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+"Salutari din Romania, fratilor si surorilor nostri in Domnul Isus Hristos de la Biserica voastra din Kennesaw!"
translation: "Greetings from Romania to our brothers & sisters in Christ at your Church in Kennesaw!"
A Personal Note to Community from Elisei & Adriana Rusu
"We consider it an honor to serve the Lord in Romania, having you all here with us through your prayers and support. We are truly thankful
for Community Bible Church, and we pray that God will continue to bless you and continue to provide for His work
and servants."
Yours,
Elisei & Adriana
 | Adriana & Elisei (on right) meeting with friends.
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UPDATE: March 5th, 2009:
Pat Pieters and Rob Thompson will be traveling to Bucharest and Ploiesti from March 20th-31st. While there they will attend the Centennial Memorial for Richard Wurmbrandt in Bucharest. They will also be meeting with the churches in Bucharest and Ploiesti, and some of the surrounding villages. *Please keep Pat & Rob in your prayers, for safe travel, for following the Lord's leading while there, and for their safe return.
UPDATE: Feb 1st, 2009
Dear Friends at Community Bible Church,
Greetings from Bucharest, Romania. We would like
to share with you our ministry report of ardent prayer requests. This past month
has stretched our faith and service beyond what we expected.
1. Please pray for our preaching/teaching ministry.
Elisei works faithfully to prepare for the sermons he preaches regularly on the
Gifts of the Holy Spirit, a section of the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit;
and Adriana prepares and teaches the bible study for women. Besides that, the
leadership team in the
church asked Elisei to develop the college student
ministry. Although Elisei is looking forward to this
new ministry opportunity,
he is also aware that this involves extra study time and extra time away from
family and personal matters.
2. Please pray for the ongoing trial regarding the
property of the Church and Bible Institute. On January
the 7th we
received a subpoena to be in court the next day, on the 8th! This is unusual even for the
Romanian
courts, as the Romanian law allows 15 days for the parties to prepare before the
court date.
So, Elisei dropped
everything and gathered the defense team and only by a miracle was able to get
to
the courthouse to obtain another court date for February the 5th.
This gives the lawyers time to prepare
the defense. Please pray that the church
defense team will meet an honest judge that will realize the
unjust treatment we
have faced in the last 22 months.
3. We are in the middle of modular teaching session at
the Timotheus Bible Institute. Over sixty students have been coming to study the
Word of God. Please pray that in spite of the cold and harsh weather conditions,
both students and teachers can focus on their work. Please pray that the time
spent at the Timotheus Bible Institute will bring more Christ-centered service
in their churches and help the believers there to mature in Christ and worship
our Heavenly Father wholeheartedly.
4. As many of you know, during all this, Adriana's dad
passed away. The Lord provided for her to attend
the funeral through the
generosity of one of our ministry partners (Thank you, Pat!). Adriana's
father went
to be with the Lord on January 3rd, and the funeral took
place on January the 8th. Although he was a Christian and is now with
the Lord, as another good ministry partner and dear friend said, it is
"a bitter
sweet event…" (Thank you, Rick!) Please pray for the emotional burden
this is for Adriana.
5. For both of us, Elisei and Adriana, to stay strong in
our faith as we continue to entrust ourselves and
our ministry to God on a daily
basis during this time of financial and economic uncertainty. We trust in God's
faithfulness and we covet your prayers on our behalf.
Yours in Christ,
Elisei and Adriana
 | The Gypsy Church in Sibiu where Pat preached on Oct. 30, 2008.
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UPDATE From Pat & Barb in Romania: Nov. 6th, 2008
Greetings Church Family from Romania:
We had a good and busy schedule overall. The first week we were
in Ploiesti. We met with a Sunday School parents group as they
discussed what was working and not working at Agape church (Jeremiah's
church). They asked me to share about 30 minutes our family
development strategy, especially the issues around parents not
abdicating responsibility for training the children, to the church.
Next day, I preached in the morning and evening there. And Monday,
Barb met with a group of women at the church and I met with in the
evening with elders from about 6 churches in the region (they usually
ask me to come and share some things with them, they are way way way
out in the villages in the countryside but are real neat group of
guys.) Then Tuesday evening I met with the elders and leadership team
at Agape church and we discussed more in depth the CBC family
development strategy and I emphasized the differences between strategy
and implementation. But overall it was a very good discussion,
probably one of the best we've had in all the years we have been
meeting. They have four more new younger men on the team since last
year.
