ROMANIA — “Evening Worship” is a project carried out in the Carpenter’s House churches in Ocna Mures and Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Because of the period of isolation imposed by the spread of the new coronavirus, the leaders of this community of believers have been put in a position to find various ways to encourage people and to spread the Word of God. This is how these moments of Evening Worship were born being transmitted in the online medium for 100 days.

At the beginning of the pandemic, after isolation measures were imposed, the churches of the Carpenter’s House in Ocna Mures and Cluj-Napoca decided that, every evening, believers should have a few minutes in which to pray for various reasons. Initially, the worship evenings took place only in the family of Pastor Mihai Decean, from Ocna-Mures. He wasn’t thinking at the time of a project for the online community.

Mihai Decean, Pastor, Carpenter’s House Church, Ocna-Mures:

It was not necessarily the idea to do this filmed, online, to put it on the internet, but rather for me personally and as a family, that we should worship God every night and say, “Lord, you’re in control of everything that happens.” And after doing this for a few evenings, I felt God was speaking to me again saying, “Mihai, you can be an encouragement to others to help them too, or you can to stir them to glow, to stop in the evening and simply worship.

Through “Evening Worship,” people in the church have been motivated to stop in the midst their daily routine to pray, worship, and thank God.

Paula Decean, Carpenter’s House Church, Ocna-Mures:

We wanted to help with this. I said that it’s easy for us at home, we have a piano, we have a guitar, we sit down and sing. But for some people it’s harder to start, to get moving, to stop for five minutes, and say, “You know what, let’s sing a song and pray.” And through “Evening Worship” that’s what we did. I sent the “Evening Worship” to the church WhatsApp group every night, at 9:00 in the evening and challenged them somewhat, motivated them to stop and worship with the pastor.

In the face of difficult situations such as this worldwide pandemic, Christian leaders have continued to be with people and support them in their walk with God.

Mihai Decean:

If God calls us to do something, I believe that we, as leaders, must set the tone and be an example for people. So I’ve tried to lead people and encourage them to remain in the faith, to remain in hope, to stay full of trust in God that things are okay. Even if some will live and others will die

If the worship evenings started in the house of the Decean family and continued with the church, in the third stage the messages were made public online. The response from those who watched the videos was encouraging.

Mihai Decean:

Just today I met a person. I went to get bread and I hadn’t seen this person for more than three months. The boy is a truck driver and he says to me: “I want to thank you because, believe me, every night wherever I am with the truck I listen to you and I’m strengthened through it, because many times I’m so disappointed by everything happening.” I exchanged a few words with him and I was rejoicing in myself, I was glad that I was able to be helpful through these evenings of worship. After all, it’s God who gives the help, we just make the connection.

Following the lifting of restrictions, other families were involved in the “Evening Worship” project.

Paula Decean:

And for the fact that already as the restrictions were lifted, people either came to us or we met with families from the church, with friends and as the afternoon caught us who knows where, I would just say to them, “Okay, would you want to do the evening worship with us?” And most of them were very open. They knew what it was about because they were with us.

Originally planned for a month, the “Evening Worship” action was extended to 100 days. These evenings were an encouragement not only to the people but also to the church leaders.

Mihai Decean:

We pray that God will touch as many lives as possible and that people will be encouraged. And I want to thank those who support us with this worship and are there with us. It is also encouraging for us to see that people are standing with us and together we can worship God evening to evening.

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