Ten Days of Prayer

Today is the first day of the 10 Days of Prayer, an initiative of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is such a blessing to start the year with these 10 days of prayer and to know that people all over the world are praying for the very same things. In the past Roman and I did not have a church to do the 10 days of prayer with, so we praise God that this year the Sendling Church from München is excited about praying together for these 10 days.

For Roman and I, these ten days of prayer are even more special. Why? Because we are the authors of the material for these 10 days of prayer.

It was last year around this time that we started praying that God will use us more than He had done until then. We had in mind certain things that we could do, certain places where we could talk about prayer. But God's plans were MUCH BIGGER than ours. We were pretty shocked when we received an email from the Ministerial Association of the General Conference asking if we were willing to write the material. It seemed such a big task for two people whose first language is not English. And simply to think that this will influence millions of lives all over the world made the task seem very daunting. But we were also excited, nevertheless. You know those mixed feelings: feeling joy that God wants to use you and answered your prayer and being overwhelmed of the enormity and importance of the task! That is exactly how we felt. But we decided to take on the task and trust in His power to accomplish this sacred job because we knew that His strength can be made perfect in our weakness. 

If you have not heard about the 10 Days of Prayer and are interested in the material and in doing it with a group of people, the material can be found here: http://www.tendaysofprayer.org/. The material has been translated into several languages that can be found on the same webpage.

Here is also an article that the Adventist Review wrote about the 10 Days of Prayer: Adventist Church to Begin 10 Days of Prayer.

We pray that God will use the material for His glory and that many lives will be touched and changed in these 10 days of prayer. Looking forward to eternity when we will be able to fully see how God used our weakness to impress precious truths upon hearts and change many lives.

  

Thoughts on Fasting

We are four days into our fasting and we love it. Fasting and praying together is such a blessing. I am so thankful for a husband who loves God and who is willing to pay any price just to come close to Him. 

I have read a few quotes on fasting that have really spoken to my heart, so I decided to share them with you.

The true fasting which should be recommended to all, is abstinence from every stimulating kind of food, and the proper use of wholesome, simple food, which God has provided in abundance. Men need to think less about what they shall eat and drink, of temporal food, and much more in regard to the food from heaven, that will give tone and vitality to the whole religious experience. — CD 90

Now and onward till the close of time the people of God should be more earnest, more wide-awake, not trusting in their own wisdom, but in the wisdom of their Leader. They should set aside days for fasting and prayer. Entire abstinence from food may not be required, but they should eat sparingly of the most simple food.—CD 188

Many who profess godliness do not inquire into the reason of Christ’s long period of fasting and suffering in the wilderness. His anguish was not so much from enduring the pangs of hunger as from His sense of the fearful result of the indulgence of appetite and passion upon the race. He knew that appetite would be man’s idol, and would lead him to forget God, and would stand directly in the way of his salvation. 1SM 284

The spirit of true fasting and prayer is the spirit which yields mind, heart, and will to God. 4BC 1148

For certain things fasting and prayer are recommended and appropriate. In the hand of God they are a means of cleansing the heart and promoting a receptive frame of mind. We obtain answers to our prayers because we humble our souls before God. MM 283

Humility... how much we need it. And this is the whole purpose of fasting. We do not soften God's heart to answer our prayers through fasting. Humbling our hearts should be the reason for fasting. When we humble our hearts before God, He knows that He can trust us to give us more because we would not take the glory to ourselves, but will give all the glory to Him.

Read this sobering quote about pride:

There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable. COL 154

As we fast at the beginning of this year, one of my heart's prayers is: Lord, teach me how to humble myself before You!

Seeking His Face through Fasting and Prayer

As I look behind at 2014, I can only be thankful for all of God's blessings. I have seen Him answering so many prayers. He's provided time and again. He has given me a wonderful, God-fearing, affectionate, sensitive, tactful and faithful husband. I am so thankful for his leadership, vision and determination to be true to God. I am so happy that we can travel together, pray together, minister together. It is such a blessing to have a ministry companion.

