Please pray for fruits, students that will come to Christ! We need to find open persons that will be ready to talk with us and will come to our next follow up meetings!

In one of the past Sundays the pastor of our church stopped me and told me: “The whole week I have been talking to myself about the success of your meeting”. He was talking about our latest event for students in which he was invited to speak.

Maybe it is different in the United States, but for Romania, it does not happen often for a Christian community to have over 50 non-Christian guests, coming for the first time and ready to hear the Word of God.

In the same Sunday, Mihai, one of the students that joined our ministry entered in a Christian church for the very first time.  During the sermon, he raised his hand several times, because he needed clarifications about what the pastor was preaching.   In our student gatherings we do encourage students to ask as many questions they need in order to understand what the Bible is teaching and Mihai was doing just that in a larger context. It seemed a little funny at the time but he got his answers, and we realized his spiritual hunger . There are many like him, some do not dare to even speak about this very deep and personal need, some try to fulfill it in wrong ways, but those few that choose to trust the Lord, need a loving place to grow, patient Christians to clarify their questions, mature people to guide them in this process . So we pray for more volunteers, for open churches and pastors ready to be amazed by the mighty work of God and ready to anticipate in this plentiful harvest.
 In March, Campus Crusade for Christ organized a huge conference for all the students leaders from Eastern Europe in order to motivate young people to dedicate their energy in the ministry field. Two girls from Suceava, Alexandra and Simona, attended this conference. When they came back, after traveling all night by train, Simona came straight to the University, where we were giving out invitations for the next  evangelistic event. Our heart was so encouraged to see her commitment to the ministry.  We pray  that in the next years God will touch the hearts of the students from our team and at least two will be ready to become full time missionaries.

In the internet ministry,  things are also evolving. Beni just returned from Hungary where he met  some of the Hungarian colleagues. They  want to translate Everystudent.ro into Hungarian and start an online ministry. We also pray for Ukraine, where Beni helped with an online follow-up system. They are held back because of some technical problems, but we hope they will overcome it soon.

At the end of March, I, Beni,  will start preparing evangelistic websites for each department of Campus Crusade Romania. We wish that not only students, but every other social category will find relevant articles on the internet which can guide them to Christ.  Our prayer is that by the year 2020 every Romanian with access to the internet will have multiple occasions to understand the Gospel and interact with a mature Christian.We have another prayer request. As we approach Easter we want to wisely speak about the Resurrection of Christ. We need God’ s wisdom in planning future events and in sharing the Gospel with every opportunity we get. As some of you know, I, Beni, travelled in February to the United States, in order to gather funds for us and our ministry. It was a blessed time, when I was able to meet some of the loving people that support our ministry and I also met new people and some were ready to join our ministry team.  We needed an extra 500 $ monthly.  We got to raise only $280 and we just found that we lost two major supporters. If any of you know somebody that might be interested in what we are doing for the Kingdom of God, please let us know. If you already heard my presentation, but did not make a decision, please pray about it and consider the challenge to join our ministry team. It is impossible to be in the ministry without resources. We need partners that fight with us in this ministry where we proclaim the Good News to the lost people.Please continue to support us and pray for all the prayer requests we highlighted in the letter.With love in Christ,

Beni & Dana Husarciuc

Thank you for your prayers, we saw God’s hand working in front of us!

With love, Beni & Dana

We are happy to let you know about some of the things that we are passionate about in the ministry God has called us to, that is to take the Gospel to those who do not know our Lord.

It is 2011, ten years after the release of the first issue of the Fitzuica magazine, the tool that helped us reach 1,000,000 students with the Gospel all these years. It’s such a blessing to have seen God’s hand at work during these ten years. He provided for the magazine to be published and distributed in time in almost all universities in our country. Fitzuica has energized our campus ministry, offering us thousands of contacts whom we pay visits to afterwards, for one-on-one talks leading to the sharing of the Gospel.

These days, we and the team of volunteers in Suceava will distribute the latest issue of the magazine to the students in Suceava. Together with the magazine, we will also give invitations to two events unfolding over the coming weeks: an evangelistic event at the Culture House in Suceava, on the 12th of October, and a joint event with Luis Palau Association and ten churches in Suceava.

2011.  An extraordinary year.  We are a part of the European Union, and now we can travel to France, England, Spain, Portugal and Italy.  We have low-cost travel packages, malls in even the smaller cities, university degrees that take a shorter time to get, more jobs, money that is worth more, more sophisticated technology, blogs and forums, podcasts and Facebook, virtual albums available in seconds, telephones with TV reception and Bluetooth earpieces, minds that are more relaxed, skin that is softer, nights that are shorter, and bigger smiles.  We seem to be in a race trying to make sure that we don’t finish behind our ancestors. 

