Yearly Archive: 2014

India, Nepal, Buthan

 Mission Trip to India, Nepal, and Bhutan 

October 12th – November 2nd, 2014

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In our last mission trip to India in 2006, I had the privilege to meet two former inmates; Nar Rai and John Monger. They were both originally from Bhutan but refugees in Nepal and were recently released from the prison in Nepal when I met them. They came to Southern India (Kerala) to give a testimony about their persecution (because of their testimony of Jesus Christ) and life in prison. We established a good relation with them and they invited us (almost every year) to come to visit Nepal and Bhutan but I postponed or hesitated to their invitation every time until this year when I felt moved and compelled to pursue in this mission trip. This mission trip to India, Nepal and Bhutan, was a result of many years of culminating ground work, prayer and searches. The team for this trip consisted of Victor Balas and I, Nar Rai, Santi Rai, Ran Maya Rai, Ganga Maya Gurung, Yam Maya Biswa, Kharka B. Biswa, Parsu Koirala, Pastor Ryan Walker, Gail & Charlie Packard, Cathy Maxwell from Boston, MA.

India

I flew from Chicago to New Delhi where I met the whole team and continued our journey to Bagdogra in West Bengal, India. I had one day in New Delhi to fly to Bagdogra where our mission conference was organized by the Himalayan Good-News Networking Ministry. When I came back to take the flight to Bagdogra, I found out that the flight was canceled due to a technical issue. I sought the Lord to see what He had for us to do in such a circumstance in New Delhi. To my surprise, when I opened my e-mail, I found an e-mail a couple of minutes old sent by P.P. Job’s team. I saw a number on the e-mail and dialed it. I found out that the HQ of the Coimbatore Orphanage that was founded by P.P. Job (which we visited in 2006), was only ten minutes away. His wife Mary Job was very surprised to hear that we are in New Delhi and invited us to visit her family and the Mission Headquarters. We first visited the church in New Delhi and blessed the people that were there with the Word of God. Later that evening, we visited Mary’s home and encouraged her to be strong in the Lord as she lost her husband and two sons.

On the next day, we continued our journey to West Bengal and we were amazed and truly blessed as we experienced the move of God as we had long dreamed and prayed for a special touch of God in this area of West Bengal. The conference took place in Siliguri, IN (near Bagdogra) in a rented conference building. There was such an excitement for this conference right from the beginning. Pastors and leaders attended from all over the country for a period of three days to be encouraged and empowered. The theme of the conference was Building Bridges. I was privileged to speak at this conference among Pastor Robert M. Massbach from the UK, Pastor Jordan Greeley and others. I was truly awed and humbled by the passion, hunger and the desire of these leaders to stay there for three full days and nights. The people were touched and blessed; the entire team had a powerful sense of God beginning something new and very powerful in that part of India. This Himalayan Leaders Empowering Summit organized by Himalayan Good News was hosted by Rev. Dawa Singye Bhutia who was a former guard of Dalai Lama but saved by Jesus Christ to become His humble servant. In this area, we also visited some churches and poor villages and distributed medicine, eyeglasses and other goods. We then visited an orphanage and a land for a future location of a missionary center (if God wills it). We also visited a training institute Bible School in Darjeeling Mirik where we held a one day conference of teaching and empowerment of the students attending the Bible School. I also preached at the local church about being empowered to live in the Spirit and be moved by the Holy Spirit.

During the time that I was ministering here, I received a call from our Romanian missionary to visit Patna. From here, we flew to Patna via Calcutta where Maria Teresa was doing her life’s charity work and we were inspired by her devotion and dedication. In Patna, we arrived during the holiday where Indians from all over came to the Ganges River to offer rituals and ceremonies according to their belief. We went also to the river to observe what was happening and prayed that the Lord would remove the scales on their eyes and the veil of ignorance to see the true God in this century of information and resources where people should not live in ignorance and be guided by their traditional and illiterate ancestors. I also preached to churches in Patna and I was amazed to see the youth that was baptized in the Holy Spirit and hungry for God to grow in His Image. We also visited schools and preached to the students to seek the Wisdom of God which is above any other wisdom. From India, on our way to Bhutan, we visited Assam and stayed in Bongaigaon where we had a one day revival.

