Spring of Grace

God tells us that by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, we should always present our requests to God ( Philippians 4:6). We cannot let this Spring go by without remembering the Grace that God showed to us so many times and be thankful for everything that He has done for us, as he always remains faithful to his promises.

Last year in February and March we saw doors that appeared to be closed open for the first time in a long time, along with new ways to serve the people from our community, as the school principal welcomed us to work with the students during the program that in Romania is called: “A different kind of school week” and many people from the village started welcoming our visits. During that week, on Monday, we have been given about 2 hours at the school in Mihalt. We split up into 4 groups, each of us had activities in different classrooms where we sang Christian songs with them, had a craft, a Bible story, and a skit.

I remember that we were so grateful for being able to reach the children at their school and to be able to invite them to the event that took place on Tuesday at the Cultural Palace in Mihalt, even showing them a bit of what was going to happen, making them...I hope more eager and excited to come for more activities. That afternoon, we split up into 3 groups and visited about 10 families in need, mostly widows and orphans. We had a blessed and emotional time and on more than one occasion, we felt encouraged by the people that we were supposed to encourage.

On Wednesday, we were supposed to welcome the children younger than 12 at 2 pm, but they started coming at 1:20 pm and just kept coming. Some of the teenagers helping us said that that was a moment they would remember forever, they kept asking if all the children were even from Mihalt, as it is a small village and they did not even think that there could be so many children there. The whole room was full, the children and some of their parents were pushing each other to enter the doors of a Christian event. We prayed for this and yet, when we saw almost 180 people besides us filling up the Cultural Palace, we were amazed. About 70 other teenagers came in the evening, and we thanked the Lord that everything went extremely well and the children heard the Gospel.

We saw almost the same thing happen again during the Summer VBS when we were once again welcomed to have activities with the students at the school, and then again this Spring. We only had access to them for two days this time, but the important thing is that the children heard the Gospel once again.  With the help of some dear brothers and sisters who are close to my heart, on the 1st day, we managed to work in the kindergarten and elementary school, and on the 2nd day with the children from the the middle school. They all had the opportunity to watch a really beautiful skit that showed the sacrifice of our Savior on the cross, other little skits, games, and Bible stories. They seemed glad and excited to participate in this event and we were grateful to see more than 200 children hear the Gospel. We are also trying to keep up with our visit plan and we pray that God will water the seed that has been planted as we are hopeful to see the children and the people that we visit hopefully grow in their faith in the future.

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Be Ready

Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ, 

I would like to start by telling you again how much we appreciate your involvement in our shared purpose of being faithful workers in the Ministry that God called us to. A lot of years have already passed since we first met each other and started to serve the Lord together and for that I am grateful. God bless you!

As time goes by, I begin to wonder more and more about two things in particular: how fast time passes (and we along with it) and how rapidly things change worldwide. The Ukrainian war is directly threatening Romania. The Israeli-Palestinian war is dividing nations from all around the globe into being either Pro Israel or Pro Palestine, all of those only showing us how close we are to the moment when the Lord will come back for us. Maranatha!

The month of December of 2023 was quite an active month for us. Our major focus was planning an evangelistic event at the Community Center in Mihalţ. To do our part, we have spent a great deal of time giving flyers away, sharing invitations, and putting up posters all over the village, at the bus stops, shops, and public places to make sure everybody was invited and knew about the event. We are thankful to the Lord for the people that came and we are continuing to pray so that they will also receive the gift of salvation. Knowing that people are more open to receiving visitors and hearing about the Gospel during this time of celebration, we have also tried to visit them, encourage them with our presence, and tell them about the Good News.

The time of celebration and the winter holidays have quickly passed and here we are already, in the middle of January of 2024. The beginning of the year represented a hard time for me and my family as we have all caught some bad cases of colds, for me, it lasted for more than a month, but we are all feeling better now, by the grace of the Lord.

