The Beginning Of Our Congregation

At the beginning of 2002, several Baptist Christian families from Philadelphia had the heart to open a Romanian-language church in the city of Philadelphia.

This group included the families Mihail & Tatyana Khokhlan, Valerika & Natalya Perzhu, Vasile & Zina Hrishka, Andrei & Raisa Pascaru, Ion & Olga Darmancev, Gavril & Cornelia Ciuciu and others. On May 5th, with the help of God and with his brother pastor Teofil Ciortuz, who at that time pastored the “Maranata” Church in New York, they were able to gather in the Bensalem Independent Baptist Church located on the outskirts of Philadelphia. In September of that year, brother pastor Teofil Ciortuz called me to work together, and then in October he entrusted me with the work in Philadelphia. We continued to meet and praise God, and to organize ourselves as a church.

At the beginning of 2003, we incorporated the church, we adopted the church constitution, and then the church wanted us to be part of the “Romanian Baptist Association of America and Canada”, and God was and remained with us through all the circumstances we went through .

He, God said to the church in Philadelphia, “Thus says the Holy One, the True One, the One who holds the key of David, the One who opens and no one can shut, the One who shuts and no one will open. I know your deeds, behold your – I have set before you an open door, which no one can close, because you have little power and you have kept My Word and have not denied My Name.”Yes, He is with us because we decided to listen and follow the “Holy Word” of the Bible, so that through this the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified. We believe that our families standing closely united in the Holy Word of Truth, the generations that will come after us, will truly know the One who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”