Romania

By Teanna Sunberg
Reprinted from Where Worlds Meet, Year 11, Issue 10, December 2013


Sighișoara, Romania – Some historians argue that the faith movement birthed by John Wesley actually saved England from experiencing a fate similar to the French Revolution. Yet, today the mention of a Wesleyan discipleship movement generally brings a yawn and a quick exodus from the conversation. It seems that the word “discipleship” fails to convey the radical transformation that snatched souls from the pit of hell and ransomed a bankrupt British society.

“We have not been intentional enough with discipleship training and practices,” says Jay Sunberg, Central Europe Field strategy coordinator.

At the invitation of Rev. Tamara Hudson, district superintendent of Romania, Sunberg led a Discipleship Weekend in Sighișoara for 22 participants from the Romania District. These Romanian Nazarenes make a groundbreaking statement of faith about the Holy Spirit’s power to redeem and transform at both individual and societal levels.

The agenda of the weekend was an interactive dialogue regarding the Biblical call to discipleship, the Wesleyan heritage of discipleship, and the concept of covenant discipleship. At the end of the weekend, the participants broke into four discipleship groups and wrote a covenant statement which they commit to until the end of April.

Sunberg earned a Doctor of Ministry degree with his thesis on using contemporary methods for discipleship accountability. Building upon the theological work of Dr. David Lowes Watson who contemporized Wesley’s approach to discipleship, Sunberg explored the possibility of utilizing social media methods to connect people for discipleship growth.

Out of this study, a new commitment to holiness and the necessity of submitting to lifestyle accountability emerged. According to Sunberg, “The concept of a radical lifestyle powered by heart holiness begins with a rewiring of how we think about discipleship. Conceptually, we must move from an ‘it’s my responsibility’ to a ‘we are responsible for each other’s growth’ mindset. Discipleship is about accountability, responsibility for each other, and the power of community.”

The power of the new discipleship model begins with that rewiring of the discipleship concept. Participants commit to a weekly accountability check-in, but the key to understanding lies in community. The spiritual journey is based upon James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widow in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

The road to mature spiritual formation is sourced out of the intersection of works of piety and works of mercy. It is where they exist in the same place that holiness becomes tangible. The community shares responsibility for this journey instead of thinking of discipleship as an individual process. It becomes a shared, corporate responsibility of accountability, encouragement, mentoring, and prayer.

The Romanian District is using this new discipleship model in conjunction with their mentoring program for ordination and pastoral training. The hope is to build spiritual structures that lead to solid spiritual formation as individuals prepare for ministry. 

To learn more about the growth of the Church in the Central Europe Field, visit www.centraleuropenaz.org. For more information about covenant discipleship, email Jay Sunberg at JSunberg@aol.com.


Please pray for God to produce fruit in the Romanian Nazarenes who are participating in a new covenant discipleship initiative. Pray for the Holy Spirit to empower them and bring them maturity in their faith.

"Power of One"

Pictured: Romanian pastors with missionaries who coordinated the translation project

At the Romanian District Assembly, the first of the "Power of One" materials translated into Romanian were distributed to pastors. The Power of One is the name of the Eurasia Region's Missional Church Initiative to involve every church member in the mission of the church "to make Christlike disciples in the nations." These books contain translated resources for discipleship, evangelism, church planting, devotions, compassionate ministry, and missional leadership.

To learn more about the Eurasia Region's Missional Church Initiative, visit www.missionaleurasia.com.

"paXan" Team of German young adults performs "Week of the Knights" for children in Sighişoara, Romania

Written by Dorli Gschwandtner, Helping Hands
Reposted from the Eurasia Region's website

Sighişoara: a picturesque little town in the Romanian part of Transylvania, established in the twelfth century by German immigrants. Even today, many local children attend a German school. High above the river lies the "citadel", the town's historical centre and the ideal location for a real German "Ritterwoche" – a "Week of the Knights".

11 German young adults travelled to Romania from 24th August to 1st September as part of the "paXan" team 2013. paXan is an annual Work & Witness trip for young adults that served in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2010, in Berlin, Germany, in 2011, and in Dimbula, Sri Lanka, in 2012. It is usually made up of 10 to 20 young adults (18–30 years old) from Nazarene churches all over Germany.

