Candra Barnett: Life Long Dream Fulfilled

God’s Clear Call 

Fifteen months after graduating from college, she arrived on the mission field of Romania. It was a place she had visited three times, twice on a mission trip and once to plan a “God-sized” vision with her new team. Her arrival in Sântandrei, Romania, in 2019 was the culmination of years of feeling God’s missionary call on her life.

A pastor’s daughter, Candra Barnett was saved at age twelve and at thirteen heard a missionary speak about going to a Muslim country. It was the beginning of a stirring in her heart to be on mission somewhere abroad. Several years later, a white-knuckle moment at 2013’s SOAR conference combined with her father’s sermon on the topic of missions, she fully surrendered to missionary service. During that conference she signed up to go on her first VSM (Volunteer Student Missions) trip. Her assigned destination that year was Romania, and in 2015 she returned for mission trip number two. 

After high school graduation, she began attending Central Baptist College (CBC) to study psychology with a minor in missions. Except for the summer of 2014, in the next four years she continued to go on mission trips: first Ghana, then two internships. During those years she prayed about where God wanted her to serve. She loved the experiences of both trips to Romania, the same with Ghana, and each successive trip taught her more about culture. Internships in Ecuador with the Husons and in Thailand with the Lingles and the Yaebeangs showed her even more the realities of missionary service.

Still she was unsure where that field would be.

God’s Direction and Vision

On her trip to Ghana in 2015, Candra’s team leader was Bryan Risner and he and his family were preparing to go to Romania at the time. During Candra’s last semester at CBC, God reminded her of the Risners, who were home on furlough. Bryan and Pam and their children Melody, Lindsey and Landon had been serving in Romania for a year, and she asked the couple if they could meet to talk about their ministry. 

After meeting and discussing the Risners’ vision and how she could be a part of their team, she knew God was leading her there. 

After her graduation from CBC in 2018 she served a three-month internship in Thailand then went through Pre-Field Preparation and Orientation (PFPO) in August and September. Her home church, Hopewell in Eldorado, Arkansas, was her sending church, and they were very encouraging and excited for Candra. 

Also during that year she made a final trip to Romania to meet with her new team to discuss their vision to plant a church where Romanians and Romani live. However, by the time she got to the field, God would reveal to them a different vision in a different area. 

God’s Work

On August 4, 2019, Candra arrived in Romania, and by September she began meeting with a tutor to learn the Romanian language. She was eager to learn how to communicate with the children who had captured her heart every time she visited the country.  

Candra and the Risners soon realized that God was leading them to an area where there was a great need to serve the Romani people: the city of Sântandrei. So they obediently began implementing the new vision to plant a church, disciple believers, then hand off the ministry to indigenous people. 

Two months after her arrival, small groups were meeting in homes for worship services. When they ran out of space, they met outside in the gypsy villages for the Sunday services Bryan preached. They had grown to 40 to 50 people attending the new church, but the weather grew colder and they needed shelter, so they built a small, metal multipurpose building. The wooden benches they built began to fill up, and before 2020 began there were fifteen new believers among the villagers, so the building was used for a new believers class as well. 

During ten months of tutoring, Candra’s language ability gradually allowed her to communicate with and minister to the children who had drawn her to Romania. So using her vacation Bible school and children’s church skills –  and with a great deal of trial and error – she began teaching Bible lessons and learning what worked and what didn’t. 

Each Sunday when Candra and the team began setting up for church in the gypsy community, curious children came to hang out, mostly by themselves and without much consistency. She elicited the help of her language teachers to make sure she chose the correct words as she wrote scripts for Sunday school lessons. They also helped her make a list of commands like “sit down” and “be quiet” to use when the children became rowdy, which they often did. 

Because the gypsy children in Sântandrei had only heard a few random Bible stories from teams who had visited before, Candra decided to write her own lessons. Going chronologically through the Bible made sense, so beginning in Genesis, she continued teaching through the Old Testament heroes then the Gospels and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Together, Candra says, she and the children learned a lot.

She learned what the children did and didn’t respond to and how to get and keep their attention. And the children learned that Jesus’ love for them is unconditional. She also learned, sadly, that their crafts from Sunday school lessons often ended up in the trash or on the ground because their parents didn’t care about displaying them. But most importantly the children learned that Candra cared for them enough to share the gospel.

Because the children responded to people dressing up as Bible characters – complete with props like a homemade slingshot – when it was time to share the gospel after the resurrection lesson, she asked Bryan to present it to the children. 

Alexandra, a teenage girl they had spent months praying for, was saved; and just before the Risners left on their 2020 furlough, Bryan baptized her. It was the church’s first baptism.

God’s Provision

Ministry partners Marius (also their translator) and Adina Porumb had worked with the Risners since their arrival in Romania. The same for Walid and Lavi Hamouch, another couple with whom they partnered. The two couples were also an answer to their prayers for eventually handing off the ministry to ChangeMakers within the country. 

During the winter and early spring of 2020 the Sântandrei church plant continued to grow; then Covid came along and shut it down. The team adjusted, using social media to minister to church members, and by June things finally opened up. Candra began ministry at a nearby park on Saturdays. They taught Bible stories and played games with children, which was very helpful for improving Candra’s language skills and reaching out to the community where they lived.

When the Risners left on furlough in 2020, Marius stepped in to preach Sunday services, and Adina conducted women’s outreach. Adina helped Candra with ministry to the Sântandreichurch’s gypsy children, then Candra left for the States in March of 2021 for a four-month furlough.  Again, the children’s ministry was in good hands with with Lavi, who had been working with and assisting Candra. 

With God guiding and blessing their efforts, the Risner family and Candra achieved their goal of planting a church in Santandrei. So in September of 2021 the team will hand off that ministry to ChangeMakers, the Porumbs and the Hamouches, then move to another city in Romania, where they will be part of another church planting team.   

God’s Vision for Brașov

Candra and the Risner family will join Christian and Vanessa Martinez, and Sara Filimon (Vanessa’s sister) in Brașov, a six-hour drive away. The two teams have the goals and will merge their ministries to both Romanians and gypsy communities, which was the original vision in 2018! 

Brașov is a college town that is home to Transylvania University and a diverse student population that takes advantage of Romania’s excellent but inexpensive education. Because these students from surrounding countries will return to them after graduation, the new team is praying that these recent graduates will take the gospel with them.

The Martinezes plan to reach Romanians and equip them to be sent to the unreached then, from those relationships, to plant gospel-centered churches to disciple and mobilize them to return to their own countries after graduation and repeat the process.

In September of 2021 Candra, Bryan and Pam Risner, and their children Melody, Landon, and Lindsey will move to Brașov and begin to implement this vision that, by God’s grace, will take the gospel to the unreached. 

Candra says, “I’m so excited to move to Brașov and begin working with Christian, Vanessa, and Sara. I can’t wait to see how the Lord uses our growing team to bring his name glory in the country of Romania!”