Across eastern Europe lay-led ministries are opening doors for Seventh-day Adventist church members to share Bible-based health principles. The process reaches out to people in the community to offer them healthier lives, introducing them to the gospel message and bringing them ultimately to church, leaders of Outpost Centers International (OCI) recently said.
The umbrella organization, which connects hundreds of supporting ministries that are not part of the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church, earlier this year held its 2025 international convention of OCI in Herghelia, Transylvania, Romania. During the May 7-10 event several of those ministries showcased what they are doing to share a message of wellness and wholesome life, and fund other mission-driven initiatives in the process.
A Center for Health and Prevention
In Banya, in southern Bulgaria, Bisel Bordanov is the driving force behind his Center for Health and Prevention. Surrounded by majestic mountains and forests, a flowing river, and a nearby lake, guests and students find plenty of respite and peace at the center, he said.
The center holds 10-day back-to-health programs that include small evangelistic initiatives, Bordanov reported. “We preach, teach health principles, and offer cooking classes,” he shared. “We also provide treatments with hot mineral water.” The water originates from a nearby hot spring, and it not only heats the lifestyle center and irrigates the produce growing in the greenhouses, but is an excellent form of treatment for many chronic diseases, center leaders reported. “As guests find their health needs met, they are more open to the ministry’s efforts to introduce them to the Eternal Spring of Living Water,” Bordanov said. “We put a seed in their souls, and we are so happy because there are people who respond to those messages.”
Bordanov shared how just a few days before, three women who completed one of the center’s programs—two of them self-declared atheists when they arrived—said they were interested in purchasing a Bible. “We would like to study the Bible, because this is something we’ve never heard,” Bordanov said the women told him. “Yes, we do health ministry,” Bordanov said. “But our health ministry is also a way of doing evangelism.”
Bisel Bordanov presents on the Center for Health and Prevention, a lay-led health-focused ministry in Banya, Bulgaria. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] The Center for Health and Prevention in southern Bulgaria, which offers treatments to improve people’s physical, mental, and spiritual health [Photo: Center for Health and Prevention] Regular cooking classes at the Center for Health and Prevention in Bulgaria teach participants to eat nutritious health-inducing food. [Photo: Center for Health and Prevention]
Ascension Center for Healthy Lifestyle
About 10 hours west of Banya, not far from the Adriatic coast and mountains in Kameno, Montenegro, is the new Ascencion Center for Healthy Lifestyle. The facilities, which opened in early 2025, offer programs focused on restoration of emotional health, body detox, healthy vegan eating and cooking classes, and sports plans for physical recovery. “Our goal is to restore health and strength,” Ruslan Romanov said, advertising the center as a place of “a healing climate” of “healing air,” “natural silence,” and other elements that, its leaders said, foster wellness.
Among their clients are people who wish to strengthen their immune system; those who suffer from chronic fatigue, overweight, and diabetes; and those who just want to stick to good habits to stay healthy and strong. The emotional health program teaches how to manage stress, depression, and anxiety, and the detox option, which offers help to “eliminate toxins and regain strength.” Finally, the hydro- and phytotherapy program offers wellness procedures using water and medicinal plants as “a natural way to harmony and restoration of the body.”
“The Ascension Center is a place of kindness, love, and faith,” said Klavdiya Konishcheva, one of the hundreds of people who have enjoyed the ministry’s offers. Another client, Sergey Rekoko, agreed. “The staff is amazing, [and] the cuisine is excellent. . . . My health has become much better,” he said.
Romanov reported that in the first four months since its opening, the center held sessions for six groups, including people recovering from addictions and heart-related challenges. “We also offered a medical ministry school for the very first time, with 15 students from five different countries,” he shared.
Bulgaria’s Center for Health and Prevention offers hot water treatments thanks to a nearby natural hot spring. [Photo: Center for Health and Prevention] Ruslan Romanov, from the Ascencion Center for Healthy Lifestyle in Montenegro, presents at the Outpost Centers International convention in Romania in May. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] In Romania, Casa Luminii provides long-term shelter for women who were homeless or have gone through situations of abuse. [Photo: Casa Luminii]
A Lighthouse in Romania
In the town of Radovanu, Lighthouse Romania (Casa Luminii) provides long-term shelter for up to 25 homeless elderly and adult women who were homeless or have gone through situations of abuse. The ministry also provides food, clothing, school supplies, books, and assistance to those in the community and surrounding regions.
