LIz Greenhalgh Update May 2025

After School and school support

It has been a successful period working with the children and we see the results from the labour put in this year as their school grades have increased. One girl came to me recently to show me how she had written her text at school. It was beautiful and a colleague had worked a lot with her to get her to this level. She was one of the children that we had really struggled with and she needed a lot of one-to-one support. Praise God for the workers in the project that come with the heart to help the children and to share God’s love! 

I mentioned two boys in my last update that are now able to come again to the programme; the older boy (10) is now starting to see improvements in his grades at school in Romanian and Math. Praise God! 

His younger brother (8), who I also sit with 3 times a week at school for around 4 hours a week, is also improving. He started this week to write some small words that I said to him. We always start with a prayer together. 

Being a phonetic language, he was encouraged to see that he could identify the letters and write small words. He still needs to learn how to write other letters, in the cursive handwriting that they use here, but it is getting easier. Praise the Lord for the steps made! He goes into grade 3 in September, so it is really important that he can catch up as much as possible. Compared to September 2024 though, where he didn’t know any letters, he has done really well! Without intervention, he would definitely be one of the children that would be dropping out of school early unable to read and write. 

These two boys mentioned, along with their younger sister 6, and Mum (who is pregnant)  have gone through a really tough time recently. The Mum had to run from home in January with the children, after being beaten yet again by her husband. They ended up in a centre that takes in potentially homeless people. The husband had beaten her before and from what I understood from her, the two boys too. This time he was kicking her in the stomach and looking for a knife to stab her to try and kill the baby. Fortunately he couldn't find the knife, but she was very badly beaten, thankfully the baby was okay. It wasn't the first time that she had left due violence, but this time, she went to the police and was looking to divorce him. 

Tragically he took his own life around 6 weeks later.  What added to the trauma was that the Mum was not allowed to go to the wake, because the family of her husband didn't want her there, putting the blame on her and so only the 3 children were allowed to go. The oldest one Justin understood that his Father had died, but the 8 and 6 year old didn't really know, or it hadn't been explained properly by the Mum. I asked her if she was sure that she wanted to let them go, because it would be a shock for them, but she let them go. We prayed together before they went too. 

I heard from one of the staff at the centre, that the 8 year old boy was excited in the morning and that he had said that he was going to take 5 lei (about a pound) to buy his Dad a sandwich, so he obviously was expecting something else, only to go and find and see their Dad lying in a coffin. For the wakes here, they usually bring the coffin home and it is open for people to come and visit and pay their last respects and then they are buried 3 days after death. The children were devastated of course. We were praying for protection over them knowing that it would be a shock and we are supporting them in different ways. The funeral was in another town, about an hour away, so they stayed overnight after the wake and I went out for a coffee with the Mum where she told me more about her life. It has been really tough for her. The day after they got back, we went out in the afternoon, I took them to an indoor play park so that they could have some much needed fun and distraction. They had a good time. 

I am thankful for a good relationship with them all, so that we can encourage them towards the Lord and pray for them and help to provide practically and show God love, whilst doing this. 

They need a lot of support and I have sensed many times whilst in Romania, that the Lord puts on my heart different families/people to support more specifically and invest in and pray with/for and at this point, it is this family.  Please pray for them too. They will need to leave the centre before the new baby arrives and currently have nowhere to go, but I am praying and encouraging the Mum that the Lord knows and will help her. 

Praise for God’s provision at the After-School

We had one lady leave the After School Team in March, which left us short and it was a bit of a struggle as we need to put one leader with usually maximum two children, or some clearly need the one-to-one support, but praise God around 5 weeks later an older lady in the church asked me if we needed any help. I asked her if anyone had told her that we needed some help and she said, no, just that she prays for the project, but she felt the Lord putting it on her heart to come and help too! Praise God for His provision! I was encouraged and she is great with the children. 

Youth Work

Praise God that there have been 3 young people baptised already this year! One in January in her church in another town. It was nice to meet her parents and her Dad said that I had had an influence over his daughter coming to decide on being serious with the Lord. It was nice to be encouraged in this way, but of course, we know that it is the Lord that is doing the convicting and changing in the heart of a person, which is what I responded to him. She was in my group at the Alpha Course last year, so it was great to see fruit from the course. 