The name "paXan" is derived from "pax" (Latin: peace) and "Pack's an!" (German for "Go do it!" or "Get active!"). So every afternoon the young people got very active at the local Nazarene church in Sighişoara. They did plastering and painting work on the church's exterior wall, painted the gate and cleaned out a lot of rubbish for more rooms to be renovated.

The local Nazarenes were very grateful for the good work of the team, which "made the church entrance look much more inviting", Roberta Bustin, a Nazarene volunteer living in Sighişoara, said.

But paXan teams are not just known for "getting active" and leaving behind shiny buildings and freshly painted walls. One of the young adults' primary goals is to build relationships, share peace and hope, spend time with the local people and show them that they are valued and loved.

This is also why programs for children and youth are always an important part of these trips.
During this paXan trip, the town's children assembled every morning on the square in front of "The House on the Rock", which houses an international café and several classrooms and serves as the administrative centre of the Veritas Foundation. Veritas is a Christian organization that offers services to the community, a variety of educational programs, and intercultural exchange.

Appropriate to the medieval setting in Sighişoara's citadel, the team had planned a "Ritterwoche" with the "armour of God" as the main theme. From 9am to 1pm every day the children enjoyed a VBS-type program with a variety of "knightly" activities highlighting the armour of God and the weapons of His spirit. Activities included drawing and themed crafts (such as tiny egg-spoon knights dressed in the armour of God), stories, skits, and lots of games and fun.

The children, but the parents too, were enthusiastic. "This is the first holiday program that my child begs to be allowed to go to every day!" one mother was happy to report.

But not just the children enjoyed the "Ritterwoche". "I really enjoyed all of it – but especially the kids' program", said David Paul, who was part of a paXan team for the first time this year. "Whatever you put into it, the kids return it to you many times over!"

The paXan team was also able to minister to children in the village of Ţigmandru and to teenagers in a Roma community just outside Sighişoara. Especially the Roma youth, who face great poverty and hopelessness, really enjoyed spending time with the German young adults.

"The German team was a tremendous blessing to all of us", said Bustin, who spent most of the week with the team. "They were able to minister to both middle class children, a group with great potential but a group which is often neglected in the Romanian culture, and very poor Roma children from a nearby village. This team was a great example of giving of themselves and their talents, of sharing, of enjoying each other, and of showing the love of Christ wherever they went."

The ministry trip was also a great experience for the young adults, with lots of new impressions and a lot of fun. Every day was started with a team devotional and in the evenings the team met for feedback sessions, to review the day, make plans for the following day and pray together.

"The week turned out totally different than I'd expected", said Christian Bangert, who has participated in three paXan teams so far. "But it was a tremendous time. Everybody really jelled as a team and together we were able to accomplish a lot of things."

****
The following video (in German with Romanian subtitles) highlights the Proethnica Festival in Sighisoara. Christoph Nick of the paXan team was interviewed (time index 5:48) about the team's activities in Sighisoara.

 

Woman on a Mission

By Gina Pottenger
Reprinted from Where Worlds Meet, Year 10, Issue 7

Magda Cini was distraught. Her 22-year-old son, his girlfriend, and Cini’s daughter were in a car accident on a road in their village of Tigmandru that was notorious for fatal accidents. Her son, Nelutu, was hospitalized with a piece of the vehicle having penetrated his forehead and he had amnesia. Cini was afraid he would die. She had already lost a niece in another car accident on the same road.

She begged God to save her son’s life. In exchange, she would dedicate herself full-time to Christian ministry; she was not yet a Christian at this time, but her daughter Paula had found Christ as a teenager through the Nazarene church and  been active ever since, starting a kids’ club in Tigmandru.

Through the relationship with Paula, Nazarene missionary Roberta Bustin visited the hospital and prayed over Nelutu. Ten minutes later, he opened his eyes.

