JP & Ely Longeron
National Director - Târgu Mureș
JP (Jean-Philippe) is French and his wife Ely (Elisabeta) is Romanian. They have four sons: Nathan, Elias, Joel and Nehemia. JP has been leading YFC Romania since 2011.
Their passion is to inspire, train and release Romanian youth workers to share the Gospel in Romania. More info at: https://jpely.eu/en/.
Adalberto & Miranda Hawkins
Administrators of Poarta Oilor - Sibiu
Adalberto and Miranda Hawkins got married in 2020 and have a son, Enzo. Adalberto was born and raised in Colombia. He has a bachelor degree in Finances and International Business. During a Disciple Training School with YWAM in 2014, he felt God calling to be a missionary to France. He moved to France in 2016 and got his masters in hotel management.
Miranda was born in Pittsburgh and has a degree in social work. In 2019, she moved to Paris to be a full-time missionary, reaching out to asylum seekers and refugees. During their years in Paris, they served primarily with refugees and victims of sex trafficking.
They started bringing French teams to Romania on short term mission trips in 2021, and moved there full time in January 2023. While they are passionate about sharing the Gospel and teaching people to obey Jesus, they desire to equip other missionaries to go and reach the lost. They hope to encourage more youth to discover the mission in the coming years and support local missionaries in the field through discipleship and leadership training. Currently, they are the managers of Poarta Oilor (YFC Romania’s camp site). In the long term, their goal is to extend their work to anti-human trafficking efforts in Romania.
When they are not serving or working, Adalberto loves spending his time reading theology and skateboarding, and Miranda enjoys cooking and playing with their dog.
You can reach them on Instagram: @thehawkins.eu.
Adi Ognean
Chief Financial Officer - Târgu Mureș
Adi is part of the National Office and he assists the team by handling the finances of the ministry. He also helps in a lot of the background work to make sure that the practical part of the ministry is well handled.
He is also involved in a church in Targu Mures where he serves by the grace of God. With the help of the Lord, he’s leading a Bible study group for willing Christians. He is eager to see dedicated disciples of our Lord Jesus and as many Christians as possible become spiritual parents for the present or next generation.
Jenci & Emese Nagy
Support Team & Administrative Manager - Târgu Mureș
Jenci and Emese are both Hungarians born in Romania. Their home in Livezeni, near Târgu Mureș, is full of life thanks to their daughters Éva and Johanna and the many visitors they host.
‘Dream Guesthouse’ is a ministry where they accommodate guests free-of-charge: jenciandemke.wixsite.com/guesthouse
Jenci and Emese have a heart for unity among Christian believers and wish to facilitate the Kingdom in all they do using their experience in the ministry field.
Phil & Scottie Rice
Training Coordinators - București
Phil and Scottie Rice have been in youth ministry for almost 25 years. Shortly after they met, they began volunteering in the youth ministry at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas in 1998.
Once they were married they moved to Louisville, Kentucky for Phil to begin pursuing his undergraduate degree in Youth Ministry. While there, their family doubled in size with the addition of two sons, Brady and Caleb. During Phil’s undergraduate work he served at Graceland Baptist Church for one year and then moved to Shively Baptist Church as the paid intern to the youth minister for two and a half years. Following his internship he became the full time youth minister for over seven years. While holding this position he earned his Masters of Arts in Missiology and then they sought to become full time field missionaries.
Phil has been training youth leaders around the world for the past 10 years. The Rice family has been serving in Bucharest, Romania since 2014.
Ștefan & Emilia Grancea
YFC ministry leaders - Augustin & Ormeniș
Ștefan and Emilia work in different villages close to Brașov (Augustin and Ormeniș) among the Roma community and have three children: Matei, Seth and Abigail. They are called by God to work with kids and teens at risk in a poor area where kids are inadequately loved and educated. Their personal testimony and encounter with God helped them understand the pain that some of these teens go through, which is why they are committed to do whatever it takes to share the Gospel to these kids.
Sorin & Mihaela Mihalache
YFC Leaders - Brătășanca (Ploiești)
Sorin and Mihaela live in Brătășanca (Ploiești) and they have a daughter named Miriam. In 2009, they felt the call to take the Gospel to the local youth and they started doing this by organizing a Christian music and art festival. At this event, they met Myung Soo and from there, step by step, a beautiful friendship with YFC began. They currently serve in Brătășanca and Moreni where they lead weekly programs, events and camps for children and youth. They both serve in the local church; Sorin leads music classes, equips and encourages teenagers to use their talents and abilities for God’s Kingdom, while Mihaela is involved in Sunday School activities.
Zoltán & Csilla Schuller
YFC ministry leaders - Târgu Mureș
Zoli and Csilla Schuller have three children: Abigél, Dániel and Naomi. Zoli was raised in a non-Christian family. While he was in the army, God called out to him through a fellow believing soldier. After receiving Christ in his life, he began to serve as a youth leader and met his future wife, Csilla.
