International Theological Education Ministries, Inc.

Pastor Ion Vasile, President of Maranatha Bible College, Campina Romania

Maranatha Bible College began its activity in 1999 and it functions under the authority of Maranatha Baptist Church in Campina Romania in partnership with ITEM, Inc. St. Louis MO.

Maranatha Bible College is not a school accredited by the government, but a practical one offering biblical knowledge to those Christians who are interested in it, so that they could teach others in the mission field.

Until now we have been following a curriculum that we worked on in 1999. Eight sessions per year of two weeks each was the initial plan. Because of many different reasons there were times when we only had two or three sessions a year. The courses are taught by professors from the US who are sent by ITEM. The expenses for both the teachers and the students are paid by ITEM.

The students attending MBC are Christians involved in the ministry – missionaries, elders, Sunday school teachers, or simply church members. Every summer the students have been involved in a week of evangelism, every day, two by two. In the summer of 2006, they ministered in 24 villages in Romania, four villages in the Republic of Moldova and four villages in Bulgaria (in a partnership with Rev. Jonathan Taylor). Over 3,000 people heard the Gospel and about 1,000 confessed Jesus as their personal Savior.

In the beginning, the enthusiasm of the young people was great, during the first courses with up to 42 students per session. Things have changed over the years and so did the number of those attending, for various reasons. For example, during the last session in March of this year with professor Baxter the number of students was 12.

Out of the students from MBC a young couple got jobs in Milan, Italy and the knowledge they acquired at the college helps them in the ministry in a church of the Romanian immigrants.

In Romania, the evangelical churches are now recognized by the government. Their problem is not a political one, however, but the Orthodox priests who teach the people that only the Orthodox Church is good and that that the Bible of the evangelical churches and their other books are not good at all. This happens mostly in the South and South East of Romania.

The evangelical churches are involved in missions in order to spread the Truth that sets people free. The churches in Romania are the strongest in Eastern Europe and, as far as I know, they are followed by the ones in Ukraine.

Right after Romania joined the European Union, many Christians left for the West. This is a door that God has opened for evangelizing the Western churches through the believers who planted new churches or attend the local churches of Spain and Italy, etc.

As far as the numbers are concerned, there has been no recent growth in the Romanian evangelical churches and yet Romania is seen by the evangelical believers as being the country with the greatest missionary potential for the spiritual revival in Europe.

There are many and different missions working all over Romania, most of them being supported in one way or another by organizations or churches from abroad. At the same time, the churches from Romania are sending out missionaries to other European countries to strengthen churches there and to spread the Good News.

We are praying that all these efforts will bring fruit for the Kingdom of God and that many will come to Him and become true believers.

 

 

Rev. Jim Carmichael, ITEM Professor

I had no idea of the opportunities that God was preparing for me! Dr. Van Groningen planted the seeds for what I have been prepared and led to teach in Eastern Europe when I sat in his Biblical Theology class back in the early 1990’s. I can’t discuss my small part in ITEM’s outreach without musing over how he impacted my life; both as a person and the subject matter of his courses.

Teaching has had the same influence on the students with whom I have been privileged to share the Golden Cable now on two trips to the former Soviet Union. My most recent excursion to Romania was well worth the energy expended because the results prove the same, whether in Ukraine or in Campina, Romania: students are eager to look practically at God’s Word and see its constant and reassuring message from Genesis through Revelation.

When David Ludwick, president of ITEM, asked me to go to Campina [pronounced kàm´pê-nà], I immediately thought of the Ploesti oil fields made famous by the Allied bombing raids during World War II. I arrived in Bucharest exhausted but quite interested in seeing the oil fields. A low cloud cover limited my visibility as we drove right through Ploesti [pronounced plô-yèsht].

During the days that followed, my host and president of the Maranatha Bible College, pastor Vasile took me on a tour of the circuit he covers each Sunday ministering to his flocks. He and his son Andre drove me right into the middle of one of those fields where one of his parishioners lives. One of my personal goals was reached.

My other objective proved more rewarding as I knew it would. Teaching the Biblical Theology of Kingdom, Covenant, and Mediator to students who have never thought in those terms takes a few days for students new to this Bible based teaching to digest “the meat of it” before the cranial lights start flashing. Perhaps the reward arrived when the four
giggly students in the front row began to dig into Scripture discovering their own bounty. They in turn assisted the less sure students. Team competitions helped drive home the subject they had been studying. God compensated me for the long air miles when following the final exam several of the less rigorous students pumped my hand thanking me through my translator, Daniel. But I know who buttered my bread. I’m just the messenger. I smiled and in my best Romania said, “Cumpla cherries,” [“you’re welcome”]. I realized that this and my personal remuneration are not on the ITEM job description. Yet God provided it nonetheless.

There are continuous “tangible” compensations to serving with ITEM. The Vasiles welcomed me into their home and thus into their family. Daniel showed me Campina, a city of about 40,000. The sun shines in Campina 300 days a year. On Saturday, he drove me to see Peles [pronounced Pelesh] Castle. Here in St. Louis we have the beautiful Fox Theatre.

Peles Castle far surpassed the Fox in magnificence. I wonder what Solomon’s Temple looked like? Daniel has taken many professors to see it and I’m sure he was “eager” to take another American, but he did. Following the Sunday meal, he spoke to me about his future plans and asked what I thought. He didn’t have to but he did. I was made privy to life in another culture, another worldview. I took the family to eat which was a treat in itself. Romanian families do not as a rule dine out because of the expense. Christian families do not because of the possible gossip. We threw caution to the wind and God blessed the evening. Ion [pronounced Yon] had his first glass of Lipton Iced Tea. The music was too loud as we laughed above it and had a great time. This eightmember family is very close and I am thankful that God allowed me trespass for two weeks.