Then we took a 5 hour train to Sibiu. There we met at the
mission complex and I met for half a day with Robert Kramer who is
helping with the teaching and the computer systems there. Wednesday
night I preached at Betel church and it went very well. Then Thursday
we went out to the Gypsy church and preached there and met some of the
people we knew from last time. Then back on the train for a six hour
ride back to Bucharest.
Things in Bucharest weren't as busy as in the past so it was
nice to have a couple of days just meeting and talking with Elisei and
Adriana about the church, TBI, and the ministry in Romania. I preached
Sunday morning at Antiohia church and got the systems for everyone up
to date on Norton and Libronix etc.,
Pat
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 | Pat & Barb visiting in the home of the couple who sold the property to the Gypsies so they could hold church services there (Oct 2008).
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__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
October 23, 2008:
Pat & Barb Pieters leave for Romania today, and will return in a couple of weeks. *Please keep them in your prayers, for effective ministry opportunities with our brothers & sisters in Christ there, and for traveling mercies. Thank You...(stay tuned for upodates from Pat & barb as they become available).
October 3, 2008
Dear Friends at CBC,
Summer is gone and Fall is almost half gone as well in Romania. We left you last time with many prayer requestsfor our ministry, Time has flown by, so allow me to go back and tell you about some of the events of the past couple of months.
August was the European Ministry Month: It was good but tiring to work with Romanian Christians who have developed new churches throughout Europe. As you may know, many have left Romania to find work in other European countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Elisei's teaching on "The Value of the Scriptures," "The End Times," and "Life after Death" helped Christians gain perspective on their problems and focus on the "things above" where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and whom we will meet one day. Although it was a hectic time, it was ver rewarding. For example, one Sunday Elisei preached in three churches in Vienna!
September was the Court Defense Month: We mentioned before that there was going to be a trial for the church and the Bible Institute property in September, and we actually had two: one in the beginning and the other at the end of the month. The first one was tono avail because the judge said he needed more time to study the case. The next court date was on Sept. 29th. The judge suspended our case until we hear the ruling from another trial against the City Mayor's decision from 2007. This is judicial abuse because there are two different obectives in these two trials, so our lawyers are taking action against the suspension.
By God's grace the churches in Romania are alive and thriving! People are accepting the Lord and getting baptized. One example of this is a man named George, who heard the Gospel for the first time at age 62, afer working and living in Austria for 24 years. he was so moved b the reality of the good news that he came to all of Elisei's preaching meetings in Austria and decided to follow Christ. Also, a couple of weeks ago, Elisei preachedat the baptism of 16 people! We have also celebrated many weddings. Through all of this, we can truly say that the Lord is the "strength and joy of His people."
*Please continue to pray for us, that we will keep looking to the Lord:
For guidance for the trial, for the spirit of God to work on the hearts of the judge, and all involved.
For the ministry here in Bucharest.
For others like George who have accepted Christ as their Savior!
We Thank You for your support.
Co-workers with you,
Elisei & Adriana Rusu
*For email correspondance with 'Rebuild Romania Ministries' - carusu@gmail.com or rusuac@aol.com
ROMANIA UPDATE: June 3rd, 2008
Dear Friends at Community Bible Church,
We are fine; just very busy with a lot of things to be done. Our church is in partnership with other
40+ churches from Bucharest in an evangelistic outreach effort (BucharestFest) and I am involved
in organizing two large dinners for VIP (400 people) and Professors (200 People) that are taking
place next week. Adriana is also involved in a women's dinner of over 600 people and in follow up
evangelistic counseling.
Hopefully next week over 2,000,000 people will hear the gospel in Bucharest!
Please pray for us.
Today we had the court day and we are waiting for the resolution. After we will receive the
resolution I will write you.
Elisei
 | Carpathian Mountain Range, (outside Sibiu) on the way to Poliesti...
