Mike Goforth, pastor of Sardis Baptist Church in Boaz, has been doing volunteer missions work in Romania for seven years, but in the last two years, more Alabamians have become interested in this international missions field.
“[Alabamians] have just become more aware about this trip, because while I’ve been involved with the trip myself, I’ve pastored at Sardis and Arley Baptist Church,” Goforth said.
This year, a team of 26 — 22 from Alabama — traveled to the Romanian cities of Ploiestei, Cluj and Turzii in June.
The main missions team split into smaller teams consisting of one pastor, one music evangelist and several laypeople. This year, with six pastors and six musicians, the team was able to make six smaller teams that branched out through the cities and performed services at several churches.
The group ministered in many other ways throughout northern and southern Romania. They led a service at a women’s prison. They held a women’s conference that 60 Romanian women
attended, delivered care packages to 24 poor families and a Christian orphanage and donated a love offering to a free medical clinic. In northern Romania they gave church leaders suggestions on directing and guiding their church. In Bucharest the younger volunteers led a youth rally.
“The trip is strictly evangelistic,” Goforth said. “We minister in churches, prisons and orphanages.”
Volunteers for the trip included several Alabama Baptist pastors: Sammy Taylor of Mountain View Church, Phil Campbell; Ron Horton of New Prospect Church, Haleyville; George Whitten of First Baptist Church, Double Springs; Jason Vinson of Arley First Baptist Church; and Tommy Williamson of Chapel Hill, Albertville.
Also participating in the trip from Mountain View was Taylor’s 19-year-old son, Kyle.
“It was rewarding for me as a father and a pastor to see my son serving Jesus and to have us work together serving the Lord,” Taylor said. “This was our first trip together, and we were over there on Father’s Day. It was just a real special time.”
On the last night of the trip, a seventh church, the Baptist church in Luna, requested a Christian speaker to come, and Kyle decided he would fill in. “I’m not a preacher, but I speak when I get the chance.”
He spoke to a congregation of 20, and three made professions of faith. “It made it all worthwhile when those three people raised their hands,” he said. “We all may not be preachers, but we still have a job to do.”
Goforth noted that almost $50,000 has been donated to the Church at Campia Turzii during the past four years to help them build a new church building. That amount covers half the cost of the church, and the building will be dedicated next summer when a group led by Goforth returns.
“The money has been donated by love offerings from Sardis and Arley,” Goforth said, “but this year we had a golf tournament to raise money, another love offering and an anonymous donation.”
Members of Chapel Hill Church and Sardis Church also volunteered for the trip, along with volunteers from Tennessee, Michigan, South Carolina and Louisiana.
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