Ministry Report

Suzie Benforado

Cluj Romania

May 2006

REVIVAL IN ROMANIA?

We are hearing more and more about Romania from

the heart of God. The Spirit of God hovers over this land and

calls Romania forth from its long period in the grave. God

has promised revival in Romania. Romania was once known

as the "Bread basket of Europe". May God help us to become

that again, this time serving up the Bread of Life! Join the

prayer network for Romania (see more details at

www.arc-

ministries.com

).

ANTIOCH CHRISTIAN CENTER: For the last year, I have been involved with helping to

establish ACC as a New Testament church in Cluj. We just celebrated our one year anniversary and

what a year it has been! We have experienced increase in numbers of people regularly attending, but

also increased maturity of the core group. We are seeing some radical conversions and lives

drastically and quickly transforming right before our eyes.

We are teaching our people that the supernatural should be natural as we walk with our God

who can do all things! And people are catching it: Andreea (16 year old girl ) not wanting to pray

out loud in front of her classmates, simply laid her hand on a sick friend’s shoulder and prayed

silently. Her friend was healed! Another Andreea (22 year old girl) shared her testimony with a

classmate. As she talked, the presence of God became tangible and the friend said “What is this that

I feel?” She described what she felt as “a deep peace and warmth…like an invisible hug.” Andreea

said “Jesus is here” and shared more about having a personal relationship with Him. Marius (20

year old boy), a believer for only 2 months, laid his hands on his sick brother and prayed. His

brother who is not (yet) a Christian was healed on the spot. What are all these healings about? It is

a way of getting people’s attention so that they listen to the Good News.

“SIGNS OF SPRING”: We look around and see that spring has arrived bringing with it signs of

new life. The weather has warmed, the sun has made its reappearance and all of nature has

responded. Everything is turning green, budding, blooming…the promise that the long winter is

passed. …it is really an amazing sight. In a spiritual sense, we are seeing signs of new life too.

Young people are getting radically saved and on fire for Jesus. We continue to see miracles of

healings at almost every church meeting. Our church members are sharing Jesus and bringing their

friends to church. Other amazing and supernatural things happen as the winds of the Spirit of God

blow over us. Here is an excerpt describing a recent prayer meeting:

About 25 of us were praying (we pray aloud, all at the same time, while pacing the floor) and then

something happened.

How can I describe it? It was like wave after wave of God’s presence, His goodness washed over

us. I was praying and suddenly felt overwhelmed with the presence of God. I staggered forward aware

that the atmosphere had just changed...my palms felt they were charged with electricity. Another level of

His presence had come into the room. Then another wave came and I was swept away in the gracious

goodness of God and dropped to my knees. For some time I just worshiped Him and enjoyed His

closeness. When I looked up, I saw some others on their knees around the room. What I had perceived

in the spirit, others had “seen” too.

It was obvious that God was doing something different this week. This was not “church as

usual”. (Mind you we are talking about the prayer preparation for church.) So we gathered together,

waited on God and continued to pray…this time not praying for church, but in response to God who had

drawn near. The only appropriate response was worship…we sang a tender love song to our Jesus…and

an even greater wave swept through the room.

David, my pastor, caught the wave…that movement in the heart of God and gave instructions for me

and Mihaela (his wife) to join him in laying our hands on people. I can’t explain what happened nor

why it happened…but I will tell you what my eyes saw. As we laid our hands on people and prayed for

God to release Himself over each one … in a short time…a few seconds up to one minute…each person

was overwhelmed by God. Knees buckled, hearts melted, tears flowed… completely swept off their feet

by the Lover of Their Souls… by the amazing embrace of His manifest presence… in that sweet hour of

prayer, we

encountered the heart of God in a very amazing and unusual way.

MY PART IN THE CHURCH: I am part of the leadership team...praying, planning and making

decisions together with my pastors David and Mihaela Norton as we hear form God and set the

course for the church.

I’ve had numerous opportunities to preach the Word during our services. I’ve really enjoyed this

challenge. It is basically discipleship in mass. I will be posting some of my teaching on my website

in the near future.

I am also used in counseling, confrontations and conflict resolution. All my counseling training

is helpful as we deal with the real problems of sometimes messy lives.

But my favorite ministry of all is prayer ministry. When we lay our hands on people at the end

of a service, and pray believing for God to move in their lives,

anything can happen. I have seen God do miracles right under my

hands. Of course it is Him and not me. I have only empty hands

to offer Him, but He fills them and pours Himself out. I am

amazed at what He can do if we just believe and dedicate ourselves

to Him. For me it is such an awesome place and such an awesome

time. And God is showing Himself more and more to us as Savior,

Deliverer and Healer...the God of the impossible. We are seeing

numerous healings and other kinds of miracles in our midst. Every

week there are new testimonies of what God is up to. We are

really enjoying ourselves and God too as we see Him move

supernaturally in our midst on a daily basis. Please see my website

for more testimonies.

www.newfromsuz.com

CHRISTMAS CRUSADE:

In December, we hosted a evangelistic Christmas Crusade at our church. Our guest minister

was Phil Rich, a man of God, raised and trained in the atmosphere of revival and daily miracles. We

saw miracle after miracle.

Here are a few highlights:

My widow friend and former neighbor, Susi (age 80+) who we affectionately call our "church grandma" came to the

Crusade very weak and sick, in pain and with great difficulty walking. In fact on the way to church, she told me that she

felt that God was calling her home because she had never felt this bad before. We practically carried her up the stairs

and she agonized with every step toward a seat in the front of the church. But then!!!! Late in the service Phil took her

by the hand and said God wanted to heal her legs. She stood up and was touched so powerfully by God that she took off

running up and down the aisle of the church, to the amazement and joyful applause of the whole gathering.