As Nelutu recovered, Cini remembered her promise and began a prayer meeting in her village, inviting people to join her in praying that God would stop the numerous car accidents on that infamous road. Today, there are very few accidents there, which Cini attributes as a direct answer to the prayers of that group.

Since the accident in 2002, Cini’s efforts – along with Paula’s equally hard work – have led to a Nazarene
church plant in Tigmandru that has grown into an established church with 50 to 70 active attendees. Cini is the compassionate ministries director, the full-time pastor, and holds a local preacher’s license; she is working toward her district license.

Magda Cini used her background as a professional
 seamstress to start a sewing workshop at the
Tigmandru church for women who needed work.

She is responsible for launching multiple, long-term community outreach ministries, ranging from greenhouses and an aquaponics project, to a sewing shop and a ministry to young mothers and their babies.

Cini drew on her various occupational experiences to organize the projects, all of which are designed to provide small jobs for the many unemployed people in the church, and to teach vocational skills so they can later get full-time work. Very few people in Tigmandru have jobs, and they struggle to feed their families.

For instance, there is a clothing factory in the nearby town of Sighisoara where Cini worked for several years. When some unemployed women in the church expressed interest in working there, Cini took them herself. But the women didn’t have the skills needed and weren’t hired.

So, in 2008, just after the Nazarene church moved into its own building, Cini established a sewing room at the church with donated sewing machines and materials. She teaches basic sewing skills and techniques. The women who participate sew dolls and cloth bags, and various Nazarenes help to sell the items, returning the profit to the women. Several of the women have since gotten jobs at the factory.

Cini also worked as a nurse in a hospital for several years, specializing in massage for babies. So she started another program in the church for the many teenage girls with babies.

“I have 30 babies and 20 mothers, and I help the mothers learn how to care for their children. One day in a week I bathe the children, I change the clothes, and I make massage for the children,” Cini said. The massage helps improve the babies’ strength and circulation, because many are malnourished and don’t receive all the vitamins and minerals they need, she said.

The greenhouse was Cini’s idea, too. It serves a dual purpose: to offer a little work for several
women in the church, as well as to supply fresh produce from which the church can feed 100 village
children at the kids’ club weekly.

“A lot of these children are hungry,” said Bustin. “Sometimes they eat several bowls of soup and many pieces of bread; it’s obvious they’re hungry.”

 Cini’s next big dream is for the church to open a bakery. The village doesn’t have one, and there’s not a bakery nearby. The space is available, all they lack is the equipment to get it started, she said. Cini gained experience coordinating a bakery run by an organization in another town.

“I’m very happy and glad because God used me in many things,” Cini said. “This is God. God gives me this vision for people, because I was a very poor woman. I really want to help the people because I trust in God. And all the time, my prayer I share with God and God gives me answers for everything.”


Pray for God to bless and expand the social work led by Magda Cini and the Tigmandru Church of the Nazarene. Ask God to bring many people to relationship with Christ through these vocational trainings and jobs.

Romanian church installs new aquaponics system

Written by Gina Pottenger, Eurasia Communications

The Church of the Nazarene in Tigmandru, Romania, this month is installing a new aquaponics fish and fruit and vegetable growing system beside the church building.

Kyle Petrie, who also helped develop the aquaponics system on the rooftop of a Nazarene church in Jerusalem, Israel, helped the Tigmandru church plan and install the system.

The system, which includes three tanks to raise fish, as well as sections that will grow strawberries, peppers and lettuce, is intended to provide produce to families in the church, and a little income for the congregation, said missionary Roberta Bustin.

“We want to minister to the whole person, so we try to have a holistic ministry,” Bustin said. “Very few (in the village) have permanent jobs. Almost nobody in the church has a job. As part of our ministry to them, we try to provide some part-time jobs for some people.”

Besides the aquaponics system, the church has a green house, a sewing workshop and is hoping to start a woodworking shop this fall, all to equip people with vocational skills and opportunities for an income.
The aquaponics system is self-sustaining, endlessly circulating water between the live fish and the plants. The fish will grow in the tanks, their waste creating ammonia and other byproducts. The waste-filled water will then pass through another tank that holds pieces of fired clay tile and brick that will filter out solvent waste and create an environment for bacteria to grow. The bacteria will convert the ammonia to nitrates, which the plants need to survive and grow.

