Unfortunately, soon after our first meeting, I realized I got a viral respiratory infection that was very aggressive. Although the therapists and nurses did their best in applying natural remedies in their attempt to treat me efficiently, it seemed that nothing helped and I was forced to lie in bed for days. Dr. Morosan’s diagnose for me was pneumonia and I was prescribed antibiotics. But at that time, I recall, my main concern was how can I keep a promise I made at the beginning of the session, to have the sermon Sabbath morning in Herghelia’s church?!

I praise God that He is faithful in listening to our prayers. My Pentecostal brothers constantly visited me, encouraging and offering their support and sympathy. In spite of being weak, I experienced the joy of sharing with them my understanding on different subjects they had questions about. Looking back on what was happening at that time I am amazed on our Lord’s doing in that particular matter. Little did I know, when I arrived in Herghelia, what would be the way He will bring about my imperative objective to lose weight. Being sick I could not eat for several days so at the end of my stay in Herghelia I weighted 11 lb. less. More than that when the sabbath arrived the Lord gave me strength so I was able to stand up ok and deliver my sermon to the congregation. Isn’t our Lord wonderful?!

I also would like to mention the fact that we’ve felt a big minus in our study group, this time – one of our Pentecostal brothers that was with us the previous time, due to his serious illness he could not join us this time in Herghelia although he wished very much he could… We kept him constantly on our prayer list. But in spite of that a few months later I received the sad news that he had passed away. Paul says in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” We rest assured that God’s way is better in his case, too. I could see that this sad event consolidated more our friendship as families – Isaiah’s and mine.

In summer we’ve had the joy of being visited by Isaiah and his wife in our family country home. They stayed with us for 2 days and they were really impressed with our simple lifestyle resembling so much Herghelia.

In Autumn it was my turn to visit them. After finishing my audit for Oltenia Conference, Petrosani – the city where Isaiah lives being on my way back home, I took the chance to pay them a 2 day visit. First day, Isaiah and I took a nice 4 hour hiking trip in Parang Mountain. It was a special endeavor – just two of us and God, that filled our souls with the beauty of His creation. It was a special time of bonding around the love of God and His ultimate desire to have us with Him for eternity. At the end of our trip, in this atmosphere came so natural the desire to just kneal on the grass and let loose the spirit of gratitude toward our Lord for who He is and the awesome salvation He freely offers to every one of us. A little later, as we began our descend, about 1 hour away of this particular spot, Isaiah realized that his mobile is missing. In our attempt to understand what was happening with the phone: We could recall that on our way back we encountered some tourists with whom we socialized a little, then we remembered that we also stopped, here and there, along the way to pick up ripped wild cranberries and blueberries – they were in the season.Putting the things together we concluded that the phone could have been lost in any of these places, and worse than that, it could have been founded by somebody else… We both agreed that definitely, to find it would not be an easy matter at all ! So I proposed that before we start our search, pray that the Lord would show us where to look for it. With a strong feeling that calling the number from time to time would increase our chance to find it sooner, we started our journey back. Amazing enough, when we got closer to the place where, remember, we’ve had that prayer session up in the mountain, sure enough down on the soft carpet of grass was quietly laying Isaiah’s mobile… Joyfully we both remembered Jesus parable of the lost coin, from Luke 15. Probably nobody could better feel the women’s joy of finding the lost coin, expressed by Jesus in the parable, than us – Isaiah and myself.

At supper that evening we rejoiced once more when sharing the experience with Iana, Isaiah’s wife and his daughter. Then, to Iana’s request I also had the joy of sharing once more the story of my conversion.

Next morning after a sweet night rest and a delicious healthy breakfast I departed from my dear friends and hosts, heading back home, but not before scheduling our next meeting – a new session in Herghelia in 2025.

By, Costel Aruxandrei – SDA Romanian Union auditor