Thing's don't always go well

Thank you for keeping up with all our blogs and for the many encouraging e mails you send us.

One of the things that often comes up in your e mails is excitement as to how well things are going here and how the Lord is working.

I thought it would make a nice change to mention some of the things that haven't gone so well recently.

This is our storage building beside the church where we keep our wood, our aid, many tools etc

The big snow got to the ancient asbestos roof and in one fell swoop solved all our air conditioning problems. Fortunately the room with the aid in it is at extreme left of picture and the roof didn't come down there. Our men have met to see what is the least expensive way of trying to save our store house but with straw brick walls and now a collapsed roof things are not looking good and a sizeable investment is going to be needed.

Meanwhile, a few days after this happened some thieves took the opportunity, breaking into our tool room in the church store house and stealing several bits of expensive equipment. ( The police caught them 2 days later and we have recovered all - PTL )

Then round about the same time some snow got into our roof space ( we have no idea how ) and when it melted our ceiling swelled with water until we felt we must lance the boil ( see picture ) before the whole ceiling came down on us.
That's a wee job for the Spring when it comes.

Then on Tues our ancient heating system in the church finally gave up the ghost.

The cold weather was just too much for it and 4 radiators sprung leaks as well as several points in the piping system. ( We need a new central heating system)

I'll not mention the cracks creeping up the walls of the church due to dodgy foundations work nor the leak from the roof into the pastor's office.

I remember reading a story of a pastor who was well known for starting his Sunday morning meetings with a prayer of thanksgiving always finding something to thank God for no matter how bad things had been.

One Saturday there was a terrible thunderstorm. In the bad conditions his wife had an accident in the car and she and the kids were injured although not seriously. Just as he got back from the hospital the roof of his house partially collapsed due to the weather conditions so he had to move into temporary accommodation, where the one child who had not been with his mother in the accident contracted a virus as was up most of the night.

When he came to start the service the next day the whole congregation having heard of his trials eagerly awaited his opening prayer to hear what the pastor would find to thank God for in the previous day's disasters.

He began Dear Lord

I thank you that every day in life ..........

is not like yesterday

My sentiments exactly

Pastor Mark

President Basecu comes to town

The newly elected president of Romania came for his first foreign visit in his new mandate to the Republic of Moldova.

He is spending 2 days in Moldova and to-day ( the second after a visit to Chisinau ) he came down South to us.

He is the bald man in the centre of the picture

He visited a war memorial cementry in Tiganca

The South West of Moldova where we live was originally part of Romania and the front lines of battle in WWII were fought around this area with many Romanians being killed and buried in this cementry about 10Km from us in Gotesti.

Many people from our village and other nearby areas braved the -10C temps to turn out to see him.

One of those loyal souls was Suceava girl Mari McCormick. (In fact she had sent an e mail a couple of days ago inviting him to pop in for a coffee at Karis Pizza on his way onwards to Cahul - he didn't, having already been booked into a Restaurant in Cahul )

Here she is posing in front of the car that was transporting Traian Basescu during his time in Moldova. (Not sure the driver would be too happy about this picture of a dirty car.)

Mari came back home sparkling - she'd got to shake his hand and bless him in the name of the Lord and if Mr Basescu has any discernment he'll have gone onto Cahul also sparkling having shaken the hand of my wife.

Pastor Mark

Baptism at Cantemir

On Sunday 17th of January we had the priviledge of being invited to do the worship prigramme and preach at a Baptism service in the church at Cantemir.

I was encouraged that not only I from Gotesti was able to be of service to another church in our region but also our worship group.

We hope that as we are invited to other churhes that we will have formed 2 or 3 worship teams so that I or indeed Ruslan will preach but we will have different worship teams from our church in Gotesti and in Chircani assisting other churhces in this way.

There were 3 candidates for baptism, one of whom was from the church in Hirtop which is also in the Cantemir region.

Dima on the right of picture could not get the smile off his face from start to finish.

Later we preached on Mark 1:15 where we are told Jesus began to preach saying "Repent and believe in the gospel"

We were able to explain that to repent means to turn away from all that you know to be wrong in your life and commit yourself to following God - giving Him ownership of your life. Believing in the gospel we explained means recognising that your sins are worthy of punishment and that

Jesus died on the cross to take your punishment so that believing in Him will get you forgiven and reconciled to God.

When we gave people the opportunity to make this decision to repent and believe one lady from the congregation responded. her name is Diana and she also came to the Alpha course later that evening.