The plants will absorb the nitrates, with their roots directly in the water – no soil is involved. In this way, the plants can grow three to five times faster than plants in soil normally do, which means the church can triple its harvest over the usual growing season. The water then flows back into the fish tank.

Strawberries in Romania have a very short growing season, meaning that prices for strawberries are comparatively high compared to other fruits and vegetables. The church will capitalize on that market, expecting to sell more strawberries with the multiple harvests than other farmers could do, according to Bustin.

“We give away a lot of the food from the green houses and also people that come and work in the green houses sometimes get paid with money and sometimes with produce. This is another opportunity to provide food to people,” she said.

They will start out with catfish, which can withstand a very wide range of temperatures; in the fall, when it is cooler, they plan to obtain trout.

The Tigmandru church has been raising money for two years to start the project. A church in New York made the initial contribution.  The Church of the Nazarene in Gelnhausen, Germany, held a bazaar from which their raised funds also went to support the aquaponics project, which they sent through Helping Hands Germany.

Meet the Hartzlers

Jay and Sheri Hartzler are Nazarene missionaries who will be heading to Romania to begin a one-year assignment in August 2013. Jay will be working with the children of Tigmandru teaching music and helping develop a woodshop and teaching woodworking skills. He will also be directing choirs and helping train choir directors in Sighisoara. Sheri will be working with Veritas in a variety of ways in promotion and marketing as well as accompanying the choirs and teaching piano lessons for some of the children. We will begin our assignment in early September by leading a one-week music camp for children in Sighisoara.

Jay is on leave from teaching at a Mennonite high school.  We spent a year in Mennonite Voluntary Service working for Habitat for Humanity in Evansville, IN.  Sheri worked for 20 plus years in outreach media for the Mennonite Church.

They have two grown boys who will remain in the United States.

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

Hartzlers: We feel our life has been one of mission.  Whether teaching (Jay) or working in media on behalf of the Mennonite Church (Sheri), or serving jointly with Habitat for Humanity and now with the Nazarenes, we have been conscious of God’s call on our lives. The specific call for Romania came after Jay’s choir sang and worked there on two different trips.

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

Hartzlers: For Jay, working with the children in a variety of activities is what draws him. They seem to have a life where they cannot escape their poverty and social status. Their parents work very hard to make a living and are often not present in their lives. Just being a part of their lives and helping them experience joy is what he hopes to accomplish.

We will be able to answer this better once we’ve been in Romania for a while. Currently we are anticipating what we’ll be doing but recognize that things could change once we actually get there.

Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work? Share any relevant stories to illustrate this.

Hartzlers: Language will be a big issue for us but an almost a greater issue will be understanding the social and political influences on their lives … both in the lives of the children and in the lives of the adults.

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

Hartzlers: God leads in wondrous ways. This past year our lives have been in transition in our current jobs and the opportunity arose to go to Romania. Along the way doors opened and each time we felt God was guiding us to serve. Our financial support was secured in less than a month and that was a humbling acknowledgement of the support of our church community.

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

Hartzlers: As Mennonites we believe strongly in the importance of living and working within a faith community. While this community will be with Nazarenes instead of Mennonites in this coming year, we expect that our relationship with God will be enhanced and enriched by our interactions with the faith communities in Sighisaora and Tigmandru. In the age of communication we will not have difficulty communicating with our family here in the States. Indeed, there will be demands but we see those demands as part of our calling and do not see them as something to worry about.

Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?

Hartzlers: In Jay’s regular work as a teacher the rewards are seeing the joy in the lives of the students when they accomplish something and are pleased with the results.  The desire they have to move forward and their ability to share what they have learned is an incredible sense of satisfaction.

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

Hartzlers: International experiences have always proved stretching and enriching for us and we would encourage people to be open to God’s call to mission whether in the U.S. or in another part of the world.

Reprinted from Engage magazine 

Third DS School held in Jordan

Madaba, Jordan

About 50 people from across the Eurasia Region gathered in Madaba, Jordan, in April for the third District Superintendent Training School.

