09/04/10: The Ministry of Hope
The Ministry of Hope
Andrei Bordas, age 32, a Romanian missionary, has started a phone ministry for people in crisis. Those who have problems with family, depression, thoughts of suicide, or any sudden difficulty they cannot solve, are welcome to call for helpful instruction and the opportunity to pray and meet with Andrei in their homes or in church.
Everyday Andrei is leading helpless or discouraged people to God through witnessing and prayer. God has given him the talent of speech and he is especially burdened to help young people. He visits his contacts and invites them to a daily prayer meeting in church. Some have already accepted the Sabbath and many more come to attend daily prayer meeting. The only problem is the lack of space for the growing number of attendees.
A few experiences
Andrei tells of one experience where God impressed him to go to the Parliament. He knew that there were cameras and guards to keep people away, but he walked through the big gate and went right into the house. Before the authorities he witnessed of his faith, and as they saw his courage and wisdom they asked in astonishment how many degrees he had. “None at all,” he said, “but eight classes.” Then they asked how he got through the guards and cameras without being stopped. “I took the normal way through the gate,” he said. He left some books there for them to read.
On another occasion, Andrei was invited by a lady to come to her village. When he met the lady, he met other people on the street and began asking what their prayer requests were. He prayed with them and announced that on the next day they would gather again for worship and prayer. The next day was the Sabbath. On that Sabbath he was serving a group of Orthodox people who had gathered to hear God’s word!
A crisis makes life hard for the unemployed, widows, or divorced young women with children. Many are losing all they have. Recently Andrei visited people who have not been able to buy food any more. (Andrei himself has no house of his own, but is living with a family in a room with a small bathroom. He does not even have a car.) He had only 100 Lei (around 20 Euros)! He prayed, “Lord, you know I have only this much, but I am going to share it.” On the same evening somebody came and gave him 200 Lei.
One Sabbath evening, after his sermon, Andrei gave the church an opportunity to mention their prayer requests when a father asked him to pray for healing for his son. Because of sickness he had been dumb and deaf for six years. Andrei prayed, but nothing happened. When he left church that evening he was restless and was wondering why God would not heal the boy and in what case God would fulfill his promise of healing. Andrei did not sleep that night but prayed until 6:00AM. He wanted to receive an answer from God, but nothing happened. After a while Andrei was called to minister in the village of the father and his son. As the father met Andrei, he joyfully told him that after he got home from church, at 6:00 in the morning to the astonishment of all, his son started to speak. The whole village wondered what was happening and the father explained that somebody prayed for the healing of his son. The whole village gathered in the Seventh-day Adventist church on the following Sabbath. Andrei received an answer to his prayer because he followed Luke 18:1!
My thoughts and prayers
God saw that the time came for me to be made aware of this ministry so that I could tell others about it! I knew Andrei when he was about 11-years-old. He and his brother were invited for lunch with my family many times on Sabbaths. They were eager to come, since their mom divorced their dad when he accepted the faith. I was eleven when I left Romania and could not keep in touch with most of the church members. I had not heard or thought about Andrei for 20 years. Suddenly he was calling me on Skype. It took me a while to remember who he was. Somebody from Fagaras knows my brother and gave him his number. I feel impressed to share a bit of what he shared because he speaks only Romanian, Hungarian and Spanish, but I am convinced that his ministry reflects all that we read in Ministry of Healing, 156: “To reach the people, wherever they are, and whatever their position or condition, and to help them in every way possible – this is true ministry. By such effort you may win hearts and open a door of access to perishing souls.”
Andrei is giving all he has. He had a well-paying job in Spain, but he said that he could not bear the thought that so many people are suffering without knowing Christ. He felt that he needed to go back to his country to help those people.
I feel impressed to make you aware that if all those who read this article would donate only $100 or even only as much as they can easily afford to give away, Andrei could buy an apartment where he could gather people for daily prayer meeting, care for Bible study contacts, present spiritual and health lectures on a screen, have a library to share books with his contacts and send out and correct Bible study lessons. He is a full-time missionary, yet he is not paid by the conference – they cannot afford it.
Just think how many projects and missionaries could be supported if every Adventist would give only $1 a week. Incredible! Also in this sense there is strength in unity.
If you feel impressed to share what you have, you may! You must know, “The earthly blessings which we impart to others may be, and often are, repaid in kindness. What we give does, in time of need, often come back to us in fourfold measure in the coin of the realm.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 136.
May the Lord bless you in engaging in this work or in the support of it!
By Zita Kovacs.
If you would like to donate to Andrei’s work, please send your offering to Mission Projects International and mark it “Thirteenth Sabbath Offering”. All money collected as thirteenth Sabbath offering this quarter will go to see to help Andrei and his sacrificial work.
Mission Projects International, PO Box 59656, Renton, WA 98058. Telephone: 800-467-4174