The issue of charity, a scriptural concern

The Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Deva is commited to obey the comandment of Jesus to care for the poor. The Bible has a special concern for the poor. Psalm 41:1-3 grants this wonderful promise: "Blessed is he who considers the poor: The Lord will deliver him in the day of evil. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive, He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness." In the New Testament we find that Jesus and the disciples had a purse, as they were gathering money to serve their purpose. The Savior once said: "For you always have the poor with you" (Matt. 26:11), in the spirit of the commandment from Deuteronomy 15:11 "For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command you, saying: You shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land."

The Bible is God's word and we believe it. Therefore we find enough motivation to care for the poor. But our society also gives us reasons of concern for the poor: we realize there is a gap between the income of most Romanian population and the prices in the stores, which makes it almost impossible for a large number of people to purchase the basic goods for a decent life. Especially food is very expensive, when you must buy it here on a monthly Romanian income!

Therefore we have developed a charity department, which provides for the needs of poor people.

Resources:

• a monthly gathering of finances dedicated specially to this purpose
• various donations
• special partnerships with churches and Christians Organisations

Ways/means of meeting the needs:

• we have a Poor People's Canteen — a special partnership project with a Christian Organisation — that provides warm cooked food for 70 people, 5 days per week
• we have a full time worker that visits poor people in order to detect the needs; then people with needs visit our warehouse to receive food, clothes, hygienic articles etc

• the Board of the church has ascribed to each elder an area of responsibility for visits, thus being in touch with the needs of the people in our town
• we have also extended the area of serving the poor to the villages around Deva, on a radius of around 40 km
• by gathering the information, we create a network between people that are in need and those willing to help them
• we donated hospital beds and wheel chairs to both the local hospital and the Old People's Home in Branisca, the later we visit once every month
• we organised transports of clothing to Moldavia, and recently have started a co-operation project with a Romanian minority area in Ukraine
• we have started a social project in the poorest area of Deva, a Christian Complex, that will comprise a Poor People's Canteen, a Dispensary and other facilities that will meet, with God's help, the needs of the poor people