Objectives included encouraging the district superintendents and providing opportunities for them to learn from other experienced DS. In the past five years, the number of districts led by missionaries has dramatically decreased as indigenous leaders take over.

"So you've got a lot of DSs where the district is new and it's the first time they're being a DS," said Brad Firestone, a missionary who helped to facilitate the event. "There are a lot of people who are new to the job and need to understand how to do it well."

U.S. MidAtlantic DS Ken Mills, U.S. South Carolina DS Eddie Estep, and Netherlands DS Arthur Snijders were the featured presenters, along with Eurasia Regional Director Gustavo Crocker.

The participants divided into smaller groups based on district characteristics, such as whether the district is missionary- or indigenous-led, new or mature. In these smaller groups, participants talked about their particular challenges and steps to grow and mature as a district.

"At the DS School, I learned more about how to form and cast vision for our district," said Tamara Hudson, a missionary and DS for the Romania District. "As we grow and implement healthy structures and systems, we need to be clear about our missional purpose. Forming a missional strategy that will guide our efforts is essential so that we do not lose sight of our purpose of making Christlike disciples in Romania.

"These kind of events give us time to reflect on our ministry and to encourage one another. It was wonderful to be together with other brothers and sisters from across the region who face similar challenges and carry similar responsibilities."

Missionary Nancy Firestone, who helped to facilitate the event, said the participants seemed to learn a lot from one another.

One evening, the group invited the Jordan pastors for a time of special prayer.

"That was really special because many of them don't get a lot of support or see a lot of outsiders on a regular basis," Nancy said. "They really seemed to appreciate the support and prayers."

Reprinted from NCN News

Shelter in the Storm

By Gina Grate Pottenger
Eurasia Region Communications

A Christian nonprofit organization, directed by Monica Boseff, a member of Blessings Church of the Nazarene in Bucharest, Romania, is planning to open the first emergency shelter in Romania for survivors of human trafficking.

The ministry, Open Door Foundation, purchased a house in December which it is outfitting with rooms for survivors to stay in while they receive medical care, counseling, spiritual guidance and other help to transition back into society.

The organization is already working with seven women and girls from abroad at a temporary shelter provided by another nongovernment organization, and is in the process of hiring three full-time staff members from the Blessings church. When all the staff are in place, the ministry will have the director, four guards, a psychologist, a social worker and a house manager.

“My greatest desire is that … I want this to be a haven of God’s grace and mercy for every single victim,” said Boseff.

How it began
The organization was originally called Open Door Medical Foundation, and was started by two American Christian doctors in Bucharest who opened a social work ministry with a medical clinic in 2002 for those who couldn’t afford the expensive governmentrun hospitals and doctors. For many years the clinic helped anyone from poor to wealthy. However, over time, many private doctors and hospitals opened and medical care in Romania improved nation-wide. It became clear that the medical side of the ministry wasn’t needed as much as it had been.

Those who ran the foundation put aside the medical work and began seeking God’s direction on where they could be of most help next.

Then, in June 2011, an Americanbased nonprofit organization called MATTO, (Men Against The Trafficking of Others), contacted Open Door and suggested they work together to host an awareness campaign in Bucharest about men’s role in trafficking.

“We prayed about this and God just gave us tremendous peace, so I said ‘Yes, we’ll help you.’ That was  starting point,” Boseff said.

The only problem was that the two groups had just a week to organize the city-wide event and there were a number of obstacles. For one thing, they had to get permission from the mayor’s office to find a space to rent in the city. One possibility was the main park downtown by the People’s Palace, but until then it had been closed to all public gatherings after a riotous concert left behind trash and damage to the park.

The committee met right away to review Boseff’s request, and their response was shockingly positive.

“It was our unanimous decision to give you the main park for this event downtown,” they told her. “You should have had this event years ago, we need more like this. You can use [the main park] anytime you want for any amount of hours you need.”

They also said they would “rent” the park to the trafficking awareness event at no cost. Boseff viewed this positive response as God’s clear confirmation to Open Door that getting involved against human trafficking was where God was leading the organization.