January is also the month when, along with the whole church, we will have an evaluation to make, about where we are based on what the Scripture says. I’m praying that God will give us spiritual wisdom so that we will be able to make an honest, correct, and biblical evaluation of who we are in the Light of the Scripture and where we are headed if we continue to go on this path. May this walk be one where our eyes will be fixed on Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of our faith.

On the very first day of this new year, our sister, Maria Dusa has been called home by our God. She lived to be 94, a model and example of God’s faithfulness to us all.

Prayer requests:

• For a clear guidance from the Holy Spirit;

• For being able to do all things with all of our hearts, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, full of passion and zeal for the House of the Lord;

• For spiritual and physical health;

• To be ready to meet the Lord on the clouds

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Desire To Grow

Our dear brothers in Christ, 

By God’s grace, we want to share with you some of the things that God did with and through us last month on the spiritual battlefield that He brought us. Because it has always been our desire to grow relationships with the kids and teenagers here in Mihalţ, this Autumn, we have started a new Bible study with them. It is called the “Alpha study” and it implies 9 meetings, talking about 7 important subjects such as: “Who is Jesus?”, “Why, how, and to whom should I pray ?”, “Why did Jesus die?”, etc. While at special meetings, for Christmas and Easter for example, or the Summer Bible School, about 60-70 children come, we only had about 10 children coming constantly for these meetings, which has been a little bit of a disappointment and wonder to us, making us try to think and figure out what is something that we can do to improve and maybe make them more interesting, but in the same time keep the essence and the biblical truth in the center of them all. Nevertheless, even when we can sense the clear fight for these souls, we are thankful for the children who do come to every meeting and grateful for the time that we have to grow deeper relationships with the children from our churches and for them to talk and know more about each other.

On November, 19th, we had the Thanksgiving Holiday celebration in our Church from Crăciunelu de Jos. We were glad to see that about a quarter of the people in Church that evening were unbelievers. We had a blessed time together singing about God’s greatness, and His blessings and listening about how even and especially His love for us is calling us towards Him.

We are preparing, with God’s help, an evangelistic event at the Cultural House in Mihalţ. We have obtained legal consent from the local authorities, gave out flyers, and put up posters, but especially we continue to pray for God to move the hearts of the people living in this village and for them to come, listen to the Gospel, and let It change their lives. We would like for the main purpose of this meeting to be the birth of our Savior and what it means for all humanity.

Prayer requests:

• For the evangelistic event from December the 9th. For the presence of The Holy Spirit and for the people’s hearts to be moved.

• For the remaining meetings from the „Alpha Study” 

Be blessed, 

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

God's Plan

Grace and peace! 

With God's help the first month of this new year in His mercy has passed. This month we sought God’s guidance in fasting and praying to understand His specific will for us and in which projects He wants us to be involved.

God has led us to this search for His will. For a week we were in quarantine with Rahela and Filip. This year we are looking for new partners in the work. We thank God for the partners we already have and for their faithfulness over the years. We have known their spiritual and financial support.

The vision that we have received from the Lord remains. To highlight our work it extends over a large geographical area. In the nearby villages of Mihalt, there are no evangelical churches. We believe that God's will is for His Gospel to reach with power into these localities as well.

February 26-27 we are organizing two evangelistic evenings at Ocna Mures. May the Holy Spirit convict many people to repent.

"The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." (Luke 10:2)

Prayer Requests:

• For spiritual and physical health 

• For understanding and fulfilling God’s will 

• For God to sent us new collaborators for the work

• For God’s help in organizing the evangelistic evenings at Ocna Mures. Pray that many will respond to the Gospel.

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

A New Year Preview

By God's grace I've come to the end of 2021. With God's grace we and Teodora, our daughter, together with Ruben from Bucerdea Granoasa went to Sinaia for a biblical discipleship course. 

