Sunday, January 27, 2008

Family Service

To-day was our family service in the church




We decided recently that we would have once every month a special service that we could invite non Christians to.




This month it was a family service, next month a baptism, March ladies day ( the Moldovan equivalent of mother's day ), April Easter and so on.




I was very encouraged to see such a good turn out which means the believers did their part and invited their non Christian friends and neigbours





Two particularly special points in the programme came when Rachael our 8 year old played her guitar and sang a song in the programme.


It was her first time playing the guitar in public She has been learning the guitar for about 6 months .






The other particularly special moment was when Ion and Maria Boev members in Chircani church sang a song together with their newly born again daughter Anisoara.
Pray for their son Luchian whose wife Tanya has got saved and for Oxana their other daughter who is also close

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Welcome aboard Grija and Catea

This is Grija & Catea from the village of Pascani.

They have joined us in the work here for 3 months and came to us this Sunday.

Both are in their early 40's and in fact were converted in the very first mission we did in Moldova in 1995 in the village of Manta.

Both are evangelists by gifting, especially Grija while Catea is in fact our accountant for the coffee shop and so her being here will also be a great help when the coffee shop opens

Our vision for Gotesti is to visit every home in the village, by the end of 2008 giving each family the best possible opportunity to hear the gospel while seeking to see them come to the church.

Since August we have visited 400 homes but there are 1500 in Gotesti and because our evagelism team members have been very busy with various other personal committments we have been unable to do any more houses and also unable to follow up the 150 or so houses that asked to have another visit to hear more of the gospel.

We have about 100 others that have completed response cards asking for a bible study and 100 or so non Christian adults from the Christmas meeting that have all not yet been followed up This and the many other opportunities that there are is why felt to get another evangelist in to help us.

They will work with us 4 days per week Sunday to Wednesday and although Grija is gifted in many areas as well as various practical skills we will try to keep him working largely on our evangelistic need.

Pray they get settled in easily and our believers take to them and support them

Pastor Mark

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Winter Camp



Here are some of the leaders and kids on their first night of the winter camp Jan 2-6 in the capital Chisinau under the Christmas tree.





We thank those of you in UK that gave the money to make this event wonderfully possible for these 27 kids and 8 leaders.

Our thanks go to O.M. who also gave us the use of their accommodation building and facilities for a very good price that enabled us to afford to bring this number of kids.








Igor and Tanya, our youth leaders led the team with 21 girls and 6 boys making up the kids.














Natasa, one of the group whose life already belongs to the Lord, struggling with the 10 pin bowl.


Her mother is Vera Galea whom some of you are praying for to be saved



They went to the zoo, ten pin bowling and ice skating. Nearly all the kids were at the latter two for the first time in their lives.





















Lots of fun was had by all the kids but of course we were all waiting to hear how the Lord moved during their time there and we weren't disappointed.




They had bible studies every morning in groups


following the theme of basic gospel studies i.e


1) The state of man


2) How God resolved the problem ( with Jesus's death on the cross )


3) Our response - repentance and faith




Each evening they had a celebration meeting

with worship, testimony, sketch etc and a

gospel message. On the final evening Igor preached on the prodigal son and made an appeal to which

9 girls and 5 boys responded.





They had a new believers study on the Tuesday after the camp and all those who responded came except one lad and one girl who are from another church and whom we guess their parents want to do the discipling themselves.

Please keep these young ones in your prayers - they're aged 11-14 and some may have made responses that have led or will lead to new birth so eternity has begun and God's plan for their lives also. There may future leaders of the church or even of the country whose lievs have been changed during this week so again we praise God and thank all of you who have been involved in this ministry in prayer and in giving.

Pastor Mark

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Only God



I couldn't resist taking a photo of these two brothers in the Lord together


Vova who many of you already know as the former mafia man who has been recently saved has been fasting and praying with Valera for a difficult situation in his family.


They had been fasting on Thursay and now Valera came to visit Vova yesterday ( Saturday )


What makes it such a lovely photo is that Valera is the assistant chief constable for the Cantemir region.


Vova had been before him for various crimes more than once in the past but now they are BROTHERS IN CHRIST AND PARTNERS IN INTERCESSION.
Glory to God

We had a lovely time at the new believers meeting on Thursday in Chircani. There were 10 that came and we expect 2 or 3 others at next week's meeting as they were unable to come for legitimate reasons.


I will post a picture of all the new believers next week after our meeting together but this is Nina
Pray for her. She used to be a member but was never born again and fell away and even became quite against the church
She has now got born again some time in December and is on fire.
She is witnessing to everyone and visiting neighbours etc. Pray the Lord bears fruit by her
Pray for our Christmas outreach programme in the village of Constantinovca which will take place on Jan 8 ( the day after the old Orthodox Christmas)
We await the return of our team that took 25 adolecsnts to Chisinau for a winter camp
Pastor Mark