Tuesday, November 20, 2012

More of His Wonderful Blessings - AYC and Prayer Camp


AYC Prayer Team
When I look behind at the last 2 months of my life, I cannot but marvel at the wonderful things God did for me. First it was the GC Annual Council, than it was the AYC Congress in the Northern Germany and than the Prayer Camp in Romania. Even though I jumped from one plane to another and I had only one day between these three events, just enough to unpack and pack again, I praise God for strength. He knew that I would be traveling and He decided to build my body in such a way that I do not have a problem with the jet leg.

After the experience from GC Annual Council I decided not to do any more events without a prayer team and a lot of prayer behind the scenes before and during the event. And God sent a wonderful prayer team of 7 people at AYC, Germany. He did a miracle for one of the team members. She was not sure if she could come. But He proved again that He is more powerful than Satan and brought her. We spend a WONDERFUL time in prayer together early in the morning, during the day and late at night. I would not trade these moments for anything in the world.

The first night, after the program was done in the main auditorium, we got together to pray for an hour. We thought that it will only be our prayer team. Well, we ended up praying for two hours. As we were praying 9 more people joined us. The amazing thing is that 6 of them were from the organizing team! Praise God for leaders who see their need of prayer!

Another amazing thing is that the AYC was an answer to prayer for the local church. We have prayed for many months (since April) that God will provide a venue for AYC. But it seems that every time they found something and it seemed to be the right thing, the people canceled on them. It was not easy for the organizing team to know that they do not have a place for the congress. They even wanted to cancel the whole congress because they did not have a venue. God allowed them to go through the dark tunnel with apparently no light at end. And this united them in prayer. He provided the venue right before it was too late. They did not really like the fact that it was up North on an island, pretty far and isolated. But it was worth all the efforts and all the waiting, all the traveling because this was an answer to the prayers of the small church from the island who has been trying to follow God and spread the Gospel. As I got to pray and talk to a few of them, I realized that they are people of prayer. They have prayed for a long time for help to spread the Gospel on the island and AYC was God's answer to their prayers.


I was so impressed by a 12 year old girl from the island who came to the prayer room right after outreach to pray for the people she met during the outreach. Since our united prayer session was done and she was the only one in the prayer room, we just had special prayer for her (for around 10 minutes). Later on she went to her mom and told her that she was disappointed that we did not pray longer. How is that??? 12 year old girl... disappointed we did not pray longer??? Praise God for parents who raise their children for God!

Another thing that I decided after the GC Annual Council was to try and have an all night prayer meeting to the events I am going to. So, when we got there, we asked permission to have an all night prayer meeting. Permission was granted and we had an AMAZING and POWERFUL time in prayer until 2:45 in the morning. We had around 22 people join us which was a good number considering the fact that even though the Congress started with 250 people, some of them left on Sunday and there were only 100 something left on Sunday night.

During the all night prayer meeting one of our team members, Andre, left. I did now know where he went, but the next day he said that he went to talk to the guards about God. He told me something that revealed to me one more time the importance of intercession and prayer. He said that he had a wonderful and deep discussion with the guards as long as we were were praying in the prayer room. After we went to sleep around 3 AM they talked about irrelevant things!!!

Well, God showed me one more time that He loved Germany and He has many precious children there.

I came home determined not to go anywhere anymore. I had so much work to do and I needed rest. There was a prayer camp that started the very next day but since I did not hear from them, I thought that they did not need me anymore so I was determined not to go. Well, they contacted me a couple of days before the camp and insisted that I come. So I went. Boy, am I glad I went???

God really blessed this camp. It was a small camp of around 25-30 people. But I was very blessed. It is so good to meet Romanian people who are seeking for something more. We had 7 pastors join us and all of them loved united prayer.

We had an all night prayer meeting, as well, and prayed until 3 AM. Over 20 people came and prayed with us. It just showed me again that I need to try to do an all night prayer meeting at the events I am going to, if possible.

During the camp we prayed for the sister of one of the attendees. She is not an Adventist and she is a teacher. Three years ago she went with some students to the seaside. It so happened that two of them drowned and she was taken to court. She has been going to court for a while and it seemed that there is so much corruption and the others who should also be kept responsible try to throw all the blame on her and even bribe her lawyer so she had to change lawyers. Anyway, she had a hearing while we were in the camp and we prayed for her. The hearing lasted for 7 hours. She called to tell us that she felt the power of our prayers. She had peace the whole time.