This course helped them grow in spiritual maturity. We enjoyed this opportunity to better prepare ourselves for working with children and adolescents. Mihalt is not far from Alba Iulia that we attended an evangelistic evening, commemorating the Birth of the Lord. The brothers from Vladimirescu, sang songs, and the biblical message was brought by brother Daniel Cioban from Sibiu. At the end of the meeting I gave each of those present a small gift in which I placed two brochures about salvation through the Lord Jesus.

During the holidays, God opened a door to Ocna Mures through gifts for children given to us by a Christian organization. We enjoyed the way God guides us! By God’s grace, in January and February, we are praying and preparing a few evangelical evenings in the church where we are involved.

Prayer Requests: 

• Thank God for our spiritual and financial support, our brothers from MBC, and how God used us in 2021

• Pray for those who heard the Gospel on the occasion of the Birth of  Jesus Christ

• Pray for an efficient and a clear guidance as we serve Him

Shalom!

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

A Fanfare for God

Beloved brothers in the Lord,

We thank God for every opportunity to preach the Gospel to those who do not know the Lord and are without salvation. In these difficult times we thank to God we can bring encouragement to brothers and sisters of faith. God blessed us with sister Daniela Lacatusu in Bucerdea Granoasa and Mihalt. Daniela ministers for God through her singing. I have seen these churches encouraged by the songs sung to the glory of God.

At Ocna Mures a group of brothers near Oradea sang with musical instruments a fanfare for the glory of God. Their pastor, brother Ilie Șorițău, preached a biblical message. At the concluding call a friend of the church stayed last, and the pastor prayed for her. Glory to God!

With the help of God we are now thinking about the meeting at the Christian Center in Alba Iulia at the at the end of this year. We will be working to collaborate with our partners at MIA, Mission In Action. Prayer is needed so that this work will be done with God's blessing. We can and want to provide the administrative oversight for this meeting. Pray that God will give us wisdom in all things.

Prayer Requests:

• For salvation of those who heard the Word of God in recent evangelistic outreach.

• For an effective collaboration with the missionaries of MIA.

• For new opportunities to preach the Gospel and serve people with humilty and denial of self.

Be blessed in Him!

Daniel C. Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Collaborating with Mission In Action

Beloved brothers in the Lord!

     We were so pleased to meet again at this time with brothers who came from United States. Sister Gabi, Damaris and Emanuel Joldos and I went to Ocna Mures for a meeting with the sisters. It was a blessed work, which the sisters enjoyed. The fellowship in the Word ended with a feast which the brothers prepared with love for this occasion. The meeting with Rodica and Alex Popa was also an occasion of joy for us and especially for me. We thank God for the guidance of the Spirit, through which we can live in holy unity.

Increasingly, the possibility of working with the missionaries of the MIA (Mission in Action) is being conceived. After the summer’s work with the children from Mihalt, the mission director together with Iulian Avramescu  and some of the staff wanted to see the Christian center in Alba Iulia. God has arranged things so that in this exact period of time we met at the center with brother Cornel Stef, Emanuel Joldos and Walter. We hope to be good partners for the MIA missionaries and they for ourselves and together to serve the glory of God by salvation of the lost.

Prayer Requests:

• For an affective and spiritual collaboration with the missionaries of MIA

• For the complete physical recovery of the brothers who went through covid

• For the sisters who were at the meeting of the sisters at Ocna Mures 

In Him, 

Daniel C. Petrut, PIEI-Romania Missionary

Work in the Light

Beloved brethren in the Lord,

We strive, with the help of the Lord, to work while there is still day. Darkness will come when no one can work. May the Lord help us to fully understand and fulfill His will!

With the autumn season we celebrate Romanian Thanksgiving, what we call the "Fruits Festival.” We rejoiced and expressed thanks with the brothers from Mihalt, Ocna Mures and Bucerdea Granoasa for everything God has given us this year in His goodness. In Mihalt and Ocna Mures, Magerusan Stefanhere, a dear, blind brother, was with us. God has replaced this brother's lack of physical sight with a spiritual insight that provided encouragement and conviction. Also, the young people from the Baptist Church from Sebes were with us in Mihalt.

