Cernavoda’s claim to fame is that it is the site of Romania’s only nuclear power plant, providing about 20% of the nation’s electricity and the town’s main source of employment. Many in the town, which sits just off the Danube on the banks of the Danube – Black Sea Canal, have no work.

We met Florin Strugariu during a visit to Constanta in 2002. He had just become engaged to Mihaela, a school teacher, who we had met during our 1998 visit and shortly after their marriage he was offered the post of Pastor of the Pentecostal Church in Cernavoda. They now have 2 children, Luca and Emma, and Florin oversees the work in a further 5 village churches.

During the years of our association we have tried to help the development of the Cernavoda church within the limits of our budget. Although this has meant that we are not able to give regular financial support, we have made one-off gifts at times of need or for specific projects, including a gift each Christmas to enable the church to hold a party and bless its members and neighbours with a ‘goody’ bag.

In 2005 the Trust was able, through the generosity of its supporters, to provide a substantial sum toward the cost of purchasing a field on the edge of the town. We were able to visit the field in 2006 and witnessed a wonderful crop of sweetcorn – and a few horses having a feast! Members of the church have piped a water supply from the nearest main road and we helped them to purchase a chain-link fence to protect their crops. Regrettably two 30 metre sections have been stolen this year and have had to be replaced. Despite this setback, they have been blessed with a wonderful apricot harvest and have planted 7000m of sweetcorn (see photos). The work and the harvests are shared by the church members.

Current needs:

• A new building. Despite regular repairs and underpinning the current building has some major cracks in the walls. There is nothing suitable available to rent and the local Council are unwilling to provide a piece of land. They may be able to persuade their neighbour to sell them her land.
• A mini-bus to take teams to the outlying villages.
• A laptop and projector to show the ‘Jesus’ and ‘The Passion of Christ’ movies in the villages.

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