Another boy, 20 years old, who I have asked you to pray for on other occasions, also got baptised in February. He was someone who was going back and forth with the Lord, but praise God, he has finally made that full commitment to the Lord. It is great to see him coming forward to pray for others and encouraging others in the Lord and take on small responsibility at the church. 

Another person also got baptised on the same day, someone who gave his life to the Lord last Autumn. 

Also, in February, I took some of the youth to the Roma village in Tarlungeni, where I served in Brasov years ago. We had gone there last Autumn and the youth wanted to go back again to serve the children there, so this time, we were a team of 18, serving and sharing the gospel with over 70 children over the two locations. It was also an opportunity for the young people to have a go at coordinating a group and work together to come up with an evangelistic programme and implement it together. We really want to encourage them to grow in skills and confidence in sharing the gospel and serving the Lord. It was a great day for everyone. 

We also asked one of our 18 year olds to preach for the first time recently. It was really something I felt that the Lord had put on my heart for this particular person and I sense that this will be something he will be doing more often when he is older. What was nice, was that this led the 20 year old who had gotten baptised in February to come forward to ask if he can preach what he has on his heart too. 

Please pray for protection over us as a team. We see how much the work is being led and blessed by the Lord, but at the same time, the enemy is trying to get in, sometimes through the team, but we also see how he is trying to cause disruption through the young people and people who look to bring division. We need wisdom and discernment. 

Prison

Please pray for the lady that I write to. She is very ill with cancer and has been receiving little treatment for it, but remains on the medical part of the prison. She will have a review of her case on 14 May, which will decide if she can be released or not. Please pray for her health and that it will be the case that she is released. She is always encouraged by the Lord through the letters, which are prayed about beforehand in order to write something from God’s heart for her. 

Canteen

We give hot meals to 65 people, 3 times a week and in March I shared at the monthly meeting for the beneficiaries and really sought the Lord for a word. He was faithful to give a word about David finding his strength in the Lord.

For our Easter celebration, we had the beneficiaries and I did the children’s spot, having sensed that God had put the word ‘TRUTH’ on my heart, to share with them. God was faithful to also give creativity in delivering the message. It was encouraging to see that the children knew the truth about the Lord being presented to them. 

At the beginning of April, we stood outside the supermarkets as we partnered with the Food Bank asking people to donate to our canteen, so we can give out donations to the needy. We had a great response, praise God for his provision!

Elpis (Formerly under Ellel Ministries)

In April, I helped again at a healing retreat in Bulgaria. This time, fully leading the ministry/prayer session, which was a challenge, but I really saw God’s faithfulness and I was very encouraged to see what he did in the two ladies in our small group and how they were set free from things of the past and demonic oppression. 

At the course in Bucharest, we have two people now coming from Bulgaria and I am helping with translation from Romanian to English for them. This is a big challenge because it is much more than just understanding the language, as it has to be listened to, translated into context and spoken in English, all at the same time. I’m thankful to the Lord that it is getting better. It is a skill I really would like to develop. 

Other Projects

In February we had the joy of giving out the donations of clothes that we received from Holland last year. It was the second year that I had been asked to coordinate this very big and week long project, but Praise the Lord, it was made a lot easier with the many volunteers that signed up to help! Many people were blessed from around the Campina area, with the majority being from low income families. We were able to give away 600 boxes of clothes this year, almost double what we gave last year. It is a great way to build connections with people in the community and a chance for people who wouldn’t normally enter a church building to come in and meet us, whilst choosing some clothes for themselves. 

Prayer Points

• The family; mum and children to find a place to live. This is a really big need. That the Mum will come to the Lord and also find deep healing that she needs from years of abuse. Provision for them. 

• For the children to also be healed emotionally.

• For the lady in prison as she has her review meeting with the parole board on the 14th May, that she will be shown favour and be able to leave. For strength physically and for her health. 

• For the canteen beneficiaries. For break through in their hearts, as we see an apathy amongst a lot of them, but we keep sowing the seeds and are thankful for some fruit from this, but there are many more that we would like to see come and make that step to the Lord. 

• For help with improving translation. 

• For protection over our youth and youth team. That we can discern together the Lord's plans and that there will be a protection over us as a team and that no weapons formed against us and the ministry will stand. 

• For the 20 year old who will be preaching for the first time in June, as he prepares and for the Lord to guide him.

• For continued strengthening of relationships in the school.