Mark 13:9 (b) “You will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.”

Bryan Revor and William Ripple, members of Chaplains for Christ Int”l, have just returned from another Bible distribution mission trip to China.  This trip was a follow-up trip to the one in 2008 on which Rob Brown, William Ripple, and Constantin Lupancu did, which resulted in 1,000 bibles being distributed in rural China. This trip included a return to some of the previous churches to encourage them and see that the believers still had the Bibles we had given them last year. Additionally, there was a trip to another very distant province.  Another 1000 Bibles were distributed on this trip.

Because of the interrogation conducted by the Chinese on our previous trip and reports of religious persecution in China, the team experienced anxiety about their activities.

Among the people who accompanied them was the lady who kept the bibles in her apartment until our arrival (seen at left, far right) and one person (lady with the purse) who was instrumental in founding and developing many of the churches that were visited in a far western area of the country. There were other ladies in the leadership team of the churches who accompanied our team in two rented vans. Most of the pastors in China seem to be females.

The western area was agricultural as is most of rural China.  Caves are cut into the side of the mountains and transformed into homes where some people live. It was harvest time and many people were in the fields.  The team was told that it sometimes takes hours before they could descend and ascend many hills to get to the nearest church. Here in the U.S., we have a problem if we have to drive more than thirty minutes to church.  The team met with the leaders/pastors of the churches and some people who lived in proximity.  They also prayed for them and laid hands on the sick.  They gave out the 1000 Bibles to people who could not afford to buy one or even obtain one because of the remote area in which they live.  They heard many testimonies of healing miracles.

Few of the people had money but bartered a great deal.  The believers would not let the team leave until they gave them gifts of nuts, beans seeds, and cucumbers.  The Bibles and small gifts the team brought were received with great joy and thankfulness.

What a joy to see the gospel of Jesus Christ go forward with power and penetrate in places that had never before been open to Christianity.  The church is growing faster than pastors can be provided for them.  Normally, each pastor will be responsible for several churches.

The government officially sanctions the current function of the Three-self patriotic movement in which the religious believers are called to self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation, in order to remove foreign influences and assure religious believers to be patriotic to the Republic of China. Started by Americans before the Cultural Revolution, it is now transformed and controlled by the communist state and must conform to the government’s rules.  Any other church must meet without permission.

Meeting with Officials

Once the team returned to the province the previous team visited in Sept. 08, they were required to meet with the same provincial Minister of Religious Affairs and six other governmental representatives. One team member pointed out that we have seen Jesus Christ deliver people from drug addiction and alcohol abuse and that Christianity helps people become better, more productive citizens. He also stated that the Bible instructs Christians to obey the government and the authorities that are over them. (He sensed that the officials were worried that the team might encourage the people to protest against the government.). At the end of the meeting, one of the members gave the chief government leader from Beijing a Chinese Bible.  Immediately the official asked where it stated that Christians are to obey their leaders.  One of the Chinese Pastors who was with the team showed him Romans Chapter 13

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but from God; the powers that be are ordained by God…”

That official smiled as he read it aloud.

We never know what things we have to face as we are trying to do our small part in His great Kingdom work but pray that we continue to conquer the challenges and continue the work.

In His Service,
Rev. Rob Brown
Executive Director

By the Grace of our Lord, Chaplains for Christ sent a team to China on one of the most exciting mission trips we have ever taken. Below is a photo of our team and the 1000 Bibles we distributed.

Usually, we go to prisons in other countries and conduct ministry, distribute Bibles to the inmates and do prison training. However, at times we have gone to the persecuted church in various countries to distribute Bibles without doing any prison work, i.e. The Sudan and the Philippines.

About ten years ago, I had a dream in which I was standing in China and handing out Bibles one by one to the people. That dream became a reality at the beginning of September ’08.

We found the Chinese people to be more warm, friendly and helpful than any other people group I have ever encountered. I love the Chinese people and the first day we were in Beijing, I had the opportunity to give the gospel message to a group of Taoists who had never been exposed to the Gospel. In fact, they didn’t even know that China has officially recognized Christianity although the Chinese are only allowed to attend the government Christian church which is called the “Three Self Movement”. In order to accomplish our goals, we had to do the same thing that I did in my first trip to southern Sudan – carefully work outside the acceptable boundries allowed. We went at the invitation of a ranking official in rural China, I cannot disclose the details, but we tried to be “invisible” as long as we could. We stayed in a private home in Beijing until we took a train to a remote area of China.

