Christmas Meeting 2008

Our Christmas meeting took place on Sunday December 21st ( as Christmas on the 25th is not celebrated here and many people were working on that day )

This photo was taken about 20 minutes before we started and around another 50 or so had come by the time the meeting began.

Usually we know exactly how many adults attended by how many cups were used for tea afterwards but this year someone forgot to boil the water and we had no tea and biscuits at the end but there were at least 250 non Christian adults + 200 kids at what was a really joyful occassion.

In this shot of part of the meeting there are only 3 members of our church so it gives you some idea of how many people came under the cound of the gospel this Christmas.

All the visitors get a visit in the next couple of weeks and receive a calendar and John's gospel + a few other goodies.

This is our Sunday school's youngest group - up to 6 years old.

They looked like and sang like angels .......

but we parents know better.

Little darlings!!!!

This is our Gotesti middle group ( any suggestions for a more fun sounding name for this Sunday school class?)

The elegant peach in the middle is Cornelia whose mother came to the meeting after me getting a chance to speak to her at the coffee shop a few days earlier ( see previous blog or news letter)

This is our "big group" ( 11-14) - I'd offer a prize for the best suggestions for a more fun name but all our Christmas gifts are gone.

Many of you are praying for Roma and his generation and the 200 or so kids of his age and younger we have in 6 different groups in the 3 villages we are working in so it is always good to feature him as still coming to the meetings in answer to your prayers.

In the afternoon we did a meeting in the kindergarten in Constantinovca where we always do a Christmas meeting.

This year almost every parent in the village was there ( there are about 100 houses in the village )

Undoubtedly part of the reason was that we were able to give every child a shoe box gift courtesy of Mustard Seed from the UK

But this year there was a different atmosphere - it was like family gathering together

Again part of the reason will have been that Mission Direct helped with much renovations for the kindergarten and Bayfarm are just in the process of buying the bedding for all 30 kids beds but I think it is more than just the help, I think these people know that somehow it is God who is reaching out to them with all this love.

As I preached the message I felt a strong sense in my heart of, I believe, how Jesus felt as He entered Jerusalem and said "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ....... how often I wanted to gather your children together as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing"

As I said the gist of this to them in paraphrase every face in the room was fixed intently upon me ( a rare thing as any preacher will tell you ) and I felt as I looked at the expressions on their faces that they knew I was speaking sincerely when I said I wanted to gather them up and usher them into His kingdom.

My prayer is that they understand that Jesus not I is wanting to gather them up into His family

It's my prayer for you also for this coming year

Pastor Mark

Coffee Shop opened.... at last!!

Here it is. The grand opening of Karis Pizza at high noon on 19th December.

This dear man centre of the picture waited about 40 mins to get a pizza to take home to his sick wife ( it wasn't the pizza it was the non pizza dish that delayed us )

Fortunately he is a believer ( and a very forgiving one at that )

Actually these were our first customers and they came at 11.40 am.

It threw us out of sync and since it was busy all day we never stopped chasing our tails.

Both Mari and I worked all day there as waiters and me also on the cash. Unfortunately I did not have time to show anyone else how to operate the machine it so I couldn't leave.

Fortunately we did get one or two minutes at various times to touch on the objectives of why we have built this coffee shop.

As a pastor I hardly ever get time to meet and befriend anyone other than our own "sheep" or ones that come to the church.

But here were two pensioners that have never been to our church that I was able to spend 5 minutes talking to and befriending. I would never have gotten to their home but God brought them to our "second home".

As ones become regulars our hope is that they will feel the love of Christ in us for them and eventually want to come and be part of our family the church.

One lady whom I got talking to yesterday said she would come to our Christmas meeting on Sunday 21st.

From the oldest to the youngest

Couldn't find out her name -when I came to ask she ran away back to her father

This is another objective of the coffee shop - a quiet place where families feel they can come to.

We had parents with kids all day probably because they know we don't serve alcohol and they believe it is going to be a family atmosphere.

Earlier in the week someone had taken our meniu because they wanted to order ahead of time for a party of 20 but later when they discovered we are not serving alcohol they decided not to come.

I know the family and they would not have been rowdy etc but their friends all wanted to have a drink with their pizzas so this was disappointing for us but when we saw all the families that came on our opening day we knew this was why we were paying the cost of loosing the other customers.

On the Tuesday we gave the teachers in our two schools in Gotesti a complimentary pizza meal

They work hard and get paid little - they deserved it

On opening night one of the ladies came with her husband and two kids for a meal

Close friends Anatol and Nadea, who is pastor of Emanuel church in Cahul came to encourage us along with the leaders from their church singing carols and bearing gifts.

Gelu their youth leader who is at the back of the group made this Karis sign by hand.

Keep us in your prayers

Pastor Mark

Shoe box joy

It's the start of a very busy and wonderful week for us.

It's our Christmas week and every day we are meeting with some group of kids to share with them about the true meaning of Christmas and also give them a Christmas gift.

It is an interesting comparasson that here in Moldova Christmas is hardly celebrated because Moldova is Europe's poorest country and being a former soviet republic the tradition of Christmas has never been developed.

Thus few gifts are given. Indeed we are the only Christmas event going on in our 3 villages really.

Thus when we have given these shoe box gifts (courtesy of Mustard Seed from the UK) to these kids it has been a surprise for them and so they have been ready and willing to listen to why they are getting a gift. i.e that God gave the world a special gift 2000 yrs ago - his Son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins so that we could be saved.

Whereas in the West the abundance of gifts being given and the expectation, in fact the sense of entitlement that almost all have that they should get a gift ( or many gifts ) takes away the whole ground on which one might share the message of the undeserved gift of God given in Christ.

A further interesting comparasson was the total difference in the appreciation shown by these kids as they opened up their gifts.

The box included perhaps. hat and gloves, toothpaste, a soft toy, a game.

Sadly the sort of things most kids in the West would discard from the box while hunting under them looking for the "serious" gift they expected to be there.

I remember years ago seeing a "You've been framed " clip where a 10 yr old boy is video-ed by his parents as he opens his Christmas gift to find a 100 pound computer game.

His reaction?

To fly into a rage and smash it with his fist because it was not what he was wanting. (If I'd been his parents I'd have been too ashamed to send something like to a show where the public could view the incredible ingratitude of my child.)

So what was the reaction of these kids getting their soft toys and toothpaste.

An absolute explosion of joy and excited yelps throughout our church building.

One child when she opened hers began to squeal out

" Whoop! whoop! woop! woop! - she couldn't stop she was so overcome with emotion ( and we were not a little overcome ourselves.)

It was one of those special moments in life that you get the priviledge not only to witness but be part of.

My first thought, was one of a kind of sadness that those in the UK that gave the money or filled and wrapped the boxes where not here to see the precious fruit of their giving.

I send my heartfelt thanks on behalf of all the kids of Gotesti, Chircani and Constantinovca to you that have given these boxes and indeed to all of you in all the world that do such things but aren't able to see the recipient receive it as we did.

Perhaps you'll get to see the "You've been framed" video of these kids receiving your gifts ....... one day ........

in heaven.

Pastor Mark