After the Second World War, until the revolution in December 1989, Romania lived under a communist regime. The communist atheist ideology that God does not exist was taught to all children in schools, saying that they now had scientific proof of this. After the revolution, people were hungry for the Gospel, but this has slowed down in recent years. God has called us to bring the Gospel to the people who were formerly indoctrinated with atheism. Therefore we were put in Galati, south-eastern Romania, to be His representatives.
In Galati County there are approximately 616,000 inhabitants, more than half living in the city. Of the 320,000 inhabitants in the city of Galati, only 0.5% are evangelical Christians! When we looked at these figures and realized the enormity of the spiritual need, we shuddered. God has opened our eyes so that we can see the huge need in our city and He has also put the passion in our hearts for those who are lost. Emanuel Christian Church began as the result of a vision from God.
The first service at Emanuel Church took place on 14th March 1999 in a rented room at the local Culture Hall. On 27th June 1999, we moved to the land we’d bought and began to hold our services in a tent. During that period of almost 4 years we constructed a building for Sunday School and discipleship classes, where we currently hold our services.
Because of the lack of space, our services are held on 2 levels at the same time - transmitting live what happens on the first level to the upper level. Over 300 adults attend the services, as well as about 150 children and teenagers.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we face a spiritual crisis here, with so many dying without a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ! We know that our church is under construction during the international economic crisis, but we know that God is above all crises, and maybe this is the moment that has been put before us by God so that we can all contribute with our small part for such a great need.
Our church’s vision is to raise a community of mature believers in Christ, who are relevant to, and with impact in, society.
South-eastern Romania is an arid terrain for taking forth the Gospel; therefore we appeal to you to unite with Emanuel Church so that we can extend the borders of God’s Kingdom in this part of the country. Our church’s mission is “the evangelization of the city, using relevant methods; the maturing of Christians in small groups, equipping them for the ministry in the south-eastern zone of the country, and to the utter-most parts of the earth, with a view to planting churches”.
In order to fulfill this mission, to reach the other 99.5% of un-evangelised people in this county and city, we must finish the construction of our church’s sanctuary so that we can use it as a training center for those who minister in this part of the country.
Emanuel Church has already planted ten churches in Galati County, but there are still about 150 localities without an evangelical presence.
In May 2006 we began construction of the sanctuary, which is linked to the building where we are currently holding our services. At this moment the walls of the basement (the foundations) have been poured, and also the ceiling over it. We are preparing to complete this phase so that we can hold our services there. In order to complete the basement we need approximately $ 250,000.
To complete the construction of the sanctuary itself, we will need a further $ 500,000.
We thank you for choosing to respond to God’s calling and coming alongside Emanuel Christian Church Galati with our project.