There, we spent four days distributing 1000 Bibles to eight underground house churches. We personally handed the Bibles one by one to the people, preached, prayed, sang and worshiped with them with no restrictions. Some traveled many miles to be with us in the services and we even ate with them and stayed with them in their homes, most built in caves in the mountains.

We were the first foreigners they had ever seen and none of them, except the pastors (usually female), had ever had a Bible nor could they afford one if one were available. They only had hymnals, which they sang from.

They didn’t even know how to use the Bibles when we gave them to them. We gave each one of them a tract called “How to Read the Bible” which suggests starting in The Gospel of John instead of Genesis. (Below is the first page of this tract in Chinese)

We have videos and still photos of all that we did. At one of the churches, two unfriendly people came to the service and after we had lunch, the pastor received an angry call from the police wanting to know who we were and what were we doing there. We immediately left and from that point on, there was an “all points bulletin” issued for us and we saw many cars being pulled over and searched – but not ours. We had passed many checkpoints, both police and military, on our way to and from the churches but were never stopped and searched.

Once we had delivered all of the Bibles, we stayed at another “friendly” hotel where many of the usual rules were more “relaxed”. However, we were alerted that the police were on their way to see us. It was 10:30 PM. From down at the end of the hallway, I began to hear knocks at every door of every room slowly getting nearer to us. Then, they knocked on our door.

When I opened the door, there was a hallway full of police (about 7 or 8), some in uniform and some not. One spoke English and said, “Here they are.” They were polite and asked to see our passports and visas. Then they left – for the moment. They then talked with our Chinese companion from the U.S. and the Chinese official that invited us, who, by God’s grace, had come to say goodbye to us all. Soon they returned to our room and began to ask us questions. What kind of work did we do, please give us your passports again (they looked at every page and wrote down information from them), when did we arrive in China, when are we leaving? etc., etc. They left again, for the moment. They again talked at length with our befriended Chinese official and our Chinese companion. Suddenly, the official and and our Chinese companion were in our rooms telling us to quickly give them our videos and camera discs because the police were about to confiscate them and see where we had been and what we had done.

We quickly gave all of them to her and she hid them in a garbage can in the hallway in case of searches in all of our rooms. Moments after she left, the police knocked on our door. We barely had time to put empty discs into our cameras. They asked for the cameras and opened them to look at the images. “Why are there no images on these discs?” We said, “Well, we begin our tourist visit tomorrow at a nearby tourist attraction. After all, there isn’t much to see in these small towns.” They were very upset and began to search some of our belongings for what they knew to be missing film. We told them they could look wherever they wanted. We knew that they would find nothing including any of the 1000 Bibles because we had passed them all out.

We then spoke with all of the provincial officials who had come looking for us – The Wise High Police Chief of the province, the Minister of Religious Affairs in the province and other police officials. The Governor of religious affairs asked why we had not seen him before we went to the churches. He claimed that he would have personally driven us in his own car and taken us wherever we wanted to go. Right.

After three hours and the providential intervention of our local Chinese official, they left.

We returned to Beijing but stayed in a home. We never did register with the police, which we were supposed to do wherever we went. We knew better.

Finally, we shopped, went to Tiananmen Square and even climbed the “Great Wall”.

What a trip. To God be all the Glory.

Chaplain Rob Brown

“..you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Dear Brethren,

Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Chaplains for Christ International formed a team that traveled to Romania during this time. The team consisted of Constantin Lupancu, Pavel Sav, (Stefan) Fanel Cornel Tohatan, Grigore Aluculesei, Randy Steven Chandler from Dallas TX, and Willie Ripple from Chicago each of which had the privilege to minister to inmates and churches in Romania. Together with Triumph of Hope Mission led by Daniel and Emilia Husar from Romania, they ministered in about 14 prisons and jails. This mission was different from others because they concentrated more on reaching those behind bars with the Gospel of freedom from Jesus Christ.

From among those 25 prisons with maximum security in Romania they were able to visit the southeastern part of the country with God’s help. Our team arrived in Bucharest on February 12 at noon. Our contacts, Daniel & Emilia Husar and Costel Gramada (a pastor from Urziceni Church), met us at the airport in Bucharest and drove us on the same day to the first prison in Tirgusor which is close to the capital of Romania and arrived around 3 pm. This prison is a women prison and about eighty women attended the meeting. The message presented by Steven Chandler, Willie Ripple, Constantin Lupancu, and Daniel Husar lifted up and encouraged those women and many of them rededicated their life to Christ. Some of them committed for the first time to change their lifestyle and to receive Christ. At the end of the service we gave them bibles and some clothes that we brought for them.

On February 13^th our team visited Jilava Jail in the morning where we ministered to about 50 inmates that were very open to the Gospel. We gave them bibles at the end of the service. In the afternoon, we’ve been granted access to another prison in Bucharest named Rahova. In this prison some inmates appeared resistant towards our ministry but during the worship part of the service, the songs sung by Daniel & Emilia Husar, broke their resistance and when the message of Jesus Christ was presented, their hearts were open to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The administration of the prison asked us if we can remodel and old building that was previously a movie theatre during the communist regime and to transform that into a place of worship. Our mission was not to transform buildings but lives, being the most important. The gospel and the worship songs had a big impact on about 100 inmates that attended. Many of them committed their life to Jesus. In the afternoon, the same day, we traveled to Tulcea, a city in a delta close to where the Dunav River empties into the Black Sea. We arrived there at about 2 pm and were granted access in the prison, which is located in the city of Tulcea. In order for our team to minister more efficiently, we divided into two teams. Constantin and Brother Ripple ministered to about 80 youth inmates. They were very interested in hearing the Gospel and testimonies of lives transformed by the Power of the Holy Spirit and they asked us to pray for them at the end of the service so that they receive Jesus Christ. A asked if he could receive Jesus because he understood that only Jesus can make any real difference in his life and the lives of human beings. We gave them bibles and encouraged them to read the bibles and pray everyday. The other group ministered in other wings of the prison, and returned with a joy that the transforming power of Jesus confirmed the message they presented. Brother Daniel Husar (former inmate), noticed an inmate without any shoes, instead he was wearing slippers on a cold day. Daniel took his new shoes and gave them to the inmate and took the inmates slippers and walked outside of the prison. Outside the prison, Brother Ripple (also a former inmate) saw Daniel without shoes but in slippers and asked him what happened. Daniel gave him the testimony of the shoe and slipper trade. William took $100 and handed them to Daniel to go and buy himself a new pair of shoes. What a great illustration of Jesus leaving the glory of God and walked in our ‘slippers’ to put us in a better spiritual condition and save us from death and hell. He identified with us and our needs; He took our nature and became flesh. No one understands us better than Jesus and no one understands the life of an inmate than a former inmate.

On February 15^th we ministered in the prison of Braila where we have an attendance of about 75 inmates. At the end of the service, we gave them bibles and prayed for them so they will be strong in faith. In the afternoon, we traveled to the city Galati where we ministered in the prison of Galati. We brought a message of encouragement. We worshipped God, gave them bibles and prayed for the inmates. On the morning of February 16^th we traveled to a city named Focsani where there was a lot of opposition for Christ in that area. Despite the opposition, we were very welcomed in the Focsani prison by the director and administration of the prison. Not only the inmates but also the guards and director attended the meeting. We ministered with songs and the message of Hope for the hopeless inmates. We pointed the guards towards Christ, whom has the power of transforming the lives of those inmates into a good citizen for the country and for Heaven. The orthodox priest/Chaplain also attended the meeting and was very welcoming. At the end of the service, we gave bibles and prayed for those that were open to receive Christ as the only “Rope of Hope”. In Vaslui we were granted access to the prison in the afternoon (even though it was a Saturday). The director came from home to meet us at the prison and gave us access to visit two dormitories, where we shared with the crowded inmates, the love of Jesus Christ and the difference that Christ made in the life of those that accept Him. The testimony and the Word of God was powerful and anointed and even the director said that she sensed something about that day she had never sensed before. She was so grateful that we came and ministered to these inmates. We apologized that she had to go out of her way to attend, but she stated that she was so blessed herself, because God had touched her. An orthodox priest was arrested and was living in one of the dormitories, and we presented the Gospel to him and the established with Christ in order to be saved – not the tradition of religion.

On the morning of February 17^th we split into two teams. At the Church of Bacau, we met Nelu Albu, a former inmate and a testimony of a life transformed by the Power of Jesus Christ. The second team, together with Daniel Husar, went and ministered in the prison of Bacau and distributed bibles to the inmates.

On February 18^th we left to minister in another prison in Iasi. We arrived in Iasi at about 12 pm and the director invited us to his office. There he questioned us for about 45 minutes. One of his concerns was what we used to transform the lives of people. We gave him a lot of testimonies and presented the Word of God who has the power to change lives. Then, he gathered together all the chiefs of security in the prison, and presented us with a dilemma. There wasn’t enough room for us to minister there, but if we minister to the chiefs of the rooms, they would in turn, minister to the inmates. We accepted this method and we went to that room where all the chiefs of security were gathered along with the guards. We presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them who were attentive, open and responsive. We gave them bibles, courses for the mission in prison and also goods such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, notebooks, and writing utensils

On the morning of February 19^th, brother Chandler and I traveled to the prison of Botosani where we had a meeting upon arrival at noon. The prison administration welcomed us to come and minister but when we got inside, the orthodox priest/Chaplain tried to confine our ministry only to certain people. But despite his resistance, there were about 75 people that came to hear us. God moved and many of them rededicated and dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ. We gave them bibles and prayed for them.

On February 26^th brother Stefan Torac came early in the morning and drove us from Suceava to the Bucharest Airport. In the meantime brother Pavel Sav from our team, after he separated from us, ministered in the prison of Popa Sapca Timisoara and the prison in the city of Arad with brother Silviu Grigoras. Finally, the team departed from Bucharest to Chicago and safely returned home in America after a great but long mission trip.

May all the Glory and Honor and Power be to God who protected, sustained, and blessed the team and their families during this mission trip. May the Lord of all creation richly bless all of you.

Staff Chaplain Rob Brown

Executive Director

By the Grace of our Lord, we sent a team to Colombia and Ecuador in March of this year. The team consisted of Constantin Lupancu, George Ieremciuc, Hamas Munoz, and several other Romanians. The purpose of the trip was to work in the prisons of Colombia and to build two schoolrooms in the jungle of Ecuador.

COLOMBIA

In Colombia, our host was brother Hames Munoz, a former resident of Colombia living in the United States. He prepared the arrangements for the mission to Bogota, Colombia. Even in a time of turmoil and rumors of wars, we had decided to go to Colombia though Ecuador was being threatened by Venezuela.

The team visited several churches, some in very poor and dangerous areas, but because of the turmoil in the country, they were only able to visit one prison, La Modela. The team took comfort in the Scripture in Mt. 24:6

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed…”

At one point,the entire team purchased goods and distributed them to the poor people attending the church Christiana Cuadrangular.

One night, Brother Constantin conducted a prison-training seminar. They had in attendance about 35 church members and each received a certificate of completion from Chaplains for Christ International.

On Thursday, March 13, the team was finally granted access to La Modelo Prison, one of the biggest prisons in Colombia. The team brought 200 Bibles to pass to the inmates of the prison. They were able to minister in two courtyards to many inmates. The response was great. Many inmates received the message of peace and hope from the Word of God. Prayers of repentance and rededication to Jesus Christ were made in response to the Gospel message.

ECUADOR

On Friday, March 14, our team departed Colombia to Ecuador and arrived in Quito, Ecuador. Our host, Timothy Anderson, with one of his friends from Teen Challenge waited for us and welcomed us. In the afternoon, they ministered to Teen Challenge Chapel near Quito. On Saturday, March 15, they ministered in Quito Jail #3 and the CDP Jail. The team also ministered in several churches. In the afternoon, they left Quito for the jungle.

On Monday, they flew to the jungle village called Kuakash and began to build two school buildings there. At night they had an evangelistic service in the jungle and six people from the Shuar indigenous community received Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord.

On Tuesday, March 18, they continued with the project of buildings and in the afternoon they finished the project. At night they had another evangelism service, and to make sure that everyone would come, they walked into the jungle and visited every hut and invited all of them. God moved that night and many were touched by God’s sweet presence. In the jungle there was joyful noise of praises, worship, and fervent prayer for the Holy Spirit to fill their lives. Despite their hard lifestyle they encouraged them to seek God’s presence everyday and He will fulfill their needs according to His riches. Eight people decided to be baptized. One local man initially had a very furious expression on his face but when the Gospel was preached and he received it, the Holy Spirit’s power transformed his life and his face manifested a joyful, gleaming, shining, and radiating light. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

On Wednesday, March 19, the team eight people in the of the rivers of the Amazon. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20).

On Thursday, March 20, they a had a free day and they visited the earth’s equator.

The brothers and friends from Ecuador send there greetings to us in the U.S. with (2 Corinthians 14-17) -

“14. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 15. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16. to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life And who is adequate for these things? 17. For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.” All the Glory and all the Praise be to God only who led us and helped us to fulfill His purpose. Please keep in your prayers the men and women who are sentenced for many years in the Prisons of Ecuador and Colombia. Pray also for the Shuar Indians in the Amazon that God will keep them strong in His faith.

(Note: additional pictures of the Ecuador Amazon trip below)

Chaplain Rob Brown

Chaplains for Christ International

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have just sent a team of six men on a wonderful 10-day short-term mission trip to Ecuador.  Assemblies of God missionary Tim Anderson hosted the team and was assisted by Pastor Luis Montana. The team was composed of Constantin Lupancu, William Ripple, George Ieremciuc, Viorel Gromzi, Edgar Garza and Adrian Greab.  They arrived in the city of Quito, Ecuador on Tuesday, November 27. The team distributed 240 full Spanish Bibles in the prison and also at the Teen Challenge Center.
Wednesday morning the team went to Quito Number 1 prison (maximum security) where they preached the Gospel on one of the wings in a courtyard. The prisoners have an active church of their own and when they got inside the inmates were already singing and speaking. Because many men exercise in the courtyard, many heard the Gospel who were not even a part of the church service. There were about 15 people who prayed to give their lives to Jesus Christ. The guards are very strict with the foreigners and other visitors alike. They weren’t allowed to have a belt or hat and no cameras were allowed. That afternoon they drove 5 hours from Quito to Puyo, which is the last city before you drive down to the jungle. Also on the way they saw a couple of small eruptions from one of the active volcanoes in Ecuador. This road is lined with volcanoes.
Thursday morning they drove to the city of Shell where there is a small airport from which all the planes leave for the Amazon jungle. This famous road has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. In the city of Shell just across from the airport is the house that Nate Saint built (Through Gates of Splendor). He was one of missionaries killed in 1956 by the Auca Indians in the Amazon. It takes 25 minutes to fly from Shell to the Shuar Indian village of Kuakash (this tribe was also once headhunters) where the team ministered. It would have taken a month to walk there. They preached the gospel to villagers and one teenager prayed to receive Jesus Christ. One purpose of the trip was to see possibility of sending future missions team to build schoolrooms and other projects. The people are very poor there and many of the children need medicine as well. The church floor was full of biting ants when they got there and they had to pour gasoline to kill them (some survived – ouch). Also they prayed for all the sick people who lined up in front of the church. Please keep all the people living in Kuakash in your prayers.
Friday morning they went to Teen Challenge, also run by Tim Anderson, in Quito. The team testified and preached to the many residents there. Friday night they went to a prayer meeting at Tim’s church “Jesus Never Fails” where there was a great move of God’s Spirit during the 5-hour service.
Saturday afternoon they went together with the teen challenge evangelism team to the Santo Domingo Plaza in downtown Quito. They passed out 750 Gospel Tracks and four people came forward to proclaim Christ as Savior. There are many drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes that frequent this plaza.
Sunday morning they went again to the jail to another wing where they conducted a church service in a very small room. It was so packed with people that some of the inmates were standing up. Everyone on the team had a chance to share about the Lord for 3 and a half hours. Four members of our team are Romanians and they even found two Romanian inmates in this jail. They prayed for them and all the inmates present there that God will work in their lives. Sunday night they went to Tim’s house for prayer and fellowship.
Monday and Tuesday morning the team presented the Chaplains for Christ International Training Seminar at the Teen Challenge center to 27 pastors, leaders and students. God worked in such a great way that several students were baptized with the Holy Spirit and most of them dedicated themselves to prison ministry. Monday afternoon they went to Rucu Pichincha Mountain on a trolley to 13,000 feet above sea level where they had a splendid view of Quito. They also made a prayer to God that he will bless all the work that was done on the mission trip.
Wednesday they went again to the maximum-security jail to yet a different wing where they had fellowship with the inmates in song and prayer. They preached the gospel to all the people present there including some families and visitors to the inmates. At the end of the service about 40 people came for the final prayer invitation to change their lives through Jesus Christ.
Thursday was their free day and together with Tim and his family they went to the centerline of the earth, the Equator. It was a very wonderful experience for all of them. Thursday night Tim’s family, Joe’s family and our team went to a restaurant for one last night of fellowship. We appreciate very much what Tim and Joe did for them and we pray to God that they will be blessed. And also let’s keep in prayer the whole country of Ecuador that God would work miracles in this country. We thank God for everything He has done for on this trip.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Staff Chaplain Rob Brown

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have safely returned from our second visit to Romania and it is with great joy that we give the following report of our trip. Constantin Lupancu and I stayed together and traveled in a grand circle around the whole country starting in Bucharest. We made stops in Craiova, Temisoara, Baia Mare, Cluj, Bistrita, Suceave, and back to Bucharest. All in 11 days. I had the privilege to preach in 9 churches, 6 prisons and did 2 days of prison training seminar at the only halfway house for inmates in Romania located in Bistrita. We also gave away about 350 Bibles and many Project Philip materials in the prisons. At the seminar, I gave the training but I also challenged the attendees in two ways. One is to begin to send full-time, 40 hour per week missionary chaplain-pastors to each of the 17 prisons in Romania supported not by the government but by the local churches. The second was to establish Prison Church Plants with the chaplain-pastors serving as the pastors there. Every denomination is involved in church planting but how many are planting them in prisons?

Chaplain Barabas Francisc, the Chaplain we appointed at the prison in Tirgu-Mures in 2002.

Our first prison was the women’s prison in Bucharest. My message was the one of Hope that the Savior gave to the Samaritan woman at the well and the promise to her of Living Water. After the service, I found out that one of the women in the service was there for murder having thrown three of her own seven children down a well and was in the process of throwing all seven of them in when circumstances prevented her from doing so.

In the prison in Craiova, we witnessed the water baptism of 42 inmates. This is an absolutely amazing thing to happen in a Romanian prison. It just doesn’t happen to this degree. For them, water baptism represents a very serious commitment to live for the Lord.

We were warmly welcomed by the Orthodox priest (the bearded man on the right) who serves as Chaplain at the prison in Temisoara prison, Popasapaca. In preparation for our service, which took place in his chapel, he rounded up many inmates for the service. He even took photos of the service for us. He couldn’t have been more helpful.

At Baia Mare, the inmates were restless and, as usual, did not know what to expect from us. At the conclusion, one man with a mustache was even moved to tears during the altar call.

New Gherla prison

Old underground cells at Gherla

At Gherla prison, in addition to having a service in the maximum-security section of the infamous prison, the Commander gave us a 45-minute tour of the improvements they are making to the prison and showed us the underground chambers that held tortured prisoners during the old communist regime. He also showed us the small museum that displays shackles, prison garb, etc. and the place where many inmates were executed. His attitude and surprising hospitality towards us and our message of hope let us know that a great Door of opportunity is open there for future ministry by the local Romanians. We passed the word along and a team will soon be approaching him for access and services.

At the men’s prison in Bistrita, I reminded the inmates that we are all thieves. The question is, our we like the thief on the cross that only cared about himself or are we like the thief that turned to Jesus and repented?

The seminar had about 50 people in attendance from all over the country and was a real blessing.

At the end of the trip, someone gave a prophecy that there would much fruit and many spiritual bonds would be broken. Many would be set free as the result of our trip.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Staff Chaplain Rob Brown

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Brother George Ieremciuc and I traveled to the cities of Madras, Coimbatore and Cochin India from May 25 to June 4 to conduct a two day Prison Training Seminar at the Apostolic Seminary in Cochin and then visit the charitable work being done in Coimbatore by Dr. Ezra Kumar and his wife, Margaret Jayakumari.

