Mission Trip to Indonesia, Vietnam & Cambodia
December 6th – 21st, 2011
Dear mission partners and friends,
As the year of 2011 comes to an end, we reflect at what the Lord did through our vessels. We can ask the question ‘How faithful we were with what the Lord had entrusted us?’ Before the end of the year, the Lord opened the door to bless many churches, ministers and children in Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia. The Christmas and New Year’s season is a time of giving and sharing the joy of the Lord and so we all wished to share this with other people and other believers in remote regions of our planet so that they can enjoy a warm and peaceful season in the Love of God. Therefore, together with the Hope Mission from Australia, we had the privilege to have a mission trip for the purpose of evangelism and charity in three countries of Asia. The teams consisted of the following:
From Australia:Pastor Natanael Costea from Perth, Pastor Nelu Istrate from Brisban, Daniel Costeafrom Melbourne, Benny Iacob from Perth, Ben Baliban with his wife and twodaughters from Perth, Tibi Vancia from Adelaide.From Romania & USA: Ionut Turda from Cluj, RO; Anna Lupancu and myself.From Italia:Sergiu Asuenci
All of us met in Jakarta, Indonesia and from there we flew to the Kalimantan Barat Jungle located on the west side of the Kalimantan Island in Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world where Islam is the main religion in Indonesia. Only 5% of Indonesians are Protestants and 3% are Roman Catholics. Christians are facing a lot of oppositions from the Muslim people and sometimes are martyrized. Christians in Indonesia live in fear. Hope Mission has started the work with children, youth, pastors and teachers on this island in about 18 villages. Locally, the Gloria Foundation is doing a great work in spreading the gospel and helping the Dayak tribe which was formerly a cannibal tribe on the Kalimantan Island.
After many hours of flying from Chicago to Jakarta, we flew to Pontianak, Indonesia and then drove three hours to Tikalong, a very isolated village and also the headquarters of the Gloria Foundation. We arrived on Wednesday the 7th and there was a house of prayer at Gloria Foundation’s headquarters where over 500 people waited for us. They were celebrating the coming in the world of our Savior Jesus Christ, the only reason for the joy of this holiday. I preached on the free gift of Salvation in John 3:16.Pastor Natanael made an altar call and a few people received the free gift of Salvation and surrendered their life to Jesus Christ.
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13
”Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” 2 Corinthians 9:15
The people living in these villages work only to survive by cultivating rice, collecting rubber paste from trees and others by farming palm trees. They earn about $4 a day which makes their lives very hard to survive. Children are very ignored, hungry, sick and left to care of themselves. The purpose of Hope Mission here was to encourage the church leaders to continue with the work that they had started to change the course of the new generations. For this purpose, they established schools to promote Christian and moral values and so the children may break the curse they inherited. Because of the church’s involvement and education a new generation of blessings is being raised up in a lot of villages. The Gloria Foundation is showing the villagers a practical example in working and creating jobs like chicken, fish and palm farming. Pastor Natanael Costea is doing a great work together with Gloria Foundation in sponsoring the schools and other projects. During this short trip, we visited villages
Pa’Unga, Rancang & Purasak. We ministered to the churches and brought hope for the 
children with little gifts that Anna Lupancu prepared at home with the gifts she received from 46 youth in Chicago during her Gift Raising that she had setup as she planned for the mission trip. In the village of Purasak, Adriana Coroama, a Romanian missionary is presently working as an English teacher and hygiene teacher. She is a very devoted missionary which learned the Dayak language in only 10 months. She came there diagnosed with cancer but the Lord healed her completely. She also followed us throughout the entire mission trip.
During our mission trip in Indonesia, we lived at the headquarters of the Gloria Foundation and traveled from there to the other villages. We were happily welcomed by each village. The children from the villages sang with enthusiasm and passion which touched the entire team. Almost every child received a uniform and candy. After the service in each village, the pastors welcomed us in their poor home and offered us their best meals.
