Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Easter Meeting in Constantinovca




Here we are doing the Easter meeting in Constantinovca at the kindergarten

There were 10 unsaved parents there which in fact apart from the team was the whole turn out as we only have one member from the village
I spoke at 4 meetings over the Easter period and interestingly enough felt the message here was the most powerful of all although only one person outwardly responded. I have long since abondoned the idea of how I have "felt" in the preaching of a message as relating to how effective it has been having seen the Lord many times use messages that I have felt were as dead as the stage I preached them from.

Notwithstanding this many of our team feel that the Lord is soon going to bring a harvest in this village - please remember it in your prayers



Only half the kids turned up ( a breakdown in communication I think ) so our team was not able to do the programme including an Easter play that was planned







Instead the kids sang two songs and then 4 of our girls in the team grouped together and improvised with another series of songs.



Bless them - "... being ready in season and out of season..."


Cristina, on the right, even stepped up to the Yamaha and provided a song when I asked unexpectedly (for her ) for a song for the appeal.

It's all good experience for them.

Isn't it?

Pastor Mark










Easter Meeting In Chircani






Having started the work of renovating the Chircani Church Community Centre ( or at least connecting the water to the building )

We felt it would be good to do our first meeting back in the building


So we did our Easter meeting in the room in the building where we used to meet some 5 years ago when we rented the building that we are now buying.


The room is much the same size as the room we want to convert into a community centre which was featured in a previous blog.

As you can see from the photo it looks like a grocery shop room which is exactly what it was so obviously there is work we will need to do to it, in due course but we can at least use it now for meetings even though we have to connect up to our next door neighbours' house to have the electricity.


Some of the kids from the 2 groups that are being run in the village by Larisa and her team did a programme including a sketch and songs etc


Sadly through a miscommunication between us and the believers in Chircani the Easter meeting was not announced in the village but nonetheless we had 11 non Christians ( mostly parents or grandparents ) that came to the meeting including 4 that have never been to the church at Gotesti.


Pray for us as we decide whether to restart the meetings in the building as it is or wait for a grand opening when we have finished the work.


Pastor Mark

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Mission In Slobozia Mare


I had the priviledge of preaching the gospel at this Easter outreach meeting in the clutural house in the village of Slobozia Mare.




Slobozia has over 7000 residents and around 600 attended this one night mission



One of the worship groups that provided the programme for the event was this group from Hincesti








It's hard to decribe how harmonius and powerful their voices were and the songs they sang were a real aid to the preaching of the gospel

I would loved to have found out but did not get the chance to ask what mishap had occured that the brother on the end was wearing a white and not peach shirt

It was particularly encouraging to be involved as the event was a joint mission run by the Pentecostal and Baptist churches in the village. It is the third such meeting and all have produced souls saved.


This was also no exception with around 30 responding including the son and daughter- in- law of the pastor of the Baptist church.











I would loved to have had a picture of this to show you with all three out at the front weeping as his son and daughter in law entered the kingdom of God for eternity but of course I was doing the appealing at the time. Interestingly his daughter-in -law was one of the first to come out to the front but his son was the very last to come ( when making appeals I am always reminded of Billy Graham's testimony that when he got born again he came out to the front after the umpteenth appeal with the preacher saying he would just wait a little longer to see if someone else wanted to come. )

Jesus said "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him... Rev 3:20
Many people hear him knocking and keep Him waiting. If you are one of those my prayer for you this Easter as you read this blog is that you will open the door and let Him in.
Pastor Mark























He's risen in Gotesti too!!





Christ is risen! He's risen indeed.


I love this time of year as a Christian and an evangelist because in this culture everyone greets each other for the next 40 days with this truth.




There is a particular police man in the village and I think he avoids me at this time of year because I always find him and greet him with Christ is risen - poor man - he always replies with "He's risen indeed through gritted teeth."
We had a good turn out at our Easter morning meeting in Gotesti with also a good number of unsaved parents attending to hear their children in the programme.




Here the darling tiddlers group are singing their hearts out - "He rose so you could live"




Left of the picture the little girl in the pink didn't seem very happy about His resurrection as she stood stone faced the whole programme and refused to say her poem - her poor mother was really anoyed.





Here the group that Rachael is part of did a dance to a Russian song about the resurrection




I was really moved even though I didn't undertsand a word.



I am also glad to be able to show you a picture of Roma still coming to the church and here playing a Roman soldier at the crucifiction



Thank you for continuing to

pray that Roma and around 200 other kids we have in the kids groups will keep coming to the church for the next 10 years.( statistics tell us that over 70% of young people still coming to the church by the time they are twenty get born again during this time) This is now the 3rd Easter God has answered this prayer for Roma.


Will you please pray for Natasa - I am very worried about her. She has been a faithful and committed attender in the church and children groups etc for 7 years since she was 7 but she is now 14 and is begining to get drawn away into the world - boys have hit the scene.

Yesterday we saw her at the village "hora" - basically a drinking and dancing party that goes on all day for the villagers.

This is around about the age her mother did the same thing and got pregnant with her.