After they got married, they continued to serve together as youth leaders, according to their calling from God. They are now both serving full time with YFC Romania. “We like to serve God in full time mission among young people, because we strongly believe that they need to know Christ and have Him influence their lives.”
David & Rebeca Clinkscales
YFC ministry leaders - Slatina
David and Rebeca are a mixed American-Romanian family of missionaries, serving in the South of Romania.
They’ve been involved in ministry most of their lives, in different capacities, both in America and Romania. They’ve been working with YFC Romania since 2019, reaching youth from 6-19 years old through clubs, camps, classes, afterschool, and being involved in many other areas of the local church ministry in Slatina, Olt county. To know more about their ministry, check out their website: http://hopeforslatina.weekly.com/.
Robi & Enci Szederjesi
Youth worker & YFC volunteer - Târgu Mureș
Enci joined the YFC ministry which is run by the Schuller couple in 2020. Since then, Robi has been voluntarily participating in the work among young people.
When Enci was a teenager, she helped with many different youth ministry events and church meetings. Already then, she realized that life is more than just meeting expectations (like graduating from school, university, getting married, having children, etc.) and she seriously considered serving the Lord in a missionary field.
When she became a volunteer at YFC Targu Mures youth ministry, she was still working in health care, and after six months of volunteering, the Lord showed her that now is the time to dedicate herself and she remembered what she had decided to do when she was still a teenager.
“I fell in love with the ministry and I’ve decided that I would like to do it officially and full time. I want to turn it into a lifestyle because I see the meaning, the results and the blessing when I obey God and serve Him!”
Eric (Myung Soo) MERCHIE
YFC Romania founder - Hațeg
Myung Soo was born in South Korea and adopted at the age of five by a family in Belgium. He found faith in Jesus Christ when he was 17 and decided to visit Romania in 1992. In 1997 Myung Soo officially pioneered YFC in Romania. He has remained involved in YFC Romania ever since (as National Director, later Board Chair, then YFC leader in Arad and currently a YFC leader in Hațeg). More info at: myungsoo.ro
Dániel Budai
YFC leader - volunteer - Brașov
Daniel currently lives in Brașov with his wife and serves as a pastor in the Hungarian Baptist Church.
He likes to spend time outside, finds winter sports a lot of fun, and enjoys competition on a sports field. He feels called to serve the generation he belongs to and that is why he is involved in the work with young people at the local and national level. He finds youth work very exciting and is happy to serve them.
In his own words: “I see tremendous potential in the years of youth and I want to use my time as well as possible by serving the youth. I see a good opportunity to do this within the YFC ministry”.
Viorel și Mădălina Crăciun
YFC leaders - volunteers - Moreni
The Crăciun family lives in the town of Moreni (Dâmbovița county) in Romania. Viorel and Mădălina have four children: Evelina, Naomi, Ruben and Ivan. Together they enjoy the grace that God shows them and serve the local community at the Ascendent Christian Center in collaboration with YFC Romania. Their vision is to introduce Jesus to children, youth and their parents.
Ivan & Adina Goncalves
YFC leaders - volunteers - Moreni
Three continents in one family! This is the De Lima Family!
Ivan is brazilian, Adina romanian and together they have a little girl Thandeka born in South Africa. Through God’s providence, they made Romania their home after many years of service in churches in Ireland and South Africa.
Together with the team from Moreni and Brătășanca, they bring the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the children and teenagers from the Ascendant Center in Moreni.
Both Ivan and Adina are involved in serving and growing the local church in Bratasanca through: discipleship, evangelism and growing together in the knowledge of Christ.
Their challenge as a family is to divide their time between Ivan’s secular job, ministry, and family time.
What they want as a family is that their lives bring glory to Christ!
Beatrix Panait
YFC leader - volunteer - Oradea
Beatrix Panait is a youth worker serving the Hungarian teens in Oradea. Beatrix is the mother of Lea-Patricia. As her side job, she is a passionate and dedicated English teacher, and she also likes gardening. Beatrix loves spending time with the teens from their youth club every Friday and at any given occasion. Her main goal is to lead them to God and help them grow in their relationship with the Savior. John 3:16
Emese Boncidai
YFC leader - volunteer - Zalău
Emese Boncidai is a Hungarian teen teacher in Zalău. Her co-workers in this ministry are Levente Farkas, Anna Nagy and Zizi Ilyés.
Emese is the mother of 3 children (Tamara, Jefte, Nátán) and she helps her husband do pre-accounting at their own company. She really likes to work with teenagers whenever she has a chance. Her main goal is that as many teenagers as possible would hear the Gospel. She likes to read, organize and help others.
Elie & Evelyne Dufour
Pastoral Care, Members of the Support team - Marseille, France
Elie and Evelyne were missionaries in Africa for 15 years. Elie did administration, while Evelyne worked as a nurse and in discipleship training. Returning to France, they were involved in pastoral ministry for 15 years. Then, they were the managers of a Christian hostel for students in Marseille.
Since their retirement in 2015, they have collaborated with YFC France and with YFC Romania since 2019. Elie and Evelyne have 3 children and 8 grandchildren.
