CLUJ-NAPOCA, Romania — Can God use an orphan boy to change the world? If you ever have a chance to meet Lucian Mustață you would have to say “Yes!”

Lucian Mustață is the visionary behind Heartbeats Christian Music Festival which draws 20,000 each year to Romania’s national arena to hear contemporary Christian music artists such as Jeremey Camp, Lacree, Unspoken and We Are Messengers, as well as internationally-known speakers such as John Maxwell and Nick Hall.

Who is Lucian Mustață

If there would be one word that could be used to describe Lucian Mustață, the word would be “unassuming.”

Seeing him on the streets of Bucharest, or drinking a cup of coffee in a café, you wouldn’t spare a second look on him. He is a tall, dark haired, regular guy, in a (what type of) shirt. You wouldn’t suspect for a second that he is the visionary behind the largest Christian music festival in Eastern Europe, or the owner of an IT company whose clients span the globe, from Romania to the United States and to Japan; or the founder of a social media platform, that brought him, in the local press, the nickname: Romania’s Zuckerberg. Unlike Zuckerberg his goal is not to amass a fortune of billions, nor to create a social media addiction. His platform is created with a purpose – to help people that are struggling in life. A social media platform that will be launched worldwide soon, where people will be able to publish in time capsules their testimonials, their footprint on this earth as a legacy, so that people can learn from each other through living stories and they don’t take them with them after they finish their journey on this earth call noteaboutlife.

Lucian as already accomplished more at the age of 34, than many people over 70. Experience comes with time, but it also comes through hardships and challenges, which Lucian is no stranger to.

He was raised in the church where Richard Wurmbrand, who founded the Voice of the Martyrs organization, also came.

He graduated from the faculty of Cybernetics, after which he did two master’s degrees at the same time in Project Management and Political Science. And now he is wanted by the great world-renowned universities in the UK and the US to offer him grants to study doctorates for free.

He won one of the most important prizes awarded worldwide to institutionalized children. It is called the Herman Mainer Award, which was voted on by over half a million people worldwide to win this prize, as one of the most successful institutionalized children worldwide.

Born an Orphan

Many people ask “Why does God permit tragedies?” Many a night, Lucian laid awake in his bed and asked God, “Why did my life start with a tragedy?”

Thirty-four years ago, when his handicapped mother became pregnant, the doctors believed the child would develop the same mental impairment as the mother. He was left in the hospital and no one wanted to take him, because he was born from the result of a rape and sent to an orphanage and then moved to other orphanages several more times. He was never visited by relatives, never taken home for Christmas; there was no one to show him love. Every day he suffered, feeling lonliness and hurting.

In this institutionalized environment, Vulnerable orphans are a favorable one to develop or pour into. This lowers your self-confidence and makes you wonder why you live? An environment in which you are left with many deficiencies after, violence, aggression, etc. It is a great struggle to succeed, in Romania and these environments usually 40% commit suicide, 20% succeed and the rest succeed in mediocre jobs or beggars unfortunately. Lucian is a fighter, who fell many times but got up and went on through perseverance, in a society that stigmatized him all his life.

All this pain could have made him give up. But God used his experience to shape Lucian into a kind-hearted person. He always remembers that he came from nothing and has everything in Christ – the Savior he met at a Christmas Eve service at the age of eighteen. He grew up as an orphan, but once he met Jesus, God became directly Lucian’s Father.

In general, a life started as an abandoned child and left in the care of the state or non-governmental organizations is not one that leaves you with much faith in your fellow man, in humanity, in luck or in solidarity. Though pyshically taken care of, a life lived from the early years to young adulthood in a foster care center does not usually succeed. You do not have confident in “equal chances” that every human being has in front of him. And yet.

However, the resentment he felt towards his parents and towards his hard life as a child growing up in orphanages is now gone.

Now he wants to help children that are growing up in similar conditions. He founded a program called “School for Parents” that teaches basic parenting principles to poor families around Romania. In a country where over 50% are functional illiterates and the same percentage live on the edge of poverty, there is a dire need to train parents how to raise their children with love. The program provides a three month course for new parents taught by professionals. The cost to provide this course is $2,500 per family (about 2 months of income for the average urban family in Romania), but the program is provided for free.

In this school there are psychologists, psychiatrists, and 30 teachers who teach free courses for parents. Lucian takes care of finding sponsors for his school. “When you look from the outside, the life of an institutionalized child looks very sad. But the sadness is infinitely greater than he lets it be seen, partly because such a child does not know how to express his feelings. He doesn’t know how to express his love or attachment or conflicting moods, anger or fear. We have realized over time that the only chance institutionalized children or those from disadvantaged backgrounds have is proper education. That’s the only way they can become responsible adults”, says Lucian.

He could have, once he reached maturity, master of his destiny, definitively left behind the burdens carried in childhood or adolescence. He could, therefore, “look back with anger” at the adults who abandoned him, at the “institutionalized” life, at the indifference of the state. But he chose to transform all that he experienced in his own skin into help for those who will live in their turn, in their own skin of abandonment and indifference. It’s an absolutely amazing when you find a way to forgive. And, paradoxically, have a declaration of love for parents.

