Open Air Campaigners
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OAC ROMANIA - ORGANISATIA CRESTINA IN ACTIUNE

Paul & Julie Wakefield

Paul & Julie have been visiting Romania since 1991. Initially they were invited to be part of a team travelling to Alba Iulia to train Sunday school teachers in different methods of presenting the gospel. While they were there they fell in love with the country.

After that experience they made several trips every year with their children Andrew & Rebecca. They used their holiday leave and also took time off work. Their passion for the country and its people steadily grew. They also realised that Romanians were searching for something to fill the void left following the demise of Ceaucescu and communism. They knew that there was only one way to fill that void - with the love of Jesus.

They could see that the people were struggling to survive and so decided to do something about that as well. First they started to tell friends about Romania and organised them into groups collecting items for delivery to the very needy people. Along side all of this was a sense that came ever stronger that the Lord was calling them into this work full time. This brought them to join Open Air Campaigners and along with Constantin Rodila, they pioneered a work with the National Association of Sunday school teachers. This was to train their members to present the gospel using Sketchboard and Puppets, both in Church and elsewhere.

Over the years the ministry has grown. OAC is now registered in Romania and is called ‘Organisatia Crestina in Actiune’. The main office is in Alba Iulia, along with a camping facility called Bethany Camp near Cluj. In addition there is a field in Vatra Dornei. It is hoped this will be the site for a Christian centre with the grounds used for many different sorts of evangelistic open-air meetings. Good relationships have been developed with the local Mayors and they have also developed relationships with a good number of churches. Another project has been with a school in Dej where they were able to supply books, pens pencils etc:

As the ministry develops and expands, Paul and Julie will spend more time in Romania, living in Alba Iulia and directing the work from there.

Their vision is to ‘Train Romanians to reach Romania for Christ’ & ‘Presenting Christ by all means everywhere’.

Cristian Petrisor

Cristi was born into a Christian family. His parents and his brother and sisters all attended the local Baptist church. In 1995 his father was killed in an accident while building a new church in his village. His death affected not only the family but the whole village. Everyone came to the funeral.

He became a Christian in 1996 and was the first person to be baptised in the new building. Cristi plays keyboard, guitar, accordion and harmonica as well as singing and preaching. He also has a very good command of the English language and is frequently asked to interpret. During the week he holds several study groups in and around the University of Cluj where people can come and find out what Christians believe. These groups have grown in number and Cristi has trained many leaders. Several people have given their lives to Jesus.

Cristi says,"I am excited about the future. One of my options was to go to Bucharest Bible College to study for five years and then start with the evangelism, but people need Jesus Christ now! I am looking forward to working with O.A.C. in Romania and using my gifts to serve the Lord. I have listened to Paul and he has told me how OAC work. I was with him while the registration process took place and I am now a full-time staff evangelist. Being able to study the Bible and to evangelise is something which I thought could not happen at the same time."

Traian Opruta

Traian's Dad is a retired injection pump engineer and his mum works for a clothing manufacturer. He has a married brother, Horea, five years his senior.

Traian says, "I have been going to Church since I was 4 years old. My mum told me that she was going to take me somewhere special, that place was church. At 12, I started going to Sunday school regularly, church was part of my life, it was routine. I started mandolin lessons and got involved with the orchestra. I didn't really like it, but I can see now that it was the way the Lord kept me attending regularly. Right up to the age of 17, the orchestra was a big part of my life.

I used to pray before school every morning and read my bible from time to time because that was the thing to do. Things went on like that until 19th July 1998. It was then at a baptism service that I realised the importance of having a relationship with Jesus. Before that bible study and praying was something to brag about and be proud of even if it was a bit of a struggle. Everything changed that night. When I returned home I told my mum, but she said that she already knew because she had been praying for me and was expecting the Lord to meet with me.

It was then that I started my personal relationship with Jesus Christ and on the 3rd January 1999 I was baptised. Unfortunately I wasn't encouraged to join a bible-study group, till 6 months later, so I didn't realize the importance of reading the bible until then. But as time went on my relationship with God began to grow. The following July I was able to go to Bethany Camp with the puppet team and I met Paul & Julie Wakefield. They invited me to England to take part in their Christmas puppet tour so I went and stayed for 2 months. I arrived in England without really knowing what God was doing. I remember thinking ‘What's the purpose of all this?’

However over a period of time, through bible study and listening to sermons, God began to speak to me about actually getting involved in ministry and I can remember saying to Him at the time, ‘I can't do it, I don't know what to do’. But the Lord said, ‘Trust me - do what you did before’. He meant the puppets were the key and I became the Church puppet team leader as well as a full time staff evangelist with OAC.

Taking Him at His word, I tried to get appointments to go into the kindergartens in Alba Iulia, people said I had no chance. God knows of no such barriers and He opened the doors that people said couldn't be opened. Since then God has been working miraculously in my life and ministry. Door after door has been opened and now we are regular visitors in all the kindergartens in Alba Iulia. We even go into schools on a regular basis. But we are praying for more. I have learnt how to use the sketchboard and I use it with the puppets.

When Paul asked me to arrange the first open-air I again thought, ‘I can't do that, I have to see the Mayor and get permission’. But I did and it happened. Permission was granted and the Mayor even sent some bodyguards to protect us, it was amazing! We now have regular open-airs in the middle of Alba Iulia. So now with God's help I am really looking forward to serving the Lord full-time with OAC and helping to develop the organisation here in Romania.

Constantin & Lydia Rodila

Constantin and Lidia live in Cluj. They have two children Raul and Ramona, both married and living in America. During the communist years of Romania, Constantin worked as a maths professor in one of the local schools until he was overheard talking about Jesus. The persecution started. One day he was given an ultimatum: "Choose your job or your beliefs". He could not stop believing in Jesus and so he was discharged from his position. After that, the Police were frequent visitors to the Rodila household.

"I would be invited to preach at various churches and the police would follow me, they never caught me though! Lidia worked in a bank and she had to be very cautious. People kept their distance but she managed to get through."

After 1989, things started to get slightly better. Constantin became pastor of a church in Bistritsa and he started to travel around Romania preaching in different churches. His reputation grew as an evangelist and life became very busy until he felt that God wanted him to work more with children. He resigned as pastor and joined the National Association of Sunday school teachers soon becoming the Deputy President.

God has recently moved him on again. He resigned from the NASST and joined ‘Organizatia Crestina in Actiune’, the name given to Open Air Campaigners in Romania. He can now focus totally on evangelism. One of his favourite methods involves picking up hitchhikers and preaching to them. A captive audience!

Lidia remained at the bank until April 2000 when she retired.

Mission opportunities for 2004

Vienna (Austria) 9th - 16th July
Training in sketchboard, drama & puppetry.
A chance to use your new skills on the streets in Vienna.

Alba Iulia (Romania) 19th - 30th July
Eleven days of training, open-airs, shopping and sight-seeing
Share your faith with people of all ages
Adult & childrens programmes

Dragonesti (Romania) 2nd - 10th August
Evangelism in the villages.
Work with the only un-orthodox church in a 50 kilometre radius

Caracal (Romania) 20th - 30th September
Opportunities to tell people about Jesus in schools and the open air