The GGQF Romania Ministries Early 2007

We are pleased to update our Romania "Homepage". For "first time visitors" or those of you who want to refresh your memories of our original "Homepage" please go to "Original Romania Homepage".

At the time of this writing, December, 2005, it has been 3 ½ years since the GGQ made their first trip to Romania with a "ragtag" and "wide eyed" group of 12 other believers to visit our church's missionary in the beautiful, mountainous city of Petrosani, Romania; however, the Colonia of Petrosani where we stayed was not so beautiful. It is the very poorest area for sure! Our goal was to provide a musical ministry to churches, orphanages and homes for the elderly in Petrosani and surrounding cities. It was all so simple at the time. Now look at us!!!

We have come a long way since then and I look back at the 3 following verses that struck us and helped to cause us to fortify our love for the Romanians and develop our ministries there:

Isaiah 58: 10 & 11: "And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desires in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."

Isaiah 49: 15 & 16: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son in her womb? Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me."

This talks about the abandonment of children. The reason why there are so many abandoned children in Romania is because when Nicolae Ceausescu was their dictator, he demanded that every woman of child bearing age conceive and bear five babies. The repercussion of not adhering to his "law" resulted in heavy taxing of the family members where the results were children who could not be fed and housed by their underpaid parents. Currently, Romania has 200,000 abandoned children left to fiend for themselves.

Luke 4: 18 & 19: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

What we have noticed in Romania these past few years is that "hungry", "afflicted", "abandonment", "poor", "captives", "blind" and "downtrodden" is not restricted to the children of Romania, but to most everyone. Hopelessness within almost every person abounds across the country, until they find the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and then those have the foundation required to handle the trials that are before them on a daily basis. This is why we have not restricted our ministry to one group of people, but have tried to spread ourselves to all ages of Romanian people.

It has become increasingly clear as to why God has called the members of GGQ to Romania. It's as simple as this. We sing and the people of Romania love music, and believe it or not, they love southern gospel music! Can you imagine that? It's clear to us! This is our "entry into churches, State run orphanages, homes for the elderly, city parks, villages; etc. It dawns on us that if we came just to "speak" the gospel, the reception would not be as good and it would be much tougher to be welcome in most places in Romania. Trust us, even the non-Christians love to hear us sing. An American singing group is a curiosity to them and they will come to listen. The singing gives us the credibility that we need to get us into places we normally would not be welcome. This is awesome to us how God is using us!

Keep in mind that when we sing, all of our songs are translated into Romanian. We have them on PowerPoint and show the words on walls or screens for the people to see while we are singing. This way, they can clearly understand the words and meaning of the songs that we are singing. Without this, our impact in Romania would be minimal at best.

In December, 2004, the Glory Gates Quartet became a California 501 (c) non-profit Foundation. Now we have additional credibility that allows us entry everywhere in Romania. For example, during Rich's trip to Bucharest in November, 2005, he was invited to meet with the Director of the Consulate section of the U.S. Embassy to discuss our Foundation, involvements in Romania and receive his ideas for obtaining visas for Romanians involved with our Foundation's various ministries. Not too many people get meetings with such people, but God allowed this, but only at the right time. We had a track record there and had "Foundation" status.

As we previously said; "…we have not restricted our ministry to one group of people, but have tried to spread ourselves to all ages of Romanian people." Our Romanian Ministries include: Concert Tours, Romania College Scholarship Fund, Lap Top Computers, Discipling & Mentoring & Kids with Leukemia

Concert Tours

We sing at churches, outdoors in City parks, orphanages and homes for the elderly, plus, we share the gospel of Jesus Christ and how God can cure the hopelessness that exists in Romania to the adults of all ages. After concerts, we share testimonies and / or give messages.

Romania College Scholarship Fund

Even though we believe that God must be the foundation of the young adults of Romania, we also understand that they need to be productive and successful people within their society while here on earth. We believe that the economic future of Romania rests in the very hands of these young people and they need to have hope and enthusiasm for God and their country. A good, solid education will be very important for them; therefore, our Foundation has set up a "Romania College Scholarship Fund" and these young people need to go through an application process with our Foundation. This ministry is headed up by Bob & Sharon Jones. We mostly appeal to Christian orphans who have completed high school. The scholarship recipients receive the money from our Foundation to pay for  their tuition, room, board and books.

