By Cristian Martinez

God has called our family and team to make disciples in the city of Brasov, Romania, as we seek to obey the commandment of our Lord Jesus to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). We understand this commandment as both preaching the gospel to those who are not yet trusting and following Jesus and teaching believers how the gospel can change every area of their lives, transforming them to look more and more like Jesus. 

How do we do this in our city?

We pray. We spend time in prayer both individually and together. We pray to the Lord of the Harvest that he gives us the compassion of Jesus who saw the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd. About 90% of our city identifies with the Eastern Orthodox Church, which gives a false hope of purgatory and human works contributing to salvation. Less than 5% of Brasov’s population identifies with some form of evangelical church. So we also pray for the harvest in our city to come to know Jesus and for more laborers to make disciples, and we do this as we prayer walk through the streets of our city. We pray because salvation only comes from God, and we depend on him. 

We preach. We speak about and call people to respond to the good news of God, reconciling sinners to be in a close relationship with him through Jesus’ life of obedience, his death in the place of sinners, and his resurrection from death in victory. As a team we do this by meeting people at local farmers markets, building relationships with our neighbors, investing in local college students, and two of us even work at a local coffee shop so that we will have regular opportunities to speak with customers and coworkers, as well as with Ukrainian refugees that are coming into our city. 

We gather and equip. We do not go to make disciples as isolated individuals, and we do not seek to make disciples who are isolated from the Christian community. We need one another to make disciples. We have seen how God has used us as a group to expose people to the gospel: One of us has started a spiritual conversation while another one has clearly explained the gospel and answered questions. Some share testimonies while others prepare their homes for hosting, sharing, and caring for people. Also, as missionaries, we do not see ourselves as the only ones doing ministry, but we recognize our call to equip local Romanians to do the work of the ministry as well. 

At this moment we meet weekly at a local coffee shop with a group of ten adults and seven children (not counting our team) where we have been clearly explaining the gospel and equipping in evangelism. This group is a mix of Christians and non-Christians, and we are preparing one of them for baptism. We also grow as disciples in a smaller setting where women meet with women and men with men every other week to apply in a personal way what we study in the Bible, to pray for one another, and to keep each other accountable. These, together with a college study and serving and bringing Bible teaching to Ukrainian refugees, are some of our team’s efforts as we prepare to form a church that makes disciples in our city and sends missionaries to unreached people groups in countries south of Romania. We ask that you join us in prayer for God to do this in his grace.