I missed the Super Bowl so Daniel taped it. He wanted me to explain American football to him. (No, we didn’t see the half time show.) The Vasiles have a dog named Rex and he and I became good friends. Off the leash he jumps over the fence and does his neighborhood visiting. Scratching a dog for me is one of life’s pleasures. Helen Vasile fed me well. Her “chorba” soup is wonderful. Sitting at a dinner table where everyone speaks Romanian and all are speaking at the same time does take getting used to. Most of the family speak some English so they included me when certain Romanian words and facial expressions piqued my interest.

I preached five times in two weeks. Four times I preached for Ion’s congregation. One of my students, Andre, asked me to speak at his church before I left the country. Andre is Pentecostal and that made my experience all the more interesting. Andre’s father pastors this flock. Andre was excited to show me the sanctuary they are building. They have been working on it for 12 years. They still have years to go.

By His Grace the basic ingredient remains when we, the professors, have long gone: God’s Word is made more accessible to God’s people. Little “nobodies” in the eyes of the world, whom they do not recognize or know, are being taught by a “nobody,” me. What a privilege!

 

 

Dr. R. David Ludwick, ITEM President

Pastor Vasily Ion headding Romanian Maranatha Bible College, located in the most populous region of Romania and least penetrated by the gospel, stands today as a work of God. Their overcoming the vicissitudes and obstacles placed in its path by those forces, powers and principalities would slow the work of those who teach the biblical doctrines of Reformed theology. In some places where they have not been heard or presented. Pastor Vasily has seen first-hand the power of God to accomplish His work. It was the work of the Holy Spirit, which gave him the opportunity to receive a seminary education in the first place. In 1987 during the days before the 1989 revolution that swept the oppressive Ceausescu regime from power, only three students per year were allowed to enroll in the Baptist Institute in Bucharest. This was then the country's only accredited seminary, established in the pre-Communist times. That in itself was a demonstration of God's power but it added to the suffering for his faith to which pastor Vasily had become accustomed. As a result of his decision to prepare for the ministry he lost his government provided apartment and was forced with his wife and four children (now six) to move into his in-laws two room flat.

It was in this context that pastor Vasily dared to dream about a church planting and leadership-training program in this gospel starved southern part of Romania. He was at the time the only seminary trained pastor in Campina, the city of some 40,000, that is the hub of the most populous agricultural and industrial region in the country. From a human point of view, the work indeed can seem overwhelming. The south-central region of Romania stretching from Brasov, just north of the Carpathian Mountains, southward of the capital city of Bucharest, is predominantly Russian Orthodox, and has very few evangelical churches.

Work where Vasily ministers and lives stands in contrast to the northern part of the country where Hungarian Reformed Church and certain evangelical groups are well established and thriving.

Enrollment in the Baptist Institute in Bucharest, which is attached to the university there is open, but the cost has prohibited students from pursuing studies there for three years; and, in doing so it removes a man from serving in the active ministry and meeting the needs of the local church. Under pastor Vasily's ministry several churches have been planted and the Bible College established to serve the region. Under the plan adopted the Bible College operates a four year basic Bible curriculum offering two programs of study, one is a general Certificate program that will offer basic Bible training for lay people who lead in the church and work at various jobs in society; the second program is Pastoral Certificate program that will include additional courses: preaching, pastoral theology, etc. The goal being to develop the college into a degree granting institution as the Lord wills and directs in the future. The first courses were held in September of 1999.

Again and again and again pastor Vasily acknowledges that this work is the Lord's. We want to extend it for His glory. To this we can only say, ?Amen.? His ?Amen? accompanied by the commitment by the Campina area that helps support the cost of the church is truly a commitment. In the country where the average monthly salary is less than $200 pastor Vasily's $100 per month and the income tax rated at 40 per cent reflects a substantial commitment both in time and effort expended.

ITEM's Christ for Romania ministry requests your prayers during final phases of the next four years of the school and that you pray for the recruiting of professors and for fund raising. Pastors interested in the challenging and enriching two week refreshing trip are asked to contact ITEM. The costs are approximately $2,000 plus round trip airfare.

In conjunction with the partnership between ITEM and the Maranatha Bible College it is acknowledged that in obedience to the Great Commission this union between the two exists to serve the churches and people of Commonwealth of Independent States, the former Soviet Union, and Central Europe and their effort between biblically sound pastors and church leaders. To this end ITEM and MBC work to secure prayers, labor, resources, finances to establish seminaries and other pastoral training centers, assemble theological libraries and translate and publish solid biblical literature.

Growth of the Maranatha Bible College will be a direct result of your prayers and your assistance. It is a work worthy of commendation as illustrated by the following anecdote:

When Rev. Jonathan Taylor, missions pastor of the Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church (PCA), St. Louis, MO, went on his first trip to Campina Romania, he challenged high school youth to become translators so that they could translate for the professors sent by ITEM to teach at MBC. Three years later when the classes started they were prepared, having met the commitment with self sacrifice of time and other opportunities. They were prepared to participate in the bringing forth of the glory of God in one small spot, but all to His glory!

An adventure of a unique kind in the community and country where obstacles have been truly obstacles with the hope and prayers of God's people that they prevail. It is a beautiful place to serve and the opportunities to feed open minds and hearts for the glory of God. Amen!