At Bucerdea Granoasa we had with us the Mesaj group of four brothers from near Arad. They praised God in singing and were also a source of joy and encouragement to the brethren. The night before, the same brothers served the Lord at an evening of evangelism at the church at Ocna Mures. May the name of the Lord be glorified in all these things. May those who have heard the Gospel message to turn to God with repentance and faith.

Prayer Requests:

• For guidance in other opportunities to reach the souls of the lost people with the Gospel

• For a contented heart and gratefulness to the Lord

• For those who attended the evangelism evening at Ocna Mureș.

In Him,

Daniel C. Petruț - PIEI Romania Missionary

Hoping for Fruit

Beloved brethren in the Lord!

We want to share with you some of the work that, by the grace of God, He has done through us in the area we serve.

I have already written to you about our intention to organize the VBS this summer, together with a team of young people from Bucharest. 

We enjoyed all that God did through us: the gospel was preached to those present at the 3 days of meetings, the children and teenagers were excited and happy, and we enjoyed it all.

We hope that the gospel proclaimed on this occasion will bear much fruit for the glory of God!

Another August event was an evangelistic evening organized at the Bethel Baptist Church in Ocna Mureș.  This event took place on August 28th. The missionary choir and orchestra from Arad, served God through singing. For the biblical message was provided by Pastor Marcel Bota from Nepos.

We greatly enjoyed the blessings God poured out on us on this occasion as well. We pray that those who heard the Gospel on this occasion will turn to God in faith and repentance!

Prayer Requests:

1. For guidance in more opportunities to reach lost souls with the Gospel

2. For those who attended VBS that the Lord brings salvation to those who heard the Gospel

3. For those who heard the Gospel at Ocna Mures to come to faith in Jesus Christ

Daniel Petrut - PIEI-Romania Missionary

Confessing Through Baptism

Beloved brethren in the Lord!

We had the joy of a baptism when our friend Toader decided to be baptized only a few days before the event. This man's story is interesting. His wife postponed her baptism for a long time, hoping that he would be baptized at the same time with her. Although she always postponed, sister Maria did decide to be baptized without waiting for him. A few years passed like this. By the grace of God, now brother Toader has also decided to confess his faith in the Lord Jesus publicly through baptism.

We are also preparing for this summer's VBS, which will be (with God’s help) on August 6-8. This year we will host VBS together with some young people from a mission in Bucharest called MIA - Mission In Action.

Another project we are thinking about for August is an evening of evangelism organized at the Bethel Baptist Church in Ocna Mureș. By the grace of God we hope to organize this event by the end of August. At this time we intend to invite the missionary choir and orchestra from Arad, and hear a biblical message from Pastor Marcel Bota, who is from Nepos.

Prayer Requests:

• For the spiritual growth of brothers Ruben and Toader

  For VBS - may the Lord work and move the children's hearts

• For the evening of evangelism at the church in Ocna Mureș

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. [Romans 11:36]

Daniel C. Petruț - PIEI Romania Missionary

Reasons to Rejoice

Beloved brethren in the Lord!

By God's grace we want to keep you informed how God is using us in His work.

The Covid-19 pandemic was and remains one of the biggest challenges we face in the mission field. We ask the Lord for wisdom; we ask Him to make us efficient in use of the time and resources available to us in this time of global unrest and disorder. People are suspicious, many of them close in on themselves. Others fall into the opposite extreme and are guided by the Epicurean philosophy: "To eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die!" We pray to God for help to have a proper approach for each person with whom we come in contact!

Through all the challenges we face, God gives us reasons to rejoice and encourages us not to fall into exhaustion in our souls. Some time ago I wrote to you about brother Elemer and how his whole family was hard tried because of his health. By the grace of God, our brother feels much better now! Their joy and mine are even greater due to the fact that the youngest member of the family, Ruben, decided to publicly confess, through baptism, his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. With God's help, the baptism will take place on July 18, 2021.

