Our partnerships with local churches are something that we highly value and believe in. So much that we chose to highlight it in our mission statement. We want to equip our youth to impact their local Churches. LIFE Romania is not a church, so it is not enough for us to invest in these youth without encouraging them to return to their churches and be leaders and disciple-makers.

We don’t merely encourage the youth to be involved in their churches, but we seek to come alongside these churches also and provide resources, partner to host events, and train them how to lead youth meetings and online Bible studies. You can read more about a few of our church partnerships in our blog post from a month ago.

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to travel to a town a few hours away from Bucharest. We went to meet the church leaders and our counselors from two different churches in the area. The purpose of this meeting was to begin building a relationship with these church elders who have counselors of ours in their congregation. It is our hope to build strong partnerships where we can support them in any way possible and in any way they need help.

We held a program where we sang, presented our ministry and all the ways we can partner with them, and allowed for our counselors to share their testimonies regarding their involvement with LIFE Romania. We were blown away by the testimonies. Our staff was teary-eyed as we heard them share how LIFE Romania has completely changed their lives. How God sought them out and took them under His loving wing. Now He is shepherding them and they are investing in their relationship with the Lord personally. Not only that, but they are now investing in the lives of others by mentoring them through the discipleship program and leading online Bible studies. It was such an encouragement to me and the staff as we heard how God is working in their individual lives. 

After a year of learning and trying new ways to serve and reach the youth due to the pandemic which has changed the way we ministered so much, it is reassuring and inspiring to be able to see some of the fruit of our labor. An example of this fruit is Lori. We have spoken about her a few times, but it is due to the radical change we have gotten to see in her life over the course of one year. We met her one year ago in February, right before the pandemic forced us to shut down the country. We then continued to minister to her and see God working in her life. Please take time to watch this great testimony from Lori.

Please continue to pray for these new churches we are beginning to partner with. We are planning new ways to can continue to invest in their churches like hosting VBS-camps in the summer. In addition, you can always be praying for the precious souls we get to encourage and lead like Lori’s. Pray that they will grow in their love for the Lord and His Word as well as grow in courage and boldness to share their faith.