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ROMANIA UPDATE: from Pat & Barb: April 2, 2008:
Dear Church Family,
Here's a couple of pictures from Romania. After a couple of days in Bucharest we went to Sibiu which is in the Translvanian region. Beautiful landscape and mountains there. We visited and preached in three churches in three nights, then a small Gypsy church there as well, preaching one night in that church. The pictures I have sent you are of that small church. Some really exciting stories there about how God worked in peoples hearts when the church first began, almost like it was right out of the book of Acts!
More pics later, I can only send 5 @ a time on web version of mail server, and cannot send out of Romania using anything like Outlook, so I'm inhibited on how much I can send right now. Thank You for your prayers, and please keep them coming!
- Pat
 | Pat's luxurious Suite! *(Hey, where's Barb???)
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 | Bible School in Selenbar where Pat & Barb spent the night. *(see photo on left)
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ROMANIA UPDATE from Pat & Barb: March 24h, 2008
Dear Church Family,
I think we found a little work around here. (ha...) Can't send anything through Outlook or outlook express or email app, but I can get out on Bellsouth mail directly and send that way for time being.
Our schedule is that we will be in Bucharest from arrival until Wednesday 3/26. I preached on Easter Sunday here and it went well. Everyone here says hello to everyone there, and they are very appreciative for our prayers for them here in Bucharest.
On Wednesday we drive to Sibiu, about 6 hours away, where I will preach that evening, and then Friday evening, 3/28, in two different churches there and help them setup and learn more about Libonrix and Lesson Builder.
Then on Saturday we go to 'Ploiesti Agape Church' and preach there Sunday morning 3/30, and evening, along with perhaps a couple times during the week. Barb will be meeting with the women there and we will be attending some bible studies during the week.
Then on the following Friday, 4/4 or Saturday the 4/5, we will return to Bucharest. They said it will be good to be out of town during those days because the NATO Summit is being held there in Bucharest and the traffic will be horendous.
Once back here in Bucharest, I preach on Sunday morning here, then off to Giurgiu by the Danube for Sunday evening preaching. Back to Bucharest and again preach on Thursday evening. Barb will work with elderly that week and also meet with women's group during that week also.
Mark, no pictures yet, but they will be coming.
Pat
PRAYER ALERT: February 23, 2008
Dear Friends at Community Bible Church:
Please join us in prayer! Sunday, February 24, 2008 is the national day of prayer for the Romanian churches.
*Please join us in prayer that the Almighty God will help Antioch Church and Timotheus Bible Institute
in Bucharest in the ongoing trial to keep their property from Elena Radu, a neighboring Romanian businesswoman.
*Please pray with us that:
1. God will prevent this injustice by bringing a group of honest judges on the next court date, March 28, 2008.
2. Elena Radu and Adriean Videanu, the general mayor of Bucharest, will realize their wrong
doing and turn their hearts to God.
3. The Romanian Christians will continue to trust the Lord and do not give up or get discouragement
in face of corruption and injustice.
In His love,
Elisei and Adriana Rusu
Missionaries to Romania
UPDATE: June 16th
Prayer Alert 5
Dear Friends:
We made it to Bucharest well after an uneventful flight. Praise the Lord no lost luggage this time. Thank you for your prayers for a safe trip. Regarding the Church and TBI property status, this week we had another court hearing. This time the lawyer of Elena Radu from the Diverta Company did not deny the existence of the buildings on our property but the legality of them. When our lawyer presented copies of all legal approvals (many of them given by the office of the Mayor of Bucharest) she asked for an extension to read the documents. The next court day will be July 10th.
*Please pray for Elena Radu, that her heart might be changed and she come to Christ.
*Please pray that the judge will see that we are lawful owners of the property.
*Please pray for guidance and wisdom when meeting with the inspector from the National Anticorruption Agency (NAA). Elisei will have a meeting with him on Monday regarding the unfair ruling given by a judge and the Mayor of Bucharest. If NAA will find the judge and/or the Mayor mistaken all court decisions will be reevaluated and our legal proofs will be taken into consideration.
*Please continue to pray for our ministry coming up next weeks, when TBI will start the modular courses and we will be teaching between 4 to 8 hours a day.
Thank you for partnering with us in furthering God’s kingdom in Romania.