Beyond missionary activity outside the church and the pastoral activity in the churches, we get involved in visiting people who can no longer come physically to the worship at the church due to their health. In ”Craciunelu de Jos” church we have two sisters who are over 90 years old, and in ”Mihalt” we have a sister, also over 90 years old. We also have a 92-year-old brother in ”Mihalt,” brother Cornel, but in his case the approach is much more difficult.

Prayer Requests:

1. For the spiritual growth of brother Ruben

2. For wisdom and spiritual discernment - guidance by the Holy Spirit

3. For working with older brothers

4. For new opportunities to proclaim the gospel to the unsaved people

5. For my family - spiritual and physical health

In His service,

Daniel Petrut, PIEI - Romania Missionary

Gospel Fruit from the Past, Working Today and into the Future

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord!

By the grace of God in April we had two more special meetings at the church of Crăciunel. It was a blessed time because we had two preachers from other parts of the country as guests. The messages brought refreshment to the faithful, and at the same time, a searching of repentance for friends who came to these meetings. May the Lord work in these troubled times. May the Gospel bring light to the souls of the lost!

Florina and Mark Darvell and their two boys visited the church in Ocna Mures. Florina gave a beautiful testimony from when she lived in Ocna Mures in 1993, one block away from my home. I forget the details of her speech, but as Florina told her testimony of turning to God, it brought tears to my eyes. She responded to God after the testimony I brought to an evangelistic outreach held in the cinema in the city. A sequence from Florina's testimony: “I didn’t understand much from brother Daniel's testimony then, but I did understand that Jesus died for our sins. I went home and prayed to the Lord, if there really was one, to free me from the passion of cigarettes. The next day, I no longer felt any desire to smoke!” It has been 28 years since then and … “

This testimony strengthened me more in my faith and desire to serve the Lord! The word is true that Paul planted, Apollo watered, but God made it grow. As for Florina, she was invited to the evangelism outreach by a young woman from the church. Then she started coming to the church with another young woman who lived in the same block of flats. Importantly, she was born again by the Spirit and is currently working with PIEI in the southern part of Romania. Praise God!

Prayer Requests

• For spiritual and physical health

• To make effective use of opportunities the Lord gives to serve those around us

• For the salvation of many souls

• For the Lord to raise up collaborators in our mission work

Be blessed!

Daniel Petruț – PIEI Missionary

Lights in This World

We are especially thankful to God in these times for keeping us healthy everyday. He gives energy and ability to do what we do. We appreciate your support; and we are glad to know that together we are redeemed and called to be lights in this world.

School has started again. Filip-Emanuel and I are actually going to school. Teodora is still doing online school. She is involved in a couple of Zoom Bible Studies, as a spiritual mentor. One Bible study is about Abraham and his life and how he was God’s friend; another Bible study is about the book of James. (Filip is also participating in this one, but as a student); and the final Bible study is about prayer in which she is a student.

PIEI missionaries surrounding Alba Iulia have started having monthly meetings again. These face-to-face times encourage us, and we have a good time in fellowship and prayer.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For spiritual discernment in this confusing world

• For God to teach us how to be more attentive to the needs of those around us

• For peace and understanding, especially between members of our churches

• For those who have lost someone or have been affected by this virus

Daniel Petrut – PIEI Missionary

Updates From Family Members

Dear brothers in Christ,   

Hello! We are so glad to be part of this great ministry, to spread the Good News for the lost people. We are thankful to God for all of you and your support. We believe that your prayers have a massive impact in the spiritual world, so we are glad to know that you are praying for us. However, nothing is the same as it was half a year ago.

