Dan and Daniela


Pierce family

Daniela Bistrian, being the oldest of twelve children, led her family to the United States in 1990 following the Romanian revolution in December 1989. She had attained visas for her family while Romania was still communist, which was no easy thing. Back then there were no lines of people at the American embassy waiting for visas as there are now. The secret police would harass, or beat, or arrest people for even going to a western embassy. Surely God had a plan in all of this. About a year after she arrived in the United States, Daniela went to Christ For The Nations Institute [CFNI] and graduated in 1993. It is unusual in Romanian culture for a young woman to go to Bible school, and even more unusual for anyone to want to go back to Romania as a missionary. However, during that year she had felt the Lord calling her to come back and reach out in love to the poor and orphaned children; God's children.

It was during a CFNI summer out reach to Israel that Daniela felt God speaking to her in a special way. While she was at Lazarus' tomb she heard God saying: "I raised this dead man, Lazarus, you poor Romanian girl, and I can raise you up also - go back."

Daniela made the first of several trips back to Romania in late 1994 and attained her United States citizenship in 1997. In 1997, Bethany House was purchased and also that same year Dan came to Romania for the first time on a short-term mission trip with his church. The plan was to distribute the Book of Life in the public schools, and to do youth crusades in the evening. The trip was planed for Poland. However, two weeks before departure the team lost their special permission to go into the public schools. The dates were set, so the destination was changed to Romania. Because of a schedule adjustment the team's Romanian translators had to leave early to meet another team coming from the States, so at the local church in Calarasi the pastor was asked if anybody spoke English, as there was need for one translator for one day. He said that Daniela Bistrian spoke very good English so Daniela was placed on Dan's team. Dan was able to minister to her by doing some minor repairs on her car on the last day the team was in Romania, and she joined the team for lunch before they left. Dan and Daniela started writing and e-mailing each other. Dan returned to Romania for a week in May of 1998, and a few months later Daneila came out to the States for a visit and each were able to meet the other's parents. Dan proposed to Daniela later that year and three pastors married them in a Sunday morning church service on March 14, 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dan moved over to Romania in May 1999. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born in Romania in October 2000, and they know have a son (Danny) and a second daughter (Denisa). The Bethany House ministry became an authorized Romanian Humanitarian Foundation in 2001.


A message from Dan and Daniela.



As spring time in Romania brings new life, beautiful flowers, and small buds at the Bethany House farm, we are also pleased to see new life and spiritual growth among our girls here at Bethany House. One must remember that children coming from broken families, state institutions, or the street, are very likely to fail in life, never developing the social skills needed for a productive life that can contribute to society instead of detracting from it. When we see a child make good decisions without being told; when we see them embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that brings life abundant and full, we feel as if we are thieves, stealing their souls - from the devil.

Stealing isn’t wrong, if one is stealing from the devil.

An American pastor came here and asked why are so many children abandoned? Why were there so many children left in Romanian State orphanages and institutions, especially after the execution of the godless communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu almost 16 years ago? Ironically Ceausescu's demise came on Christmas Day 1989, and the first protest that ignited the wildfire of revolution that spread across the entire country started at a Christian church upon the arrest of the pastor. But the answer to the question is multi and complex, a short response is; Just like the problems in Iraq didn't end with the removal of Saddam Hussein, neither did the problems in Romania end with the removal of Nicolae Ceausescu... Ceausescu had a diabolical plan to double the Romanian population in ten years! His program was forcefully and intrusively instituted. "Procreation is the social duty of all fertile women," was the dogma in Ceausescu's Romania; with disastrous effects. At the time of his removal there were hundreds of thousands of children institutionalized; living under horrible conditions. Then came the collapse of the economy after the revolution and conditions grew even worse; children literally rotting in cages and dying in hospitals all in the care of the state! Even today the state pension for a person that worked their whole life can be as little as $60 per month, while many commodities such as gasoline are costing more than in the United States. Further, what had happened during fifty years of communism was a form of institutionalized corruption and mafia that deformed the dignity of the common man. Deformed, disillusioned and defeated at the time of the revolution, many people then embraced the very worst in their new found freedoms. Ideas that would be highly shunned in the "free West" are embraced in Eastern Europe. Things like going to McDonalds restaurant and ordering a beer, or driving and seeing a billboard advertising Coca-Cola using a darkened image of a totally naked woman are the norm. If a minor has the money he or she can buy as much alcohol has they wish. Promiscuity has led to a record number of abortions - the highest in Europe, and a recent study has shown that Romania has 20 times more cases of syphilis than in the rest of Europe! Though many abandoned children were rescued by international adoptions, this has had to be permanently suspended because the trade and trafficking of abandoned children had led to whole sale corruption all across the board. There are numbers of documented cases of people, even parents, offering children for sale to the highest bidders. Some well intentioned non-governmental organizations were manipulated into compromised positions by a system devised by corrupt officials, with the intent of extracting exorbitant amounts of money for their own personal gain.

But all is not lost in hopelessness and despair! The economy, though low, is growing and salaries are increasing. During the national elections in 2004 an outsider won, proving that Democracy is gaining ground in this once totalitarian society. Traian Basecu, the new President, stated that he would make improving the already good relations they had with the West, and the United States in particular, a priority of his administration. In 2004, Romania was also accepted into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [N.A.T.O], and it has provided soldiers for both Iraq and Afghanistan. In January 2007, Romania became a member of the European Union. In 2004, for the first time in many years the birth rate has produced a positive growth rate. Though there are vast numbers of young people in very precarious situations, the numbers in actual state institutions are way down. Though painful, this is reversing a trend of abandonment. Romania is also a country rich in God-given natural resources, one of the greatest being the land itself. Once she was know as the "Bread Basket of Europe". Agriculture and most industries are becoming productive once again, even if the growth is painfully slow. So even in desperation there is hope, even if it is only a dream or a seed yet to bear fruit; hope brings about reality and the hopeful aren't easily disappointed.

And it is because of you, our dear friends and partners, who contribute to the ministry of Bethany House and to our daily work here, that we have the privilege and opportunity of reaching out to the children and families who are in dire situations, needing most of all - HOPE.