“Cristos a inviat!” (“Christ is Risen,” in Romanian) is a greeting across the Orthodox world beginning with Easter Sunday until the day of ascension, celebrated ten days later.

Easter is a very important holiday, especially since the fall of Communism and it has become a national holiday, celebrated or two days, Sunday and Monday, on the Easter weekend.

This year, however, the Romanian government made it very hard for the people, prohibiting all travel and walking outside of your home with a curfew and heavy fines for any trespassers. Romania was hit hard by Covid19 due to the fact that many Romanians travel for jobs to Italy, Spain and other European countries. Romania’s health system is just as inadequate as its economy and leadership even under normal conditions so they were forced to provide controlled quarantines for every traveler entering in the country.

BUT, because of God’s amazing foreknowledge and wisdom and because of the Body of Christ who does not waver when the world falls apart, our team was ready to minister to those in need!

We are taking medicine, food and necessary supplies to our community and this gives us the opportunity to pray with them and encourage the people, often accompanied by police who are not used to seeing genuine care and generosity.

How amazing it is that God allowed this to happen now when the stage was set for internet and social media to shine!

We are not only continuing our Bible Studies, meetings, counseling and remaining in contact with our community but, recently, Mike and I have daily meetings for salvation and deliverance online! Just Saturday we officiated a marriage for a couple who was struggling with demonic attacks. After getting saved and delivered, we counseled them about the importance of getting married before God and other witnesses. We figured the official formalities can wait until they are allowed to visit a mayor’s office, as it is the law in Romania.

The collecting and purchasing of supplies for the new church plants are happening as we are able to retrieve, order and store the supplies. We are so thankful for all those who are fully engaged in helping us to send our container as soon as the Lord opens the door to do so.

We are attaching an updated list for your prayerful consideration.

We are praying for all of you our friends and partners! We do not take it lightly that many of you are affected much more than others by this situation. We are asking the All Knowing God to come in the middle of your circumstances and fill you with hope, new joy, clear vision and direction! We are asking Him for total healing and restoration of the entire being of those who suffered from the virus and carry in His loving arms all those who lost loved ones during this time! Greater things are yet to come after this difficult time!

Thank you for praying for us as well!

• Pray that He would accelerate the work of spreading the Gospel to the lost all over the world, including Romania!
• Pray that our team in Romania would stay healthy, strong and encouraged so they can continue to serve those in need!
• Please do not forget to pray for more workers, we really need them for expanding our God given vision!

We bless you and we thank you for your sacrificial partnership even when it is so hard, as we remain faithfully devoted to the call of God for our lives.

Mike and Ana Dascalescu

Romania