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Cloud of ash to cloud of witnessesSometimes spiritual triumph arises out of natural disaster. Few had ever heard of the volcanic tongue-twister that is Eyjajallajokull before April 14; now we know that its ash crippled European airlines for a week, costing the aviation industry over £2bn, stranding 300,000 passengers and its effects have been ongoing. One of its more remarkable spiritual consequences, however, was that the eruption deprived Medias, Romania, of a team of American evangelists who were to run a major outreach under the auspices of the Luis Palau Association's (LPA’s) Next Generation Alliance programme. In so doing, it propelled local churches into taking full responsibility for the mission and forced local pastors to bring the gospel themselves to their friends and neighbours. The result of being made to step out in faith, in these apparently unpromising circumstances, was a rich harvest of souls for Christ. Four Romanian preachersAs soon as the three evangelists saw that getting to Romania was impossible, LPA's Romanian co-ordinator, Daniel Rus, stepped in. He and Daniel Titus Mihet, one of the most capable General Co-ordinators in Romania, invited four Romanian preachers to speak in their place. One was Timotei Rusu, who agreed to preach at all four events on the first day of the mission — to begin the following day! The results were spectacular, with an explosion of responses to the gospel. 137 people attended the first event, a breakfast for seniors. Rusu spoke very powerfully, although he was not as precise in his presentation of the gospel as the highly-trained NGA evangelists are. Nevertheless, 91 responded and 79 indicated their desire to attend a ‘Next Steps’ discipleship course. Roughly similar numbers came to an ‘affinity lunch’ for teachers and medical staff and a teenagers’ pizza party and over 180 enjoyed the couples’ dinner, when the building’s sliding doors had to be opened to accommodate more of the big crowd listening outside. Although the preaching opportunities had to be cancelled the following morning, a few local churches got together to reach out to their neighbours that evening. This situation had an astonishingly positive impact on the preacher asked to do the job, since until then he had felt manipulated by the foreign evangelists, that their approach would not work in Romania and that it is wrong to evangelise in restaurants anyway. Then, he said, ‘I went home and read about Paul going to the Aeropagus and other “sinful” places to preach. So I repented of my attitude and brought friends along. My former boss, who was also there, told me after the event, “I need God”!’ Spiritual blessingThe following day, 20% more guests turned up to the business and professionals luncheon than there was space for and 40 people made decisions for Christ. Nearly 70% of those attending the ladies’ coffee event responded to the gospel. One of the most remarkable of many outpourings of the Holy Spirit came at a youth meeting at the end. As Daniel Mihet said: ‘Unfortunately, the guest speaker was overwhelmed by the event, so his message was not too convincing. But, when God is in control, he has the solution for every eventuality! In the audience was a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays for Medias in the Romanian first division. He sang a song at the start of the evening and, since I could see he had great passion for God and was well received by the students, we asked him to give a short message at the end. He spoke about God’s plan for everybody in the room, about his love for them and really motivated the people to confess Jesus as their Saviour. 92 people made decisions for Christ as a result of what he said’. From such unpromising geological beginnings, Medias really woke up to Christ in April. 1,000 people attended the various meetings, of whom 600 or so were declared unbelievers. By the end, 350 of these indicated that they had invited Christ to be their Saviour for the first time, while approximately 250 reaffirmed a previous decision to do so. But what happened to the three American evangelists? They had been due to travel on from Romania to another outreach in Lutsk in the Ukraine. So they took a train right across Europe to the Polish/Ukraine border where they were met by LPA’s Polish co-ordinator. They were then driven all the way to Lutsk, arriving just 30 minutes before the first event began. Well over 300 people made first-time decisions for Christ during this mission. Medias provides an object lesson in trusting God. While the trained LPA evangelists were trying (and failing) to overcome the natural obstacle of the volcano, our supernatural God enthused and invigorated a group of relatively inexperienced local church leaders to take the spiritual responsibility for their own community. And as they stepped out in faith and did just that, his kingdom in Romania has been wonderfully enlarged. Nigel Gordon,
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