Dr. and Mrs. Malancea

Imagine spending two years in Siberia because of your Christian faith after seeing your church building destroyed by the Communist government in its oppression of the church. Then, imagine seeing that Communist government overthrown and the doors thrown wide open for the church. That is the dramatic experience of Mihai Malancea, one of the outstanding graduates of TCM International Institute, in his home country of Moldova.

Even before these governmental changes were realized, Mihai, and colleagues from Moldova, began to plan for a college in their country to prepare men and women for ministry. Their planning, made during long and arduous trips to neighboring Romania for TCM classes, has now become a reality with the establishment of the College of Theology and Education (CTE), strategically located in Chisinau, the capital city of Moldova. The College has several hundred students all preparing for work in churches or parachurch organizations.

Today, Mihai wears "many hats," (1) serving as Dean and Professor of the College of Theology and Education (CTE); (2) ministering to a growing church plant in the city; and (3) working on a Ph.D. degree from the University of Bucharest, Romania.

In his spare time he dons another that, working for his alma mater, the TCMI Institute, as Field Director in Moldova. In this capacity, he recruits students and acts as a liaison between the students and the Institute. The onsite Institute classes in Moldova are taught on the campus of the College of Theology and Education in Chisinau.

An exciting development at CTE in recent years is the enrolling of several students living in the Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, et al.). Since most of those Islamic countries are closed to Western missionaries, the strategy is to prepare Christians from there for leadership. Since these students are from former Soviet satellites, they are able to travel to Moldova, another former satellite, without too much difficulty. Now, several of these students along with fellow Moldovans are beginning graduate education with the Institute.

Today, Moldova has eighty-five students enrolled in the Institute, the third highest number of all countries behind Romania and the Ukraine. These students are following the examples of Mihai and over three-fourths of the other faculty at CTE who are also graduates of the Institute.

Mihai has an infectious smile, a creative and scholarly mind, a pastor's heart, and a zeal for evangelism. TCM is proud of Mihai and his extension of the mission to his own country and to another culture in Central Asia. Congratulations to Mihai, Lydia, and children, Andrei, Yurii, Doina, Diana, and Emanuel, on work well-done.