Vladeasa Gypsy Ministry

January update

2012-02-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

Ministry in Sacuieu

The ministry in the gypsy village of Sacuieu continues to be blessed by the Lord. After almost six years of ministry here, most of the gypsies attended at a moment or another our fellowship and heared the Gospel. Not all of them decided to follow the Lord, being deceived by Satan that is no way they would survive living a life without deceiving, stilling, etc. As we continued to go in their mids and proclame God’s grace and mercy, we were blessed to see the seed that was planted started to grow little by little. Some people started to join the fellowship again, looking at the Lord to help them. Last Sunday our joy was great seeing how a group of gypsies that were never in a school were able to seat for an hour and listening to the Word, paying attention and asking questions. We were able to give all of them DVD-es with Jesus movie in their native language, and in the last two months it seems they like to wach it every day, and they started to come to us and ask questions as, “Why did Jesus had to die?” or, “Why did Jesus weep for the city?” etc. It was a open door for us to explain them again the Gospel. We pray that the Lord will open their minds and hearts to grasp the truth of God’s grace versus works. Somehow they have this thought in their culture that you have to become good, before you come to the Lord. It is hard for them to believe us when we tell them they just have to come to the Lord, and He will change them. But we pray and believe that the Spirit will reveil this to each one as they come closer to the Lord.
Children ministry continues to go well, there are around 20 to 30 kids that attend it two times a week. We are aware of the fact that is hard to change the habits of adults (not impossible), those habits wich are ungodly and are rooted in their culture, and that is why we focus a lot on the children ministry there, we believe that they can become the generation that can change their culture. We are planning to start a new program with the children there, a program to teach them how to read, in order to read together with them the Scriptures. Also we pray that the Lord will provide to give each one of them durring these clases a sandvich or fruits.

Ministry in Calatele

We continue to meet in Basca’s home, few people are attending. It is more a home fellowship where we pray with them, sing and teach through the Gospel. Durring the winter season we are not able to do children ministry there due of lack of space. Some children are joinning the regular fellowship. Two weekd ago, a young lady gave her life to the Lord after a gypsy lady from Sacuieu, Lamaia, witnessed to her durring the time they were in the same hospital. Her name is Dana, now she is still in the hospital in Cluj with her baby. We are praying that the Lord will open a door that we will start a women ministry there with Silvana, for the wifes of our gypsy brothers.
It will be a revolutionary thing because the men will have to stay home and take care of the children, wich is not cultural at all for them. We saw how they are more opened with Silvana, being a woman, and that they share more what is on their hearts. Lots of prayers for this would be apreciated.

Theseare our news and plans for the near future, but since we are alone here, and there is a lot of work to be done, we started to pray for more helpers. One thing that we started to pray for is that the Lord would open a door to rent a place in the town of Huedin, where we can have it as a place for all the young from the local church to come together, to have a tea, play games, have nights of prayer and worship and start to initiate them to come and get involved in the gypsy ministry. We pray that the wall of prejudice that exists between the local churches and gypsies will break . We believe that it is possible if we start to train the young people to have a heart for missions. Please pray that if it is God’s will this thing to happen. We have nothing now, we only have a very good relationship with all the local churches and with their leadership,
wich we believe it is really important to start with.

Thank you for all your prayers and support for us. We appreciate it a lot and we are
very thankfull to the Lord for you. May God bless you!
In His grace,
Hagiu Family

