Pop family's ministry blog

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