Bhutan

One country that really moved me and the Lord placed in my heart to visit during this mission trip was Bhutan. This is a country sandwiched between China and India. This is a very small country in the Himalayan Mountains that is ruled by the kings. It is difficult to enter Bhutan because you need to pay for an expensive Visa per day and also a guided tour. We were blessed to have a Christian tour guide that brought us by a road through the Himalayan Mountains to the capital Thimphu. Here, we were able to visit churches that were established in homes since Christians are not allowed to have a dedicated church building. The love of these brothers toward Jesus Christ is so genuine and they welcome us to preach and teach and have fellowship with them. I was impressed by the youth service that I attended on Sunday afternoon. I was informed that Bhutan had a great revival in the 1990s when a lot of people received revelations and Holy Spirit manifestations. The evening service of a church in Thimphu was held in the attic of a four story building apartment where hundreds of people came to worship the true God. They have to climb a lot of steps to get into the worship room. Since they came with expectation and anticipation, the Lord moved mightily during the preaching and a lot of believers surrendered all to Jesus Christ and came forward for prayer to be blessed and refreshed. The senior pastor (a very wise and serious brother) interpreted from English to Dzongkha for us. During the prayer time, the Lord guided someone else to interpret and pray along with me for the people that came forward. I saw something special in that person; the Glory of God was shining on her countenance. I was really thrilled to see the youth form this church together with the elderly to seek the Lord with all their hearts which is not often happening in our country. Bhutan is a country that we need to join in prayer for regarding the work to be continued and future development. We are open to join the Lord for the work that He will be doing in the future for this country.

Nepal

Coming back from Bhutan through India, we moved onto the next country that the Lord placed on our hearts to visit. We heard about the Bhutanese descendants from Nepal that were kicked out of Bhutan in the 1990s; from where Nai Rai and John Monger were. After they were deported from Bhutan to Nepal, United Nations provided a refugee camp for them where they still lived today. Some of them were immigrated to the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries but others are still in the campus for almost twenty years. As we visited this campus, we realize that the Lord has an excited plan for changing the refugees from Bhutan. Being deported and kicked out of their country with almost nothing left in the refugee camp, they sought the Lord Jesus Christ and a lot of them were saved. They established churches even in this campus. We held a conference in the campus with the leaders and pastors. There was such an encouragement for them to see that someone from a long distance is carrying about them and they are not forgotten. When I visited this campus, I remembered my days spent in Yugoslavia’s refugee camp in 1987. I gave my testimony to the people in the Nepal camp and I reminded them about the people from the Bible that were immigrants. At the end, we prayed for the sick and asked the Lord to heal them physically, emotionally and spiritually. The purpose of this mission was to encourage, to build-up, to lift-up and do social work. Out of all the words that God inspired us to tell the people, it was awesome to see God’s goodness, His love, His guidance, His grace and His very presence manifested in our life during this time of ministry. This experience was life changing for us. I felt like we were just scratching the surface and understanding God in a new dimension. I want to thank God for opening this new door and opportunity to be used at this time to continue to do with this ministry what our Lord Jesus had begun. We are called to proclaim the truth and be used by God in this important task for the day and time. I want to thank you for all that are standing with us and believe in this ministry that declares the Power and Truth of the Gospel to all the nations. Immanuel, God is with us and it is amazing to sense and have this confidence in Him. Our prayer is for the Himalaya Mountain Region to be saved and sanctified by the Fire of the Holy Spirit and God will send the fire of Revival!

“And ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.” Deuteronomy 5:24

Rev. Constantin Lupancu together with the Blessed Hope International Mission Team

Romania, Ukraine

 

Mission Trip to Romania and Ukraine 

May 5th – June 11th, 2014

Dedication of the new Elderly Nursing Home – Chritian Social Blessed Hope (Nadejde Binecuvantata)