2011-11-18T02:10:00.000-08:00

Ministry in Sacuieu

I just want to let you know that God worked greatly in Sacuieu (the village we were not sure what to do with). After the two months break that we used to pray and look for directions from God to know if we should continue the ministry there, we started in the beginning of October to go again and prayed that the Lord will have mercy on them and wake them up, we purposed to go for two months and see how the Lord leads, we were not confortable to leave them and the ministry in that village. First weeks we faced the same atittude like before, rejecting the Gospel, nothing had changed, three weeks after, the lady that turned everyone against us and caused a lot of troubles for us there, came at our church service and asked forgivness for all things she did against us. That was a miracle for us because that is something outside of their culture, and more she continued to come and be quiet and listening. Next week a three years old boy was hit by a horse in the head and got into hospital, the doctors said was a miracle that his brain wasn't hurt, and the next day the five week old baby of the same family started to suddently to have a cold body, nothing would warm him up. He was for a week in Cluj in the hospital and they coudn't find anything. The doctor came and asked the mom if there is anything she promised God that she would do, because that is outside of medicine. She said that she didn't, but she knows she needs to give her life to the Lord. Next night she was sleeping on the flour of the hospital, and she had a dream that a man in white, looking like a doctor came and looked at her and the baby. She asked him if the baby is going to die, he answered no, but then Satan came and wanted to kill the baby. She looked at the doctor really scared for help, but he told her to fight him and not be afraid, and so she hit him and woke up. She left the baby in the hospital and came back to the village and told her husband. They both decided to pray home and receive the Lord. On Sunday they came to church and told everyone that they want to follow the Lord and brought the other two children to dedicate them to the Lord. Also they prepared some food because she said she really wants to give a meal for God, she brought some fish, bread and some cookies. The other gypsy ladies also ran home and brought each one what they had home, some pops, bread, cookies, and so we all had a nice meal together, also we had that night four other persons comming forward for prayer to receive the Lord. We really saw the Lord working there and we were filled with joy. The next morning the lady received a phone call from the doctor telling her to come and take the baby home because he is fine.

Ministry in Calatele

That week we also had two gypsy men from Calatele joining our fellowship there and saying that they want to become Christians like us. They also like to come with us to Sacuieu for church. We pray that the Lord will work in the heart of their wifes and they will follow their husbands coming to the Lord together.

We continue to meet in Basca’s home for our fellowship in Calatele, and that was a good opportunity for his wife and his brother to hear the Gospel. We saw God worked in their hearts and they started to attend our fellowship on regular basses.

Family

After our great joy, next Sunday our car window was broken and all our car documents, Id-es, driving licences, everything, money were missing. My purse handle got broken and I left it in the car durring the time we were attending a thanksgiving service at Prison Fellowship in Cluj. After four days Nicu went back there, since the police didn't do anything to help us, and he looked around to see if he may finds the documents thrown somewhere. He had this thought keep coming, to go to the river that is close by. He went there and started to walk along looking on the edge. After short he found my purse in the water, and inside were all the papers, only the money were missing. Praise God!

Pray for us as the cold season started, we face a lot of respiratory illnes in the gypsy villages, last winters we got almost every month pneumonia.

Christmas project

The cold season also comes with our great holyday of the Birth of Christ. The gyspy children don’t receive anything from their families, most of the time they hardly have something on their tables for Christmas. For the last five years since we are in this ministry God provided for the first three years boxes from Samaritan Purse and oranges. The last two years we didn’t received the boxes anymore, but the Lord provided the money for us to go and buy 250 bags of cookies, candies, chips, chocolate bars, oranges for all the children from the villages. It brings so much joy in their hearts, since they they prayed for Christmas gifts from October. Last year we knew we were not able to do it, and told the children as they asked that we don’t believe there will be any. I remember one girl looking at me and telling me, “So what? I will still continue to pray for it!” And a week before Christmas God listen their prayers and we got the money to make the Christmas bags. We want to continue to do this ministry for the children and pray that the Lord will provide again. We would like to bless again this Christmas the 250 gypsy children.

In His great grace,

Hagiu Family

Spring 2011 Update

2011-06-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We pray this update finds you all well and growing in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We continue to go on with the ministry that God has given us, to reach the gypsies in Calatele and Sacuieu with the gospel of Christ. The ministry continues to be one filled with valleys and hills. During this past season, we have experienced more valleys, but we know He remains faithful.

Calatele:

We continue to meet in Basca’s home. Basca, Fery and Danut remain faithful and we pray that they will be a light in their village.

