I had almost zero faith

I had almost zero faith that we would actually see the answer to that prayer.

20 years ago, when I first joined the Bucharest team, I remember waiting for 2 hours just to get a chance to talk to the Rector of Politehnica University. I wanted to ask her to allow us to hold student meetings on campus, but she told me she couldn't allow any "religious" activities there.

At that time we took prayer walks around the main university campuses in Bucharest praying that God will raise among the professors “sons of peace” that will open doors for the Gospel in those universities. Although I prayed passionately I had almost zero faith that we would actually see the answer to that prayer. 

This year for the second time in a row  we hosted the Ready for the Future event (it use to be called Integrity in Leadership) in the Aula Magna of one of those universities. 

Speakers from Kansas City and Dallas spoke about Leadership principles and how faith played a role in their lives. They were joined by one of the professors who had traveled with Ionut last month to the US to attend the Prayer Breakfast and visit K-State.

After the event, the speakers met with the dean of the Business department, who proposed that Ionut develop a Leadership program for the professors in his department, similar to the one they run for students.

In 2019 me and Ana were challenged to take a national role in the Romanian ministry. For another two years we gave leadership both to the national campus ministry and to the Bucharest team. As Ionut stepped up as a leader of the Bucharest team not only he took the team to a whole new level in terms of partnerships with the universities both in Bucharest and in the US but we were freed to focus more on the other cities where there are smaller teams: Brașov, Cluj, Iași, Sibiu, Timișoara, Oradea. 

One of the things that gave us great satisfaction was the visit to Oradea, one of the cities in the western Romania where we met with students and staff and interviewed them with the purpose of learning how we can better serve them as we develop new materials and plan activities such as the Summer Camp and leadership training. 

As a result of the interviews, we invited students to join what we called a 3-day internship with the Bucharest team. Students from Oradea and Brasov traveled to Bucharest and, along with Stefan Stoica, an intern with Global Church Movements (another CRU ministry), embedded themselves in the Campus team here. They observed and learned from the interns and staff in Bucharest as they ran the Ready for the Future event and participated in the training we provided for them. 

Flavia, our staff in Oradea, later wrote to Ana saying the visit was more helpful than they anticipated and that they would apply what they learned.

I find myself praying the same prayer now that I prayed 20 years ago: that God will open doors for the Gospel in Romanian universities through professors who are "sons of peace," just as he did in Bucharest. This time, I have a bit more faith

-Cristi and AnaMaria Voiculescu