I want to thank God for what He is doing when we are moving in obedience according to His Will. It is always important to move where God moves first and be blessed by the Work that He is already doing. In the last twenty seven years, I was blessed to visit Romania many times for the purpose of mission and charity. Our goal and purpose was to reach families in distress, hopeless or broken from all over the country. Whilst travelling all over the country after the revolution, I could see the effects of the former communist regime that ran the country from 1965 to 1989 and that motivated me to do something for the poor and needy. Years ago, we had a plan to construct a school center in Romania. After making a lot of efforts to obtain a prime land from the government in the city of Radauti, our efforts were not granted by the government. When I visited Europe and Romania in May/June 2013, I passed through my village and my eyes were opened to see the elderly that were ignored living in houses that were collapsing. A lady approached me and asked me with a soft tone, “Are you not doing something for us?” I was very touched by her voice and moved with determination to do something for the first time in the village where I was born despite the attitude that I had when I departed Romania (deciding not to return to or visit this country again). The Lord changed me and I visited it many times with this purpose – bringing hope to the hopeless. Due to the attitude and cruelty of the people from this village, Satu Mare, I told my parents to move from that area permanently because of the theft and other crimes. When you are serving the Lord, you have to move in obedience where the Lord moves and so He moved me to start a house project for the elderly. Since we donated the money already for the school project, the BHIM and Nadejde Binecuvantata boards both approved to start the project on the land that my parents donated to Nadejde Binecuvantata Association years ago. With determination not to change the plan, we met the mayor of the city and architect from the village and told them of our plan. The officials welcomed and agreed with this project so the construction company was hired and the work began. When I had a visit in October, they already had poured the foundation and built the structure because the winter weather was still favorable and they were able to continue with the interior. In the month of February 2014, my sister Tabita and my brother in law Cornel Muresan (treasurer of BHIM), called me and asked when we will do the inauguration of the center. This motivated us to accelerate the work and finish by June 7th, 2014 which was also the date that Cornel planned to visit Romania with his family. This date accommodated my schedule due to the fact that I had a school seminary to attend and other obligations. God orchestrated everything and I departed from Chicago with my father and Pavel Sav on May 5th. Arriving in Bucharest, our team separated – My father and I went to Satu Mare and Pavel Sav went to Timisoara. When I arrived in Satu Mare, the work had advanced rapidly. I could use my BHIM credit card to purchase the materials from Radauti for the finishing touches from a warehouse named Olint. I stayed in the house and worked from the morning until late evening and coordinated everything according with our plan. I fenced the property all around with an iron fence.

When I decided to build the nursing home in the back of the old house behind the barn, I noticed there was a problem with the access to the house and I talked to my uncle Valerian (who owns the land nearby) to allow us to pave a path; which he agreed to. However, after we started building the house, he changed his mind. The Lord gave me wisdom to open the barn and have access to the house through the barn. Despite the plan of others that wanted to destroy the barn, I convinced them to open a driveway and keep the barn to raise chickens because the elders that we will help will be sheltered and fed here. On some evenings, I preached in Satu Mare and the nearby villages (Voitinel, Bilca and Vicov). I also went to Timisoara where I preached to the church in Ghiroda and attended a service where Hristic Mission was celebrating 16 years of musical ministry and charity. On May 27th – 30th, I attended RoMisCon of APME (Agentia Penticostala de Misiune Externa) in Calimanesti Caciulata, Valea Oltului. At this conference, I met a lot of Romanian missionaries that are working all over the world. I was able to speak to them and motivate them to continue the good work because the reward is great for those that don’t give up. To my surprise, I met a pastor that was attending high school in 1977 in Sibiu where I met him but have not seen him again since then. After the conference, I passed through Cluj where my brother in law Cornel and Tabita and his family came from Chicago. Together with them came the VP of BHIM, brother Edgar Garza. We had a great time in Cluj with his family and departed to Bucovina and arrived at midnight in the northern part of Bucovina in the village Nisipitu.

Great Work in Satu Mare (the Grand Village)GOD Still Performs Miracles Today!!

From the time that I sensed the call of God to mission, I consider this a great privilege and responsibility and I based on clear vision that must be fulfilled with much passion. I learn to seek and depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit and cooperate with God in all my mission trips that God moved and empowered me to join Him in on the work that He was doing in so many places around the world. When I left communist Romania in the summer of June 1987, never thinking or hoping that I would return back to the country or the village where I was born and raised in. However, God has His way of changing and transforming our stubbornness and mentality. After my born again experience and baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Chicago Southside Romanian Church of God my first desire and affection was to go back to Romania and give my testimony of my changed life to my family, neighbors and the village where I first heard about God. Since my first visit in Romania in 1990, I have seen the hand of God moving and guiding me to join God in the work that He was doing throughout Romania changing lives in prisons, jails, helping the poor and needy many times. Through my all the trips to Romania I have joined God in building churches in many villages and cities around the country, but never thought of any project to be done in the village of Satu Mare (close to Ukraine border). As I visited the poor and elderly people last year, I was moved by the words of a very old widow whose house was with a damaged roof and the structure beyond repairs. “Can you do something for us, the old people that live in damaged homes?” she asked. I was moved to tears by her words and the Holy Spirit moved me with determination to start a home for the elders and those without shelter. I decided the same day and contacted the village architect for blue prints and city permits to build the house for elders on the land that my parents donated to Blessed Hope International Mission (BHIM) years ago. Now God was doing something new for the elderly. With the funds that the Lord had provided years ago, the home was built and finished on June 7th, 2014, the day of inauguration, dedication to the Lord, and the day when the elderly came in very happily and moved in. Our team that came from USA together with the local church had prepared for this event with fervent prayer and fasting pleading and asking God to move and attract many unsaved people to hear the gospel of good news. In spite of the big opposition and ignorance, God’s hand moved and mobilized over 250 peoples that responded to come and were stirred up in their soul by an atmosphere of music, and the word of GOD was preached like words of fire that melted the frozen hearts. Almost everyone was touched and blessed by God’s mighty presence. Those that participated in the service were pastors and leaders from different churches around the country. To name a few; Liviu Axinte – overseer of Moldova Pentecostal Church, pastor Stefan Morar from Radauti Maranata Church, Viorel Bordei that was born in Satu Mare but is currently a pastor in Radauti, Constantin Moisa from Bucharest former Orthodox priest, Bogdan Ionescu from Ploiesti. Lidia Rascol an 82-year-old lady that resides in Detroit but works with poor people in Vaslui, pastor Ilioi from Phoenix Arizona, singer Costel Busuioc from Timisoara, Dorel Pantea with Hristic Worship Group from Timisoara, Petrica and Filon Moloceniuc from Radauti that had a very big contribution during the construction project, and other leaders from the local church of Satu Mare.