We have had a strong desire to raise up a gypsy to help serve in the ministry. Nicu began giving the men the bible passages to read ahead of time and then during the bible study, Nicu is going through to help them learn how to understand the scripture. One of the men, Fery, has been faithful in reading the bible, even though he can only read at a child’s level. He is reading the bible on his own, even if it takes a long time. He is also praying with his family.

Fery has a desire to teach. We found out that many days he was gathering the children in Calatele on his own, singing bible songs, telling them bible stories and leading them in prayer. He also started teaching the children to pray personally instead of just repeating prayers. This Spring, Nicu wanted to see how the gypsies would respond if all teaching, singing and prayer was in their language (gypsy). So he asked Fery to go to Sacuieu on Thursday evenings and lead the services by himself. Many children are coming and also, Fery as been gathering some of the young men.

Sacuieu:

In this village, we have experienced more hardships and sadness. Many who claimed to believe and were baptized, now they say they did a mistake and have said they are not repenters. They are saying that their lives were better before they came to the church, now they have more hardships. Once they hear the truth and are confronted with their lifestyle, they don’t want to give up the stealing, deceiving, abuse and fighting.

The women in Sacuieu who were coming to the church in the past, now are saying to Silvana “why are you still coming, no one wants to be Christians, since you came to the village, it doesn't have peace”. It is hard when these were women that you were fellowshipping with so closely last year. It would be easy to leave, but we want to stay and hear what the Lord wants.

Cluj:

As we mentioned in our last prayer request, we were asked to help plant the church in Cluj. We are praying for how God would want us to come alongside the ministry and in the same time to continue ministry here in Vladeasa. We are praying for Cluj, even for us and our children to have fellowship with others in Calvary Chapel.

Prayers Requests:

· For God’s guidance, to be able to see clear and not doubt

· For the church plant in Cluj, for fellowship in Cluj and unity in the team

· It is now the season when the gypsies are going to the mountains to gather berries and mushrooms. Pray for their protection, especially for the ones who are coming to the church

· For Fery, Danut and Basca to fall in love more with Jesus, and to have a stronger desire to be a witness for the Lord.

Looking at 2010

2011-01-21T09:32:00.000-08:00

Dear family,

Happy and blessed new year to everyone!

We want to thank everyone who kept us in their hearts and in their prayers durring the past year. Being alone here on this battle field, this past year we understood how important are the prayers of the brethren, how important it is to have a family in Christ close to you in prayers.

We faced many challenges that forced us to depend on the Lord, we experienced the joy of seeing a few people saved and their lives changed by the Lord, and lots of hardships and opposition from Satan. But we can praise the Lord that by His grace he enabled us to pass through all that came our way.

We don’t have many things to say, our ministry here continues with hills and valleys, and we only want to be faithfull in what our Lord has entrusted to us. Many times things became hard and we feel burned out, but every time our Father knows how to bring refreshment into our lives.

This winter started with very low temeratures, down to -4°F , wich brought a lot of respiratory diseases, especially to the children. We have already been sick three or four times with cold and bronchitis, contacting it from the gypsy villages. In the villages the children are very affected by this cold weather, many of them having pneumonia. Recently a baby of five weeks old died of this. We are praying for them and also that the Lord would protect our health as we go there four times a week and minister to the children.

We also want to thank everyone who helped with the Christmas gifts for the children (oranges, cookies and candies). These Christmas begs, were the only gift they received and they have been praying since October for it. During the Past few years, we were also able to provide the Christmas boxes from Samaritan’s Purse, but this year we couldn’t. When we told the children we were not able to provide them with a gift this year, they told us that they will not stop praying, they will still pray for a Christmas gift. And God ansewred their prayers, we waere amazed by their simple faith.

Please continue to pray for us, that God will give us more wisdom in how to minister better to this nation and how to appropriately share the Gospel so that it is relevant to their culture. Also pray that God will rise up gypsy men that would be godly leaders for their relatives.

May God bless you all!

