November 2025
Highlights of Dan’s last month in Romania
Pastor Cristi: national influence
Cristi, pastor of the Bucharest International Church (BIC), has had a friendship with the newly elected Romanian President, Dan Nicușor, for thirteen years. Because of their long-term relationship, Cristi was the only pastor asked to speak for 4 1/2 minutes in the lead-up speeches to the election. A week later Dan Nicușor won the national election and the presidency. On the night of Nicușor’s acceptance speech, the parties’ political manager, placed Pastor Cristi three persons to the right of the President.
Still supporting Ukrainians in Romania
Driving along the highway and passing a military convoy, its transport carriers with their extra wide vehicle base, brings the Ukrainian/Russian war close to Bucharest. Seeing the phone videos, with the red drones and yellow explosions in the night sky, in what was recently considered the safer, western end of the Ukraine only a few kilometers from the Romanian border, brings the war close to home.
Vera continues to serve the Ukrainians attending the Bucharest International Church. With her five languages, she also works with the US embassy providing translation services. On one occasion, with her keen knowledge of logistics, Vera was able to link information to find a suitable home for a woman desperately needing accommodation. “The extra special in this instance,” Vera said, “was that both the lady needing housing and the lady renting the house, had the same name.”
International Young Adult Gathering: connecting the dots
I was outside sweeping fallen leaves in the courtyard of our Activity Center when the young adults began to arrive for their Friday evening gathering. I spoke with a young man from Nairobi, Kenya using my best Swahili from my time in his birth country in 1972. “Your Swahili is not too bad after all the years,” was his comment!
I then met Ali, a brilliant, sensitive, intelligent, 25-year-old young man from Central Asia. Ali and I spoke for over an hour and a half and it seemed like we had been best friends for a lifetime. In the middle of that extra-ordinary conversation, I suddenly realized: ‘’Ali, you are the young man that pastor Cristi has been speaking to me about for more than 2 years.” At the end of our conversation, I asked Ali what was so special about the time for him. He replied, ‘’It felt like God was connecting the dots!’’ And so began a rich and profound friendship over the next 2 weeks while I was there in Bucharest!
Hundreds of Nepalese are employed as food couriers around the city. The Activity Center continues to be packed each Sunday and overflowing. Several young men attend Sunday morning church and then get on their cycles or mopeds to continue their deliveries.
Reaching Out Romania
Jens Høvsgaard, a Danish journalist, went to Romania in December 2005 to document that trade with women and children for prostitution was an existing and a profitable business.
Disguised as a pimp, he bought 16-year-old Carmen for 2000 Euros. The trafficker assured him that Carmen was now one hundred percent his property. He could do with her what pleased him. He could sexually exploit her, use her in porn movies, let her work the street or install her in a brothel.
When he grew tired of her, he could either make her disappear from the face of the earth or sell her. No one would wonder about her fate, and no one would report her missing. After the deal was concluded, Jens brought Carmen to safety with Iana Matei, director of Reaching Out Romania.
Over the past twenty years Iana and Jens have kept in touch. Last week Iana was a guest speaker in Copenhagen where she met with government leaders, police officials and NGOs. She also met with Jens. “What is the situation in Romania today?” he asked and got a sad answer. "It has gotten much worse," Iana said, stating that Romanian children, both boys and girls, as low as the age of 10 are being abused by an increasing number of sex tourists from the western part of the EU. She also mentioned to Jens that she is now active in Ukraine, where the war has made many children orphaned and easy victims of sex traffickers.
Iana did bring Jens some good news. Carmen has married and has a family. This may be a natural occurrence for most of us, but for Carmen it is a life goal she only dared to dream of when she was sixteen and for sale.
Should you wish to bless the Ukrainian children at the Centers in Kilia where Iana has worked to assess and develop wellness plans for over 90 children, most orphans, you may do so at the following link. The children, ages 5 through 12, have requested everything from a guitar pick to a guitar, from a fire engine to a dollhouse, from bright pajamas to facial creams. https://paoc.org/donate/ianamateireachingoutromania