FMC IN ROMANIA
PRESENT MINISTRIES
Vis de Copil (A Child's Dream) works with street children, youth and needy families in Arad and other marginalized communities in Romania. A Child's Dream has a day center in the center of Arad, which offers a range of social services including:
• showers and clothes washing facilities
• hot meals
• basic literacy and numeracy education
• advice and counseling
Independently founded in 2006 by Scottish schoolteachers Kenneth and Kathryn Cloke, the center is managed by Philip More, an independent Australian missionary. Since August of 2016, Philip has connected regularly with missionary Gerry McNamara in Győr, Hungary. In 2019, Philip became a member and local ministerial candidate in the Győr church. There is now a memorandum of understanding between Vis de Copil and Free Methodist World Missions.
ORIGINS
The first contact by the Free Methodist Church was made in Arad, Romania, in the mid-1990s through Alvin Anderson, a member of the Pearce Memorial Free Methodist Church. In the late 1990s, Dr. Barbara Rose from Roberts Wesleyan College began taking ministry teams to Arad assisting Oaza (Oasis), a charity working with street children and orphans.
Through these connections, contact was established with Free Methodist World Missions. In 2005, the Emmanuel Christian Center, an independent church, entered into the affiliation process and became a Free Methodist congregation. Missionaries, Scott and Paula Dunn and their family, were sent to Arad in 2006. They partnered with the church in leadership development and worked with independent church planters in the region. The affiliation between Emmanuel Christian Center and the Free Methodist Church was discontinued in 2010, and by 2011 the church itself ceased to exist.
From 2013 to 2018, Spencer and Lynsey Ball served in Arad and worked with Roma children in the nearby village of Vinga. During that time, they worked with a day shelter called Vis de Copil, establishing a relationship with Philip More, the director of Vis de Copil.
Country Statistics
- Population: 19,234,485
- Evangelical Christians: 6.33%
- FM Work Opened: 2016
- Overseer: Josh Fajardo
Mission District
Learn More
• creative ways to feed the homeless and needy in Arad
• the finances to care for the children
• children and workers to remain healthy
• Regional Director Gerry McNamara as he seeks to make contacts for future ministries in Romania and Moldova
• open doors for the gospel
Romania
Funding the Romania Church Planting and Development (CPD) fund will help resource the following people and strategic initiatives:• church planting
• training national leaders
• compassion ministries
• orphan and community development ministries
• CPD promotional materials