Boseff talked to other nonChristian NGOs (non-government organizations) as well as the National Agency Against Human Trafficking to find out what the needs were in Romania. Every group said the same thing: they needed an emergency shelter where survivors could stay for up to six months, because there wasn’t a single shelter for this purpose in all of Romania.

So Open Door decided to open a shelter. The house they bought in December has three large bedrooms, and they’ve put three beds in each room, meaning they will be able to accommodate nine women and girls. When the attic is renovated, it will add four more rooms with space for more
women.

‘If it’s not now, when?’
Staff members are already working with seven survivors at a temporary shelter, and they’re learning how to do this kind of ministry.

For instance, they discovered that it’s best not to share about Jesus Christ right away, but to let the women and girls develop curiosity about spiritual things on their own and then come to the volunteers with their questions and prayer requests.

“By spending time with them, cooking with them, going out shopping, laughing with them, crying with them, they turn around … and ask us ‘Why do you do all this stuff for me?’”

Two of the women asked for reading material, and the volunteers offered to give them some small devotional booklets with short stories, Bible verses and written prayers. The women eagerly accepted the booklets, quickly read them and asked for more.

 One young woman asked a staff member, “How is it to be in Christ? What is it like to have a relationship with God? Can I have a Bible?”

Through her research and spending time with the survivors of trafficking, Boseff has developed an unquenchable passion for the ministry. She quoted figures, such as that there are 27 million people currently in slavery around the world, and that it is the highest slavery rate in the history of mankind.

“Why should I wait until someone that I know that is close to me [is trafficked] before I take action?” she asked. “If it’s not now, when? If it is not us Christians, who is going to tell them that a life can only be restored in Christ alone?”

Please pray the staff, director and women of the trafficking shelter that recently opened in Bucharest, Romania. Pray for God to bless the ministry in its material needs, as well as to bring spiritual and physical healing to the victims of trafficking.


“Reprinted with permission from Where Worlds Meet; June 2013 issue

Third Romanian woman ordained

Pictured: Magda Cini, Paula Creely, Roberta Bustin

It’s not every day that a Romanian is ordained, so when a Romanian was ordained at the Philadelphia District Assembly on April 22, it was a time of celebration.

Paula (Cini) Creely grew up in Sighisoara, Romania, where she started attending the Church of the Nazarene as a teenager and became very active in the life of the church. After graduating high school, she attended European Nazarene College in Büsingen, Germany. She then moved to the United States and continued her studies for ordination.

Paula is married to Gary Creely.  Together they pastor the Macungie, Pennsylvania, Church of the Nazarene.  When they arrived in Macungie, there were no children in the church. Paula has been active in developing a thriving children’s ministry and in helping the church to double in size in three years. Paula and Gary have a five year old son named Everett.

Two people influential in Paula’s life were able to travel from Romania to attend the ordination service. Paula’s mother, Magda Cini, who pastors the Tigmandru, Romania, Church of the Nazarene, and Roberta Bustin, Mission Corps missionary who served as pastor of the Sighisoara Church of the Nazarene while Paula was growing up there.

Roberta has known Paula for almost 16 years and when asked to describe her feelings about the ordination she said, “I was very excited … I was also thinking about how proud I was of her that she persevered to finish her course of study even when it was not easy (studying in a language which was not her first language, studying after she had a family and church responsibilities, etc.)”

There are 3 ordained Romanians in the Church of the Nazarene – notably all women: Magdalena Balaban in Romania, Simona Berdowski in Poland, and Paula Creely.

“Paula’s passion is to be doing ministry,” Bustin said, “She is a natural leader [and] I see her continuing in ministry, thinking of new ways to do things, developing new ministries and being faithful to God’s call.”

Reprinted in Eurasia Snapshots

Mentoring Course in Romania

Michael Hudson, Romania Learning Centre Coordinator, reports some of the latest developments. In March, EuNC students in Romania began Part 2 of the Mentoring component of the Nazarene course of study for ministry. Sixteen students from three different locations participated in the course, three from Țigmandru, seven from Sighișoara, and six from Bucharest. The course is being taught and facilitated by Tamara Hudson, Superintendent of the Romania District and Local Faculty Member of the Romania Learning Centre.

