CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA — The “HeartBeats” Festival, now in its 3rd year, took place in Cluj-Napoca in Romania at the House of Culture of Students. Christian music bands from all over the country, but also from Africa, the United States and Israel took to the stage. The festival created a context in which hundreds of young people, and not only young people, gathered to glorify the name of God.

The “HeartBeats” Festival was intended to be a festival of joy in Christ since its first edition. Although the current edition was not on the same scale, it attracted a large number of young people who were enthusiastic about the atmosphere created by the Christian bands that performed a variety of musical styles and expressions of praise and worship.

Man:

This is a smaller edition to ensure the continuity of the festival. We are preparing a very big edition next year, but because the HeartBeats community is a passionate one and we have a large group of mission-minded teenagers and young people who need this enthusiasm, this symbol, we decided to offer the edition anyway, even if we initially, considered postponing it. This year we have artists from different countries, we even have artists from Africa, from Uganda, there are three artists who are coming and they are full of fire and passion for Christ, we have a band from Israel who are performing for the first time in Romania and bands from Romania who have just finished their part of the festival.

Besides the vision to glorify God with passion, the HeartBeats Festival aims to become a platform that unites people from different countries and cultures who share the same values to connect and motivate them to get involved in different spheres of society.

Man:

We wanted to create a context in which organizations that promote values or campaigns that Christians should support, such as the campaign against human trafficking or other campaigns that are noble, caring for the needy, the vulnerable, the marginalized, widows, orphans. However, the theme that particularly aligns us this year and where we wanted ,to make a contribution to the awareness-raising part is human trafficking. Romania, as we know, is the country that has the most victims who end up being trafficked in the West, in particular, and I believe that in general, such missionary – evangelistic events should be accompanied by a cause of social impact.

Hananya Naftali was also present at the fesival and spoke about the challenges facing the people of Israel after the October 7, 2023 attack.

Hananya Naftali:

There are a lot of rumors and a lot of news happening and many reports that are saying that Israel carries out genocide, or their saying “all eyes should be on Rafah” right now. I want people to remember that on October 6, one day before the war, we did not have this war. We did not ask for this war. We Israel was invaded by radical terrorist. Before that, we have ceased fire. So we cannot make any ceasefire with radical terrorists that don’t even believe in my right to breathe.

The festival ended with a concert performed by Wes Hampton, singer of the Gaither Vocal Band, who performed some well-known hymns together with he Coram Deo Timisoara choir.

Read more news on Christian Ministry on Missions Box.