I am very excited to seeing how He will lead us in 2015. Though we are at a crossroad waiting on His leading, I am confident that our ears will soon hear behind us a voice telling which way to go.

So, since we believe that this year will bring many changes in our lives, we decided to start the year with 21 days of fasting and praying. We have been inspired some time ago to fast and pray by our friend Martin Kim. It is not the first time when we do a Daniel's fact. We fasted together for 10 days even before we started courting. And we have done it again  for 7 or 10 days several times in the last year and a half. But this is the first time we do it together at the beginning of the year for 21 days.

Why 21 days? In Daniel 10:2-3 we read: "In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled."

So we are following Daniel's example. Daniel's fast is not a fast where we totally abstain from food. Why? Because Daniel ate only certain foods during his fasting. So what do we eat?

In Daniel 1 the Prophet ate only vegetables (that would have included fruits) and drank only water. So we find in these scriptures two of the guidelines for the fast: only fruits and vegetables and only water for a beverage.

Then in Daniel 10 we read that the Prophet ate no meat nor any precious breads or foods and he drank no wine for 21 days. So from this chapter we get two other guidelines: no sweeteners and no breads.

In conclusion, we eat fruits and vegetables, raw or very simply cooked. No grains, no sugar, no artificial or processed foods, no chemicals are part of this fasting. I guess we can say that this fast is like a vegan diet but with even more restrictions.

The bottom line is to have a diet that will allow our mind to be more clear and more receptive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, to eat simple food that does not require a lot of preparation so we have more time for prayer and Bible study. We do not intend to only abstain from certain foods because that it is called a diet, not fasting. Our desire is to draw closer to our Saviour. We do not do this fast for Him, but for us. That is why we also do a media fast (fasting from Facebook, Youtube).

As we have done this in the past, we know that it has helped us tremendously. We have seen many answers to prayers. Last year I have started the year with 21 days of fasting and I have seen God working for us amazingly. He provided for our wedding though we did not have the money for it. We have prayer that He uses us to touch more people. As a result the General Conference has asked us to do the material for the 10 Days of Prayer. It has never crossed our minds that He can use us to put together a material for the worldwide church. But He showed us that He can trust us much more than we think and deserve. We've also heard many inspiring testimonies of what God can do when we seek for His face through fasting and praying. We have some friends who were facing many challenges in their marriage. After fasting and praying for 21 days they have told us that they have never been so close to God and to each other as they have been during this time. And I can go on...

My question for you, dear reader, is: Why don't you join us? You may want to think and pray about it. You might be reading this post after January 1. But it is never too late to start. You can start it later and finish it later. If you desire to come closer to God and to see Him working more than you do now, then I believe that fasting and praying is the answer to your pursuit. 

If you decide to join us in fasting and praying, or if you want more information about the Daniel's fast, you can leave a message below. 

When Being RIGHT Is Not Enough

Being right is one of those rights some of us defend at any price. When we feel we have been treated unjustly and the person does not want to admit it, we go to court so others can prove that we are right. When we think we have the biblical truth, we want to prove others that they are wrong. When we think that someone has done a mistake, we take it as our duty to point out the mistake. More than that, when someone wrongs us, we do not waste any effort to prove to them that we have the right to be treated right.

There is nothing wrong with being right. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to be right. But to be right it is not enough. Being right without humility leads to arrogance. And truth without love kills.

To have the truth is not everything. What we do with it matters even more. People should be attracted to the truth. But a lot of times they are not. Why? There are different reasons, but I want to talk only about one of them. Because we use the truth and the Bible to humiliate people, to prove how wrong they are and how good we are. In 2 Selected Messages, 328 we are told: "Read your Bible with much prayer. Do not try to humble others, but try to humble yourself before God, and deal gently with one another." When we use the Bible as a weapon and a mean to humiliate others, we are not doing Christ's work.