At the beginning of each segment of the six-part course, which is integrated throughout the students’ years of study, students gather for a seminar that introduces the emphasis of that particular part of the course. Part 2, for example, focuses on the students gaining practice and experience in exercising the tools of theological reflection in ministry. Then throughout the semester, students complete other growth exercises such as journaling and written reflection, and they also meet in both small groups and individually with their local mentor (Tamara or Michael Hudson in Bucharest, Roberta Bustin or Jonathan Phillips in Țigmandru and Sighișoara).


Each segment of the course only requires that students invest about 13 hours of time, but the benefits derived from these few hours spent in community with fellow students, in conversation with their mentor, and in communion with the Lord through prayer and reflection are essential to the development and formation of this great group of Romanian ministerial students.

The “gathering” of the students for the seminars happens in a creative format. The teacher travels to one of the sites to personally meet with the students there (alternating sites for each segment of the course), while the other students participate in the class through live video conference. The advantages of this approach are that more students are able to participate in the course and that the teacher’s efforts are maximised. However, there is still some work to do to get the technological components updated so that students in the video conference location feel more “present” with the teacher and the other students.


European Nazarene College, "In Touch" Newsletter, April 2013

April Missionary Prayer Focus

From NMI's Prayer Mobilization Line, April 10, 2013:

Pray for Michael and Tamara Hudson, serving in Romania.

• Every Thursday at 9 p.m. Central European Time (CET), we are united in prayer with our Nazarene brothers and sisters around Romania. We are praying during the Lenten season for revival and renewal. We long for God to do something new in us and through us and we are waiting on Him in prayer and fasting.  Please pray for spiritual growth and new opportunities for ministry. 
• Please pray for the Romania District as we continue to sharpen our vision for making Christlike disciples in Romania. 
• Please pray for the Theological Education (TE) program and the students who are currently studying. We have two classes taking place now: "Mentoring" and "Nazarene History and Polity." Please pray for Michael as he leads TE in Romania and as he is preparing for the doctrine class he will be teaching in the fall.
• Please pray for the development of the district land near the mountains. We hope to have youth camp there again this summer and are praying that we can have water and electricity in place to make the camping a little less challenging!

Click here to read the Hudson’s profile on Engage magazine.

New Book Published

The Eurasia Region’s Literature Ministry has translated a new book in the Books for Pastors program be used by ministers and lay leaders in  Romania.

In the Name of Jesus, by Henri Nouwen, was translated into Romanian by a team of one translator and one editor, and 500 copies were printed.

The books will be given to pastors and ministerial students, and after that they will be made available for purchase through local Nazarene churches, said Michael Hudson. Some of the books may be shared with Romanian Nazarenes ministering in the Republic of Moldova as well. There is also a pending arrangement to make the books available for sale through some Christian bookstores in Romania.

“The biblical principles of servanthood in church leadership are helpful to all of us, Romanians included,” Hudson explained. “The model of Jesus, as Nouwen effectively brings out in this book, is one of servanthood, servanthood, servanthood. This is particularly helpful in a country like Romania where models of ministry in the Church of the Nazarene are still in the formative stages of development.”

The denomination in Romania is just 20 years old.

Reprinted from eurasiaregion.org. Also published in NCN News.

They Came to Love Jesus

By Gina Pottenger
Republished from Where Worlds Meet, Year 10, Issue 2, March 2013

When Cristi and Monica Boseff first met the Nazarene missionaries to Bucharest, Romania, in 1992, Cristi was convinced they were American spies.

The Boseffs had gone to meet the missionaries Jon and Margaret Scott, because Monica had been asked to serve as a translator for them. The Scotts shocked the Romanian couple by welcoming them into their home with hugs, smiles and friendliness unusual in that culture between strangers.

“I said, ‘Something is missing, because nobody is nice and polite with strangers, only if they need something from you,’” recalled Cristi. “When I suspected them of being American spies, I decided to catch them and I was very alert.”

