Jó Napot Romániából! Greetings from Romania! We did it! We feel so incredibly blessed by all of your support and prayers and together as a community—we did it! Paul and I arrived safely to Romania on October 29th. We could not believe how smooth the entire process went and know it is the result of a powerful praying community. There were so many details that had to fall into place but by God’s provision we had a rather stress-free move!
Over the past 7 months leading up to this move, we had the opportunity to share at 19 NAB churches and 5 mission conferences. We concluded our sharing at Brentview Baptist Church in Calgary at their Engage Mission Conference. We felt so encouraged and supported by the congregation at all 3 services we spoke at. What a powerful way to end our NAB church touring and to be commissioned in to the mission field! Thank you to all of the church communities and individuals that so graciously hosted us and allowed us to share God’s call on our lives for ministry in Romania. It was truly an honour for us and an incredible way in which we received tons of encouragement and support. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you and are glad to be partnering with you in this journey!
Life in Romania has been fantastic over these last couple of weeks. We spent the first few days unpacking and shopping for things to set up our house—we’ve already had many funny and awkward moments as we have been trying to speak the language while shopping in the cities. It has been such a blessing to have Tamas and Tunde (the Camp Directors) helping us navigate the country and culture. We look forward to working closely with this couple as we are on mission together to see the next generation of leaders raised up.
On November 2nd, 2014, we spent our first Sunday at the church in our main village called Szentkarily. We were surprised with a special moment of blessing by the church. It was a powerful moment for us to be prayed for and accepted into the church community. Everyone was excited about our move and Paul and I feel very honoured. It’s been neat to walk up and down the village road and get to see old friends and make new ones as well. The village has been so welcoming to us and even to our dog, Theo. Theo is also loving village life and is quite amazed at all of the farm animals that walk by—especially when the “cows come home” from the field every evening and walk up the main village road. He’s proving to really excel at his ministry!
Within the first couple of days of being in Romania we hosted a Canadian team in the village. On this team there were 2 members as part of an advisory committee for us, as well as NAB Vice President Norm Poehlke. The team came to establish ministry agreements with the local leadership as part of the Hungarian Baptist Convention of Romania (HBC) and Camp Falcon Rock’s Board. All of the meetings were very productive as well as a great time for the Canadians to build relationships with the HBC and camp board leaders. With ministry agreements now in place, Tamas, Tunde, Paul and I can begin to work on strategizing and developing a building and program development plan with the Camp Falcon Rock Board. We will have a busy next couple of weeks as we further discuss the vision for the camp and prepare a timeline for the next year with specific goals for developing the camp property. What we do know is that when the camp is established, there will be no shortage of youth as we were told many times during our meetings that churches and villages are already lining up to come to Camp Falcon Rock!
Thank you yet again to all of you who are praying and supporting us. We feel overwhelmed by your encouragement and know that God is using you in incredible ways for this ministry in Romania!
Paul and Tanya Gericke