Dear Friends of MLI,

About seventeen years ago, in December 1989, God has changed Romania  
in only a few days.  God did in a matter of days what we thought  
nobody can do.  The bondage of fear and hopelessness was gone after  
forty-five years of communism. For the first time, we were free to  
speak out our thoughts and the hopes of a better future overwhelmed  
us.  We expected great things to happen overnight.
Many people, most of them young, gave their lives for us to gain the  
right to hope, to dream and tell the truth.  Many monuments were  
raised and dedicated by the living to the memory of those who gave  
their lives for our freedom.  While this is good and right, it  
recently made me think of what President Lincoln said during his  
amazing Gettysburg Address:

“…in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we  
cannot hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who  
struggled here, have consecrated to, far above our poor power to add  
or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say  
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the  
living rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they  
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us  
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from  
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which  
they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly  
resolve the these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation,  
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of  
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the  
earth.”

He was right! We dedicated monuments to them but we failed to dedicate  
ourselves to carry on their dreams as we should. At the end of last  
year for the first time, our President officially condemned communism  
and the crimes of communism in Romania.  This is one of the reasons  
behind the impeachment of the Romanian President by the Parliament.  
On May 19th we had a referendum in Romania regarding this impeachment  
and 75% of the people voted against the Parliament’s initiative that  
the President should stay.  The former “securitate” is behind this  
impeachment.  This shows how the country is going through turmoil and  
political crisis at various levels. I think we are at an important  
point in our history.

At the beginning of this year after seventeen years of “transition”,  
Romania just got accepted into the European Union.  What that means  
for us it is still hard to know!  What we can say for sure is the fact  
the cost of life is going up fast, the poor are getting poorer and the  
rich (they are not too many) are getting richer.  Euro and USD value  
less and the life is getting more and more difficult for most people.

For us as Christians, it is the time to pray, hope and work hard for  
the things to get better.  I thank you so much for your friendship and  
partnership for so many years.  Thank you for being along side us  
during these difficult times.  I appreciate you so much!  I want to  
encourage you to continue to pray for us to be God’s people in our  
country and to have the wisdom from God to understand the times.

Blessings to you and your families!

Yours in Him!
Eugen Groza