Cost: $875 per person plus airfare

 

Register by: March 15, 2012

 

Entry Requirements: USA passport only

 

Why Go? The Roma are one of the largest minority populations in Romania. They continue to be one of the most open people to the Gospel in all of Europe. Despite this, there are few churches that reach out to them. IWC will help to open doors for ministry in a new area of work with the Roma through children's programs, sports ministry, literature distribution, and home visits. Participants will also encourage and strengthen Roma youth believers through Bible study groups and relationship-building. 

 

About Buzau: Buzau is is a rural community in the foothills of the mountains of mid-Romania. There will be a lot of walking, dirt roads, hills, and one swinging bridge over a small river. It is a beautiful area of Romania. Days will be very warm, but evenings could be cool enough for a light jacket.

 

Cultural Information: A legacy of brokenness endures in Romania from the days of Ceausescu’s regime, a moral vacuum being filled with every kind of social problems. Substance abuse, prostitution, pornography, human trafficking and challenges to child welfare are widespread and Romania has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. The prevailing local religion is Roman Orthodoxy, but the years of Soviet rule did much to decimate faith among many. A resistance movement of persecuted believers outlasted communism and has led to a growing evangelical population, Europe’s fourth largest. This is despite an overall decline in population. While Romania is considered one of the more spiritually receptive European nations, the Roma continue to be a neglected minority people group with few churches to receive them.

  

Total capacity for this project: 45