Romania

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

At the time of this writing, September 24, 2007, it has been over 4 years since the GGQ made their first trip to Romania.  Now, Rich is making his 11^th trip on October 18^th to plan out our March evangelistic concert trip

GGQ has come a long way since 2003, 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. Even though there has been significant economic, social and spiritual progress, Romania is still way behind in all phases and there is still Hopelessness within many people that abounds across the country, and 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, there will be the continued sadness on the faces of the Romanian people. This is why we have not restricted our ministry to one group of people in Romania , but have tried to spread ourselves to all ages of people through our music and our ministries and projects there.

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. We have been there enough now where our credibility has increased significantly and we have become a known entity there.  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. Through this Foundation, we have additional credibility that allows us entry everywhere in Romania .

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; Working with the Pastors of Evangelical Christian Churches, along with Christian Radio and Television Stations to create opportunities for evangelistic outreach events; Romania College Scholarship Fund/Donating Laptop Computers; helping orphans and working with missionaries who work with orphans; Discipling & Mentoring other Christian young people and music groups & the Kids with Leukemia ministry, so that they can share the gospel of Jesus Christ in their home country on their own, and helping and supporting the Awana Programs of Romania.

ConcertTours

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 present messages.  More recently, we have been conducting evangelistic crusades, where we not only sing, but we bring our own Pastor with us to speak at these events.  Our first crusade in Bucharest in March/April 2007 was a total success.  God was ever present and glorified as we saw the Romanian Christians bring their unsaved friends and family to our concerts, from which many came to know the Lord!

We will continue to use this “evangelistic crusade” concept in future trips, but expand on it by adding to what we do while we are there.  Every other year, we will conduct a long weekend evangelistic crusade concerts in Bucharest , where just the 4 guys and our Pastor will go.  During this time, our plan is to perform concerts on Friday and Saturday nights, Sunday morning and Sunday night.  We would also conduct seminars on Saturday mornings and afternoons; i.e. our Pastor speaking to the Romanian Pastors on various topics and the GGQ to those who want to learn more about singing and speaking in public.  On Monday, we would teach classes at the Baptist University .

During every other year, we would bring our entire Romania “team” to Romania and travel for 2 weeks, doing evangelistic crusade concert tours in different cities in Romania.  This involves about 13 people.  During our trip to the various cities, we would also conduct men and women Bible studies, work with missionaries, orphans, Awana groups; etc.

During every trip, we would visit the kids with Leukemia at the Marie Curie Hospital inBucharest and their parents who are staying with them, giving them handmade slippers and hats, yogurt; etc.

Working with the pastors of Evangelical Christian Churches, along with Christian Radio and Television Stations

GGQ is dedicated to working with the evangelical Christian pastors of Romania in creating opportunities for their churches by conducting evangelistic crusade concerts at their churches.  This allows their congregation a forum and venue to which they can bring their unsaved friends and family to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ through music and speaking the Word.  Our goal is to totally coordinate everything through and with the local churches.  This way, when we leave, there is total follow-up from the local churches with those who attended the concerts and are unchurched.

To better promote our concerts, we have aligned ourselves with “Voice of the Gospel” and “CREDO Television” in Bucharest.  When we arrive in Bucharest, we are invited to “Voice of the Gospel” Radio a 45 minute interview to promote the concerts and the goals.  We commit our concert tours to prayer on the radio.

We work with the CREDO TV station to actually broadcast our concerts on TV to reach those who are unable to attend or were skeptical, or are not Christians, but happen to tune in. 

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 young people 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 who lived in Petrosani and went to a Bible college in Bucharest in 2003, came back to California after the GGQ 2004 Romania concert tour, and now attends college in Southern California! Praise God!  She wants to receive her BA & Masters degrees in Sociology from California State University ,Fullerton and work with the underprivileged and in adoptions. Being from Romania, she will be such a wonderful help to those who are indeed less fortunate. 

GGQ has been supporting Viorica for the past 3 years.  She is in her 5^th year at the Medical School in Cluj.

Lap Top Computers

This ministry is in conjunction with our "Romania College Scholarship Fund". Once we register an applicant into a college, we provide 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

GGQ is currently mentoring a trio singing group called the New Levites.  We have been working with them on how to sing and speak in front of crowds and sharing the gospel properly through music.  We had the New Levites with us at all of our concerts during March/April of 2007, and even had them sing a couple of songs in the concerts.  It was a wonderful experience for them and since then, they have been booking their own concerts in Romania .

The New Levites have built a small studio for recording and practicing.  We are also working with them on developing a Christian radio station and ultimately, a TV station, God willing.  All of this takes major financing and we would greatly appreciate any donations that you may want to make to the GGQ Foundation by clicking on the “Donations” link and selecting one or any of the ministries to which you would want to donate. 

We also 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 works with the kids with Leukemia and their parents 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 visit them each and every time we are in Romania , 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.

GGQ brings hand made slippers and hats for the kids and give more to the parents for their other kids, along with yogurt.  They are very restricted in what they can eat.

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!  We truly have been called to Romania and when God calls, you go!

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

GGQ Romania Team