A Student Preaching Program
After several years of traveling back and forth to find some way in which we might be most helpful to these churches Prof. Buzogány suggested that, if transportation could be found, it might be possible to have students from the seminary going out on weekends into the Mezôség — literally translated, the “field area,” a large area of rolling farm land lying north and west of Kolozsvár (Cluj), where the seminary is located — to hold services in the many small churches there, and to work with the people.
It was in the fall of 1999 that we were making a visit there, and went with Prof. Buzogány and several students to investigate the possibility of doing this. Early Sunday morning we left and began the long and difficult journey into the backside of the Mezôség.
First we stopped to meet and take with us Rev. Mihia Beanko, the pastor in charge of the various different small congregations in his area. After a fine breakfast, we proceeded with him to the villages of Oroszfája and Komlód.
As one approaches on increasingly rough and difficult roads leading to Oroszfája, one sees its beautiful, white, Reformed church standing out on the hillside among green trees on the hills in the disanct the striking view of the Reformed church there, like a beacon on the hillside.
As it was, however, we went on a short five miles to the next village of Komlód. Its church also has a beauty all of its own. An old 13th century building, it is now in a stage of advanced disrepair, with it outward coating of stucco falling off, and cracks on the inside. There, the first service of the “Mezôség Mission.” Pastor Beanko led this service, while the people with an enthusiasm that could be felt in the way they shouted out the old Genevan tunes from their songbook. Then, once the service was over, they all gathered, as the custom is, around the entrance to the church to hear about and discuss the plans for the future, after which the people hosted us at a delicious meal.
It was then that we went back to Oroszfája to hold a service there. This service was led this time by one of the students; and once again the congregation took part in the service with a great deal of enthusiasm. And once again they met together in anticipation of what was being planned.
In all it was the beginning of what at that time we did not know whether it would work or not. But time has proved that the Lord was with us; and this Mezôség Mission has since grown in to a wonderfully blessed program, bringing the word of God and the ministry of the gospel to a people who were long deprived of it through the warring of the nations.
A sense of what the students felt on one of the very early Mission trips can be gained from this report.
"As you know we began this kind of mission in this region at the beginning of October. We were a little bit afraid of it, of the few possibilities and of the duties we had but the second weekend of December brought the first fruits of our work. Which were these?
"At the beginning everything was exactly as it had been before. We arrived on the 11th of December in Mezörményes where we spend the night talking over the problems of these congregations. The next day, Sunday morning at nine o’clock we left for Oroszfája and Komlód. The roads were just awful, full of mud, the car that we went by was ‘slipping and sliding’ in the sea of mud. We were muddy up to the eyes. But that did not mean anything.
"When we arrived, the congregation was already there, prepared for the sermon. Those of us who went to Komlód were supposed to visit the old people in the village after the sermon. But the moderator of the congregation told us that because of the mud it wasn’t the right time to visit them. After the service since we did not have anything to do we wanted to go home. The moderator invited us to have lunch in his house. We accepted his invitation and during the lunch we found out that there were some problems among the families and that was why we didn’t go visiting the ‘elders’.
After lunch we wanted to leave Komlód, it was almost impossible – the car almost sank in the mud. Somehow we got to Oroszfája; the other village where other two students had hold the service. The situation in this village was better. The congregation wanted to have Bible-study. After the service, that ended at a few minutes after noon the congregation went home to have lunch (of course they invited the two students for lunch too) and then they came back to 1,30 for the Bible-study. By that time we, the students from Komlód were there too and so we hold the Bible-study together. The people were afraid of it. They did not want to talk, to tell us their questions. After the Bible-study they told us what the problem was “I’m 65 but I’ve never had a Bible-study” – told us one man from the congregation. They were not used to talk about the things that they didn’t understand. But they told us that they liked it and they would come gladly to other Bible-studies too. We sang together, taught them new songs and they enjoyed it. In the congregation – according to our statistics there are 83 reformed people but they in reality are less than that, about 40-45 people. And it was really good that 28 people came to the Bible-study after the service, on which they were 31. I think it is a good percentage.
" After the Bible-study we started for home, we came back to Cluj-Napoca. That really was a beautiful day. We arrived home at 6,10 in the afternoon. When our friends saw how muddy we were they couldn’t believe their eyes. One of them told me that I looked as if I just had come out of a novel. But we didn’t mind – we were proud that we could serve God and the congregations even in such conditions.
From now on we will hold Bible-studies in the village called Oroszfája because they want it. But there is an administrative problem we have to deal with: we will not have a car from now on to go to these congregations. The minister's car can not be used because is out of traffic. The next time we plane to go is the 8th of January 2000 and we hope that God will solve our problem by that time. "
Gathering the Lost Sheep