We have become smarter, more in control, capable of standing on our own feet.  And in this fast-paced world there isn’t time or place for God, who is too calm, too all knowing, and seemingly boring.  We want adrenaline.  We want speed and the unknown.  Basescu is cooler, he knows how to manipulate things, when to draw attention to himself.  God hasn’t been the center of focus for some time now and thus he can be forgotten and wrapped in ignorance. But God isn’t at all what our limited minds tend to project.  God, in the words of Steinhardt (look at his „Journal of Happiness”), is a gentleman.  A knight.  A nobleman.  Thus, he does not involve himself in frivolous, insignificant things that clamor after fanfare.  But he trusts men.

“Suspicion,” says Steinhardt, “is a trait of the schemer, the con artist, the one who lives his life constantly looking over this shoulder.”  The Gentleman is the one who has faith in each person and who gives no second thought to the gossip of mean-spirited people.  God is attentive and polite.  He called Judas his friend.  Never does he insult or speak deprecatingly of the sinner.  He doesn’t put forward conditions.  He offers.  He offers the possibility of choice, the power to choose and then support after the choosing.

The Prodigal Son appears again on the road, and each time He gives, he gives in abundance.  “Faith in people, courage, impartiality, goodwill toward the downtrodden who could never have been selected according to their merits (the sick, the foreign, the prisoner), a certain sense of majesty, a predisposition to forgive…”  This is what He offers to those who affirm that they are not Christians.  To everyone.

And he extends his hand to them.  He discretely knocks at the door, offering without reserve what all of the money in the world couldn’t buy.  Unconditional forgiveness to anyone.  HE wants a single act in return; just one thing.  A heart.  A heart that is dirty, frustrated, sad.  An unfulfilled soul, an unhappy person, a smart student, a poor old woman, a proud heart or one that might look good.  He wants all of them as they are, in order to offer them what they would never dare to ask for.  Everything.

God;  blasphemed by some, adored by others, ignored by the majority during good times, desperately sought during difficult times.  Google scans 3,390,000 pages that use the word, compared to 3,750,000 that mention Basescu.  I realize I repeated myself.  I want to end this article.

You know something…I’m not really interested in what Google offers.  If God were to scan over your heart from among the 23 million hearts that beat in our Romania, what would he find?
He still knocks discretely, as a gentleman.  He offers trust, gives credit and waits with immeasurable patience.  Then, somehow, without ever announcing the moment, just as he came, he will leave quietly, noiselessly.

But wait… Yes, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.  Enter my heart and make me like You!  I know that only you can forgive my sin that I have committed against you:  ignoring you, not believing in you and not receiving your priceless gift that you offered to everyone — forgiveness.  You were that gentleman in that you became a man, demonstrating faith, joy, and life to us…and then you died in order to pay what we should have paid.  Come into my heart and make me your son or your daughter.

Have you ever said such a thing with sincerity?  Beyond Basescu, religion, sin and stress, there is something else.  There is a relationship with the Creator.  There is a response that a child gives to his Father when he has blown it.  And we have all blown it. Careers are important, as are homes, money, classes, friends, dorm rooms and your smile.  All have their place.  But if I leave out a relationship with the Creator, I have lost the essence, the big jackpot.

Take a moment of silence, stretch out on your bed and meditate on these things.  Be honest and listen in the silence to the gentle knocking on the door of your heart.  Open your soul and start to repair the greatest relationship.  The relationship without which life just doesn’t make sense.

Holding her forefinger on her pursing lips, she took a lot of time before deciding. She finally chose a huge burger. The cashier asked if she would like a large order for just 1.5 extra lei. She nodded in satisfaction, ‘O yes, please, make it large!’ ‘Would you also like two pieces of beef for 2 extra lei?’ ‘Two pieces, you say? Sure.’ ‘So, you have a large order, two pieces of beef, mayonnaise, a large order of French fries. Would you like mayonnaise or ketchup to go with your fries?’ ‘Mayonnaise, please.’ ‘Can I give you anything else, dessert maybe?’ ‘Absolutely, an ice-cream and a pie.’ ‘OK, a chocolate ice-cream and a pie.’

In the meantime, the lady was wiping her sweat off with a crumpled tissue.  ‘I’m sorry,’ says the cashier, ‘I forgot to ask you about your drink. We have Fanta, Sprite or Coke.’ ‘Coke Zero, Coke Zero!’

There, the overweight lady who was so concerned with eating much delicious, unhealthy food didn’t mind at all the mayonnaise in the burger and next to the fries that had been fried in the oil where hundreds of other orders may have bathed before; nor the roll that ran over two big pieces of frozen beef, unfrozen on an electric grill; nor the sugar or chocolate in the dessert. They were no problem, as the real enemy had been masterfully removed by the new zero-calorie product. Deep in her heart, the lady hoped that a Coke Zero would counteract her Pantagruelian menu.

