Oana Raluca Tataru is the National Coordinator for Equip Leadership in Romania.
When did you trust Christ?
I accepted Christ when I was 11 at my grandmother's funeral. I saw the faith and hope of the people from her church and promised God that I would search for genuine faith. When I was 17, I met a group of teens from an evangelical church. God's love transformed my life from the first day I began attending. Instantly, through the power of God, I renounced many addictions I had. I decided to follow God and seek everything He had planned for me.
What have been the defining moments of your Christian walk?
During college, I volunteered with Campus Crusade for Christ and met my husband, Daniel. We shared the Gospel on the campuses of Bucharest for three years. I also studied Christian counselling courses at Ellel Ministries for four years. In 2009, God revealed that my calling was to help leaders develop other leaders.
What do you hope to gain from participating?
ELF helps me understand more of God's mission for me to learn, grow in Christ, and meet new people with whom I can work to extend God's Kingdom. I believe I will meet many Christians whom I can support and empower for the mission of European evangelism.
I think this YRM will help me to be the leader that God wants me to be. I will learn and apply more biblical leadership principles in my role of leadership, which can grow our ministry to be a blessing for many. My deepest desire is to have a meaningful influence on God's Kingdom, based on His principles: loving Him, loving people, and being a servant leader.
What is your ministry?
As the National Coordinator of Equip Leadership Romania, I coordinate the ministry activity in my country and lead a group of seven regional coordinators who are Christian entrepreneurs and pastors. I am also involved in extending the ministry to Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I help develop partnerships with Christian organisations so we can share the Gospel with as many people as possible from all levels of society. I also offer mentoring support for international teams from Equip Leadership.
What is your leadership role or what were your past leadership roles?
After joining the John Maxwell Team, in addition to my role as a financial department head in an insurance brokerage company, I got involved in church ministry. Two years later, with the introduction of the Equip program in the country, together with my pastor's wife, I established the church's Evangelism and Discipleship department. Since 2018, I have been responsible for all the organisational and operational aspects of the Equip project in Romania, and in 2023, I became the National Coordinator.
Why should someone invest in your ministry?
My ministry has an evangelism program that empowers Christian leaders and influencers in businesses, churches, and communities to take the Gospel beyond the church's doors. Christians worldwide use this program as an evangelism tool to add value to others and boldly share the Gospel. In the past few years, over 1.2 million people have committed their lives to Jesus Christ at the international level.