A couple of weeks ago, school started, we have to follow a lot of new rules, some of them are easier, some are harder, like wearing a mask for about 8 hours a day and social distancing.   We, as a family, are pretty good, praise the Lord. We are able to have services in our church, but there must be a certain distance between each family, we have to wear masks and disinfect ourselves at the entrance to the church and at the exit. Even with all these rules, we are so happy to go to church and praise the Lord with the brothers and sisters there.

Rachel

During this challenging time, I have tried to help some elderly widows from our church that I knew needed help. Along with Daniel, the children, sometimes even alone I would visit them, help them with their house chores, work in the garden or just talk to them. Most of the widows in our church lost their husbands over 20 years ago and as their children live pretty far away, they often feel lonely. Teodora likes listening to their old stories about how our village used to be when they were young and how much it changed over the last 50 years.  Praise the Lord!    

I have also used this time trying to get closer to God, reading the Bible more and listening to pastors preaching the gospel. It is truly amazing how God can reveal Himself to us. 

Teodora

Last summer I went to a camp and kept in touch with some of the leaders there. At the beginning of this quarantine they asked me if i wanted to participate in a study group as a student. Its title was: I choose to be courageous! It lasted about 6 weeks. Later on, I started another study group about Joseph’s life. This one was in English and it was really exciting! When I finished both of them, they asked me if I wanted to start a study group about the book of Romans as a leader. With God’s help, this study is going to last until around November. It is quite weird, but still amazing how you can become really good friends and praise the Lord with some people, from all over the country, without meeting them in person, just through some Zoom meetings. 

I have also started to cook more, but both me and Filip like sleeping a lot so by the time we wake up (around 10- 11 am), our parents have probably already eaten. Thus, breakfast is not my strong point, but I like baking a lot. I have made Cinnamon Rolls, Croissants, Pasteis de Nata, Mini Cheesecakes, some cakes and a lot of cupcakes. Some of them were really good, some of them not so much from the first attempt, but they were all pretty much eatable.

With our hope that our Lord will come very soon, let’s work together for His glory. Amen!

Prayer requests:

• Please keep praying for brother Elemer. After surgery, the doctors told his family that he has cancer. He and his family really need to be prayed for.

• Please pray for us, to be able to keep doing His work here.

• For the children to be safe at school.

• For the elderly brothers and sisters to be encouraged by God

• For guidance in the Holy Spirit and for an efficient ministry

• For my family: for spiritual and physical health

• Answered prayer:  Thank you for praying for my parents-in-law. God has worked amazingly. Their health has improved a lot!

God bless you all!  Best regards,

Daniel C. Petrut, PIEI-Romania Missionary

Call For Your Prayers

Dear brothers and sisters, 

We appreciate your desire to stay in prayer for our needs. The events that we are confronting with right now show us that we need to be able to discern God's will for our lives. So, please pray for :

  ~ for us to be humble and to be able to see very clear God's will.

  ~ for wisdom to be able to take the right decision in any circumstance in life

  ~ for kindness, like God's kindness, in our relationship with the other people

  ~ for determination and courage to stay firm in our faith in Lord Jesus Christ

Please stay in prayer for my parents-in-law ( Constantin and Persidia) . Both of them are really sick. We also have a very precious brother in hospital ( Elemer). He underwent an emergency surgery and is hopefully recovering well.

  Best regards, 

PIEI-Romania Missionary Daniel Petrut

Trust Our God

Dear brothers, 

   It has been a long time since I sent news from us. During this hard time, we trust our God and we wait for His mercy. We are sorry for everything that is happening in the whole world right now, but we are happy in the same time because our Savior told us all those things have to happen. Moreover, all those things are just confirming the fact that the Lord is near to come. We are glad because in all four churches that we are involved in, there are no Covid-19 cases. Praise God!

  We hope that you are alright!  