Those who were raised under Communism developed a mistrust of others, even friends, Monica said.

“You definitely didn’t trust your neighbors, or not even some of your relatives,” Monica said. “You never knew who was an informer for the security.”

Despite Cristi’s objections, Monica agreed to translate for the couple, and over the next two months she was exposed to something she had never seen in anyone before – the love of Jesus Christ. She was so moved by what she felt around them that one day she told her husband, “I don’t care what you think, but I need my life to be changed. I really want to have what they have.”

In October 1992, she prayed with Margaret to receive Christ, beginning a long journey of transformation in the image of Jesus, and became part of the Church of the Nazarene in Bucharest which was just beginning to form at that time.

Cristi did not share her enthusiasm for her new faith, but did not discourage her. They’d gotten married after knowing one another just two weeks. When Monica became a Christian, they had only been married a few months.

In training to be a nurse, Monica received a scholarship in 1993 to study in Oklahoma, in the United States. The Scotts connected her with the Calvary Church of the Nazarene in Tulsa. They helped her through a difficult adjustment to American culture. And they helped to carry Monica’s burden for Cristi’s salvation.

“The most powerful lesson about prayer I learned in the church,” she said. “What I learned is that a whole church that has never seen this man knelt at the altar crying out for him Sunday after Sunday. I didn’t even have a picture of Cristi to show them. I would even get calls throughout the week [saying], ‘I’ve been praying for your husband.’”

God answered the church’s prayers through Cristi’s job in working part-time for the Scotts and their nonprofit organization.

“I was surprised because they started every working day with prayer. They eat together, they fasted together…. And I wanted to have what they have,” Cristi said.

Over time, God wrapped him up with love and mercy until he began going to church with them while Monica was out of the country. Over time, listening to the sermons and what was said at church, he gradually realized that he had come to love Jesus.

At Christmas, Monica’s mom called her and told her to sit down for some news. Then, her mother’s voice announced, “Cristi accepted Christ at church.”

The leaders of the Church of the Nazarene wanted Cristi to pursue theological education. It seemed they sensed a potential pastor in him. But Cristi was virulently opposed to entering studies. He had a list of excuses: he didn’t speak well in public; he stuttered; his memory was poor; he was too old to study and didn’t like it, anyway.

Then, eight years ago, Cristi was running out of excuses in face of an increasingly clear call from God. The pastor of the Blessing Church of the Nazarene in Bucharest had left, and Cristi needed to serve as a temporary leader. He did such a good job that the church officially asked him to be their pastor.

He came home and sat down with Monica and their two children. He asked his kids, “I need you to tell me if you think I should be the pastor of the church. If you think so… you’re in this with me, because this is not my ministry, it is not something I do. If we do it, we do it together.”

Their children looked up at him and told their father to “go for it.”

Cristi has been the pastor ever since. It’s tough for Nazarene churches in Romania. By law a church cannot be registered officially with the government until it has 10,000 members. But it’s difficult to get members without being seen as a legitimate, government-recognized organization.

So the church registered as the Nazarene Christian Evangelical Organization for Aid and Development. Compassionate ministries are a strong focus of the Blessing church, which is located in a poor community. The congregation has been steadily growing in recent years. In 2010, the church expanded the sanctuary and remodeled several rooms to accommodate the growth. They also built a tank for baptisms.

“We find that people are so open to hearing god’s plain and simple truth,” Monica said. “You would find 99 percent of the Romanian population says they’re believers – they believe in God and belong to religion and the church – but their life is messed up. We are still very high on abortions and extramarital relationships and sex before marriage.”

Monica said that she and Cristi are not trying to bring people to the church but to a relationship with Jesus Christ. She tries to live her life in a way that demonstrates becoming a Christian and joining an evangelical church doesn’t mean the end of fun or freedom in life.

“We laugh so hard together and we enjoy life so much together in a clean and nice way. They realize that in Christ you are full of life and joy and so they start to understand that belonging to a church is vital to your Christian life. And so meeting with some of my friends makes them say, ‘When do you have your service?’”

Also published in NCN News.

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