August 9, 2021
Valentin Rusescu WEI- Romania
I recently met one of the very first students to begin and complete the WEI course, and as a result become a Christian. His name is Valentin Rusescu [Roo-shay-scoo] and he has an interesting WEI story. As a young man, Valentin was an engineer with the military in the mini-helicopter division when he enrolled in a Bible and English instruction postal correspondence course. He began the slow process of postal correspondence in early 1990, named at that time World English School, and he finished the course and received his certificate on February 26th, 1993, under the current banner of World English Institute. His postal teacher was Brother Ron Chitwood.
In December 1989, the mighty hand of God tore down the Communist Iron Curtain, and Romania opened up. In early 1990, Brother Bill McDonough entered Romania as part of a humanitarian effort and ran a series of ads in a popular magazine, offering a free English grammar and Bible course taught by Americans. More than 35,000 people responded to the ads. The first batch of a limited number of postal correspondence courses sent to students was called World English School. Valentin received the first set of books from this course. Because he began with the WES course, we know he had to be one of the first WEI students in Romania.
After completing the course, Valentin knew he needed to be baptized. He traveled to Bucharest in 1993 and missionary Dale McAnulty gave him a Holy Bible and put him in touch with missionary Hilton Terry. Brother Terry was serving in the same city of Valentin’s residence at that time. Valentin met with Hilton in Brasov, Romania and was baptized. The church in Brasov eventually dissolved and Valentin wandered without a church home for many years. He moved to Bucharest and could not locate the church he remembered from 1993. He made contact with the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, and they gave Valentin current Romania evangelist Albert Cook’s contact information in Bucharest. Valentin was finally reunited with Christians in Bucharest where he worships and is happy to serve with the Church of Christ at Mihai Bravu.
When I met him this summer and mentioned that I was president of WEI, his eyes lit up and he was thrilled to tell me his WEI story. It was such a pleasure to meet and speak with Valentin and hear about all the people involved in his conversion, which began with a WES/WEI correspondence course 31 years ago.
I Corinthians 3:7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
