Whilst still living in Florida, Howard was called to Romania via a Prophet in a Tampa Church revealing God’s will for him to go as a cameraman to document the amazing scenes of preachers from America who were going to be sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to a nation who were not allowed to pray or assemble in Romania for at least half a century.

Shortly after the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu who was the leader of the Romanian People, Howard received a phone call from the ministry Harvest International they asked him to join them in Romania as a cameraman for an outreach they were planning. Howard said he wasn’t available as the Conders were soon to be joining Mercy Ships in their Tyler Texas offices as part of their media team.

This phone conversation was a private conversation between Howard and Harvest International Ministries, who were at least a thousand miles apart. The Ministry was somewhere up North and Howard was based in Tampa Florida. Howard had never heard from them before this phone call so it was a bit of a mystery as to how they got in contact with Howard.

There is a very good reason why we are saying all of this and that is because of what was to happen a few hours later.

Howard had arranged to meet up with a contemporary Christian singer-songwriter whom he had recently recorded “Stronger Than Before” in his studio in Tampa. This artist was Janny Grein and her husband Bill and all three of them were going to have dinner together but first, they agreed to meet after Janny’s Church service had finished.

Howard purposely arrived at the end of the Church service thinking it would be safe as he was getting quite a number of ministers in these Pentecostal Churches that he had started to attend who were constantly prophesying over him, therefore arriving after the service was finished suited Howard best.

Howard arrived at Janny’s church just as the congregation were coming out of the church and so Howard started to walk inside to find his friends, this man looked at Howard rather strangely and Howard thought maybe it was because he wasn’t dressed properly as Americans dress up for church and Howard only had his jeans on.
But then this man said to Howard “Do you mind if I pray for you?” He then began to say that Howard had turned down going to Eastern Europe that very day and that God wanted him to go. The Spirit of God came over Howard and he said he would go.
Howard reasoned that no one else knew anything about this offer to go and join Harvest International Ministries and travel thousands of miles to for an outreach, therefore Howard was flabbergasted and when he was able to pull himself together, he left the church with his friends and the conversation continued on this very topic.

Over dinner, Janny and Bill told Howard that the man who had spoken over him was not just an ordinary man but rather was exceptionally gifted as a Prophet. Howard said he could tell that as no one else but the Lord would have known about the invitation to go to Eastern Europe.

Then Janny said to Howard. “You are not going to go are you?” Howard immediately responded by saying “You bet I am going; I don’t want to miss God. Besides if it turned out not to be of God, I could always come back, so no big deal”.

As if what had happened wasn’t enough to get your head around, what happened next will definitely get you thinking.

This is what followed…. Howard called his wife Lesley to tell her about the changes to their plans and that the Conders won’t be joining Mercy Ships full-time, so Howard began to explain to Lesley over the phone “Hi Les, are you sitting down as I have some news to tell you? And she said, “Yes ok”.

Then Howard told Lesley the whole account including saying to her that she shouldn’t return to America and that as she was visiting her mum in the UK, she should continue to stay with her mum.

Lesley took the news very well and then she said to Howard “Are you sitting down?
He replied “Yes”. Then Lesley mentioned “well you know that we were about to lose our apartment? (Reasons were that the interest rates had risen so high to 15 per cent and Howard and Lesley had decided that they would just let the apartment get repossessed.) Then Lesley began to tell Howard that someone has gone to their bank and paid off their entire mortgage. WOW said Howard, and they thanked God for this truly amazing gift.

Howard has never regretted being obedient to the Lord’s call. The whole experience in Romania was filled with God opening and closing even more doors in Howard’s life and ministry and being obedient he says is key.

In the videos, you can see the Romanian People on their knees praying and receiving Christ with great joy and tears. This was all going on in the very same place in Timisoara where the late despot leader Nicolae Ceausescu had ordered his army to fire shells from their own military tanks into his own citizens and here, they are at last having the freedom to pray in the open following the revolution.

Then after Harvest International had finished the preaching and ministry, Howard subsequently returned from Romania and made three more trips with aid for the hospitals and the orphanages.
On one journey he drove a truck full of aid for the deprived people of Romania, on another occasion, he went with a dear older lady called Nan from Scotland and her two drivers who had an old London double-decker bus that was full to the brim with children’s toys and hospital equipment such as incubators and other maternity needs.

 At a later time on another trip to Romania, the Conders filled their own van with aid when Lesley and their two young sons travelled altogether from London to Romania where they eventually were able to distribute their aid and also met a newly born abandoned baby which finally led to them being able to adopt that baby girl who was given the name of Andrea M. Perez., but now is called Rebecca Andrea Conder.

There is a lot more to share on this topic so please keep an eye out for the updates and videos which will eventually follow.

On one journey he drove a truck full of aid for the deprived people of Romania, on another occasion, he went with a dear older lady called NAN and her two drivers from Scotland who had an old London double-decker bus that was full to the brim with children’s toys and hospital equipment such as incubators and other maternity needs and at a later time on another trip to Romania, the Conders filled their own van with aid when Lesley and their two young sons travelled altogether from London to Romania where they eventually were able to distribute their aid and also met a newly born abandoned baby which finally led to them being able to adopt that baby girl who was given the name of Andrea M. Perez., but now is called Rebecca Andrea Conder.

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