Mircea Bembea 2 Photo Flaviu Mitar
Mircea Bembea 2 Photo Flaviu Mitar
Mircea Bembea 3 Photo Flaviu Mitar
Mircea Bembea 4 Photo Flaviu Mitar
Mircea Bembea 5 Photo Flaviu Mitar
Mircea Bembea 5 Photo Flaviu Mitar
We met in our teens, mostly due to our reciprocal interest in music. Dreaming big, preparing ourselves to leave our childhood behind even though we just started high school. We were attending the same church; him playing in the brass band and I playing guitar for the Girls choir. But our ties got permanent when my family’s „band” decided to invite him as a permanent addition to the group.
My older brother graduated playing trumpet from the Popular School of Arts but ended up playing keyboards in the group and that’s where Mircea Bembea came in, filling a somehow unusual seat in our group; he was the only “unplugged” player. But we gave him a microphone to amplify his sound and it turned out that he had a good voice as well. So we employed both of his talents.
He was constantly in and out of our house. He knew the good, the bad and the ugly of my family and me of his. That was normal among friends. All that came to a sudden stop – since we were of same age – high school ended for both. He got drafted into the army and I migrated to the States.
Once he completed his mandatory service, he followed. Our friendship continued on a different land, strange to us; we were both dirt poor but full of grandiose ideals of somehow fulfilling our „calling”.
Even though he had cousins here we ended up sharing a room. Our bedroom was the smaller of the two, the larger one was the „transition room”. We made good friendships with some of occupants from there: Charlie Cotan, George Apostu, Mircea Tomuta …
We continue to play together in the church but his interests became controlled by the brass band.
He got front row seat at my engagement, my wedding, and at my children’s dedications.
Slowly our life’s departed; each diving and being consumed by his own ministry calling, by loving and raising children, by becoming providers for our own.
During the many years serving in the same church our pats crossed time and again yet these times neither willing to yield to the other. We had matured (more or less) but we were definitely no longer children. We budded-heads once in awhile over attitudes and conduct but that was Mircea. He would “let you have it” more like “let you hear it” but then he will hug you, tell you that he loves you, and without reservation, never ashamed wherever we were – on the street, at church, at Home Depot – he would kiss your cheek as a sign of reconciliation.
Conducting the brass band, teaching the kids music, re-arranging note sheets was his life and he was very passionate and intentional about it. After all who doesn’t want to hear when it’s all said and done “Well done, good and faithful servant”? Yet he had drifted into his world and I in mine, fully aware of each other, yet growing apart by the day.
My only regret is that our adult years were not like our early ones: connected, intertwined, always in each others story. He will be greatly missed.
Mircea knows now better than I do, how true and everlasting our God is.
Life’s lesson? Serve God with passion, love your family whole heartedly and pursue friendships intentionally even when you find yourself on the opposite side of your scale. God brings people in our life for a good reason.
You see, life is a gift and the Giver can take it back whenever He pleases. So live it with a well defined purpose that somehow in the end it will glorify our heavenly Father.
Now it is my turn to stay focus on the target which is and always should remain Christ, so that when my time is up I shall be able to utter “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race,
I have kept the faith”.
Goodbye friend.Flaviu Mitar
(A special thank you to Flaviu Mitar for allowing us to share his personal thoughts (on our blog) on the calling home of our beloved brother in Christ, Mircea Bembea, who shall be missed and forever remembered by all those who knew and loved him! May God comfort his family and those who were closest to him and rekindle the hope in all of us that one day, all those of us who have put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ will meet again!
Agnus Dei blog)