An Update from Missionary Christina Semon

Dear Friends,

Glory to God for all things! My utmost appreciation for your prayers and support!

Your prayers have not been in vain as trials and struggles are prevalent in the missionary field. I have relocated to a new parish in the town called Orhei to better serve my youth ministry. Most of the youth were on summer vacation and those young people that were around had wonderful and exciting experiences at summer religious camps and pilgrimages. The Metropolia of Bucovia and Moldova of Romania invited us to participate in these spiritual events and one could see their love for their neighboring brothers and sisters.

Now that school has started in Orhei, the amount of activity for the body of the church will increase at the local parish church called Saint Basil. Through the blessing of Fr. Sergiu Aga, parish priest of St. Basil, I am currently developing an English program for all ages and a knitting activity with young ladies at the half-way house called “Toward Independence” run by Diaconia- the social outreach department of the Bessarabian Orthodox Church. We have already initiated these activities which are improving as time goes by and we are eager to provide more ways of feeding the souls of the youth.

It is true that ministry work can take time; but if you yourself don’t watch your soul, you can spiritually dry up. To avoid this danger, and better equip me as a missionary, I have enrolled in the Masters’ Program in the Theological Department at Alexander Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, Romania. This theological education can enable me to have credentials that will be of benefit in the mission field and life in general. Also, in the near future, we are looking forward to planting little seeds through inaugurating a catechism class for children and a church youth group to educate and build leadership within the youth of today.

I wish all of you a happy ecclesiastical new year and good strength in following Christ!

In Christ,

Christina Semon

My First Romanian Baptism

by Christina Semon

I want to share with you an experience I had in which I witnessed my first Romanian baptism. Here is how it happened.

Wednesday at the PTFC we hold a meeting for the mothers. At this meeting they discussed their problems and listened to others. Then if the staff can offer some advice, they share it. It was my first time attending such meetings. Laura is one of the single mothers who has a son named Dragost. She was crying for half of the meeting while she was explaining her pains and worries. During the meeting, I learned that on Sunday she will have Dragost baptized at an Orthodox Monastery! My eyes brightened up after hearing this news.

On Sunday, I drove three of the ladies that work at the PTFC to the baptism. I saw Dragost's father, and I learned that Dragost's parents are around 19 and are Roma -- [Gypsy]. Laura did not expect anybody to come to her son's baptism and she was so grateful that we came to support her. The father, whose name is Florin, was hired by the monastery to help with some construction work and the Abbot got to know Florin. The Abbot talked to him about baptizing Dragost at the monastery. The parents are poor so that some of the typical baptismal things you would see were not there. But in God's eyes what items they had, and who participated are what mattered the most.

Dragost is now an Orthodox Christian. Glory to God!