Pisgah signs partnership with Romania
By Allen Palmeri
Staff Writer
September 23, 2003
EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – The partnership between Missouri Baptists and Romania Baptists is kicking off with a pastors’ conference meeting this week in Romania, but for at least one Missouri Baptist church, the partnership is already in motion.
Pisgah Baptist Church of Excelsior Springs signed a partnership agreement with Bethel Baptist Church in Botosani, Romania, on Sept. 7. Ilie "Elijah" Soritau, personal assistant to President Paul Negrut at Emmanuel University of Oradea, came to Excelsior Springs to sign the agreement.
"He had a major impact on our church," said David Tolliver, pastor of Pisgah Baptist. "We’re basically still just in awe of what he had to say to us concerning commitment and dedication."
Pisgah hopes to plant three new churches with Bethel in three years, Tolliver said. The church is located in the northeast part of the country, near Moldova and Ukraine.
Churches are needed in that area, Tolliver said, because it is heavily influenced by the Greek Orthodox Church. Bethel has a young pastor, Cristian Mihoc, who desires to see the area changed.
Soritau will be in America from Nov. 27 through February and is available to preach revivals, Tolliver said. Call Tolliver at (816) 630-5121 to schedule an appearance at a Missouri Baptist church. The outcome will be powerful, he said.
"I am simply changed from when I first went to Romania and returned, having met the Romanian pastors who are absolute heroes of the faith," Tolliver said.
This will hold true for Missouri Baptists who are in Romania for the pastors’ conference these final days of September, he said.
"When they get back on the plane to get home they will be different people from when they arrived," Tolliver predicted.
