Cornel was born in Oradea, Romania. He came to know the Lord as a teenager, and in the late 1970's he spent a year and a half in a labor camp as a result of his involvement in ministry in a country gripped by atheism and Marxist philosophy. Karen, a Canadian, met Cornel in Bible School in the States.

Cornel & Karen Bucur have been involved in missions in Romania since 1985. They founded Pathway to Joy Ministries (PTJM), a Christian non-profit organization committed to glorifying God through evangelism, discipling, and training Romanian leaders, and ministering to the great needs of the post-communist generation. PTJM works through relief ministry, support, education, camping, church planting, and evangelism to fufill its mission.

In the mid 90's Cornel helped develop 6 FM radio stations that now blanket Romania with 24-hour Christian radio. They also led summer camp programs for children in state orphanages. They discovered a large population of abandoned street children and orphans whose lives were often cut short by starvation, illness, and expoitation. Dedicated to providing refuge and hope for orphaned children in Romania, PTJM since 1995 has provided safe, stable homes for hundreds of abandoned children by following God's mandate found in James 1:27(a): Religion that our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress ..."

PTJM offers opportunities for local church groups, short-term mission teams, and individuals to assist in ministry and construction projects. Cornel was instrumental in setting up Trinity Bible Church's involvement in Romania via two summer work projects.

The ministry 2008 Christmas wishlist is here, latest prayer requests are in current newsletters. These newsletters are in "PDF" format, which requires (free) Adobe Reader software be installed on your computer. (Most computers already have Adobe Reader installed.) The PDF newsletter files below may take a few minutes to fully download on a dial-up internet connection. For your convenience, they have been set to open in a new browser window on your computer.