Extraordinary summer experiences and new challenges for the 2016-2017 academic year [310244]

Extraordinary summer experiences and new challenges for the 2016-2017 academic year

"[anonimizat], to receive glory and honor and power; [anonimizat], and were created."

We glorify our God for He has poured his love and mercy upon us and we can now share some of our experiences during summer and from the beginning of another academic year. [anonimizat] a camp located in the village of Vatici. [anonimizat]. It was a wonderful privilege to be able to spend four days in a camp together with the students and the faculty with their families. [anonimizat]. We really enjoyed ourselves and praise the Lord for the splendid ways in which He is blessing us.

[anonimizat], also the president of the Union of Christian Evangelical Baptist Churches of Moldova and the President of Slavic churches of the West Coast came to the camp and we had a blessed time together sharing and praising the Lord.

Lebanon

We had a group of 20 students who traveled to Lebanon for 7 weeks, in a short-term missionary trip. God used them in many ways and we praise Him for opening doors and giving opportunities to serve other people. [anonimizat]:

“[anonimizat]. Our mission trip to Lebanon was one of that ways. As a team member I can testify that God is doing great things in the countries from the Middle East.
We were blessed to serve those people with everything we could and with all our being.

The main goal of our trip was to reach out to the refugee children through summer camps in Tyre and Bekaa. It was a big privilege to be the Lord’s [anonimizat]. [anonimizat], He is the one who restored many broken hearts of the Syrian people in Lebanon.

Also, [anonimizat]. God’s plan for us in Lebanon was more then we could ever imagine and we praise and glorify our Lord for that. Our ministry hasn’t stopped, [anonimizat].”

Bulgaria

A group of 5 [anonimizat]. The first week they helped the responsible family at organizing a [anonimizat] a group of children with special needs (mainly children with mental disorders).

[anonimizat]. The second week the students were the ones who organized a camp for children from gipsy families. The first day they had around 60 children and the next ones they had more and more children that they have lost the count. The most impressive thing was to see the relationship between the older and younger brothers and sisters, the way they carried for each other, also these children were eager to help in every way possible, maybe to hold something or to pass it to someone else.

Also it must be mentioned that they were hyperactive children, having time to do everything and be everywhere not getting tired. They were a true inspiration for everyone. While being there, our students have had the opportunity to understand the real meaning of the word missionary, it being when you give much more than you receive and when you can hold an unwashed, dirty and snotty child in a loving tender manner. It has been a great experience and it must be mentioned that our students still keep in touch with some of the children from Bulgaria.

Jordan

We also had a small group of students who traveled to Jordan for 5 weeks. Their responsibilities were to work with the children of the Syrian refugee families, from the beginning they were told that they cannot openly speak about Jesus Christ, and that they must wait for appropriate moments to do so. The children who participated in the day camps were very well instructed by their parent and from the beginning they said they don’t want to hear anything about Jesus.

Due to the circumstances, our students had to design the lessons teaching what Jesus thought us without mentioning His name, so they talked about friendship, trust, respect, love, obedience, mentioning at the end of the program that the source of all of these values is Jesus and that only through Him, we can be saved, and we can find true friends, learn to love and respect others. The activities took place in Amman and in Jerash, they had a large number of children from Muslim families one of the boys told them “I came here to spend time with you and not to hear anything about Jesus.” They prayed for wisdom and guidance and God helped them and blessed them with great results. One of the students involved sad that “this trip was a time of blessings, a battle, a time of strengthening, a time when the seeds were sowed, and a time of harvest.” The students also had the possibility to visit some Syrian families, to get to know them better and serve them. Praise the Lord for such opportunities and Glory to Him for He is working in wonderful ways.

Our heavenly Father is so good to us, He blesses us abundantly, we are thankful for the ways in which He leads our steps and for the challenges that turn into blessings. In this new academic year, please continue to pray for our students, for our faculty and for everybody who is involved directly or indirectly in equipping children of God for the great Commission.
With God, everything is possible!

Philippians 1:9-11

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Mihai Malancea,

the Academic Dean of

Divitia Gratiae University