Bogey Hills enjoys Romanian partnership
ST. CHARLES – The stucco was falling off the walls when Coby Boyd arrived at Biscerica Crestina Baptista Ghetsimani in Romania in the fall of 2004. Then Bogey Hills Baptist Church here, where Boyd serves as pastor, got involved and God began to work.
“The church was literally falling apart,” Boyd said. “The floor had separated from the wall.” He notes that the people had been working on the building since 1999 but they had become discouraged because there was not a lot of money. The nonbelievers in their village of Cherelus (pronounced “keraloosh”) had begun to laugh at them.
Boyd said the people are faithful in church attendance. They walk or ride bikes, and some have horses and buggies. Even older people ride their bikes to church in cold weather.
Boyd had gone with a team to Romania to investigate how the Bogey Hills church could become involved in world missions. Team members were split off and matched with local pastors. Boyd was assigned to Pastor Cornel Micle.
“God knew what he was doing when He put us together,” Boyd said.
He asked Micle how much it would take in American dollars to have the building ready for meetings. The Romanian pastor estimated about $15,000. A partnership was born.
The Bogey Hills church members embraced the partnership with enthusiasm. The church averages 85-90 in Sunday morning attendance, and they wanted to serve the Lord through international missions as well as local missions.
“If people are willing to be obedient to God’s leadership, He’s going to do great things,” Boyd said. “We would collect a couple of thousand at a time and send it over there,” he said. “They would progressively do what they could with the money.”
Two years later, in October of 2006, Boyd returned to Cherelus to observe the progress and to encourage Pastor Micle.
“They had done a lot of work. They were meeting in the building. There was still a little bit needed and they needed to tear down the old building,” he said.
“They don’t know why we even bother with them. Why would we come from America to help them? I told them it was because we love them and because God wants us to come and be a part of their ministry there.”
Boyd had taken with him a banner signifying the partnership between the people of Bogey Hills and the people of Biscerica Crestina Baptista Ghetsimani. As he made the presentation, Pastor Micle began to weep. The banner was immediately nailed to the wall near the baptistry.
“When I came back, there was a woman in our church whose son sold a house in California,” Boyd said. “Whoever bought it really wanted the house. They paid him $10,000 more than the asking price. He sent the money to our church for the Romanian project, plus some extra.”
The remainder of the goal was sent over right before Christmas, and the Bogey Hills church already has about $7,500 to put toward a mission trip to Romania in late summer or early fall.
Boyd said he had always thought of the admonition to go to Jerusalem and Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth to be progressive. He has since come to realize that we’re to be witnesses to all the world at the same time.
“It has been such a blessing, something that’s very exciting for our church,” Boyd said. “Smaller congregations ask, ‘What can we do,’ but we’ve seen Him do it through us, and that creates excitement.”