Yours in Christ,
Elisei and Adriana Rusu
UPDATE: May 26th
Prayer Alert 4
Dear Friends @ Community,
Thank you for keeping us in your prayers during this difficult time of our ministry in Bucharest, Romania. As you may remember, on Monday, May 21, 2007 the church’s lawyer had a hearing regarding the unjust ruling of the General Mayor of Bucharest. The hearing was less than 30 minutes because Elena Radu, the co-owner of Diverta Company (the Romanian version of Office Max), sent her lawyers to challenge us in court.
*Her claim is based on the same unjust ruling we are challenging in court. She maintains that the land the church and the Institute are built on is hers and that we must leave the location. Because of the new judicial action the Diverta Company is making, a new hearing in a will be set in a different court for the near future. I hope to find out the date at the beginning of next week after I will talk again with the lawyer from Bucharest.
*Our case against the Mayor’s ruling, which is being held in the administrative courts, will be put on hold as attention is given to the new judicial action started by the Diverta Company, which will be fought in the civil courts.
Please continue to pray:
- For our young lawyer to stay strong in facing a couple of more experienced and tough lawyers the Diverta Company hired to challenge us;
- That the Lord will help us to find a more experienced lawyer that will ask for a reasonable fee (the fee could reach up to 10% of the value of the property, which is close to $10,000,000);
- That Elena Radu and her company will stop coveting God’s property and, consequently, she will stop fighting us in court; *(PLEASE PRAY FOR HER TO COME TO KNOW OUR SAVIOR!)
- For the Christians to stay strong and trust the Lord in this time of trial;
- For wisdom for Elisei and his team involved in defending the property.
Thank you for your partnership with us in holding high the Name of the Lord in the midst of adversity.
In His strength,
Elisei and Adriana Rusu
UPDATE: May 21st
Prayer Alert 3
Dear Friends at Community,
Many of you know that our church in Bucharest, Biserica Crestina Nr. 1 (Antioch Church) is under Satan’s attack. The co-owner of the Diverta Company (the Romanian Office Max) wants to take the church property from us by lying and manipulating the already corrupt Romanian courts. She testified in court that there are no buildings on the property as she wants the property for her business. Based on her testimony, the General Mayor of Bucharest ruled to take the church property from us although there are two large buildings, one for the church and one for the Bible Institute on the land.
This church was established in 1899 by missionaries that came from England and Switzerland. Many of the 700 Romanian Brethren churches came out of this foundational church in the last century. The Bible Institute was established in 1993 and has touched the lives of hundreds of current and former students in the last fourteen years. Some of our graduates are mangers of the radio stations or TV stations in Romania. Most minister in their local churches or other ministries.
We praise God that the judicial executor was unable to take away the property on May 4, 2007 because of the peaceful protest and media exposure. Many people from the church, the Bible Institute and other local churches from Bucharest came to support us. Reporters from TV stations, radio and newspapers were also present to witness and record the event. From now on the battle continues in the courts to clear the status of the church property. The first hearing will take place this Monday, May 21, 2007.
We want to ask you to pray for this hearing. Please pray that the Mayor’s decision will be changed, and Elena Radu will understand that this property belongs to the Church. Also please continue to write to the Governor of Bucharest and the President of Romania to change the mayor’s decision.
Please pray for the ongoing work of God in these two buildings. The evangelism and preaching the word of God in the church is developing the Christians and helping seekers to find God in this needy country. Teaching a new generation of Christian leaders and ministers for the churches in Romania at Timotheus Bible Institute is critical for Romania’s spiritual present and future. The students are thankful they can study to become better servants of the Lord in their local churches.
Thank you for supporting this work in Romania through your prayers and giving. We covet your prayers in this time of spiritual warfare:
*Pray for us personally as Elisei is spearheading the campaign in the courts and the media.
*Pray for the church that it will be faithful and persevere.
*Pray that the Lord will transform the heart of Elena Radu.
*Pray for victory in the courts.
(After the Monday hearing we will keep you informed).
Leaning on His strength,
Elisei and Adriana
URGENT UPDATE: May 12th Your action would be greatly appreciated!