In His grace,

Nicu & Silvana

Hagiu

Baptism in Calatele

2010-08-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

"Men and brethen, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37)

"Repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38).
Our sister Corina, from Morlaca, joined us praising the Lord through her songs.
"for the promise is to you and to your children, and to all of you who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39).
Singing, "I have decided to follow Jesus!" (in both Gypsy and Romanian)
"...baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward), through the ressurection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21).

Danut's baptism

"... we were buried with Him through baptism into His death, that just as Christ was risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also shall walk in newness of life" (Romani 6:4).
Basca's baptism

Medentia's baptism

Mona's baptism

"... as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death" (Romans 6:3)

"And they continued steadfastly in the apostols' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayers" (Acts 3:42)

More pics

2010-01-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

Time befor Bible Study in Sacuieu to start in Lucretia and Florea's home.

Since they don't have toys to play, they make their own toys. Now they made motocicles for themsefs.

Baba Lucretia, she opened her home for the church services in Sacuieu. She is a born again believer.

Florea, is Lucretia's husband, both of them follow the Lord with a great entusiasm.

Danut is our brother from Calatele. He received the Lord last summer, and he is one of the very few who can read. He loves to read the Bible.

Bible Study in Calatele in Fery's house

Nita and Calin are a gypsy family from Sacuieu. After 19 years of leaving together they decided to get maried legaly. They asked us to be their god parents.

Nita and Calin's wedding

Nita and Calin's wedding ceremony

Mircea's family. He is our brother in the Lord from Calatele, and Danut's brother. Him and his children are loving the Lord, and Timisoara, his wife uses to come sometimes to our church services, but she didn't received the Lord, yet.

Danut's family. In their home we are having now our bible studis meetings. His wife didn't receive the Lord until now, but she loves to hear from the Bible, and she is very happy with the way her husband is now.

Fery's family and us, on Christmas day

Some of the goodies for the Christmas gifts

Our children's bedroom became the gifts factory

Dawn, working hard in our gifts factory

Fery came to help us load all the car with the gifts and deliver them.

For Danut was a great joy to come and help us deliver all the gifts in both villages. He worked hard and helped a lot. We were very blessed to have him and Fery, and Dawn helping us. We were not alone anymore.

Nicu and Silvana were the most blessed to be able to bring a message of God's love to Calatele

Vandana, from Calatele

Is one of the most beautifull thing to see the happines of a poor child opening a gift.

They were very happy because they found a horse in one of the boxes.

Alina, Laura, Mandruta and Crucea were very content with what they received. They became very good friends with Dawn.

these children prayed to the Lord for their gifts.

Pictures and some comments

2009-10-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Dawn came along our side to minister to the gypsies. She was very well accepted by them. Now she is helping us with children ministry and is making relationship with gypsy ladies. Here she is with Marioara and her four daughters. This family is very dear to her heart, and they love her.

Tanti Mariaora is proud of her baby horse. She is one of the oldest people in the village. She is also one of our good friends from the village of Sacuieu. She used to come to our fellowship from the beginning, she is very quiet regarding her relationship with the Lord, but she likes to join us in worship and prayer every time she has the opportunity. In the last two months she wasn't able to come to our church services as much, for some family problems. We are praying that she would take a decisive step to follow Christ with her whole heart.

Pamela used to be a part of our children ministry in Calatele when we first came in the village. She is the oldest of eight children; she had to quit school when she was 10 years old to be able to take care of her siblings. Now she was given in marriage, this is her wedding day. We gave her as a wedding gift a New Testament, she received it joyfully. Our prayer is that everything she learned from the Bible in the Sunday School would be fresh in her mind and heart.

The wedding party continues with dancing.

They can't have a party without alchohol. Almost all the men of Calatele struggles with alchoholism. The third man on the left side is Mircea, who became our brother in the Lord this past summmer. The Lord had set him free of alchohol.

Verdeata, Silvana, Tana and Alina enjoying their coffee durring the picnic time.

Barbequed slanina (pork ham) is the gypsy's favorit picnic meal. They asked for some more.

Nicu making mici (some special sousages) on barbeque.

