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Our first mission trip of 2024 took place from February 12th to March 8th. Our team members Ethan, Jim, Eric, Steve, Liviu and I (Vali) participated in this mission. The first part of the trip was in Albania and I was accompanied by Ethan. As part of this mission, we had meetings with our partners from the evangelical organization VUSH, represented by Alesio, the General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance in Albania. He took care of the preparation of the conference and the meetings that we had with pastors, elders, teachers, and leaders within the evangelical churches. More than 45 people participated. Saturday, February 17th, we presented Eternal Truth Ministries to a group of pastors. I spoke on Christ's authority over the Church, both the universal Church and the local church. I emphasized that Christ is the Head of the Church everywhere and with His authority He has commanded us to make disciples. After me, Ethan spoke from Matthew 9:35-38, presenting the need for trained disciple makers. Then he gave a summary of each model in the Models for Disciple-Makers.

After we spoke, we held a Q+A and the pastors engaged well. A common theme was how to obtain the models as a curriculum, or if there were ways to shorten it. We continued to present the purpose of the models and emphasize the process of disciple making, not a quick stop program for discipleship. On Sunday, me and Ethan spoke at the church of a pastor named Zefyan in Tirana. We all met for coffee afterwards and heard Zefjan's experience as a disciple maker and his assessment of the church in Albania. The Church in Albania is not growing and he thinks now is a crucial time that will determine the future of the Church here.

After that I returned to Romania to teach discipleship courses for pastors and workers. For 12 days I taught the discipleship models. At least 25 people participated in these meetings. During this time in Romania, almost every evening I was invited to evangelization and spiritual awakening services. I preached in more than 6 churches. At the same time, I had counseling meetings with 5 families. In this work I was accompanied by Eric and Liviu. I thank God for the success and victory that I and the ETM team received.


While we were in Romania, Ethan continued the meetings with the pastors in Albania and prepared the cohort for the online discipleship courses with Albanian pastors to continue after Ethan returned home. Jim and Steve's team was in Spain at the same time. They were used as a blessing for Bebe, the pastor of the Baptist church in Valencia, Spain. After that, Jim had a meeting with the apprentices trained by him in Italy and from there he went to France to open new privileges to be a blessing in a secularized society.