Dear Friends @ Community:
Please write the General Mayor of Bucharest and the Governor of Bucharest to cancel the wrong decision and to follow the Law 10/2001 that stipulates that only properties without buildings should be returned to their former owners who were deposed by their properties by the communists. If a building (or buildings) is/are legally built on a property, the former owner will be compensated by the government, and the new owner will keep the property as long as the building(s) is/are on the property.
You should know that the church received the property in July 1990 from the local mayor (from sector 2), and the Law 10 was issued in 2001. We finished building the two buildings in 1999, and on 17-18 November 1999 we had the inauguration of the church. All these happened before the Law 10 was promulgated.
Radu Elena, the owner of Diverta, an office supply company interested to take our property (a very expensive property close to the downtown of Bucharest) did not tell that on the property at 53-55 Episcopul Radu St. we have the church, the Christian Grammar School and the Theological Institute although her business is 300ft from our property and both buildings can be seen from far away. Using lies she was able to determine the General Mayor to make the wrong decision to take away our property.
It is strategic to keep this property for the ministry. As one of my friends says, "These buildings are a vitally important part of the effort to bring Biblical integrity and righteousness to the capital city," qualities which the Mayor of the city should value highly.
Please write the General Mayor of Bucharest and the Governor of Bucharest to change this wrong decision.
The address of the General Mayor office is:
Primaria Municipiului Bucuresti
Attn.: Adriean Videanu, Primar General
Bd. Regina Elisabeta, Nr. 47
Bucuresti, Sector 5
Cod postal 050013
E-mail: avideanu@bucuresti-primaria.ro
The address for the Governor of Bucharest is:
Prefectura Municipiului Bucuresti
Attn.: Mioara Mantale, Prefect
Bd. Regina Elisabeta, Nr. 47
O.P.1, C.P.67
Bucuresti, Sector 5
E-mail: prefect@mai.gov.ro
Thank you for standing behind us in this difficult time.
In Him,
Elisei Rusu
Missionary to Romania
UPDATE from Pat & Barb: April 25th
Hello there,
How is everything going back in Atlanta? We are doing very well here. We have been travelling around a lot, but we are back in Bucharest now and I think we should be here for the rest of our time in Romania. Of course we have been having e-mail issues again, but hopefully this will work now.
We had a really nice day trip up into the mountains last weekend, and then another trip up to Sibiu which is a city up in the mountains also. It was really nice and well kept up. It looks more like a western European city. Pat may be setting up a new training resource center there on our
next trip. This city has been selected for the "cultural center of Europe" for this year.
Last Tuesday we went to a small village church near Ploiesti for a prayer meeting. Everyone there was in prayer for Rod. It was really a very humbling experience for us to be there with them and hearing them all pray for our concerns.
Lida is doing much better right now, but continue to pray for her too. I was also able to meet with Viorica (the Dr. in Ploiesti). She was so very grateful for all of the medical supplies that I was able to bring her and also buy for her when we got here. Please thank everone for their
participation in making that possible.
***Please pray for a special need in the church here in Bucharest. There is a woman who is trying to say that she has the rights to the property that the church and the institute are on. After the revolution here, the government sold property to people and later found out that it really did
belong to other people and properties are now being taken from people who have lived there for years. There are some unbelievable stories. Please pray that this can be resolved and that the church and Bible institute will not lose their property.
Tomorrow morning I will be meeting with Simone, the nurse here in Bucharest who is helping the older people with medical supplies and blood tests. On Friday I will be participating in a women's bible study with Adriana. Pat is spending time in the computer lab and he will be preaching again on Thurs. evening and Sun. morning. Actually, it's nice for me so that I can at least understand one of the sermons without having someone interpret and that is not always available.
Keep praying for us and we will be praying for you also. Hope to see you all on May 6.
Lots of love to all of you there. (There has been a lot of difficulty sending email. We can receive but can't get through the servers here to send out so we just found out we could do it on Pat's IBM system thru the IBM Network, that's why it's coming on this email id).
Barb (for Pat and Barb)
 | Pat & Elisei (as interpreter) preaching in Bucharest.
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 | Adriana meets with local women to help in the study and discernment of their spiritual gifts.
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Rebuild Romania Ministries
PO Box 937
Wheaton, IL 60189
E-mail:rebuildromania@comcast.net
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