Pop family's ministry blog

2010-09-19T20:14:00.000+03:00

Dear church family,
If in my last entry I was talking about the toughest year of my life, right now I need to tell you about the darkest year of my life. But first I need to ask you to forgive me for this prolonged silence. I have no other explanation for it than lack of will.
Nothing significantly good or bad happened in the past year. Days went by pretty much the same: wake up in the morning, go to bed at night and in between they were blurry and dull. It was like living in slime. It’s difficult to move through slime! If you have to move through slime long enough, you end up loosing all your will to move and eventually you become numb…comfortably numb, to paraphrase a certain rock artist. Well, this summarize the past year of my life: dark, slimy, disgusting…a nightmare. It was a different sort of spiritual battle which I never experienced previously…at least not this extensively. But the Lord is faithful and I desire to fully trust in Him. Even though I didn’t feel it, He is the one who walked me through; who saw me through.
In terms of ministry the past year felt like I was building with play cards. Ever tried that? You start piling them, to make them stand against each other and you go for a while, but then something happens and they all fall down and you have to start all over again. Not just once I prayed for the Lord to bail me out of the ministry, like Jeremiah. In stead, each time He reminded me of what He plans to do not only here in Romania but worldwide: to start a revival; to start a fresh fire across the nations. But recently He also made me aware of what will that revival actually mean: persecution! Oppression! So, He told me as he told Jeremiah, ‘if you faint when dealing with the small guns, what are you going to do when missiles will start pouring?’ And it’s interesting and exciting how He gave a new spin to the ministry, as He put me in charge over about 70 kids with their age spanning from 10 to 17. What am I talking about? The Lord opened the door and I got a part time job as a basketball coach at a local club. So, I have long term chance to impact these kids’ life and direct them on the pathway to salvation. So, pray for the kids to receive the gospel and decide to follow Christ.
Pray too for our fellowship as we are thinking to move it into a nearby village. The reason for the move is the fact that everybody who is coming to the fellowship are from that village. So, we figured that maybe the Lord is opening a door there. We are presently going through Romans and sporadically as we meet over week (we don’t have yet a regular midweek meeting) we are doing a bible survey (going through Genesis right now).
And also keep praying for a door to open to witness amongst the students. I know that the Lord has something planned, so, I need to be patient and I need to have open heart and mind to receive direction from the Lord in this matter.
Thank you for all your faithful prayers and support!
Agape,
Razvan, Anca & the kids

2009-01-20T15:25:00.004+02:00

Hi church family,
Have a blessed 2009! Tough times are ahead of us but isn't that, in a strange way, a good news? Heaven is getting closer and closer! And boy! It is exactly the way the Lord predicted it will be. He said the love will disappear, it sure does! He said people would go after false teachers and Christs, they sure run! But the cool thing is that He linked those things to His coming back! So, as sad and perilous times as we live in, as tough and painful as it is to live righteously, don't lose heart! Be of good cheer! Look up as our redemption is nigh!
As far as our ministry here in Cluj goes, looking back to 2008, I can say that it was the toughest year of my life. It was tougher than the time o the revolution when I faced the serious possibility of shooting fellow Romanians; it was tougher than when Anca faced the cancer surgery and almost died; it was tougher than when the Lord blew out Calvary Chapel Cluj and we were left without fellowship for quite a while. At least the revolution led to democracy in Romania; Anca's health issues led to our salvation and the church problems led to a stronger foundation in our life and ministry. But last year Satan unleashed hell upon us and as in Job's case he used friends. People we love! He orchestrated events, he inspired emails, he poked into conversations...and as a result friends leaving the ministry, others that we regarded as friends slandering us and falsely accusing us, yet other friends treating us as black sheep...However, God's in control and He has His eternal purposes! 2008 was a good year! And to all of you, friends that were involved one way or another in last year's events, we love you! We are looking forward to spend eternity together. Continue to pray for the ministry of Golgota Cluj! After all, with all this scheming and opposition from the devil, there is no doubt in my mind that God has a great work that He wants to perform here in Cluj. Our small fellowship numbers 7 people right now: us 4, another couple and a student. Right now we meet on Sundays for church service, on Wednesdays for Bible survey and on Fridays for worship and prayer. Here are some payer requests:
1. For the overflowing of the Holy Spirit. His guidance, His wisedom, revelation from God's word, His gifts, a new heart, His fruit...whatever He has for us this year.
2. For love for the sheep and love for the lost.
3. For boldness in sharing the gospel
4. For the outreach plan that the Lord has for this year. (concerts, teams, events, weekly outreach...)
5. For Christian fellowship for our kids. We hoped that our friends from Vladeasa would join us (on Sundays at least) and they would bring their kids along, but so far they didn't, for one reason or another.
6. For the website and the blogs to be used by the Lord to touch Romanians.
7. For God's providence
Thank you all!
Agape,
Razvan

2008-12-03T22:43:00.002+02:00

Abraham was called "father of the faithful" and "friend of God" in spite of his failures from the very get go. What a comfort for all children of God! For even though we fail as miserable as Abraham, we are children of God because we believed God as Abraham did! Praise the Lord!
I'm resuming blogging after almost a year of silence. It was a tough year but fruitful for my relationship with the Lord. We are waiting and praying for the promised outpouring of the Spirit here in Cluj. As time goes I will bring the blog up to date concerning the ministry. For now I content myself to ask you, please pray with us for this revival in Cluj.