Here, Claudia, one of our worship group is giving her testimony which came across very powerfully on how God works in our hearts to show us what we are really like.

The banner in the background translated says "I can do all things in Christ.."

Under the sign Praise the Lord for He is good we see pastor Volodia and his leaders photographed together with the candidates.

After the meeting we got the opportunity to further talk with various ones who had been touched by God during the meetings.

All in all it was a wonderful occassion to be part of.

Pastor Mark

New Alpha course starts

We had a very encouraging start to our new Alpha course.

We had around 60 come from 10 different villages in the Cantemir region. Of the 60 only 20 were from our leadership teams.

Each week of the course consists of a meal together, followed by a message on a theme after which we split into groups to discuss the message.

The theme for the first week of this course that is used in scores of countries all round the world is "Who is Jesus"

It is a very powerful message that uses non biblical historical writings and biblical texts to show that Jesus is God and the answer to all men's needs.

Some travelled from as far away as Chisilia taking around and hour to get to us.

Here they are, eating and enjoying each other's company. Anatol, at the left of the picture is pastor of a church in Chisilia with 100+ members

Here 3 villages are together in this group and you cannot see all the participients ( useless photographer called Mark McCormick-we'll not be hiring him again)

The villages are Cantemir ( a town really ), Volodia and Virginia at the left of the picture pastor the church there. Then Misa, who is the pastor at Hirtop is at the head of the table. Ruslan, the deacon at our church is sitting beside him and he led their group in the discussion time
as he has already had experiencing leading Alpha which are discussion groups not bible study groups - a very different dinamic. Porumbesti is the other village represented

Pray for the man at the bottom right of picture who is close to committing his life to Christ

This is my group which consisted of myself, Slavic and 8 guests from Gotesti and Chircani
These guests included, the head and vice head teachers in one of our kindergartens. a former vice principal in our local school and the current principal of the school in Chircani.

Some of the feedback from the groups showed that people were challenged by the evidence for the miracles that Jesus did and his resurrection which in themselves of course lead us to the challenge that He is indeed God and therefore "what does he expect of me?"

Ruslan Grosu also brought a group of young people up from Cahul.

There were actually 8 or 9 of them but half joined Igor's group which was also made up of young people from Gotesti Chircani and Baiamaclia.

There are several in these groups that are also close to committing themselves to the Lord, so we'd value prayer.

Pray also that as the weeks go by the groups will grow closer and feel they can be more open one with another.

Pray that others who said they wanted to come but didn't will come next week and that those that did come will come continually.

Pastor Mark

Adolescents on their winter camp

Well once again it is that time of year when Igor and Tanya take the adolescents group away for a winter camp.

We thank God that He provides the funds for this. This year one of the supporters of Eurovangelism seeing the ministry advertised in the gift catalogue gave a gift of 500 pounds which covered 2\3 of the costs ( the accommodation costs have risen 150% this year although they are still much cheaper than they would have been going to any other accommodation.)

We had 23 including 8 leaders and workers go to the 5 day camp.

The camp was held at the O.M. centre in Chisinau where we have it each year. Their time there was split between bible teaching and discussion groups, games and sport and special trips into the capital.

Igor led the group with the boys and Tanya the group with the girls

The teaching topics were

1) What is a real Christian

2) How to become a new adolescent

3) When God is your Father

4) Jesus as a best friend

Igor and Tanya were blessed with the wonderful family atmosphere that existed the whole time and the adolescents opened up their hearts throughout the camp.

Igor preached messages in the evening that were on the same theme but he did not make an appeal simply saying that if anyone felt they would like to be a new adolescent, know God as their Father etc they could come for prayer at any time.

Seven adolescents came throughout the 5 days ( 4 boys and 3 girls )

Of the 15 adolecents that went only 3 could we say were maybe already the Lord's and the large majority of these kids are from non Christian families.

Igor was very encouraged about the level of understanding and sincerity shown in their prayers.

The kids had a great time with various organised games inside the O.M. accommodation but they also went out to the centre of the capital to see the Christmas lights.

Of course one of the big highlights for all of the kids and even the leaders was the trip out to the ice skating rink which they did on the last night.

Keep praying for those that responded and for this group that meets on a Tuesday - we have 25-30 coming at present

Pastor Mark

We thank God and all of you for your prayers for this winter camp and pray for the growth in the Lord of these ones that responded during the camp

Pastor Mark