Our first recipient, Mihaela attends college in southern California! Praise God! She wants to receive her degree in Social Work and return to Romania and work with the orphans and street kids. She was one of them and will be such a wonderful help to these kids

Lap Top Computers

This ministry is in conjunction with our "Romania College Scholarship Fund". Once we register an applicant into a college, we provide used laptop computers for them to use for their college studies. We are always looking for people and companies to donate their used laptop computers to us for these young people. You should see their faces when we give them a laptop! It's awesome! They are overwhelmed with joy! 

Discipling and Mentoring

We spend a significant amount of time discipling & mentoring the college students at the Romania Bible College and the Baptist Theological Institute. These young people are the future of Romania and it is imperative that they have God as their foundation, and continue to grow as Christians. We meet with them on the campuses, in restaurants, coffee houses; etc. The stronger they are, the bolder they will be to share the gospel with non-Christian people within their communities. 

Kids with Leukemia

We are working with a Christian social worker who has a Foundation that works with the kids with Leukemia at the Marie Currie Hospital in Bucharest.

These kids are bedridden for most of the time, walking only seldom in a narrow corridor to try and avoid muscle deterioration. They are kept alive with IV administration of vitamins and painkillers, and can hardly be said to have any future at all. They quickly lose their hair and eyelashes, their faces are swollen and arms bruised. They hide their appearance with shame in the presence of strangers. School is long forgotten and playing with other children is almost impossible. They barely learn a poem or a song, and they have nobody to read them stories. Their parents quickly exhaust whatever family savings they have in this long and costly battle with cancer. One parent will usually quit work to look after the child in the hospital or at home. Most people do not have the money to move them into Marie Currie Hospital, the only hospital which can handle kids with Leukemia.

The pain makes the children angry, lose their appetite and desire to fight on and live. They do not usually smile and are terrified when friends die in the hospital. Painkillers are rare commodities and doctors frequently appeal to charities for more Tylenol.

It is a desperate, hopeless situation for these kids. We visited them and it just breaks your heart.

The Foundation's purpose is to improve the medical facilities and period of hospitalization for children with cancer, especially with Leukemia, who come to the hospital for investigation or treatment by involving high profile art, showbiz and singing figures.

The Foundation's objectives are as follows:

1. Raise public awareness regarding the situation of children with Leukemia.
2. Engage the children creatively & occupy them with exciting activities during their stay in the hospital.
3. Offer professional counseling to both the children and their families to help them cope with death and bereavement.
4. Organize basic schooling & educational activities in the hospital.
5. Provide the hospital with medical kits, consumables and medication.
6. Stimulate cancer research.
7. Facilitate communication between the medical profession and social workers on issues relating to children with cancer.
8. Support needy families of children with Leukemia, provide them with food, clothes, transportation and burial expenses.

The social worker uses the GGQ, a singing group from America, to provide times of fun, singing, handing out CDs & autographing them and just a little part of the real world. We will pray with them and try as much as possible to share the gospel, although, this hospital does not promote this by any stretch of imagination.

Why Romania?

The question is always asked of us; "Why Romania? Why did you choose Romania for missions work?" The truth is, we did not choose Romania, Romania chose us through God's leading & calling. We were just minding our own business in beautiful, sunny southern California when we were asked to join a group of other musical talents to go on a short term missions trip to Romania during the summer of 2003. The next thing you know, we formed a Foundation and are totally involved with various ministries, programs and people in Romania! We had no idea and who would have known? God knew. He always did!

At the time of this writing, Rich has returned from Romania for another very successful and gratifying trip where he planned out our "GGQ Romania 2006 Summer Concert Tour"! We will be in Bucharest and Ploiesti from June 24th to July 6th ministering in southern gospel music in 9 churches, Caring Place and the Acasa Centre Orphanage. Check out concert schedule, as 2 of the concerts will be broadcast on 2 radio stations and will be heard in the States on the Internet. California is 10 hours earlier than Romania, so if we have a concert on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m., that would be 8:00 a.m. in California.

We thank God for his continued blessings and the opportunity that he has given us to share the gospel with our music in Romania. We would also like to thank those who have contributed financially and through their prayers. You have no idea as to how much we appreciate this.

You may begin partnering or continue to partner financially to our Romania programs by clicking on the Romania Project Donations link and follow the prompts and contribute with your credit card.

Won't you help us make a difference!

Blessings to all of you,

The Glory Gates Quartet Foundation