2008-01-16T22:09:00.001+02:00

It seems that I skipped the whole month of December and no wonder! It was a very busy and exhausting month, with a lot of events. As we started to remodel the house to turn it into a lounge for students, the landlady came with the news that she might kick us out from there, based upon whether or not she will find a place for her business. We'll find this out at the end of February. We went on with the remodeling in spite of this, and except a few details that still need to be taken care of we're done. We turned the attic into a room for the children's ministry and the downstairs into a nice lounge. Meanwhile Satan had our team under heavily attack, but the Lord used that at least in my life to teach me the most valuable lesson in leadership. Jesus told the disciples that whoever wants to be first should be last and whoever wants to be in leadership should be the servants of all. Up until last month I believed that Jesus is calling us to a sacrifice in doing that. But the Lord had me convinced that these are actually attitudes that provide us with the greatest authority on the face of the earth. Jesus was not demanding sacrifices in order to grant positions, but rather He was giving us awesome tips on genuine and functional leadership. Thank You Lord for this lesson!

2007-09-19T06:57:00.000+03:00

Hello friends of the ministry!
There are a lot of things that happened over the summer. First and foremost, the Lord enlarged the ministry team to 4 families in just a period of 3 weeks. Praise the Lord! John and Charity Maury moved from Vladeasa, another couple, Dave and Lili Bunnell moved from Buzau and yet another couple that came to Cluj to start a maternity clinic have joined the team as well. Secondly the ministry opportunity increased. We have an open door in Gherla and we already did some counseling there and I think that it's a matter of time for the Lord to start a church there. We also have a house there that we can use for free to do ministry. We are also going to oversee the work in Vladeasa. So, in fact, Nicu and Silvana Hagiu are part of the ministry team as well! They are staying there in the region and Nicu took over John's responsibilities as the pastor. John and Charity felt that the Lord is leading them to Turn the ministry in Vladeasa over to Nicu and Silvana and that He is calling them to eventually move to Sweden. They don't know when will that happen but as they were considering the option of coming to Cluj as a transition period, Ken asked me to step aside and let John take the leadership of the team. Here in Cluj the students started coming back from vacation so, we'll be opening soon the cafe and the bookstore. Our rental contract is about to expire in a few weeks and we will need to move. We need a bigger place anyway. We found one on the same street that could fit as much as 50 people and right now we're waiting for the Lord to provide the money for the rent which is substantially bigger.
God bless,
Razvan

2007-04-18T10:38:00.001+03:00

Hey guys!
I need to thank you all for your prayers. The Lord answered to them and provided us with a new location for the church. It is right in the heart of the area where all the student life takes place. It is so awesome how the Lord directed us to it and what's more exciting is that Satan tried to stand against us getting it and that means that he's afraid of the things that the Lord wants to accomplish there. But don't stop praying for further providence. We need the Spirit to overflow us, giving us power to witness, we need the strength to stay faithful, we need wisdom to approach the work with the students and we need patience and long suffering, cause we know that there will be further opposition. Pray also for the team that will come from Costa Mesa in May and pray for the outreach that they will do. Till next time!
Agape

2007-03-27T10:17:00.000+03:00

Hey friends and family!
I realize that it was a long time since the last post, so I owe you some news. Seems like we skipped winter this year, we only had a double portion of rough autumn weather so far and right now spring is definitely breaking through. So, we'll be going to get out in the park again singing. So, pray for that. Last year we had a great time.
The study on Thursdays is in the same stage. The bros. from Sancrai are faithful to come but so far no one from outside came to it. It's true that we didn't advertise for it too much, we're waiting to rent a place. Pray for that cause rents are high and we are waiting for the Lord's provision for this.
There will be a team coming from Costa Mesa, that is in May, and they are set to do one on one evangelism. I am excited because I believe the Lord is about to start an awesome work through that. They will hit the streets every day sharing the gospel and inviting people to pizza and fellowship each night of their stay. So, pray for this outreach as you're led by the Lord. Pray for the Lord's provision for the team, safe trip and blessed time. Pray for provision for the outreach: we will need to rent a pizza place or so, we will need to rent a place fro church meeting/bible study and all the other details that right now are skipping my mind, but they won't skip the Lord's mind.
Till next time,
Agape

2007-01-25T15:28:00.000+02:00

This Thursday we are going to study John 1:5-18 where John is talking about the effects of the Word's coming into the world and His mission here on earth. I don't know if you ever considered this but did you realize that light is the only element of creation that we're not told about that it was made, but we're just told that it was?
Continue to pray for a meeting place, for a sharper vision and for the anointing of the Spirit.
Agape

2007-01-17T15:56:00.000+02:00

For those of you that are interested, we are meeting for worship, prayer and Bible study each Thursday at 5:00PM at my place. For more info email me at razvanpo@hotmail.com or call me at 0746-047-874. For all of you, friends and family that are afar, you can still join us in prayer, lifting up the ministry. Thank you!

Agape

At the start!

2007-01-02T15:44:00.000+02:00

Dear friends,
May the Lord fill you with His Spirit this new year and cause you to experience His grace and His peace that surpasses understanding.
We decided to start this log to give everybody a chance to enjoy with us God's work in Cluj and to sustain us in our ministry through your prayers.
Hopefully I will be able to keep it a meaningful source of information about us

Agape!