On Saturday the 10th, we spent almost the entire day at the Gloria Foundation headquarters and talked with the youth. The discussion was encouragement to study seriously and to approach a purposeful life. When we asked the teenagers what they wanted to become in life, they had great desires and dreams to come back and help the villages. At night, there was a youth meeting which was titled “Friendship among boys and girls”. Pastor Natanael preached the message and encouraged them to live holy and pure. The problems among these youth are because they are bored which causes them to seek immoral lifestyles.
On Sunday, the 11th, we held the last church meeting in Gloria Church from Tikalong. Nelu Istrate and I preached and prayed for the people. Even though it was a rainy season, it didn’t rain during our time there until Sunday afternoon which was very convenient considering the environment, muddy roads and isolated villages. In the afternoon, we departed back to Pontianak, Indonesia where we visited the equator site. From there we headed to Jakarta where we prepared for our next destination to Vietnam.
Vietnam
Vietnam is among one of the few communist countries. This is a country that was affected by the Vietnam War between North and South Vietnam (where the north won) and the whole country remained ruled by a communist government. In the recent years, small businesses have been established and approved by the government and grew very fast but in the rural area, people are very poor. The churches in Vietnam categorizes of two parts. Traditional churches with history of functionality which are approved and controlled by the government. Ethnic churches which function in people’s homes and are not approved and controlled by the government. These are illegal and are underground and have a lot of opposition from the government. A lot of underground churches were demolished and sometimes the leaders were imprisoned for three months for the preaching the gospel illegally. Pastor Natanael Costea was the first from the West to visit these underground churches. Some of them were in the isolated Mekong Delta. We started the ministry in Ho Chi Minh City formerly known as Saigon. We held a pastoral conference in a restaurant where due to the special celebration meeting about 46 pastors attended. The topics of the seminary were leadership, serving the Lord with devotion and power. The conference was from the morning until late evening. All the participants were blessed with a gift and paid expensed for transportation from the village where they came. Hope Mission is planning to do a project to equip the new generations of Christian workers. This center can be undercover as a small restaurant. This is one of the greatest needs for the new generation.
On Tuesday the 13th, the missionary team visited the church of Pastor David Nam which was the leader of the movement. For the following day, the mission team became very interested in visiting remote villages in Mekong Delta which is rich in fish and the soil is fertile. Nearby Can Tho City is a famous flooding market where agricultures bring their crops and all the transactions are done from one boat to another. In all of the Mekong Delta, there are over 70 underground churches and we visited some of them. We accessed each village by a small boat and we traveled mostly at night so we could not attracted attention as a big group of westerners. First night after a trip of six hours with the bus and one more hour with boat, we arrived to the first church in the Delta. Here the church of about 100 members was waiting for us. We shared the word of God and gifts. Next day, we visited another three churches all over crowded and very open to the gospel. We encouraged them to be strong in the Lord and to invest in a generation of workers which will continue in spreading the Gospel. This was the first time where such a large team visited these churches. Even the presence of the team transmitted the message that God loves knows, loves and uses them for His purpose. One man surrendered his life to Jesus and we prayed for him and gave him a Holy Bible. During our tour in the Mekong Delta, James, a young Vietnamese college graduate, decided to receive the baptism in water. He surrendered his life to Jesus four months ago and was filled with the Holy Spirit. His baptism was done without the attention of a lot of people and only our team and Pastor David witnessed the baptism. Most importantly he did the baptism before the Lord and fulfilled the commandment of Jesus:
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark 16:15-16
“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Acts 2:41
“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5
“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:27
“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”1 Peter 3:21-22
In another service in a village of a remote area in the Mekong Delta another man also surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. We prayed for him and gave him the Holy Bible. The people from all the villages we visited responded with joy and proclaimed that it was such a great blessing for them. In one of the villages over one hundred children were waiting for us. This village is very poor with a lot of abandoned and orphaned children of which an elderly family took in some of them in their home and is taking care of them. Other Christian families are doing the same and raised them with a big sacrifice. Another day we visited a site named Cu Chi Tunnel from the time of the Vietnam War. We learned from them what the horrors of their war were. Lots of people lived underground during those times and fought for their lives and obtained their freedom from the south and their reunification of the country in April 30, 1975.