Razvan (age 19) An avid soccer player, Razvan severely tore a ligament in his knee three years ago and has lived with

pain ever since. One night at the crusade he was healed completely! The pain completely disappeared and he could run

and jump with no problem.

Cristina (age 30+) came to all three meetings of the Crusade. The first night a heart problem disappeared. The next day

she noticed that she could do anything she wanted without getting winded. The second night she got healing in her back

and by the third night she was asking for inner healing. She got radically saved and has committed to make Antioch

Christian Center her new church home

It was such a wonderful time of watching God demonstrate His goodness and His power.

What a privilege for us to have front row seats! And the greatest miracle of all, about 30 people

gave their lives to Jesus!

Challenged to greater faith by this man of God:

It was my great privilege together with my pastors, David and Mihaela Norton, to listen for

hours as Phil told us story after story of miracles that he had seen God do over the years. He told us

of one meeting in the USA where 13 lame people stood up out of wheelchairs and walked and

jumped and praised God! Another meeting in Mexico when 200 women were healed of cancerous

tumors! Wow! Look what can happen in ONE meeting! He spoke of a time when he was praying

for a blind boy in Indiana. As Phil looked into the boy's eyes he say only white milky masses, but as

he continued to pray, he saw God create his iris and pupil and then suddenly he could see! He told

of two other occasions where he saw the dead prayed for and they came back to life (not just passed

out ---but dead! DEAD!) God can do still greater things than we have even imagined. What I want to

see is those kind of miracles happening HERE in Cluj and through OUR hands. Why not?!

"LIGHT CLUB": We constantly think of what we can do

to attract more young people to us. Sometimes the distance

seems too great to get them to come to church...but they will

come to a club setting. So we created one! A Friday night

hangout called “The Light Club” for young people with lots

of opportunities for having fun: ping pong, billiards,

foosball, table games and also a movie and snack bar. We

usually average around 50-60 people every Friday night. It

is a great way to bridge the gap between the world and

church. We come with our non-Christian friends, we have a

good time and then when they do come to church, they

already recognize many faces. We also have already had

several people saved through this outreach.

CHILDREN’S OUTREACH: I first “met” this bear in the USA. Seeing the

potential for helping out our children’s ministry, I asked about the possibility of

having one for us in Romania. Two friends from Florida graciously made us

one! Our bear “BooBoo” (named after Yogi’s sidekick)has been a great hit

among the children…bringing smiles to hundreds of faces, and the gospel to

hundreds of hearts.

WORSHIP TEAM EQUIPMENT: Together with a

cousin in Georgia, I coordinated raising funds for buying a

set of drums for our worship team. They become reality in

December and have greatly upgraded our worship. I have

also helped with chimes, guitar stand and some other

accessories. Our greatest need at this point is for two

“playback” monitors so the team can better hear themselves

while the sound system is hooked up. We can purchase

those here for about $250 each.

PRODUCING MATERIALS:

I have always had some skill in writing. But now God is using that gift for His Kingdom more

and more. We have produced two booklets:

“First Steps”: This booklet came out of a desire to put the bare basics in the hands of a

new believer.

“The Gift” We wanted a good tract so that one time guests in our church and also

people we shared Jesus with would go home with a clear message in their hands… all

they needed to know to be saved. I couldn’t locate anything I was satisfied with, so David

and I combined efforts and wrote “The Gift”. Created to be easy to give away… “I have

a gift for you.”

Healing CD: This was a dream of mine for three years. This year it became reality.

I took the major verses and passages about healing in the Bible, recorded them in

Romanian, added background music, professionally mixed and produced an hour

long CD’s to stir up faith for healing…”Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the

Word of God” Rom 10:17

PREPARING FOR THE SUMMER: We have a full summer planned with various outreaches.

Our desire is to reach the lost and at the same time to mature and equip believers for ministry. This

will be a very busy time requiring much of us and our core people. Please pray for us to do all in the

power and grace of Jesus. Here are the highlights and major matters for prayer

We are hosting a regional prophetic conference in July. Churches will participate from a

300 mile radius and of course there will be many non-Christian participants as well.

In August and September we have two 6 day evangelistic camps planned; the one in

August is for high school students and September for college students. We plan to have

45 non-Christian participants at each camp.

WEBSITE:

I have updated and upgrated my website. It is worth a visit.

www.newsfromsuz.com

SPECIAL NEEDS:

1.

Prayer… prayer moves the heart of God and brings about results with echoes in eternity. Please

stand with me and also for the church.

2.

Financial Help… Please pray for God’s provision for the following projects:

Each camp costs $1500. We expect that investment will reap 80 souls during the summer

and then still more as these on fire new believers go home and influence their family and

friends.

We pay by the hour to rent our facility: The Light Club costs $50/week Our church

services costs $500/month

There is an incredible training tool available on DVD for training leaders. We would like

to purchase that for our church to help us train this and future generations of core people.

It costs $800 (see

www.isom.org

for more info)

For the worship team, we need two monitors so they can hear themselves during the

worship time. Those cost $250 each.

Well this has quickly become an epistle. But let me not stop without expressing how deeply grateful

I am for your continuing support. You have supported me faithfully and generously over the years

and I so appreciate your every thought, prayer, encouragement and financial gift. I am confident that

your prayer and financial investments in me and my ministry will bring an abundant and eternal

return.

Enjoying serving the King in

Cluj Romania

Suzie Benforado

Send financial contributions to:

Covenant Frontline International, Inc.

P.O. Box 1449

Fort Morgan, CO 80701 USA

Make out your check to "Covenant Frontline International"

and designate the gift "for Suzie Benforado, Romania"