The Bible was not meant to be used with harshness, neither was it meant to be used to support our own ideas. But many of those who think that they are always right feel free to apply its teachings as to support their erroneous ideas.

Someone once talked to a young man who was spending a lot of time with a young girl, but with no intention to pursue her further. When confronted with his behavior, the young man told that Jesus spent time with the Samaritan woman (mind you, He was not a very close friend of hers, neither was He spending time with her behind closed doors) and He was also good friends with Mary and Martha (mind you, He was not spending time daily with them or telling them His heart's deepest secrets).

We have all met people who are ALWAYS right. People who, when confronted with something somebody else thinks it is wrong, do not search their heart to seek the truth, but instantly try to bring excuses as to why they are right, cause they HAVE to be right. It does not even enter their minds that they could be wrong. As we have seen already, they can even find biblical verses to back up what they do. Right or wrong, it takes a lot of humility to search your heart and admit the possibility that you might be wrong.

I once talked to a church leader who made fun of one of his members behind his back. I told him that such a behavior is not honorable for him, no matter what the member did (especially since the member did not do anything against him). He started to tell me how much he has to suffer the consequences of this member's behavior. I told him that Jesus has to suffer the consequences of his (this leader) behavior, too, but He does not make fun of him. And that we need to strive to be like Jesus. He tried to tell me that it is not the same thing... (Right, Jesus suffers because of him, much more than he has to suffer because of this member. But obviously he did not understand this.). He kept on excusing his behavior, so I chose to leave things at that, because I realized that, no matter what I said, he will keep on bringing excuses. I do not need to tell you what happened to my respect for that leader...

Sometimes, when you are right, it is wiser to leave things as they are, because if there is no humility, people will not accept that they can be wrong. It is only the Holy Spirit that can convict people of sin. And sometimes, people refuse the work of the Holy Spirit for a time. I learned this valuable lesson from my dear husband. He once had to talk to someone about something they have done wrong. I asked him how was the conversation. He does not like to give me details about such personal talks. The only thing he told me was: "I told them my point of view, but they could not understand it. It was like we talked two different languages. So I left it to that. I did not insist because it would have led nowhere." Praise God for wise husbands!!!

We have the right to be right, we need to tell the truth, but we also have the right to be humble and wise in dealing with people who are wrong. I know people who have pushed away all the people around them, who are lonely and miserable because they always think they are right. They feel it is their duty to convict people of sin. But they NEVER accept reproach. They always have an excuse for their behavior. And I feel sorry for them cause, even though they might have the truth, they are still wrong. They might have the right concept, but they have the wrong attitude.

That leads me to another point. It is not our duty to convict people of sin. This is not one of the duties God gave us. It is only the duty of the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that we should not talk to people about things they have done wrong. But we need not play the Holy Spirit with them. If they do not accept our reproof, it is either because the Holy Spirit is not working through us or they are rejecting the voice of the Holy Spirit. And we should be wise to leave it to that and allow the Holy Spirit to work in His own time and peace. But we need humility for that. And if it is missing, we will push things on people until we will drive them away from us. The next thing we do is that we will tell ourselves that we are so holy and so right that we are persecuted from within the church. I am not denying the existence of the persecution from within the church, but I believe that part of it comes as a result of our lack of humility and wisdom, of us trying to play the Holy Spirit and convict people of sin.

I can just praise God that He gave gives us the right to be right and calls us to be humble, and wise, and compassionate. When Jesus asked us to learn of Him, He did not ask us to learn because He is right, but because He is meek and lowly in heart. As long as we are humble, wise and compassionate, being right will be a blessing for ourselves and for others.

Our Wedding

When Roman and I got engaged and started planning for the wedding, we had no idea how were we going to pay for everything. With both of us being missionaries and having a very low income, saving to be able to afford the wedding was not a possibility. Though both of us had some savings, it was not by far what we needed. But going into debt was not a solution either. So we chose to trust God and go forward trusting that He will provide. Whenever I would start to worry, Roman kept reminding me that God owns everything and that He will take care of our needs. And He did take care of everything. In the end, not only were we able to pay for all our bills (including renting a bus for a round trip from Germany to Romania and renting the facility for the whole weekend, meals and accommodation included for 120 people - which were the most expensive bills) but we had something left over. Isn't God great? We have seen God doing many miracles for our wedding and we are so thankful! One of the most amazing ones is that the owner of the place were we spent the weekend and had the wedding gave us a pretty good discount when he heard that we are missionaries. But there are many more miracles like receiving the equipment and everything needed for free so we can have livestream.

We wanted a simple wedding surrounded by family and close friends. And this is exactly what we had. We took into consideration many factors (finances, accommodation opportunities, help with the wedding, number of friends and relatives of each one of us) and decided that a wedding in Romania would be much cheaper, would allow us to have the help of more friends, would provide cheaper accommodation opportunities and would also allow more of my friends to come. We also decided that we want to spend the whole weekend with our friends since we had not seen many of them in a long time because they came from different parts of the world. So we spent a wonderful weekend together listening to the Word, praying together, taking walks and having fellowship. 

We had our wedding in this beautiful location:

  

And we were surrounded by dear friends who traveled from different parts of Romania, Germany, Austria, United States, Brazil, Norway, Portugal, Mexico, Italy.

We planned for an outdoor wedding, but the weather forecast was not favourable. On Sabbath we had a storm and hail. For Sunday they predicted the same weather. But God is more powerful. Not only did we have sunshine, but we had more than we needed. We could have used some clouds here and there, especially for pictures. :-) Anyway, we cannot complain. God has been more than good to us and we are deeply thankful to Him.

Roman and I decided not to take pictures or see each other before the wedding. So last time we saw each other was Sabbath evening. He had not seen my dress and I wanted to be a complete surprise for him. And we were happy we did so. His facial expression caught on camera by our wonderful photographer before I came in and after I started to come down the aisle is priceless.

We had friends singing, sharing their wishes, than there was the sermon and the blessing... And faster than we realised we were declared husband and wife. There was no time to let everything sink in. In fact even now, four and a half months after the wedding, we are still marvelling sometimes that we are married.

Our reception was simple. In fact, we payed for the whole weekend (5 meals + wedding reception and two nights) per person less than we would have payed for a wedding reception (per person) at a restaurant. Friends sang for us, they had us play a game. We had sweet fellowship and even squeezed in a photo session while our friends kept singing for the invitees. We also decided that we do not want to have the reception until late in the night, as it is the habit in Romania. It would have been against our values and heath principles we proclaim. For the same reason we decided to have an appetiser and than a Swedish buffet instead of having several courses brought an hour apart as it is the habit in my country. Here are a few pictures of the reception:

Our wedding was exactly what we dreamed about: a quiet, simple, Christ-centered wedding, a celebration with the closest friends, a time to rejoice with the dear ones.  It was simply wonderful to see friends we met at different stages of our lives and in different parts of the world finally meet, get to know each other and interact over the weekend. And it was wonderful to have them with us at this mile stone of our lives.

We are thankful to God for His guidance and leading at every step. And for all the miracles He has done for us. He proved us one more time that He is faithful and that He can supply for all of our needs when we ask Him to and want to honour Him.

 For more pictures, visit the webpage of our photographer: Ana Mindaianu Photography

Photo Credit @ Ana Mindaianu Photography.

Engagement Pictures

I know that I have been pretty quiet lately... but we the wedding coming close (only 12 more days to go!!!), I hardly have time to breath! 

If some of you would like to watch the LIVESTREAM of our wedding, here is the webpage where you can watch it: http://romanandraluca.weebly.com/ The wedding will take place on June 8, 2014 and will start at 12 PM (UTC +3 hours). 

Here are some of our engagement pictures. Hope you enjoy them.