ROMANIA MISSIONS

My name is Marcela Muresan. I am from Romania where for the last 25 years I’ve served as a translator and interpreter in Bible schools. By God’s grace I am now involved with 2 Bible Training Centers.  

Ever since I remember I wanted to know God and the first one to tell me about Him was my grandmother. I started going to the Catholic church when I was 10 and I remember how impressed I was going there. There was no spiritual teaching in my family. I tried to be good and I was very sincere, yet I’m afraid I was a religious person rather than a true follower of our God. I didn’t have a personal relationship with the God of the universe despite my great desire at times to serve Him. I didn’t know I needed to be saved yet deep inside I felt so inadequate and far from God and didn’t know how to get close to Him. The Lord decided He would reveal Himself to me during my undergraduate years at the University in Iasi through a classmate.  She shared her faith with me and invited me to go to church with her which I did – at the only Baptist Church in Iasi at that time. After graduation in 1989 I went to be a teacher of geography and English in a little village. The Revolution when communism fell took place in December 1989 and afterwards missionaries started coming to Romania. One of them came to my little village and needed someone to translate. I was the only person in the village who spoke English and, in through His grace, God used me to interpret his message in church. That missionary gave the gospel using Luke 15: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. I knew I was one of them and that night when I was all alone with God I knelled down and told Him that I couldn’t live without Him, I needed Him desperately and asked Him to come into my life. That was in January 1990. That summer I quit teaching and at the missionary’s invitation, after a long struggle with the Lord and myself, I surrendered my life to Him and became a full time translator. From that time on I translated in dozens and dozens of churches, I translated dozens and dozens of classes, at dozens of conferences… First there was a roving school with believers who were so hungry for the Word of God that they followed the American missionary from place to place and spend a few days here and a few days there around the Word. It was difficult for one church to keep such a group for a longer time and that’s why we needed to keep moving. In time things changed and the school settled in 3 locations; later just 2 and in the end only one. The last school continued until 2000 when it closed. In 1995, another school had started in Iasi and I had the privilege to be involved with it from the very beginning. I lived in Suceava at the time until the first school closed and then moved to Iasi where I am now. 

The school in Iasi is CIBB (Centrul de Instruire Biblica Betleem) or Bethleem Bible Training Center in English.  It ministers mainly to university students and takes 4 years of classes to complete.  Many of the teachers at CIBB are visiting professors who come from the States.  

In 2006 I met David and Rody Maynard who initially needed somebody to translate some material and then needed somebody to be involved in Faith Bible Training Center located in Schitu Duca, Ro., as a translator. The Lord allowed me to be that person and we have continued to minister together since. The school at Schitu Duca ministers mainly to Gypsies who have very little opportunities to go and study somewhere due to their poor education. In the school at Schitu Duca they attend two years of study before graduating. After this time we help and encourage them as they continue to grow in the Lord and begin the process of making disciples of others. Since David and Rody went back to the States and only come once or twice a year to Romania my role has changed so I act as the manager, administrator, driver, encourager and whatever else is necessary at Schitu Duca.

Besides the Bible schools I am involved in translating in churches once in a while, but also for Bible conferences for men and women, Bible study classes, and even children’s work when the opportunity comes. 

At Schitu Duca, we usually do a women’s conference and a couple of men’s conferences a year, leadership training, and classes for the graduates who want to add to their biblical knowledge.

Also, my ministry involves teaching a women’s Bible study group in Iasi for almost 10 years now.  Along with it, I do another 1 or 2 women’s groups in our church. 

I am so grateful to God for what He has allowed me to do; I love what I do and it’s not just a job, it’s the passion of my life. I’m pretty new at the administrative responsibilities and often get frustrated. Never been in charge of anything and as you can easily imagine I make many mistakes; I guess there’s no way around it if I want to learn and grow. I know, however, I’m not alone. There are people like you who keep me in their prayers and for that I thank you. 

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