I (Stephen) returned at the end of August after completing my work for the annual mission audit in the States. While I was there, I had the opportunity to reconnect with some of you, as well as with our mission board and co-workers. That was a joy and a blessing! Of course, there was also the regular newsletter to write, the newsletter translation in French to read and send to the printer, countless emails to respond to, many in Romanian, as well as many other important tasks. Meanwhile Genovieva has been busy too…

After weeks of hard work, I (Genovieva) completed the translation from Hebrew into Romanian of the “Songbook for Messianic Worship.” This is a collection of 230 songs produced by the Messianic community in Israel, also recorded on eight CDs, the majority of which are Scripture verses set to music. These songs are used by the Messianic movement worldwide. Each CD is over 70 minutes long and is called by one of the twelve tribes of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. The remaining four CDs have not yet been released. I will translate them once they are available. About 50 of these songs are for children. In addition to these songs, I translated a CD of fifteen children’s songs for Sukkot, called “Tabernacle Songs” and another CD of nineteen children’s songs for Chanukah, called “The Feast of Chanukah.”

We sent the music books and CDs to Romania to be used for worship at the El Roi Messianic Center in Iaşi. The staff will find the best soloists and instrumentalists from our children to record these 264 new songs. They will then be made available to Romanians all over the world. The seven cassettes we produced in Romania ten years ago were of very high quality, using children’s choirs and soloists. They were played many times over the radio in Romania on Christian and secular radio stations. We want to do the same with these new songs. Please pray that these songs would bring the hearts of many close to the Lord.

I am now working on children’s songs for Purim and Passover and am also translating 100 nursery rhymes for toddlers from DVDs. There are delightful Hebrew songs about animals and birds and other subjects with actions for children.

In our congregation in Tiberias there is a lot of life and many are being saved. A few weeks ago, seventeen were baptized and more baptisms are planned. Every Shabbat Israelis give testimony about the Lord healing them or working in their lives.

A Druze man who came to the Lord two months ago testified about his first experience with Yeshua. His four-year-old son swallowed a Gobstopper and started choking. He turned blue and nothing the family did helped. Then suddenly the father remembered that he could use the name of Yeshua. So he commanded, “Gobstopper, in the name of Yeshua, get out of my son’s throat!” And it shot out like a ping-pong ball! The child was fine.

Then, ten days ago, a teenage girl testified that she felt called to praise the Lord with dancing. But the only Messianic dancing school was in Jerusalem and she couldn’t afford to go. So one evening she prayed, “Lord, I want to dance for You. How am I going to learn?” She put a CD on continuous mode and tried to teach herself to dance. Suddenly the house was filled with the presence of the Lord and the Holy Spirit came on her and taught her the steps till late at night. The Holy Spirit danced with her faster and faster for hours. The next day the people living in the apartment below asked who all those people were in her flat. She understood that there must have been many angels dancing with her that night.

Last Shabbat we witnessed someone being raised from the dead. Just before the end of the service, a brother in his sixties sitting just in front of us had a massive heart attack. Despite the efforts of paramedics in the congregation, his pulse could not be restored. When the ambulance arrived, they gave him electric shocks and did all they could to save him, but nothing helped. His heart stopped beating for about twenty minutes and they pronounced him dead. During all this time, the congregation prayed, sang quietly and bound the spirit of death. Someone blew the shofar. Then suddenly his heart started to beat again. The Lord raised him from the dead and he suffered no brain damage. He is now out of hospital and home with his family.

We continue to share gifts of food with poor people and new immigrants. One day I (Genovieva) went to the market to buy fruit and vegetables. I saw an Ethiopian Jewish girl looking at the produce. The storekeeper asked her to make up her mind what she wanted. I could see that she was very poor and asked her whether she had money. She showed me three shekel coins in her hand ($0.73/£0.37). I told her in Hebrew, “Keep your money. Choose anything you want and I’ll pay.” She took kilos and kilos of apples, bananas and grapes and went home with her hands full. I went home with a heart full of joy!

A few weeks ago I (Genovieva) had an opportunity to give my testimony at a Messianic youth camp near Kiryat Shemona, a town close to the Lebanese border. The fifty young people worshiped the Lord until midnight each evening. Several of them committed their lives to the Lord during that time. Many others dedicated their lives to the service of Yeshua.

A few months before he died last year, one of Israel’s most prominent rabbis, Yitzhak Kaduri, wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note, which he requested would remain sealed until now. When the note was unsealed, it revealed what many have known for centuries: Yeshua is the Messiah. Pray that many Jewish people would believe in Yeshua and be saved.

We would love to have you visit us here. Sadly, we had to abandon our plans to build a mission house, because we did not receive the rest of the money needed. We could not sell our apartment and our support dropped in recent months. However, we can easily arrange alternative accommodation for you if we know in good time when you are coming. We will be delighted to prepare meals for you and show you around this beautiful area of eastern Galilee.

Laura Sirbu, the leader of our work in Iaşi, writes, “Seven years ago, while I was working at the orphanage, God gave me a dream about the work we are doing now. In my dream, I was at a train station and many people were leaving by train in different directions. As I was watching the people leave, three train tickets appeared in my hand. I felt in my heart that I should not use these tickets to leave myself. Instead, I gave two of them to two of my sisters and one to my mother. They were all amazed and asked why I refused to leave. I told them I wanted to leave, but in another direction, and pointed to the east where there was a large gate, shining with brilliant light. Above the gate was written in large letters the word ISRAEL. At that gate the sun was rising, but where the people were leaving the sun was setting.

“The three tickets I received in my dream symbolized three opportunities I had to leave the country. I passed these opportunities on to my mother and my sisters, who took advantage of them and left. I chose the way to the gate on which was written the word ISRAEL. I thought at first it meant that I would leave for Israel, but I was wrong. Now I understand that it concerns a work of the Spirit and that Yeshua has called me for this work. It is the time when the sun is setting on the nations of the world and rising on the chosen people of God.

“Three of my children participate in the dancing program at El Roi. They love it and it gives them great joy. It is wonderful how God works, but there are many times when we do not understand it. I know that we have to be like soft clay in His hands and allow Him to work through us.”

The dancers are waiting impatiently for October 6th when there is a program at the Luceafarul Theater in Iaşi. They are working hard to please the Lord in their performance. All three children’s dance groups—high school, junior high and kindergarten—will participate. A group from a Messianic congregation in Belgium, a choir from Bucharest, a dance group from Moldova and a Romanian Messianic rabbi from Israel plan to attend. They will stay at the El Roi Messianic Center. There are also gifted musicians among those who attend the Shabbat services and they too will participate in the program.

Our staff continues to distribute food and clothing to poor families in and around the city of Iaşi. They also provide meals for the children who come to the programs organized at the El Roi Messianic Center. Together with some of the older children, they are also making food parcels for the Jewish community in Iaşi. This will be a means of blessing them, gaining their trust and building friendships with them.

We are working hard to obtain an updated registration paper from the Ministry of Finance in Bucharest. Charitable organizations are now subject to European Union regulations. This also affects our tax-exempt status in Romania. We have had to delay sending the container of winter clothing and footwear from the States until this paper is received. However, there is still plenty of time to get the container there before winter.

“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.