  Prayer request: 

~ for spiritual and physical health

~ for the elderly brothers and sisters to be encouraged by God

~ for guidance in the Holy Spirit and for an efficient ministry

~ for my family

In Him, 

Daniel C. Petrut

DIFFICULT TIMES

Dear brothers in Christ,

It’s obvious that we are living in hard times. This global virus is a good test of faith test for everybody. Maybe this could sound strange, but this fear between people may be a great opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Hence, please keep praying for us to use properly any opened door for the Gospel. Also, we need God's protection to keep our spirit, our souls, and our bodies safe.

Dear brothers, we love you and we want to encourage you to stay brave and keep working together for His glory. Blessings and greetings for each brother and sister from MBC. Thank you again for your spiritual and financial support!

God bless you all!

BREAD OF LIFE

We are pleased to share with you news about the work that God is doing through us in our area.

We have been with several families, and we believe God has used us as an encouragement and blessing. A Christian businessman provided a sum of money that I used to help these families. I had an open door through which I carried "bread" for the body and the "Bread of Life". We’ve also been encouraged by the joy of seeing the faces of the people we visited.

We enjoy family gatherings every Wednesday. This month due to the winter season we didn’t meet. But by the grace of God, we are meeting again and it is a blessed ministry. Moreover, during winter we decided to have Friday prayer meetings in families’ homes, not in the church building. In this way, the relationship between brothers is more familiar.
Be blessed!

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

THE GOD'S BLESSING

I would like to start with a confession: before I came to the US, I only knew a few brothers and sisters from MBC. Now, having met you personally, I am much encouraged and motivated in the service of our Lord. I remember with joy the love you showed me. Thank you again for all your support. May God bless you!

By the grace of God, we want to share news about the work of the Lord. Our 7-year old son, Filip-Emanuel, is truly a missionary. Yesterday his teacher, who is also the headteacher of the school, told me that he challenged the children to say proverbs in class. Filip-Emanuel said two proverbs, which touched his teacher’s heart.

- Man is tested by gold and gold is tested by fire;
- He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose (Jim Elliot).

The teacher asked him how he knows them? Filip-Emanuel replied: "From Christian cartoons". I am glad and praise God for this testimony!

I had the joy of serving a family at Bucerdea Granoasa who brought their child for blessing. The father of the child rarely comes to our meeting and the mother has not come so far. We want this event and this child, Ianis, to be an outreach opportunity to his parents and family.

Prayer requests:

• I want spiritual children just as Rahela wanted natural children. I want to "give birth" to as many children for the kingdom of God

• For wisdom, spiritual discernment and guidance by the Spirit

• For my family: spiritual and physical health.

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

THANKSGIVING

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We want to share with you news about us and about the work by the grace of God He is doing through us.

First, God allowed us to be tested, but even in the test, He showed us that He is fully in control in our lives. In our garden we have a 1,850-gallon water tank raised over 16.5 feet. Several times I had to get on it and Philip-Emanuel wanted to go up with me. Finally I took him up with me. Not being careful, he took a step to the side and came very close to the edge of the tank. Fearful, all I could do was scream desperately at him. He was scared and stayed in place. Then we went down safely together. I told him I would not take him up the tank until he grows up. He innocently asked me, “Dad, when I'm seven I can go up with you?” In the evening we prayed together, and still shaken by what could have happened, we thanked God for His protection. Emanuel also prayed, surprising me again, "Lord Jesus, thank you for keeping me from falling off the tank and helping my father not to go to prison because of me."

Second, we thank God that, as in past years, we have had good opportunities for evangelism in the Fall. I made full use of these opportunities at Mihalt, Ocna Mures and Bucerdea Granoasa. We pray the Lord to move in the hearts of those who have been coming for years to such events and have not made a clear decision to follow Jesus.

Edi came back from America and I talked to him a bit. Possibly because Edi is an introverted person, I don't know his spiritual state. He started courses again at the university in Cluj, and we meet quite rarely.

Prayer Requests:

• For an efficient work in evangelism

• For wisdom and guidance from the Spirit

• For divine protection

• For Edi

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary