"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."

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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.