The Mayor of Waverley, the former British Ambassador to Romania and about 80 supporters of The Cleaford Christian Trust came to an open exhibition at Farnham Baptist Church on September 20.
The celebration of 20 years’ work by the trust in Romania was an occasion for two visitors from Transylvania to thank supporters for giving a total of £1million since the trust began.
Sheena Cleaver, one of the trustees, had arranged extensive displays illustrating how the trust had been involved in the establishment of churches in a number of poor villages, as well as giving help to widows, the poor and a group of abandoned children.
Harghita Christian Camp
Andrew Erdo from Harghita Christian Camp spoke movingly of how hundreds of children and young people had met Jesus Christ through the gospel teaching there. Children from orphanages could experience Christian love, and good food, for the first time, only because the trust had paid for them to come to the camp.
Too poor to support
On the Sunday, Andrew marked the 20 years of service when he preached at Farnham Baptist Church on Paul’s writing to the Philippians about how God who has started a good work in us will carry it on to completion. It is common for a pastor to minister in several small villages where the people are too poor to be able to give him financial support. In these cases the trust gives the pastor a regular allowance. Over the 20 years there has been significant growth of new village baptist churches, and in some areas there is a revival, particularly amongst Roma people. In one area where the trust has been involved for many years, the pastor is training 20 lay assistants. His wife tells of women’s meetings attended by 200 women at a time. In some of the larger towns there is little growth in the established churches. In October a team went from Farnham to encourage the ministers.