If I were to draw a parallel to the student years, I think the above mentioned image may be the best example.

Dear freshman or senior student, you might have already realized that university and all life is a context where you swallow a lot of garbage that you deem delicious. Dorm life has its charm, and so does having fun and a part time job. Once in a blue moon, you might go to the church ‘Saint Five’ or might say your prayers keeping your eyes wide open, so that your fellow students could not tell you’re a religious person, and therefore a patsy. Or you might cram for your exams to prove everybody what a good short-term memory you have, and that you can enjoy every minute of your student life to the max and at the same time get high marks.

Dear freshman or senior student, you won’t be saved by those moments of lucidity when you are scrupulous, kind, good or religious. Because, you see, in real life, we are fat and without immunity, sick and rife with toxins. In order to change, it is not enough to just exercise our toes.

In one of his talks with a great religious teacher, Jesus our Savior told him, ‘You must be born again’. Quite shocked, the priest asked him how he could possibly get back into his mother’s womb.

Being born again means more than being reborn. Being reborn also involves the risk of starting life all over again and making the same mistakes. Only living persons can be born again, those who think of their unfortunate situation and the impending danger, and decide to start all over again, from ground ZERO, keeping in mind a model of what they don’t want to become and looking intently at their goal.

Your student years mark a cornerstone in your life. It is the time when you can decide to be born again. Or you may go on being one of the thousands of individuals who gather knowledge but end up being killed by experience. This is where you can reach for the sky and even get the impression that you are successful, but when you lie in your bed at night, you can feel the emptiness of your life. You may bring your dirt and mediocrity along to your future job, family, and maybe your own company. But people will watch you and you’ll be a fugitive for all your life, an actor who has to protect his/her makeup.

Or you can make the right decision, that of being yourself, but A NEW YOU. And your change won’t happen from outside in. Everything will start from your heart.

Back to our Savior, he came into this world to heal our hearts. He loves us so much that he asks us to allow him to come into our hearts and work in them. Our hearts are so fragile, that our dirty, rough hands cannot possibly cleanse them. We are too sinful to be able to fix something without breaking it further.

In your student years you have reached the maturity level needed to analyze your inner life, your relationship with people and with God. It is a good time to open your heart and ask the most skillful doctor to heal it. He died to take our sins, our mistakes upon him. Make up your mind and draw close to him, having that simple faith that says, ‘Dear God, take pity on my heart! Come into my heart, cleanse it and heal me!’

Then, let’s consider the other people, those whom we meet day by day, our fellow students, our parents and friends. When your heart is pure, you can’t help seeing things from a different point of view. The other people will no longer be your enemies, but persons in whom you would like to invest. You’ll offer and want loyalty, unconditional help, and pure love.

Your job will no longer be that annoying, dull place where you have to spend eight hours, but a space for you to interact with people whom you want to change. Money will no longer be the root of all evil, but a tool to assist you in investing in yourself and in other people.

You can imagine further how beautiful life might become. Consider the possible state of our country if we all were to become born again–spiritually, relationally, and professionally!

Have an easy birth!

If you want to elaborate on the topic, I’ll be right here, waiting for you!

Beni Husarciuc

Now, Ion Barladeanu is regarded as one of the greatest Pop Art artists. A collage of his sells for over 3,000 USD a piece. Adding two and two together, we can see that the old man was carrying along a treasure of nearly 3,000,000 USD. Nevertheless, he would eat leftovers out of the trash and live in a mess beyond description, unaware of the incredible resources nearby.

As I thought about me and all of us, as a matter of fact, I realized that so often we behave like old Barladeanu. God presented us with so many opportunities, gave his only- begotten Son to die for us, offered his salvation, and still so many times I would rather watch the mess around us and complain about it, while keeping my eyes shut and not seeing the treasure that I can have for free. So often I look at the world, but not beyond it. Back to the story, the artist who discovered Ion got him a place of his own after a while. But after spending several days in this new and clean place, Ion went back to his nostalgic garbage.

In a time of economic challenge, we pray not for more generous finances, but for open hearts. Wretchedness, dirt and despair blind the world we live in. The unbelievers can’t seem to have the power to take the decisive step into the light; they would rather go for the free putrid-tasting food found in the garbage room. The believers are happy with their warm, cosy art gallery and don’t risk going out to those who can’t see the light. What a courage that incredible artist had, to pluck a poor old dustman out of his garbage room, take him to the dentist, buy a house for him and invest in him. And all was done on seeing his huge potential. So many times we look at our unbelieving colleagues, neighbours, the people we pass by, and deny them a simple act, that of telling them about the beauties of heaven. We lock ourselves in our safe, warm houses and churches, being happy with what we have, not wanting to risk anything. Furthermore, we may even judge those who try to find gems in the garbage.