A children’s center (Casuta Luminii) offers free classes for kids, such as beginner and advanced English classes, piano lessons, recorder lessons, tutoring in math and Romanian, and guitar lessons. A volunteer center houses short-term and long-term volunteers that come to offer various ministries to the community, including health-based initiatives and Vacation Bible School programs, “to bridge between the academic and the spiritual.”
“The place functions as a family,” Michelle Doucomes, who presented on behalf of the ministry at the OCI International Convention. “Younger women help older women, and all of them work together outside in gardening and greenhouses.”
The ministry has made inroads in the community and even in the local Adventist congregation, Doucomes reported. “During the past 10 years most of the baptisms at the local church have resulted from this ministry,” she shared. These are people such as Donita, a heavy smoker and drinker who, sleeping on a park bench and with nowhere to go, accepted a place at Casa Luminii even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to smoke. At the center Donita not only overcame her addictions but accepted to study the Bible and was eventually baptized.
It is a life-transforming initiative, Doucomes emphasized. “I have met women who, when they first arrived, didn’t know or want to have anything to do with religion, but now they are leading Bible studies and evangelizing others,” she said.
Near Casa Luminii in Radovanu, Romania, a children’s center offers free language and music classes for kids. [Photo: Casa Luminii] “The place functions as a family,” Casa Luminii leaders say. “Younger women help older women, and all of them work together.” [Photo: Casa Luminii] Speranța Centrul de Medicina Lifestyle in Sărata Nouă, Moldova [Photo: Speranța Centrul de Medicina Lifestyle]
Hope and Miracles in a Struggling Nation
Five hours northeast of Radovanu is the town of Sărata Nouă, in Moldova, where the Speranța Centrul de Medicina lifestyle is reaching out to a public that the Adventist Church sometimes has a hard time to connect with. Through its programs, focused on detoxification, nutrition, physical fitness, and fight against diabetes and depression, the facilities are the venue for modern miracles, ministry leaders reported. The sanitarium, as it is known, caters to 60 people per session, and is regularly fully booked months in advance despite being located in an isolated area in one of the poorest countries in Europe.
“This is not the result of human reasoning or human plans,” ministry leaders reported. “God originated this medical missionary work. . . . It’s really a miracle.”
Testimonies from patients keep pouring in. Most get taken aback by the kindness they experience, and the staff’s genuine interest in its patients’ well-being. “I received wonderful advice and recommendations to improve my health,” a patient shared. “And I learned that not everything that flies is edible.” “I learned that if you trust God and approach Him . . . you can experience miraculous effects. Results are not quick, but if you persevere, things definitely change for the better,” another said. A third commented, “I was impressed that every procedure starts with prayer. And I was also impressed by the lessons on health, soul, and life.”
Staff of the Speranța Centrul de Medicina Lifestyle, which caters 60 people per session, offering wholistic programs to improve their health [Photo: Speranța Centrul de Medicina Lifestyle] Government officers and personalities across Moldova have come to know and appreciate the health-focused programs of the Speranța Centrul de Medicina Lifestyle. [Photo: Speranța Centrul de Medicina Lifestyle]
A Foundation to Reach Out
In Vlorë, Albania, Fondacioni Almise (in Albanian, “simple tools”) “is committed to breaking down barriers, opening opportunities, and sharing the gospel of Christ in practical ways” throughout the country. Albania banned religion during decades of Communist rule. Now, even after more than two decades after the fall of Communism, Christianity is making very slow progress.
One tool Almise uses to connect with the community are American English-language classes, which aims to provide functional and conversational skills or working adults, but also includes some classes for teens and younger children. Almise also offers guitar lessons, and lifestyle education and simple treatments that include seminars, cooking classes, and home remedies. A Bible study group in the regional prison, assistance to the poor, and periodic volunteer work at the hospital are among other activities that serve as Almise’s simple tools in reaching others for Christ.
“There are many needs and opportunities, and the ministry intends to expand in this area as the Lord leads,” ministry leaders said.
Outpost Centers International is a supporting ministry not affiliated with the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.