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Last week, the team participated in the first week of camp. There were just over 200 campers from all over Romania. Some traveled from as far as 12 hours away and came by train. The team members connected well with the kids. They led games, taught Bible lessons, songs, and review games, and did a great job. The kids at camp loved them.

In the afternoons the campers had free time, so the team members got involved in soccer or basketball or volleyball. One day, they made balloon figures and the kids went crazy over them.

Missionary Gentry has the camp schedule arranged to focus on one spiritual lesson each day. The day’s lessons are geared toward this, and the preaching at the evening services wraps it up. On Tuesdays, the whole day’s focus is on teaching about sin. Wednesday’s lessons are about judgment, or punishment for sin. Thursday’s focus is on God’s love.

Thursday evening was the highlight of the week. At the service on Thursday evening, Missionary Gentry spoke about Jesus being the light. At end of the message, he gave an invitation – anyone interested in salvation should leave the auditorium and go outside. The team praised God to see over 140 kids respond.

Outside, campers were separated into small groups, and the gospel was presented one on one so the kids would understand exactly what they were doing. In the end, well over 100 decisions were made to accept Christ as Savior.

Back inside the auditorium during the counseling time, the team was leading singing. As the newly saved campers came inside one by one, the team said they could tell there had been a change, because the volume of the singing grew in intensity. Kids came in trusting Christ and now sang wholeheartedly.

On Saturday, the team cleaned cabins and buildings, and did chores like sweeping and laundry as they prepared for the next camp session. On Sunday, the team visited two different churches. In Romania, church services have multiple preachers, so Coach Goetsch took his turn preaching.

Today was a day of preparation for the next campers, and the team went into town for teaching supplies. Please pray for them as they gear up for another week of camp.

Pray for Coach Goetsch as he will do all the preaching at the 6:00 p.m. services this week. He will be preaching about sin on Tuesday evening, judgment on Wednesday evening, and God’s love and salvation on Thursday evening. Please hold him up in prayer at 10:00 p.m. Central Time, which is 6:00 p.m. camp time. Pray that the Lord will be glorified, and many more souls will be saved.

We are having a wonderful time in beautiful Romania! The team is doing very well and enjoying the opportunity to work in this camping ministry with the Romanian children. The Lord answered prayer on our behalf and gave us incredible strength to begin serving on Monday morning following 24 hours of travel, and we have been very busy ever since.

Romania Camp

What an amazing ministry Missionary Tom Gentry has been able to build! The Lord's hand of blessing is definitely evident in this place, and we have been touched by his desire to reach out to the Romanians and by the servant's heart with which he serves. He challenged us the first day to get alone with God and ask Him to reveal in a specific way the purpose for each of us in coming on this trip. There is a far greater purpose than just helping in the day to day operation. We want to be used of the Lord in a mighty way, yet we also want the Lord to draw us closer to Him -- to teach us more of His will for our lives.

We have been involved in Bible lessons each morning, with each group of three leaders working with a translator and a group of about 60 children. They teach them a verse in English, an English Bible song, a review game, and a Bible lesson. Other Romanian leaders teach a verse and song in Romanian. That involves 6 of our students plus Mrs. Goetsch. Four other students plus Coach Goetsch are outside working with the other half of the campers in a game time. Today we played tug of war and the kids had a blast -- maybe the girls more than the boys since the girls beat the boys at tug of war. We also had about 500 water balloons prepared for them. They had a great time getting wet. (Thankfully it was sunshine today, as the previous days we've had to deal with rain during game time. Very muddy!)

The Romanian children LOVE to sing. They are very talented, not only with their voices but many in these elementary grades already play guitar, flute, keyboard, etc. They know how to sing out. We are slowly learning some of the songs in Romanian, and we find ourselves humming them and singing parts of them throughout the day. The children also have been attentive to the preaching and we are looking forward to what God will do during the invitation tonight. Pray that many of these children will trust Christ as Savior on Thursday night.

We have two preaching services each evening - one at 6:00 p.m. and the second one at 9:00 p.m. Last evening (Wednesday), Mark had opportunity to preach the 9:00 service with an interpreter. It went well. They kids were very attentive - even the older boys. Praise the Lord.

The Romania team contacted Go Forth Baptist Missions with news of their safe arrival. They reached their destination after 10:00pm Sunday night. When they called, they were standing on the mountaintop, looking up at all the stars, seemingly close enough to touch.

The team is looking forward to what God is going to do. Pray for their effectiveness, for souls, for God’s power and protection, for the missionaries (Brother Tom and Marguerite Gentry), for smoothness of operation in the camp program, and for good health for the team, camping staff, and missionaries.

The Romania Team

Journey of the Team