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Vasile Pop Family
Blythswood has supported the ministry of Vasile Pop, pictured
here with his wife Sorina, and their daughters Ada and Ema, for more than 5 years.
Vasile founded the Elpis Foundation in 1999 and
directs its many ministries.
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Elpis Foundation
Members of the Foundation, include,
L-R: Vasile Pop, President with his wife Sorina, Dr. Viorica Zaharia, Lidia and Gelu
Danut, Cornelia and Nelu Petricau
The Foundation devotes its efforts ministries in three primary areas of need:
Spiritual Ministries: Vasile started and directs the
activities of the Somes Missionary Circle, an association of 17 Baptist churches in the
region around Dej, Romania. The Circle has been effective in encouraging growth among
village churches and the mission points within a 100KM radius of the city of Dej. The
group offers training for lay leadership for the village churches without pastors, and
distributes Bibles and Christian literature to all who desire to have them.
Elpis uses "missioners" – Bible School graduates who work
to gain experience -- to develop ministries in the region. Its first three missioners have
all been ordained and are effective servants of Jesus Christ.
A Training Seminar in Dej
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Social Services: The Foundation is also
active in distributing material aid of various kinds to more than 100 needy families in
the Dej area, and has also given food and clothing to other Christian workers in seven 7
counties in the Transylvania region of Romania. They also supply food for Bible Schools,
Seminaries, other educational institutions, orphanages and hospitals in Romania.
Blythswood supports these ministries by regularly sending truck loads of
food, clothing and medical supplies, and by helping to start an agricultural project that
has produced tons of food for distribution. In the picture below, Nelu Patricau works in
the potato harvest.
Here Vasile and Nelu Patricau show other crops they have gathered
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Education: Beginning with the youngest
members of Romanian society, Elpis Foundation established its own Christian kindergarten
in te fall of 2000.
On September 8 of that year, the opening was attended by the Mayor
of Dej, Ioan Ungur, James Campbell Executive Director of Blythswood Cares Ioan Achim
Director of Blythswood Romania and Findlay MacDonals, Blythswood Director of Transport. At
present, the kindergarten has two classes of four and five year-olds, which meet in
temporary quarters in an apartment that was purchased for the purpose.
Last Summer, Blythswood made a special gift that enabled the Foundation to
acquire this house and property in central Dej, which will in time become the permanent
site for the kindergarten.
It takes several trips to carry children kindergarten classes. Here
Vasile prepares to carry 15 children in a Dacia automobile made to carry no more than 5
persons.
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