The first Money Map seminar organized by Crown Financial Ministries in Europe took place on Saturday, June 11th, 2011, in ”Dragostea” Baptist Church in Arad. The seminar was organised in partnership with BIG Impact Foundation.
Arround 150 participants from Arad, Bucuresti, Cluj, Oradea and Timisoara responded to the invitation, bearing the attractive title: The Road to Financial Freedom. Jan Spence, consultant and financial instructor for Crown, was the main speaker. Titus Pastean and Ovidiu Blaj were responsible for the event management.
It was a warm environment and the participants were actively involved in discussions, trying to benefit as much as possible from the teachings, such as:
– discovering direction from a financial point of view
– understanding what the true financial freedom means
– learning the actual steps leading to financial freedom
– finding the dangers in this journey, and how to avoid them
Here are some insights from one of the participants:
I had learned from several books and from the radio broadcast I enjoy listening to, about the topics presented here, but there were many things I only understood here, in o totally different manner. The examples given were more than welcomed. You know what they say: theory is easy, practice makes it hard! I have a very wise husband, a strong believer, and we are not engulfed in debt, especially loans from the bank, but this seminar was very helpful to us for a better planning of the budget, in the future. Still, I keep thinking about some friends of ours, who are very much in debth and who can really use this teaching. If you organize any more seminars in the future, on this topic, please let me know, so I can get those friends involved.
The night before the seminar in Arad, Jan Spence had a special training session with more than 10 participants who wish to get involved as Money Map trainers in the future. She got them familiarized with the training handbook, underlining the points where they should be extra careful when teaching the material.
Also, during her visit in Romania, Jan Spence gave an interview to a radio station in Oradea and had several training sessions in various churches.
Family Finance Management was the theme of a three-hour meeting, hosted by ”Tabor” Baptist Church, with 80 people in the attendance. The biblical principles of family finance management were tought, and the teaching was followed closely by all the participants.
Arround 25 small group leaders from the youth department of ”Metanoia” Baptist Church in Arad were the beneficiaries of a training dealing with biblical truths about money.
Finally, ”Dragostea” Baptist Church in Arad hosted a meeting for arround 60 women, to whom Jan had the opportunity to speak about the duty of being good stewards, properly managing everything God has given us, including material resources, natural abbilities and spiritual gifts.
Excited about her her short but prolific visit to Romania, in a short message sent to her collaborators, Jan wrote:
The trip to Romania was incredible. The hospitality is wonderful there and the people received me with love. (…) The answer (to the training) was extraordinary and God was glorified. (…) It was a blessing!
We are grateful for the work Jan Spence has done among us. Also we are thankful that Money Map is available in Romania and that we are present in Crown’s ministry. Above all, we are thankful we are on the map of God’s Kingdom, being able to report with great joy that, although it was a financial seminar, at the event in Arad two of the participants made decisions to follow Jesus Christ. To God be all the glory!