During the days of the Roman Empire, Rome conquered the Dacians, ancestors of the Romanian people, and made the region a Romanian province. When the Roman Empire fell, the people of the area mixed with Germanic, Magyar, and Slavic peoples to form the Romanian people.
The Romanian Orthodox Church is the largest religious organization in the country. From 1948-1989, atheistic Communist ideology ruled the land.
1990
During Communist rule, a Baptist Mid-Missions missionary made numerous trips into Romania and made valuable contacts with Romanian Christian leaders.
In the spring of 1990—just a few months after the execution of President Nicolae Ceaușecu and the subsequent fall of Communism—this missionary took two BMM administrators into Romania to learn what the believers considered to be their greatest needs. These persecuted believers declared that their greatest need was teaching. Of approximately 1,100 Baptist churches, only about 150 had pastors.
In 1993, a Romanian pastor of a Romanian Baptist church in the US was burdened for the Roma population in his homeland. He and his wife returned to Romania to evangelize and plant churches among the Roma people. Churches were planted in Tinca, Batar, Giriș, Tamajda, Oșand, Salonta, Gepiu, Ciumeghiu, Olcea, Gepiș, and Cefa.
Tim and Sandy Fink arrived in 2001 to assist in further Roma church
planting and leadership training. They planted churches in Oșorhei,
Cheriu, and Marțihaz before God called them to different ministry. Luke
and Kimberly Warner, who arrived in 2009, started a church plant amongst
the Roma in the village of Luncșoara and have begun a literacy
ministry to meet the literacy needs of the Roma. Also on the field
are Dave and Ruth Kimmel, whose ministry is to assist the other
missionaries in the area of discipleship. Travis and Becky Gravley formerly served in church planting/pastoring in Cheriu before joining the BMM Global Ministries Center staff in 2017.
All missionaries are praying that God will use this team to reach the
people of Romania for Christ and to encourage more workers to join this
team in harvesting souls for Jesus Christ.
There are about 2.5 million Roma in Romania who are open to the gospel. There is freedom now in Romania to preach, teach, and print Bibles and tracts. The doors are wide open and the harvest is white.
There is a great need for more missionaries to work with Roma,
especially as church planters and instructors for the Bible institute.
One of the greatest needs the team currently has is to find personnel
with medical backgrounds to serve as liaisons within the Romanian
medical system to aid the Roma with their healthcare needs.
View the Romania field's video here.
Learn from a dynamic team of missionaries reaching Roma people in Romania. Our BMM ministry team in Romania possesses a passion to reach the youth of the Roma communities with the gospel and to raise up a new generation of disciples of Jesus Christ. They reach them through youth meetings, Bible studies, choir ministry, after school ministry, practical education, and literacy ministry.
Though Romania has experienced growth and transformation over the last decades, the vestiges of communism are apparent. It is a religious society, but true gospel churches are few, particularly those that are reaching the Roma population.
Spend a summer with a team that is passionately and wisely following God through open doors of ministry among Romania’s youth. Impact the future. Contact us today!
If you are willing to carry out Great Commission ministry mostly among youth who will one day become faithful adult church members, Romania holds great opportunity. Our BMM ministry team in Romania possesses a passion to reach the youth of the Roma communities with the gospel and to raise up a new generation of disciples of Jesus Christ. They reach them through youth meetings, Bible studies, choir ministry, after school ministry, practical education, and literacy ministry.
Though Romania has experienced growth and transformation over the last decades, the vestiges of communism are apparent. It is a religious society, but true gospel churches are few, particularly those that are reaching the Roma population.
Join a team that is passionately and wisely following God through open doors of ministry among Romania’s youth. Impact the future. Contact us today!