Bethany Romanian Pentecostal Church,7301 N Caldwell, Niles, Illinois, USA 

           “Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth…”

Life is a gift from God. This is the reason we, the young generation of Chicago, enjoy this gift and also want to use it for God’s glory. Personally, I admire your youth ministry across America. May God bless you in all that you do and may His providence cover all your needs.

          In the attractive metropolis of Chicago, where there are countless possibilibities to worship as well as many diverse leisure attractions, we meet every Friday for worship and the study of God’s word. We are aware of God’s call for us and our goal is to show this to the community we live in for the time being. We enjoy special privileges having very good jobs and costly cars as well as fine-looking houses. However, we want to use all of these to show God’s love to others.

          The youth activities are complex as the youth is involved in various areas of God’s ministry. I am thankful to God for that. Some of them are involved in the music ministry such as: choir, orchestra, band, praise and worship bands, Sunday school and others. Their time is very limited due to practice activities during the week; quite a few of them are still in school or have other activities.

          Another branch of the youth ministry in our church is the involving in missions and help for the needy ministries. We are happy that in Romania at Calarasi there is a girl foster house and this is represented by a young missionary family from our church. The youth  in our church gathered different sorts of unpershable foods which they sent to the orphanage in Calarasi. We also have another young girl who visits orphanages across Romania at least once a year, providing them with medication and different medical supply. We appreciate the ministry that mission Speranta runs in Romania. They are involved with the street children as well as with the evangelization of different cities across Romania. God blessed our youth ministry so at our turn we blessed this  mission by sending financial help. Another ministry that our young girls are very dedicated to is the visitation of aging brothers or sisters that need help with daily chores as cleaning and shopping.

          During the summer we have recreational activities and some of them include evangelizing. “Car wash” is a ministry everyone enjoys but a lot of sacrifice is required. The church allows us to use their water and the parking lot . We are thankful for this. A few of us are in charge of handing  New Testaments to those whose cars we wash thus creating the possibility of talking to them one on one. We give thanks to God for the many opportunities to witness to others. During the summer we also meet at a local park to play volleyball and soccer. We go to the lake and sing as well.

          We organize different camps where we have the possibility to get to know each other better and to have fellowship amidst the beautiful nature God has created for us. “ When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…”

          Winter is another season that we very much enjoy. The celebration of Jesus’ birth, the caroling, as we the Romanians know it, is an extraordinary experience every year. We visited Romanian families that don’t know Jesus as personal Lord and Savior and we were overwhelmed by the result. Winter opens the season of snowboarding, skiing, ice-skating and other activities that we take pleasure in. In and around Chicago we have the benefit of visiting and participating in the edification of the saints through singing, evangelism .

          Worship and Bible study are two permanent activities in the life of the youth from Betania. Betania has two praise and worship groups which are constantly active at Friday youth service and regular church services. We see that God invested tremendous vocal talent in the youth from Chicago whom He uses for His glory. We try to make Bible study as efficient as possible for our generation; for that reason we speak both English and Romanian. We select specific topics to our age and to our edification as Christians. Our methods of presenting audio and visual material make our ministry more accessible to the youth.

          Our youth is developing a vision that draws our attention on the Romanian community and especially the youth so as to witness to them. We are thankful to our Lord for the many young people that did not know Jesus personally when they came to the States and got to know Him here through the youth ministry. They witnessed their faith in Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior through baptism in water.

          I would like to conclude by saying that we have extraordinary youth which believe that God uses them and will continue to use them. “ ...we are here available to you , call us and we shall obey.” Edited 09/06/2006