Another thing we prayed for was the family of one of the attendees. His brother got married more than a year ago against the will of his parents and this affected their relationship. His mom simply did not want to accept his decision and there was a lot of tension and fighting back and forth. So we pleaded with God that He will take away the tension and mend the broken relationship. Two days after the camp he texted me and told me that his brother called his mom and that she told him that she forgave him.

It was amazing to see God brining together people from my own country with a passion for prayer. As you know, I have not really done a lot in my country because God did not open opportunities, but it seems that the time has finally come. In two days I will be at the AMICUS congress where we will have a prayer room and united prayer in the main meetings. We have been praying that this congress will bring a revival among the SDA students and we believe that God will do it. We have a good line up of speakers who are passionate about God and mission work. Satan has put many obstacles in our way but we are determined to go forward. He did many miracles and we are so thankful for His love and care for us.

God is also preparing the way for IMPACT Scandinavia (Sweden), an event where I am going at the end of December. I have been praying that God will pull together a prayer team, even though I do not know anybody in the Scandinavian countries. Last week I was impressed to ask a girl from the UK (she is Romanian) who attended ARME UK to come and join my sister and I at IMPACT. She told me that she cannot come because of her business (she owns a health food store). Two days later she wrote back that she bought her ticket and she is coming. Than I found out that another one of my prayer partners from Germany is coming. Isn't God good? I knows that He has great things prepared for us there.

Sometimes I wonder how would my life have looked like had I not known and served the Lord. He is the reason I live and love life. It is because of Him that I am happy. Had it not been for knowing Him, for serving Him, I would be miserable. I just love getting to know Him better, being in His presence, seeing Him showing up for us, changing lives and working in my own life. I was thinking these days that if I were to die, I would die peacefully because I know that I have not lived in vain. 

Friday, November 16, 2012

My "Enoch Time" at the GC Annual Council



If I were to characterize my time spent with the prayer team at the General Conference, I would say it was an "Enoch time". It was such a sacred time that I really do not know how to describe. There were three wonderful weeks spent with the Lord. I simply did not want it to end and I did not want to go back to my mundane activities. I think I now understand Peter who said to the Lord: "Let us make here three tabernacles" (Matt. 17:4) and I have also finally understood in a very practical way what David meant in Ps. 27,4: "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple."

I have learned so much about Him, about prayer and especially about intercession. And I think that I have understood a little better the great controversy. I understood more of how important it is to pray under the stage, where no one sees and knows what you are doing. I saw more of how beautiful it is just to pray for people you do not even know and watch Him work and intervene in miraculous ways. 

I could tell you a lot of stories about how God miraculously healed my physical sickness right after He healed my heart, how He brought new team members to join us, how He opened doors for us to talk about and lead united prayer in several churches in Maryland, how He opened the way for us to have an all night prayer meeting in a church and made it a blessing for all who came, how He blessed the meetings the the GC and everybody said that they could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, how He brought the leaders to their knees, how He brought to the prayer room people I knew and I have never thought they will come, how He strengthened us even though we woke up around 2:45 every morning, how He opened the door for us to pray in the President's office even though we have never asked for it. He did so many things and answered so many prayers! I have named just a few.

But for me the greatest work is the one that He did on my heart, the things that He revealed to me about Him and about myself. I think I understand better now why Jesus said to the disciples: "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:20)

I will never be the same after this experience. My prayer life would never be the same. I have learned so many things from the people I have prayed with. I have left the GC with quite a few decisions. Some are of a personal nature in regards to my personal prayer life. Others are related to my ministry. One of the things that I decided is that I do not want to go to another event where I am invited to lead a prayer room and have a workshop without a prayer team and without serious prayer behind the stage before and during the event. Actually, this experience convinced me that praying behind the scenes is even more important than praying in the prayer room with people. Another decision was to try to have an all night prayer meeting to the events I am going to. The three all night prayer meetings that I have attended in the last 3 months were so powerful and such a blessing for people, that I decided to try and do it whenever possible.

I have always said that I would love to go back and live in the jungle. But now, I changed my mind. I want to live in His presence, wherever this would be. I think that I have tasted a little more of His goodness, I have caught another glimpse of Him, I have beheld a little more of His beauty and I want to "dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD."