text: Ion Vlad — PIEI
  Ion Vlad - Serving in Perieti, Lisa, Grecu, Olt area.
  My name is Ion (John) Vlad, I am married to Vlad Cristina and we have 3 girls: Rebeca 14 years old, Tabita 15 years old and Adriana 23 years old.
  Both me and my wife are coming from orthodox families.
  18 years ago, in the village called Lisa there has been a Revival service through the movie "Jesus Christ". At that time, I was sent by the Orthodox Priest to go and chase away the Protestants. At that time I was part of the Organization Committee of the Orthodox Church. The Priest managed to manipulate me so that I would hate the repentants (protestants), telling me " They are coming to corrupt the religion!". At that time I was a very violent person and I had a lot of conflicts in my village. People were terrorized and they did not felt comfortable because of me. A had a problem with alcohol consumption and the people from the village fear me as a dangerous person. I went to that revival service thinking of beating them and ruin their equipment. I addressed directly to the Pastor Raul Costea, who was responsible of the service and searching for a reason to make a scandal, I asked him if he knew that the Bible speaks about the liar prophets. To my surprise, the Pastor was not embarrassed by my question and did not repulsively respond to my question, but kindly and lively started to show me what the Bible was saying about the lying prophets. That was the moment I had the first real contact with the Word of God. And so I started to study the Bible with brother Raul.
  During the winter of 2000, I was invited at the youth meeting in Alba Iulia, where I publically received Jesus in my heart. I went back home animated by the wish of telling people about the wonderful experience I had! I gathered all the christian literature I had at home and I started to knock on peoples' doors and tell them about our Lord Jesus, the One who forgave all my sins
  After a little while, brother Raul started a Bible study in our home. In about two months my wife also accepted Jesus as her personal redeemer.
  God called me to serve in the Churh " The Good News Perieti" 15 years ago. Understanding the need of involving in service and being urged by the other brothers and by God, I started to take care of the church's spiritual needs. By the Lord grace i graduated the biblical school "Oltenia Bible College" That course helped me to develop my calling and skills for the ministry. 3 years ago I have been consecrated as a Missionary of the Church Hope from Drăgănești Olt and i serving at the mission point "The Good News" from Perieti.
  In this church I am in charge of the following projects:
  • Preaching the Gospel on the street and at people's home
  • Taking care of the spiritual growth and development of church's members through the pastoral work
  • The evangelical project "Every home a New Testament". The purpose of this project is the distribution of a Bible at every house from the following localities: Bălteni, Perieți, Schit, Greci and Lisa. Through the evangelism actions in this places our desire is the hearing of the Word of God by all the people. Our aim is also to form biblical study groups.
  • Social projects. As far as the available resources allow, we are satisfying the physical needs of the families and persons that are socially vulnerable.
  • The project " A fishing rod, not a fish!". Through this project we are buying a goat, a cow or a horse for those families that are willing to work in their grange in order to ensure the food for themselves. The purpose is for the persons who benefit from this project to become independent in ensuring their daily food.
  • Evangelism : Organizing evangelical events in the local church and in the localities of our mission
  • Discipleship: Biblical study meetings with the ones who decided to follow Jesus, in order to develop their relationship with God and improving the Gospel knowledge
  • Consolidation: We are visiting the children and the teenagers that are participating at the Sunday school, so that we could preach the Gospel to their parents too, using different methods and activities, such as: reading the Bible with the one who cannot read, sharing with them our personal testimonies, even visioning a christian movie if the case requires it.