On the next day, Sunday June 8th, the day of Pentecost, I decided to attend the local church with the desire to build a strong relationship between the church and the Christian Center for Elderly. On this day, I was surprised by the Lord like never before in my walk with Him. At the service that morning Adina Nistor (a lady from another village) attended our church service for the first time. She was crippled due to a car accident that happened 2 years ago in which her sister in law died in the car accident. This woman that came that morning to the house of prayer came with her crutches to the altar as I made the invitation for the sick and needy to come with expectation to approach the throne of grace and mercy and I would pray for them. As I joined them in prayer with the church in unity I saw the portal of heaven open and the glory of God manifesting and touching people. I was part in a service that is hard for me to describe. I was not even preaching on the topic of healing, because it was a Sunday when we remember the event of Pentecost with its demonstration and experience “Jesus went up and Holy Spirit came down”. When the glory of God touched the body of the woman supported by the crutches, she raised her hands toward haven in a sudden praise to the Lord for what she felt was happening in her body, forgetting about the crutches that supported her body and help her to move about. As she raises the arms the crutches got loose and fell on the floor. While praying for her and being a witness of all this confirmation and demonstration of the healing power, I was moved and compelled to grab her hand instantly and encouraged her to continue exercising faith looking at Jesus (like Peter waking on the seawater), standing on her feet jumping up and down (without the help of the crutches) to the back of the church and returning back to the altar where she came to thank the Lord for her miraculous healing saying: “I thank God, I thank God.” All of the church was moved to tears and revived the life of their spirit in the Holy Spirit.

The most moving testimony was when she described in her own words when she said how surprised she was when she felt the surge of the Holy Spirit’s real warmth, not imaginary. She actually felt her legs on fire (during the prayer). She felt astonished as the heat surged throughout her body; she was moved with excitement to lift her hands towards heaven and forgetting about her crutches. The cloud of magnificent splendor changed the condition of this woman and brought revival to the church that never experienced such a move of God’s power. After this healing experience, Adina went and visited many churches and testified what the Lord has done to her. I spoke with her a few weeks ago on the phone and full of joy and great thanksgiving she said, “I am so happy to walk and run like before the accident.” Adina was totally released and restored from her conditions and completely healed by the power of the Holy Spirit confirming the words and works of the gospel with signs and wonders. We can continue to keep the declaration that great work started and is growing in Satu Mare and not only there but also everywhere where people proclaim a declaration by faith and believe that the power of God is greater than every sickness, difficulty or any other adverse circumstances.

Nothing can replace the joy of seeing others come to know our amazing God and no great fulfillment comes in our life until we find our self doing and working for the purpose of what God created you to do. Our desire is to show everybody that it is possible to have a vibrant and passionate life for Jesus Christ and to give to the people around the world a flavor of what the Christians were doing in the book of Acts when they were working together with the Power of the Holy Spirit to reach the lost and help the needy. If people can get close to God and a hold of God’s heart, they can influence and change a community through mobilization of others to care for their community and reach others for Christ. For this purpose, it is going to take men and women who see their life as purposeful for Jesus Christ and not for their self. This will elevate them for influence to do the greater things God has called them to do.

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Rev. Constantin Lupancu together with the Blessed Hope International Mission Team