First we want to thank God because he was with us on our trip and guided and protected us both in this land where the majority of the people there, who are Hindus, worship over 33,000,000 gods. During our time there, we had the opportunity to preach the gospel and give our seminar.  The most significant development was the creation of the Asia Prison Ministry Training Institute, which is now incorporated within the official program of the Apostolic Seminary in Cochin.  We will be soon be sending them additional materials as a part of creating a curriculum for the Institute. Those in the Bachelors of Divinity program speak English and each were given a large print Thompson Chain Reference Bible and as a part of their training, they will be teaching our institute materials to the other students in the local language.

When we arrived in Cochin on the 27th, Sunday, in time to preach in two churches.  On Monday and Tuesday we conducted the training seminar with about 50 in attendance. At the end of the training, eleven men stepped forward for prayer and to be dedicated to full-time prison ministry. On Tuesday, Chaplains for Christ Asian Prison Training Institute was created as a part of the Apostolic Seminary in Cochin, India.  We will be sending an array of training DVDs/CDs to them as a part of the curriculum.  We donated a computer-adaptable projector to the seminary for use in their follow-up training.

On Thursday, we drove to Coimbatore, India to participate in the work of Dr. Ezra Kumar and his wife, Margaret Jayakumari.  We spoke in one service and four Hindu women came forward with tears at the invitation to receive Christ as Savior, one of whom had been involved in witchcraft. Please pray for the lives of those who gave their lives to Jesus that they will become a light in the darkness. We also joined with the pastors in the dedication of a deliverance and counseling center to be built next to the church.  We then visited homes for orphans, widows, the elderly and lepers.  We were welcomed with such gratitude and warmth everywhere we went.  Sister Margaret even arranged for an elephant ride.  What a pleasure it is to work with fully dedicated men and women of God.

The day we left, June 3rd, we made another contact with a pastor in Madras who is interested in starting a Chaplains for Christ Prison Training Institute near that city.  We will be in contact with them about this possibility.

The trip was very demanding physically but seemed very successful spiritually. The people in this country are very poor but we witnessed many who were rich in the things that matter for eternity.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Staff Chaplain Rob Brown

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

A team formed of 10 brethren: Rob Brown, Jesus Nunez, Willie Ripple, Constantin Lupancu, Allen Andras, Francisco Sanchez, George Ieremciuc, Johnny Buia, Aurel Balici and Adrian Greab went to the cities of Rosario and Buenos Aires, Argentina from March 24 to March 31 to spread the word of God to inmates in nine prisons, many churches and a Remar halfway house. First we want to thank God because he was with us on our trip and guided and protected us all. During our week there, we distributed about 480 bibles. It rained every day we were there.

We left Saturday, March 24 from Chicago and after a 12-hour plane ride we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there we took a bus, which was arranged for us by brothers Hugo and Daniel Brodbeck, our hosts for the week. It took us another 5 hours by bus to get to city of Rosario, which has a population of 1.5 million and where we spent most of our time. We divided into two teams one composed of: leader Rob, Willie, Allen, our interpreter Francisco, and Adrian. The other team consisted of: leader Jesus, Aurel, Johnny, George, and Constantin.

As soon we arrived each team spoke at a different church. One church was called “Vision de Dios” (Vision of God) and had about 250 members. All on the team had a chance to speak and at the end of service a lot of people decided to pray that they would get closer to God.

Monday morning we went to our first two prisons, one of which was in the city of Nujere, which was for women. There were about 15-20 women present at the service but others listened including about 6 or 7 guards. The word of God was preached to them but at the beginning not all of them were paying attention, but after 10-15 minutes we could see that even the guards were paying attention. At the end we saw some of the women crying because their hearts seemed to be truly touched by God. Some of them decided to give their lives to God.

Monday night there was much flooding in the area and even the church services were cancelled because of flooding in the churches.

Tuesday morning we all went to another prison in the city of Santa Fe, which was for men. The prison had about 750 people. Two weeks prior to our visit, 12 inmates were killed in a riot there. One team went to the south wing and the other group to the north wing. We spoke to about 60 prisoners for about one hour and a lot of them also prayed to give their lives to Jesus. After we spoke to the inmates, we got a tour of the prison and we saw were some of the inmates were receiving industrial training. They had sections for learning carpentry in order to make furniture, training to make cement grills, benches, metal desks and chairs, floor tiles, etc.

Tuesday night we went to Remar, a halfway house, in Rosario and about 100 people were present. The whole team attended. Also attending were the homeless, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc. It was a special night because we really felt the presence of God in a special way and we felt certain that hearts were touched and lives were changed. Many now want to start serving God and to minister to other people that are going to thru the same pain as they have gone through.

Wednesday morning we went to two more prisons in the city of Pinero, but we didn’t get a chance to speak to a lot of inmates in one of them because it is a very dangerous prison and there was a conflict inside the prison that morning and there were a lot of guards present in order to get the situation back to normal. But the inmates who heard the word of God decided to give their lives to Jesus, and we pray that they could be a light for the other inmates who couldn’t be present to hear the Word of God.

Wednesday night, Rob Brown and Jesus Nunez held the Prison Training Seminar, which was attended by about 65 people. One woman in particular heard about the seminar on the radio and had traveled a long way to attend. She is interested in working the women’s prisons and has only been in prison ministry for two weeks. She said it was a big blessing for her to receive the training.

Thursday morning we went to another prison in Rosario and again one team went to one wing and the other team went to a different wing. There were about 140 inmates who were in Christian wings but we also we spoke in another 3 wings with about 12 people in each present. Many were hearing the Gospel for the first time.

Thursday night we went to a church, which was pastored by a Brazilian missionary. Special prayer for some of the young people was made.

Friday morning we went to 2 different villages around Rosario, which are considered among the poorest in Argentina. We distributed food that we had purchased to about 110 families, but after we saw how great the need was so we bought food to feed another 70 families. Also we gave preached the word of God and gave bibles to the people before we gave them the food. We thank God for the chance that he gave us to touch those people lives even for a small way considering how vast the need is.

Saturday morning we left for Buenos Aires. There we went to one of the few prisons in the world that has only Christian inmates and is run by a Christian administration. The name of the prison is “Cristo la Unica Esperanza” (Christ, the Only Hope) or Number 25. Argentina gives numbers to each of their prisons. We had lunch with the director who, with tears in his eyes, shared his personal testimony of how Christ changed his life. After we finish eating, we were invited to take part in the church service being held in the prison. People from outside the prison come with their families, including children, to take part. Many from around the world have come there to see what God is doing. As soon we entered into the room we felt the presence of God in there. All of us had tears in our eyes because we felt the Holy Ghost inside and all around us. It was something that we are going to remember for the rest of our lives because its something rarely felt even in the churches of America. God has done something special there because the inmates spend each day in prayer, fellowship, Bible Study, and worship services.

Saturday night we returned to the U.S. We saw His Mighty work again like we see in every country we visit. We thank Him because we had the great privilege to speak the word of God in prisons and churches in yet another country. Please pray for the lives of those who gave their lives to Jesus that they will become a light in the darkness. Amen.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Staff Chaplain Rob Brown

Dear Jessie,

In these past couple of days, I went back around to gather the results of your visit, and I can tell you that it is unanimous. Everybody has been impacted with the work that you are doing.

And in general, the questions are ” How can we get to know you better in order to help you out in the future.”

Other people have learned about you and other churches are asking for information.

I have a friend in the Pastoral Prison work that found out about our visit to the Coronda Jail and he told me of the impact that has resulted in the testimonies of the inmates and the help of faith and hope that your ministry gave.

I had coffee with the Co-Secretary of Human Rights, and he liked the idea of having the province participate in some way in the training of chaplains.

I was in the Government office, to see if there were any changes in the statutes of the

Civil Associations, but since in was a holiday week, the workers didn’t really feel like

working, so maybe next week they will give me the latest copy and I’ll send it on to you.

I am gathering a lot of information that I’ll send to you soon.

I’m ending on this note.

In the Church where we were Thursday, Pastor Gladis told me that on that day there was a group of 10 adolescents there that had a lot of issues: bad conduct, drug addiction, & theft. Since then, those same young people have changed their attitude, come to church to work, and even helped to make homemade bread. Sunday morning, they were all making and kneading the dough. She told me she took out photos of them because the church couldn’t believe the change. I am using her words.

Your visit has been a blessing for us and for the people, which for a long time didn’t feel like they were treated with love by people giving without asking for anything in return and now that has changed.

Well then, this has been a very long letter, but I summarize, that surely you will understand it better than me.

An embrace until we meet soon,

Hugo Brodbeck