Miracle After Miracle

If you listen to Lucian speak, one thing grabs your attention. It’s how often he mentions God. He often testifies, “God did a miracle for me,” “God brought a key person into a project,” “God convinced a woman to help me.” God permeates his speech, just as faith permeates his life.

Lucian’s life is a string of miracles. He was kicked out of the orphanage at the age of 18. He had no money but God provided for him to take a test to qualify for college. Out of 20,000 people who took the test, only 600 were allowed to enter college. Lucian was number 312. But he did not have the money to pay for school. God woke a woman up in the middle of the night and told her to pay for his tuition for all three years of school.

He has been working since he was 14, and at 18 he was kicked out of the institutionalized environment and had make it on his own. This is quite hard for his age and he couldn’t enjoy his teenage years. However, after he graduated, he launched his IT company. From the orphanage, to a profitable business in IT, a young man who turned his experience into a success story. Even though he had no experience and no contacts, God supernaturally gave him projects from some of the largest companies in the world including Starbucks, Canon, Isuzu, the World Bank, and the Royal House of Romania.

When God gave Lucian the vision to start the Heartbeats Christian Music Festival, he could not find a location. He had a random meeting with a high official in the Romanian government and at the end of the meeting, they provide the National Arena for the festival.

The Heartbeats Christian Music Festival

Have you ever been to a concert and felt the energy and emotions rolling from the stage, through the speakers into the crowd? Have you ever heard thousands of people singing with one glorious voice? Can you imagine a thousand heartbeats in perfect sync glorifying their Creator?

If the answer is yes, then you can visualize the atmosphere at the Heartbeats Christian Music Festival that Lucian founded. Two days with more than 10 workshops, with 16 bands from US, Israel, Africa, Europe, plus food trucks, exhibition, activations, resources for young people, corner kids etc. All the production teams and organizations are of the highest quality. It has now been going for three years and it has grown into the largest Christian music festival in eastern Europe. It has become so popular that even secular radio stations and social media influencers are promoting the event.

The Heartbeats Christian Music Festival is annual event which has brought famous Christian musicans like Jeremey Camp, Lacree, Unspoken, We Are Messenger, Evan Craft and many others for the first time to Romania. Internationally known speakers like John Maxwell, Nick Hall, and Caleb Wherli have been featured speakers.

Lucian was prompted to start Heartbeats Christian Music Festival because secular concerts in Romania have attracted crowds of up to 400,000. Romanian youth often come to these events to party, drink alcohol, and to do drugs. In contrast, Heartbeats is a clean, family friend festival that points people to Jesus.

HeartBeats Festival is a unique cultural product, a new event concept, centered around Christianity and a different type of entertainment, which invites the expression of freedom, joy in times of uncertainty, hope and unity regardless of religious confession.

Heartbeats Christian Festival grew out of a passion to reach young people who would not walk into a church. What started out as a dynamic ministry reaching young people of Europe has grown into a worldwide mission organization calde to reach and disciple the Global Youth Culture for Jesus. Heartbeats Festival is a catalytic force for engaging secularized culture with four key objectives, we:

• Equip and unify the local church to effectively reach young people of their communities
• Raise up the next generation of Christian leaders and influencers
• Transform the culture by being relationally present and engaging in bold, creative evangelism in the secular scene
• Multiply the impact by fostering a culture of “disciples who make disciples, who make disciples”
• Thousands of lives are being transformed all over the world by the power of the Gospel.

More Video Shorts
2023 Promo
2023 Promo featuring Lecrae
2023 Highlights

Heartbeats Christian Festival 2024
May 31-June 1, 2024, are the dates of the next event.

One Million Souls

Lucian has a new dream. He wants to lead one million people to Jesus. He wants to become a “Soul Millionaire.” It is a big goal. In the natural it almost seems impossible for one person to accomplish. But Lucian believes that “with God nothing is impossible.”

To achieve the dream is going to require the help of many different churches and organizations and thousands of believers. In Romania, it is sometimes hard for pastors to understand how smoke, lights, and music can be used to reach young people. But the success of Lucian’s Heartbeats Christian Music Festival is already changing hearts and minds.

It is going to take a lot of work. But Lucian has faith that God can bring the dream to pass. He likes to say, “Everything I have belongs to God. Personal success and fame are not important to me. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain for God’s sake.”

Future goals and projects:

• to show every Friday night, a film in all the cinemas, a Christian film
• to raise young influencers vlogger/podcast who will lead the battles and generate online content
• to develop a program with 20 young people, with 2 buses that go every day to 3 schools in which to invest in pupils and students
• to open the largest Christian performance educational campus in Bucharest, which will have a university, high school and primary school and a mega church
• to open a chain of 35 Christian coffee shops nationwide
• to continue with the school for parents to be a great blessing for many families and
• to make the cruise/festival also in Korea, Japan, Brazil and Africa

You are invited to join Lucian by praying for him, supporting his projects, and by sharing the story of an orphan boy who wants to lead a million people to Jesus. Watch as a spark from Romania starts a revival that sweeps across Europe.

Lucian Mustață is in the U.S. now and available for interviews.
You can reach him at office@heartbeats.events.