She like her mother is not a bad kid just naive.

Although almost all Moldovans confess at this time that Christ is risen most have no idea of the relevance this has to their lives.

So we preached on 1 Pet 1:3, explaining that the reason that Jesus was resurrected was that we could be born again.

It wasn't long, it seemed to me judging by the reaction of those listening before many in the congregation realised how they needed the cleansing, delivering, new hope and new start that new birth brings


Many were touched as our dear brother Edic ( see picture ) just recently back from Russia sang powerfully of the His death on the cross



Several came after the meeting to give their lives to Christ or to find out more.

Please pray for Oxana (in the black ), the daughter of one of our members from Chircani Ioana who is sitting beside her.


She is back from working in Italy for only 10 days but she was very convicted by the message - pray she comes on Wednesday and next Sunday and gets born again in the process.
Thank you for being with us in all that we do for Him here
Pastor Mark




Work begins on the new Chircani church community centre





Well, finally work has begun on the new church community centre at Chircani, one of our church plants.
In the front of the picture you can see Ruslan ( with his back to the camera ) who along with me will be responsible for this church plant as it now starts to meet in it's own village again. It was 5 or 6 years ago that we used to meet in the building you can see in the background until the owners kicked us out. The same owners are now selling it to us and what a struggle and strain it has been.
We have had the money ready in December on threat by them of loosing the building to someone else but here we are in April and they have still not got the documents ready for us to legally and correctly buy it.
However the word is that they have now got the last necessary document and we should exchange contracts this Wednesday - please pray.

If you haven't got the documents why are you starting work I hear you ask. Well what the boys are doing here is digging a trench for running water to be connected to the building. Up until now, nowhere in Chircani has had running water. Now a firm has come to install the system and almost all the village (all those that could afford it) have made the contract with them to install. Each home owner then has to provide the trench for his section of main system and also the trench to his property.
If we didn't take up the option now then later it would be much more expensive.




Our vision is to convert this building into a church community centre.


The building is in a terrible state of repair - the roof needs replaced and all the rooms bar one are like this and need gutted and renovated but the shell is made of reinforced concrete beams and columns and is very sound

Our vision for this room would be to convert it into a day centre with kitchen for vulnerable children, invalids and the old and needy. We would hope to have regular meetings for all 4 groups when we could meet their various needs as well as share the Lord with them.
We have another room this size that we will use for holding our church services.


The lord has been blessing the work in Chircani and we have seen several adults recently come to faith in the village and many more show interest.
The children's work is also growing. This year a new law meant we could no longer use the school premesis; this was the precipitating factor in us having to get a building
We have 4 rooms like this one pictured which we want to convert into 2 Sunday school rooms, a youth\adolescents room and a sports room.
We have raised enough in gifts and promises so far to replace the roof we believe and maybe also do the electrics but it still leaves us needing another 40-50,000$ to complete this project.
If you feel the Lord moving you to help with the costs of this project by giving a gift small or large please contact me on markmold7@hotmail.com for more details
But can we ask for your prayers that
1) We get the documents sorted on Wednesday
2) For the brothers as they give of their labour and services in the building work free or for little charge
3) That he provides the remaining funds necessary
4) That perhaps other teams from the West will come out to be involved in the construction work
Yours and His
Pastor Mark

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Physically Disabled meeting




On Thursday April 2nd we held a meeting in our church building especially for the physically disabled of our village and many also came from Cantemir and the surrounding area.



We had over 100 attend ranging from those either blind or in a wheel chair to those with perhaps one eye missing



Here we had a lovely young couple from the Cantemir region who just got married in December.
Both are deaf.

It was fun talking to them
I spoke in Romanian wondering how well they were able to read my lips with my accent and they signed back to me with a friend beside them translating. They sat in different parts of the hall and were signing to each other during the meeting very often and even a fool like me could tell from their signing how much in love they are. They were signing so much that after a while I had to tell them to be quiet ( only joking! )

Here we see Ion Lupan one of the physically disabled ministry team helping a blind man out of the physically disabled ministry vehicle that we have.

Misa was able to bring so many more to this meeting as a result of having the car


Iulian and Ilusa still had to help with the mini buses as there were so many who wanted to come

Here are the brothers that brought the support that funded this meeting

Brother John beside me brothers Sam and Ray ( all three from USA )

Then there is brother Petru in the foreground. He's a Romanian who has lived in Germany for many years and has faithfully raised support and help for the physically disabled ministry here in Moldova - it's not the first time he has helped us put on such a meeting.



As always they provided the funds for us to be able to provide a meal for all those attending






They also provided honey and a financial gift for each that attended and even left the same to be delivered to ones that wanted to come but were unable








Since brothers Sam, John and Ray were from USA and English was their first language br Petru asked me to translate for them as they came to preach.


It was thrilling for me to translate a preach from English into Romanian and all of the brothers preached


Praise the Lord we also saw 11 people give their lives to the Lord.

Pray for Misa as he and his team make plans to follow up these ones who responded and the many other new faces that came to the meeting.

Pastor Mark