NLI Update - CP Project is launched in Constanta, Romania

An update on the beginnings of NLI's newest Church Planting project in Constanta.

Our newest project had its official kick off recently with a Church Planter Training Seminar in the City of Constanta. This specific project began in January 2007 and will be ongoing for the next 4 to 5 years. Stage 1 of this project is from January 2007 until December 2007. Stage 1 is the developmental stage where we lay a solid foundation of training and casting vision building into the potential Romanian Church Planter. We also begin to identify and release some local staff from Romania who are instrumental in the success of the project. By the end of this year we will have a Romanian Project Director, Short Term Missions Coordinator and Administrator. They help to coordinate with us in the UK office and support the church planters in Romania. Then from January 2008 until December 2010 we will be helping the Romanian Church in this region plant churches through the partnership of Western Churches working with NLI.

This past week a number of International Office staff travelled again to Romania for five full days that included meetings with regional leaders and potential national project staff, a church planter training seminar. The Romania Project is still in its foundational stage as we are just beginning to develop and identify national staff that will run the project in Romania, potential church planters as well as we are still recruiting partner churches.

On Friday evening Ian Green joined our opening meeting and he gave a motivational message that not only had us all laughing hysterically but also challenged and inspired us. I know that the Romanians who attended the conference were talking about what Ian shared for the rest of the conference. It was great to see them encouraged and so passionate about what God is going to do in Romania through them.

One of the other exciting things was being able to identify and release the Romanian Project Directors into their role for this project. Train & Elena Pascal will be the Romania National Project Directors for this Church Planting Project. They will help oversee the project and be a liaison with the NLI staff as well as a support and mentor to the church planters. We are very excited to have them as part of the project and know that God is going to do great things in and through them.