Romania

Romania Trip Report

February 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We have safely returned from our second visit to Romania and it is with great joy that we give the following report of our trip.  It is cold in February in Romania but it is also cold in Chicago at this time of year.  Constantin Lupancu and I stayed together and traveled in a grand circle around the whole country starting in Bucharest.  We made stops in Craiova, Temisoara, Baia Mare, Cluj, Bistrita, Suceave, and back to Bucharest. All in 11 days.  I had the privilege to preach in 9 churches, 6 prisons and did 2 days of  prison training seminar at the only halfway house for inmates in Romania which is located in Bistrita. We also gave away about 350 Bibles and many Project Philip materials in the prisons.  At the seminar, I gave the training but I also challenged the attendees in two ways.  One is to begin to send full-time, 40 hour per week missionary chaplain-pastors to each of the 17 prisons in Romania supported not by the government but by the local churches.  The second was to establish Prison Church Plants with the chaplain-pastors serving as the pastors there. Every denomination is involved in church planting but how many are involved in planting them in prisons? We appointed another dozen Chaplains.

Chaplain Barabas Francisc. Our first Chaplain.  The Chaplain we appointed to the prison in Tirgu-Mures in 2002.

Our first prison was the women’s prison in Bucharest.  My message was the one of Hope that the Savior gave to the Samaritan woman at the well and the promise to her of Living Water.  After the service, I found out that one of the women in the service was there for murder having thrown three of her own seven children down a well and was in the process of throwing all seven of them in when circumstances prevented her from doing so.

In the prison in Craiova, we witnessed the water baptism of 42 inmates. This is an absolutely amazing thing to happen in a Romanian prison.  It just doesn’t happen in the prisons to this degree.  For them, water baptism represents a very serious commitment to live for the Lord.

We were warmly welcomed by the Orthodox priest who serves as Chaplain at the prison in Temisoara prison, Popasapaca.  In preparation for our service, which took place in his chapel, he rounded up many inmates for the service. He even took photos of the service for us.  He couldn’t have been more helpful.

At Baia Mare, the inmates were restless and, as usual, did not know what to expect from us.  At the conclusion, one man with a mustache was even moved to tears during the altar call.

At Gherla prison, in addition to having a service in the maximum-security section of the infamous prison, the Commander gave us a 45-minute tour of the improvements they are making to the prison and showed us the underground chambers that held tortured prisoners during the old communist regime.  He also showed us the small museum that displays shackles, prison garb, etc. and the place where many inmates were executed.  His attitude and surprising hospitality towards us and our message of hope let us know that a great Door of opportunity is open there for future ministry by the local Romanians.  We passed the word along and a team will soon be approaching him for access and services.

New Gherla prison

Old underground cells at Gherla

At the men’s prison in Bistrita, I reminded the inmates that we are all thieves.  The question is, are we like the thief on the cross that only cared about himself or are we like the thief that turned to Jesus and repented?
The seminar had about 50 people in attendance from all over the country and was a real blessing.
At the end of the trip, someone gave a prophecy that there would much fruit and many spiritual bonds would be broken.  Many would be set free as the result of our trip.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Staff Chaplain Rob Brown