Romania

God Has Kept Us

by Ronela Micula 

CLC was one of the first missions to operate on a regular basis in Romania after the 1989 revolution and the end of 42 years of communist rule. While it was a time of incredible freedom, which we did not even dare to dream of before, it was also a time of complex economic, social and political upheaval and the conditions gave rise to widespread corruption and the subsequent collapse of the Romanian industry and economy. CLC Romania grew and developed despite the difficult conditions and, while thousands of companies closed down over the intervening years and with about a quarter of the population moving to other countries, we survived while swimming against the tide — without illegal commerce and paying all the taxes. We praise God that we are still here with two bookshops, a warehouse and a small publishing house. In a sense it is a miracle, and when people seem surprised that we are still able to operate, we can only reply, ‘We are here because God kept us’.

Resurrecting Publishing

From the start of CLC in Romania, we had the privilege of being involved in publishing, but with changes in personnel and in technologies, we slowly declined as a publishing house and were left with a lot of old and ageing stock of good books that we could not sell. We knew we needed to revive this ministry but didn’t know where to start. Then God opened doors for us and gave us opportunities for a new start. A publisher suggested that CLC got involved in a bilingual co-edition of a beautiful Bible for children. At that time we did not have either the ‘know-how’ or the resources for it, but we accepted it as a challenge and as an opportunity, and we started to work. God was faithful and blessed our work and, in 2009, the Bible was published, becoming the best selling book for CLC Romania. This led to many more publishing opportunities.

We accepted every opportunity as a gift from God, even if it required more work, learning new skills and developing a lot of courage and confidence. We have published about 50 titles and, right now, we have several more titles, including The Reason for my Hope by Billy Graham and You and Me Forever by Francis & Lisa Chan, in different stages of the translation and publication process.

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