The children and the ladies enjoyed their meal. The man will follow after them.

The village of Calatele

Dita, our sister from Sacuieu traveled hole night with us to the CCRomania confrence to Ploiesti

Titrus, Florea and Fery durring the church service in Sacuieu.

Easter worship service

sunday school children in Sacuieu

This house used to be for the last year our church building. It was a blessing to have it, we rented it from a gypsy family. We spent here precious moments worshiping the Lord and having fellowship with our gypsy brothers and sisters. We are praying that the Lord would provide another one for this winter.

Let's meet Crisan & Lina

2009-03-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

"When a man's way please the Lord, He makes even His enemies to be at peace with him" Proverbes 16:7.

Crisan and Lina are a gypsy couple from Calatele. They have five children, three doughters and two sons. We first met them in 2006, when we first came in this ministry. From the beginning we could see they were really opposing the things of God.

Once we went in their village to visit a gypsy lady, Dorina, who is their neigbour. The gypsy children found it we were there, and they came running in Dorina's yard, thinking that we came to do again a children ministry thing. We had to tell them we were there to vosit someone, but we will come back on Sunday to do a Bible Study with them. They still didn't leave and started all together to sing there in the yard "Aleluiah", their favorit song. Their singing was loud enough so we could hear them.

Crisan, who happens to be drunk almost all the time, was disturbed by their singing and startet to yell at the children to stop singing. The children continued to sing. He became very angry and started to curse the children and then started to curse us, telling us to do not come anymore in his village.

Time past and Crisan's dislike of our presence in his village was visible. One year ago, his wife, Lina, became very sick. She stayed a long time in the local hospital. One day, Nicu, saw her in Huedin (the main town, at about 15 km away from her village), hardly walking, trying to find some transportation to her home. Nicu then felt that he shoud give her a ride home. It surpised her and her family the fact that we were willing to help them freely. But the Lord used this event to open the door to their hearts. Lina soon started to come to our fellowship meeting, expressing her greatitude for preying for her. Her husband started to be much nicer with us, but still disagree with her comming to us for prayer. During the summer time, her husband, Crisan, started to have a very bad backpain. For one day he coudn't get out of bed because of pain. Ferry, our gypsy brother, who is a good friend to Crisan, asked Nicu to go and pray for Crisan. After the church meeting we all went to Crisan (Nicu, me, Fery, and a english brother,James, who was staying with us for the summer) to pray for him. After prayer, Nicu and the guys left, but I stayed a litle longer to talk with Lina. After five minutes, we saw Crisan geting out of bad, starting to do all kind of strange movings, and loughing, saying that nothing hurts him now. The next day, the entire village, and everybody form the bar new that the repenters came and prayed for him, and he was healed. God, again worked, now in Crisan's heart. He started to express the desire to follow the Lord, to be like Fery, but he said that alchohol stopes him.

As time past Crisan and Lina started to became our best friends there in the village. Our friendship with them reminded us many times of the scripture from Proverbs 16:7 "When a man's way please the Lord, He makes even His enemies to be at peace with him," but in our Romanian Bible is saying, "He makes his enemies become his friends."

On the New Year Eve, Crisan and Lina, wanted to come and visit us. They came together with Fery and Contele. What was amazing for us, was that Crisan refused to drink any alchohol the entire day before, because he wanted to show how much he respected us. It was a delight to see him in this condition. We all had the dinner together, listen to christian music and prayed. After few hours they left, and after that Crisan was supposed to have a big party in his house. The next day, Lina, his wife, told me how all the gypsies were parting in their house, drinking and dancing, only Crisan coudn'y touch the alchohol, not even the shampagne. He called Fery to ask if we were praying for him so he could't drink, because it never happened to him something like this. His wife was really content. She said since they are married, he never was sobber on New Year Night. Sadly after a day, he started to drink again.

Now we are praying that Crisan will take the definite decision of following the Lord, him and all his house. We trust the Lord that He would continue to finish the work that He started in Crisan and Lina's hearts, bringing them to salvation.

