Dear Friend,

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A lot has been happening both in Romania and locally since we last produced a newsletter, and we are thankful for the continued blessing and provision by the Lord for the work in Romania.

     Children from Celicia that received clothing           

PASTOR

In our last newsletter we gave a report of how Alex our Pastor suffered a heart attack on the day that a trip to Romania had been planned, we are pleased to report that not only have the doctors said that there was no damage to his heart, but he has been twice to Romania since then. The first time only three months after being discharged from hospital, the second time he and his family spent three months there ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of the people. Alex and Jessie have also built a house in the village of Celicia (about 6 miles from Cluj-Napoca) and last summer teams working in the area were able to stay there, as the house is available for use by Christian groups, who wish to work in that area.

PRAYER FOR ISRAEL

The prayer for Israel meetings continue on a monthly basis, meeting on the second Monday of each month, and are attended by members of other Churches and Fellowships,  please pray for break through in the spiritual realm In Israel, and for the safety of the Lord’s servants in this uncertain political climate in the nation of Israel.

HOME NEWS

1. We have made a move in the last year from being a house fellowship to renting a church building for our Sunday evening meetings.

2. The CD that we were hoping to produce at the time of the last newsletter, has been produced entitled “Bless Your Holy Name” with 13 tracks, a mixture of old favourites and new ones, it continues to raise much needy funding for our projects in Romania, this was a big undertaking for us, as we are not a large fellowship, but praise be the Lord, within two weeks of the CD being released we were in profit.

ROMANIA.

During 2002 Christina Macdonald, who was working as a Nursery Nurse in Aberdeen felt the call of the Lord to give up her work and go over to Romania for a period of three to four months. This was a step of faith for Christina, and in October she left for Cluj-Napoca. She spent her time there working in the Gypsy communities in the surrounding areas. In 2003 there were two further trips, (May and July). In May a team of three went over for two weeks, and in July a team of nine went across for two weeks, and were joined there by a team of three from Edinburgh.Alex, Jessie and the children then stayed for a further ten weeks. They spent the time working amongst the people in the village of Celicia, where they were staying, and going to the Churches in Cluj & Turda, which we have supported since the late 90s. During this time they were taken to a new area, where they met a new group, led by a pastor who is partially blind. They felt this was the Lord leading them into a new avenue, as this Pastor has a vision for starting the first Gypsy Bible college in Romania. The word of God says “look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest”. John 4:35, and “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:38

Campia Turzi Church

Since our last newsletter there has been a change of leadership in this church, with pastor Ionie leaving for pastures new in Spain. However, the work of the Lord is continuing under the leadership of Pastor Loy. They have come a long way from the converted toilet block that was being used for worshiping in when we first met them in 1998, and as the congregation is growing, so is the need for a larger place of worship, as is seen from the following pictures. With the extent of building work that has been done since July 2002, it is hard see that the pictures are off the same building with only one year between the photographs. The lower picture was taken in July of 2003, and the money to put the church steps in was requested and given when the team were across in May.

                                    Church in 2002                                                                                                                                    Church in 2003

We have continued our commitment to helping the Gypsies living by the Municipal dump in Cluj-Napoca, both in spiritual and temporal ways. We were greatly encouraged to find that one of the men who lives there, who was opposed to our involvement in the early days, especially when it came to the preaching of the word, (in that he was hitting our van with a stick, trying to chase us away). To find that this man is now a believer, and he encourages others in the community to attend church with him is of great blessing to us, He is also our pointof contact with the community, and it is through him that Aid is delivered.
 

Our work with pastor Joseph continues, and this congregation, continues to grow in number. Over the last two years we have seen large numbers come to Christ through open air outreach meetings organised by Pastor Joseph. So much so that we have had to help him to fund a new larger Church.

                     Outside Joseph’s New Church                                                                                                              Joseph’s Sunday School
 

We also continue to work in the area we first met Romanian Gypsies, where The family of Augustine and Clara were the only Christian family in 1998. Since then a remarkable change has taken place there, as the Lord has worked in the lives of the people. Last year we were preaching in the village and we met a young man of 18 called Andrew, he asked us if we could help him buy tools, he used to make furniture with his grandfather, but when his grandfather died, someone else got the tools, we saw some of the work that this young man had done and were so impressed by the artistic standard of his work that we left him some money and felt we should try to help him get proper tools.

                                                                                                        Furniture Made by Andrew

Each time we visit Romania the Local Gypsy Pastors arrange for us to speak at open air meetings, and it is not uncommon for upwards of 100 unconverted people to turn up to hear the word of God. We are usually taken to different areas of the City of Turda each year, and it is very rare that we do not see people committing their lives to Christ at these meetings. To GOD be the Glory.  
 

We are indebted to all those who in the past have contributed to the work, both in cash, kind and prayer, also to those who support us at our fundraising events, and to local businesses, such as “Your More Store”, “Woolworths”,&“ Caledonian MacBrayne” for the kind gifts donated to be sent to the poor in Romania. Without your support we could not continue to give the help that we do. God bless you.

40 Ford View, Tong, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, HS2 0JB

Tel/Fax +44 (0) 1851 704142

E-mail : info@tong-christian-fellowship.co.uk