I’ve shared with you what has been on my mind in the last few days. I invite you to join us in praying for the event taking place today, on the 12th of October in Suceava. We rented the biggest room available in the city, that of the Cultural Center, as we are organizing an evangelistic event there, where we pray that hundreds of young people might receive Jesus in their hearts. Fitzuica magazine, which we have been working on for the last couple of months, has been published and distributed to dozens of thousands of students all over the country. We pray for God to speak and open eyes and hearts, and for the Holy Spirit to convict of sin the thousands of young people who will be reading the magazine.

If you type ‘prayer’, ‘Jesus’, ‘faith’ or other such words on Google search engine, www.everystudent.ro will come up as a result. Our prayer is that the thousands of young people who visit our website write to us and that we could start lasting relationships that will help them come to faith and grow in it.

We were thrilled to hear Elena’s story, a student who received the Lord on www.everystudent.ro and grew in faith by studying with one of our volunteers on www.studiibiblice.ro.

“As I felt a sinner, I wanted to seek God. I found Alege Viata’s website www.everystudent.ro on the internet, and it was here that I was challenged to surrender my life to Jesus. After that, I was challenged to read and study the Bible in more depth.

Ever since I received Jesus as Lord and Saviour, I have felt I am forgiven, and he has taken away the shame of my many sins. Now, I feel much more fulfilled and I enjoy life more. I have more self-control and when I realize that I made mistakes, I confess my sins to God just as I learned from the Bible studies we have done together. I believe this is barely the beginning of my relationship with him. I still have so many weaknesses, but I hope to overcome them with Jesus’ help. I am assured I have eternal life with Christ and I pray Jesus would lead my whole life.”

Another student, Oliver, wrote the following email:

“I happened to click this link (www.everystudent.ro) a few hours ago, and I haven’t been able to stop reading ever since. I couldn’t imagine one could give such natural answers to so many difficult questions. Besides, all the answers are confirmed by Scriptures, leaving us in no doubt. I would like to learn more, if possible. I would be happier to meet students in the same situation as me.”

Now, Oliver is not only a student who received the Lord in his life, but also a volunteer with us! He has grown in faith, is committed to and passionate about the Lord, and proclaims the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus.

Oliver grew up in a Catholic church. As he went to the university, the questions in his life became more profound. He felt he needed something deeper in his relationship with God, something more personal. He didn’t know where to start his search but he took the Bible and read it thinking that there might be some of the answers he was looking for. Nobody really knew about that as he was afraid he will be labeled as a freak. On the 20-th of January he was in his room, just surfing the net on a website he doesn’t really remember. Suddenly he noticed this link to everystudent.ro and he clicked. It was a Wednesday and as Oliver says, almost every Wednesday something unexpected appears in his agenda. This unexpected event, was about to change his life for ever. After that click he couldn’t stop reading for a few hours, as he wrote in en email to Mihai that night.

“I thought it’s incredible how fast I can get the answers to my questions. Even from a website. I didn’t even imagine that the answers to these questions will come so natural and because everything I red is backed up by the Bible made everything so much trustworthy. I guess I would like to know more if it’s posible. Also I would like to meet other students in similar situations.”

Few emails later him and Mihai Doci (our fellow Campus Crusade staff from Cluj), met face to face in a coffee shop downtown Cluj. Mihai was impressed to see how open and sincere in his quest for God, Oliver was. Oliver went to that meeting with big expectations. He wanted to know everything. He soon realized how little he knows about this new reality. So in the days to come he started to learn more from the Bible and from the online Bible studies Mihai challenged him to become a part of. When school started, Mihai invited Oliver to their regular student meetings and by the end of the first semester he attended his first NLTC (New Life Training Center). As part of the training he was supposed to go with somebody else in the dorms to share the Gospel. So he went with Mihai for the first meeting and they shared Christ with four students. Then, for the second discusion, he went by himself because his partner left. Oliver shared the Gospel with the students he found in a room using the Four Spiritual Laws booklet just as he was trained that day. His close friends think that he is mad. After he shared with his parents what happened in his life, they recommended him to see a psychiatrist.

Oliver was baptised. When asked what does he want to do in his life he would reply: a missionary! The new university year just started and with it a new advertising campaign will bring more people to our website. Some will have questions, other will let us know that they received Christ. People just like Oliver.

We send you the same prayer request we sent to our volunteers a few days ago:

- pray for at least one disciple (like Oliver) for each of our volunteers

- a close relationship with Christ and spiritual dependency for each of us

- wisdom and grace when we reply each email