Those of you who read this story, please when you remember, lift them up in prayer.

In His Grace,

Silvana

Let's meet the gypsies

2009-01-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

Dear friends

The people that we minister to are so special and so different than us, and as we get to know them better we realize what an interesting culture they have. We would like to introduce them to you personally, to let you know them better, understand them and pray for them more. We hope you will enjoy meeting them and we are waiting for your responses and comments.
Lucretia, Irina & Titrus
Let’s meet Lucretia

Lucretia is the oldest person from the gypsy village of Sacuieu. She is 60 years old, and she doesn’t have children. We first met her in 2006 when we moved here, and when we were meeting in her nephew’s house, Titrus, for a home fellowship. I remarked her being very quiet and smiling all the time. Also she used to be a hard smoker, she was smoking since she was a teenager.
Lucretia started to come to our fellowship on regular basis, but she never had a moment of surrendering completely to the Lord. She kept smiling and never complained to us about anything. She also attended the women bible study, we were studying the women who met Jesus, and we had a lot of interaction, discussion and interruption (the gypsy ladies are normally hard to control and make them listen), bur Lucretia she kept be quiet and she listened carefully everything.
Last summer, we had a baptism in her village, and after the baptism was finished, she came and asked to be baptized, too. She decided to follow the Lord and asked Jesus to come in her life right then in the water of the baptism. Then she got baptized.
Lucretia continued to come to the church and follow the Lord. But she couldn’t give up entirely smocking. For a while she avoided to come to the church because she felt guilty. The other gypsies were condemning her for receiving the Lord and still smocking. We encouraged her to do not give up, to continue to come before the Lord and He will work in her. Now Lucretia is again coming on regular basis to our fellowship, she still smokes sometimes but she loves the Lord and is praying that God will heal her of this addiction.
Please pray for Lucretia to be able to understand more God’s grace and love, and to be a real testimony of Jesus there in her village, and to be a mother in faith for the other gypsy ladies.
In His grace,
Silvana

2008-08-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

Dear saints,

Thank you for all your prayers and support for our ministry. The Lord really blessed us this summer with two wonderful teams: one from Boisse, Idaho and another one from CC South London. They were a great encouragement for us, and also for our gypsies. The Lord worked great things while they were here.

After the teams left, we continued to minister in the gypsy villages, helping the believers to grow in the Lord, teaching the children the ways of the Lord and praying that the Lord will bring more opportunities to share the good news with those that are not saved yet. The Lord sent a brother from London to come for 5 weeks and work side by side with us; he was an answer to our prayer that the Lord would bring other believers to join our family in ministering to the gypsies. Please pray together with us that the Lord will send other believers to help us in our ministry, because the ministry here has started to grow, and we definitely need more team members alongside my wife, our children and me.

This morning the Lord worked a great thing. Fery, our gypsy brother, visited us with his wife and children, and the Lord used this opportunity for Silvana to share the gospel with his unbelieving wife…and she received the Lord. She prayed with Silvana to be forgiven of her sins, and asked God to come into her life and change her. Praise the Lord, because He has heard Fery’s prayer (and ours) and saved his wife. Please, if you will, pray for her that she may grow in the Lord, and “… He may grant her to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in her inner being, ...that she, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to understand with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…”

This month the Lord used a christian friend, Anna, who is working on a gypsy dialect survey, to provide the Jesus movie in our gypsies' dialect on DVD. It was a great blessing for our ministry, especially because our gypsies can't read, and we were able to give them the DVDs so they were able to hear the entire gospel in their own language. One evening, we went to one of the villages and showed the Jesus movie on a big screen outside there. It was a great opportunity to reach the men of the community who were there, having nothing else to do. After the movie, one gypsy man came to us and asked for prayer to receive Jesus. We are praying to do the same in the other village, Sacuieu, when all the people are back; they are in the mountains at the moment, collecting mushrooms and blue berries to sell, and they have no electricity up there.

Please also pray that the Lord will send rain in the mountains here, so that there may be more mushrooms for the gypsies to collect; at this time of year mushrooms provide the only source of income for the gypsies.