Cambodia
Cambodia is one of the poorest in Southeast Asia. It is a country with a lot of interior turmoil and wars. It was oppressed by a regime under the leadership of Pol Pot whom killed over 2 million people of which the majority were ethnic, educated and professionals. “Khmer Rouge” was the name King Norodom Sihanouk (king of Cambodia from 1941 – 1955) gave to his communist opponents in the 1960s. Almost all of those that wore glasses were considered a danger for the government. During the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from April 1975 – January 1979, almost all the intellectuals were killed by the oppressive regime in order to bring the country into an agricultural age that of which was in the 11th century. The Khmer Rouge wanted to transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society in which there were no rich, no poor people and no exploitation. Public schools, pagodas, mosques, churches, universities, shops and government buildings were shut or turned into prison, stables, reeducation camps and granaries. The 
Khmer Rouge asked all Cambodians to believe, obey and respect only Angkar Padevat, which was to be everyone’s “mother and father”. One day we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which was formerly a high school in Phnom Penh known as Tuol Sleng. It was converted into a prison called S-21. More than 14,000 men, women and children passed through the gates of S-21 before being executed by the Khmer Rouge, their bodies dumped at Choeung Ek on the outskirts of town. In 1979, with the help from Vietnam, the country was liberated from the dictator Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime and is now enjoying peace and slow economic progress. Keeping the memory of the atrocities committed on Cambodia soil alive is the key to build a new strong and just society. Those that lived through that oppressed regime were severely traumatized by their experience.
From this historical platform, the country is rebuilding by a generation which desire to learn and make improvements. In the countryside, however, life is very difficult and people only earn enough to survive. Because of this, a lot of people moved to the city but the life in the city is very expensive. A lot of people are homeless and a lot of children are on the streets stealing and doing all kinds of immoral activities. Thousands of children are on the streets of the capital city, Phnom Penh. Because of these sad situations, a missionary from Malaysia by the name of pastor Bala, mobilized a family to start a small orphanage in Cambodia ten years ago. Now they have a facility where over a hundred children have food, shelter and school in the village of Ta Khmau. Here they also established a grammar school and a church in this facility. Pastor Bala came from a Hindu family and he was a Hindu priest before he was Christian. The Lord transformed his life and he has a passion for children ministry established in schools, kindergartens and churches. We encouraged the children to seek the Lord and have an encounter in the presence of Jesus who can change them and break the curses of their generation. We explained to them the importance and reason of the Christmas Holiday which is to focus on Jesus Christ who is the gift from God given to the world.“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 1 John 3:16
Another objective we met was to visit the center of the FirstKids organization in Cambodia founded by Pastor Bala. Located in the city Phnom Penh is the first FirstKids kindergarten. The purpose of this kindergarten is to teach the children the English language and to introduce Christian values among the very young children. Learning English will give them a better chance and broader work path in Cambodia or elsewhere. As we passed by them they said “Take my picture, take my picture” in English. The kindergarten also offered jobs for teachers. The Agape Church is located on the last level of the building. The church offered two services; one in Khmer (the local language) and the other in English. Our team ministered to both services. Pastor Nelu Istrate and Natanael Costea encouraged the church to walk with God and served the needs of the people. I preached during the English service to a group of people that are working in Ta Khmau from Malaysia about the power of Jesus Christ which is available to us to overcome the flesh, circumstances and the devil. In the morning I ministered to the church in the village about God’s promise of Christ from the beginning. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15
Pastor Bala had a vision to purchase a building for the church, for the kindergarten and he had done so by faith and the Lord performed miracles to help towards the purchase. We helped him purchase the AC units for the new building. Our vision for Cambodia is to help them to send some missionary that will be English teachers in the school. This mission trip was a success for the Glory of God. May the Lord be glorified in all that we do. Be strong in the Lord and we wish you blessings in Jesus Christ for 2012.Rev.
Constantin Lupancu together with the Blessed Hope International Mission Team