Grace be with you all,
Nicu Hagiu

2008-07-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

Praise The Lord!

In the last two months the Lord has done great things in the gypsy villages of Vladeasa. The last winter seemed to freeze, not only the physical bodies of the gypsies, but also their tiny desire to seek the Lord. All our efforts seemed to be like the light of a match in the cold windy weather trying to melt the ice from the Gypsies' hearts. Our only hope was God; only He could do a miracle.

We continued to pray for the salvation of the lost souls, and for power to remain faithful and continue to go to the villages, because we knew this is what the Lord wanted us to do. Little by little, as the weather warmed up, the gypsy ladies and children were revived, and started to seek the Lord whenever they had a problem (They also came and asked us to pray for them.) It was, for us, the perfect opportunity to share the Gospel with them, and to tell them how much Jesus loves them, and that they can come before the Lord as they are. Again, we started to have more than a few people to the weekly bible studies and church services. For a while, the fellowship from Sacuieu was formed only by women and children...and Nicu, the one who was sharing. We continued to pray for the gypsy men, together with the ladies. We asked the Lord that He would save them and make them men of God, filled with The Spirit. The Lord was faithful and answered our prayers; He brought the spring into our lives. He used the sad event of a baby dying in the village to open the door for Nicu to preach the Gospel to almost all the men of the village. Two nights, for about five to six hours each night, Nicu was able to share with the men and answer their questions about God and spiritual things. All our tears were transformed into tears of joy when we saw that the father of the baby received the Lord at his baby's funeral. The ice was broken, and the Word of God penetrated the hearts of men. After the funeral, some of the men started to come to our fellowship and joined us in worship and prayer. This was the village of Sacuieu, but the village of Calatele still remained under heavy ice.

One friday, when we went to Calatele, Fery, a gypsy man, who is really respected there among the gypsies, came to us and said "Nicu, I want to repent and become a Christian, now; I'm tired of my life, and I want to follow God, now. Give me a Bible, please." We couldn't believe what we had just heard. Our hearts were immediately filled with joy. Nicu prayed with him, and shared from the Word. It was amazing!

The following Sunday, when we were in Sacuieu, a young gypsy lady came and asked me to tell Nicu to go to her house to pray before we went home, because her father had died two weeks before, and since then her and her family were not able to sleep in the night due to a haunting that was resulting in various manifestations, such as noises, objects moving, appearances of her dead father and beatings in the night. I told her that we could pray, but I stressed that she needed to receive Jesus, because He is The One who can help her. In five minutes, I told her how Jesus died for her sins and wants to forgive her and come into her life. I asked her if she wants to receive Jesus into her heart, and her answer was "Of course." We prayed together, and after prayer I told her that if she was honest when she prayed, then she is now saved. She looked at me confused and asked me "What to be saved means?" She had never heard of this. I told her that her sins were forgiven, and that she will go to heaven now, with Jesus. Again, she was confused and asked me "That's all I had to do?" , and my answer was "Yes!" After church, we went to her home and prayed together, and during prayer she started to speak in tongues. It was amazing for us to see this, because she didn't even know what that was. We had to explain to her that it was the result of The Holy Spirit working in her. The next week, she told us of how she had reported to her husband concerning us praying with her and how she had received The Holy Spirit, and she asked her husband to pray with her and the children, and he did. They all prayed together. She told us that, since then, she had never slept better, and that there is peace in her house now; the evil spirit had gone.

After a month, more people decided to follow the Lord. We baptised ten people, six of whom received the Lord right then and there. More people received the Lord in the last two months, but they want to have some time to understand the work of God in their life, the grace and love of God. We are praying that the Lord will bless their minds so that they are able to comprehend the Word of God, since only a few gypsies are able to read . We know that the Lord can work miracles, and that the recent work in the gypsies' hearts was done "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says The Lord of hosts." God brought us the spring, not only in nature, but also by waking up the gypsies to life. He melted the ice that kept them captive in bondage.