Monday, August 27, 2012

Youth in Gotesti

Every Friday we have our youth meeting at Gotesti.
During the second half of the year we changed the format into 2 parts.
Part 1 is designed for our own youth who are saved although all are welcome. We have a time of worship, then we do a bible study and discussion and then we pray together, We are actually studying a book by the Bible Mission which is part of their Bible School by correspondence course and it seems all have been finding it useful. Each study has an exam at the end so we discuss the responses that the youth have made in the exam.
Part II is where we have invited all youth 14+ to come to from the village.
Here we have lots of sports and games that for 1.5 hours we play together.
We have table hockey that a church from England sent to us - it is very popular. Then we also play darts ( I may be the man that introduced the game of darts to Moldova as I haven't yet met a Moldovan that had heard of this game.... "sins must come but woe to him who brings them in...." I hear you say) Some of the lads really seem to like the darts and I get to win most of the time so it seems a good arrangement to me. (If Tom McGibbon is reading this blog I'm ready for you any time boyo...Partick Thistle indeed!!)
We have a table tennis table which both lads and girls use but we also have various board games like UNO and Take Two ( a rapid form of scrabble ) which these girls are playing here.
We even have a points system and points make prizes.
Pray that the young people who have been coming on Friday nights will feel they want to give their lives to the Lord
Pastor Mark

Tigheci

Valeriu Munteanu and his wife Angela are responsible for the small church in the rather big village of Tigheci (3000 citizens).
Here he is at the lecturn in a room of his house that has been converted into a meeting room.
Valeriu was led to the Lord by Nicolai Sin who was the pastor at Antonesti who went recently to USA - see earlier blog.
Nicolai discipled him for some time and then left him responsible with Angela for the little church that had grown up.
There are around 5/6 that come regularly to the meeting. One lady is 84 and actually handles the catering for the church even cooking for foreign guests when they come. When she was saved she was almost bedridden but when she gave her life to the Lord He entered in and revitalised not just her soul but her body also.
It's been difficult for Valeriu working in the village as people are suspicious that he is leading some kind of a cult.
We have been trying to take over in some measure the role that Nicolai had as his mentor with the limited amount of time that I have. However we have been with a worship group and preached the gospel on Sunday afternoons while Valeriu has invited non Christians to come. There have been a few that have come and been quite open. We continue to work with him as best we can be of service
Pray that the Lord saves some villagers and the church thereby gets encouraged
Pastor Mark

Monday, August 20, 2012

Ray Tucker Ambassadors in Sport

In the late Spring it was great to have my old friend (actually I ought to say my friend whom I have known for a long time ) Ray Tucker with us again.
He is the European Director of Ambassadors in Sport and he was here doing a TREC course in the capital in conjunction with O.M. The course trains Christians how to run a football ministry - training, the young people who come, in football skills and teaching them about the Lord.
I have known Ray and his wife Christa and their sons Paul and Timothy since I became a Christian. At the time I was living in Newark but had a job in Grantham and so we felt it was of the Lord to put an advert in the local paper to find accommodation in Gramtham. We wrote "Christian man seeks Chrisrian home" and got 5 replies to this advert. I visited them all and each were genuine Christians and each seemed the right place to be but as we sought the Lord we realised that all the homes were good but all apart from Ray and Christa were also looking for a young man to help with their needs - nothing wrong in that - but we realised that Ray and Christa had simply replied to the advert wondering if God was aksing them to serve Him in this way.
Thus began a relationship of 28 years. For the first year of my Christian life Ray and Christa were spiritual parents in many ways helping me through all the big changes that happen in a man's life when he turns to God's ways from what was a wild life style. They were Christians of great love and patience towards me - they still are - and the Lord did much in that year until they moved to Manchester to take up a post in a Christian school and I, now established in the Lord, moved into my own home.
One of the trainees at the TREC course is our own Viorel, the leader of the football ministry.
Here he is sharing the word with the young footballers who have come to the club. He is, himself, quite a decent footballer and plays for the Gotesti seniour football team. Having done what is quite a high standard professional-like training schedule with them including ball skills and fitness training they all stop and have a time when Viorel shares something from God's word. The boys are generally very attentive and several have been to our youth meeting Friday nights.
Pray for Ray and Viorel in their European and local ministries respectively
Pastor Mark

Friday, August 17, 2012


Easter Programme

It was great to again be able to have a special meeting at Easter in our church at Gotesti.
As usual we had our children do various songs and poems about the resurrection and many of their parents said how they had enjoyed what was done
In fact they often say how they appreciate what we do for the kids which obviously encourages us

Here Alina, MIsa and Maricica’s daughter is singing a solo. Isn’t she so cute.

Actually her mum tells me she not’s so cute at home. Ours are perfect at home I tell her with my tongue so far in my check I can hardly breathe.
I thought pastors weren’t supposed to tell lies she tells me – enough said.
We had about 30 parents of kids come to the Easter meeting many of whom were non members.

We’re praying that the message of Easter – the death of Jesus as our substitute for our sins and His resurrection so that we might have new life – will remain with them and they too will come into this new life.


Pastor Mark


Thursday, August 16, 2012


Ladies Day – 8th March
Every year on the 8th of March here in Moldova and in many countries in the East we celebrate ladies day – when all ladies get “spoiled” by their husbands sons etc.

Usually they get flowers or chocolates and a nice meal is made ( although it’s the women that make the meal  – no surprise there I hear you say)
Their children did a programme for them in the church to celebrate their mum’s day.
My wife Mari was the speaker on this day while I was in the coffee shop looking after clients – it meant I missed her first evangelistic message ( maybe that was her plan or His) I am told it spoke to the heart.
Here Bianca, Ilusa and Diana’s daughter, and Abigail are singing a duet and many of the other kids did poems or songs.
Many of the women said to us afterwards how it was such a lovely time of relaxation for them – something one has to say that in general women here do not get much of
Pastor Mark

February Baptisms


Baptism Meeting

We had the great privilege of baptizing another 20 or so people from Gotesti, Chircani Porumbesti, Hanaseni and other villages.
There were some encouraging testimonies of how they had come to the Lord and also how some had undergone a measure of trials to keep on with their faith – often from unbelieving partners.

Here in Moldova 98% of people ate baptized in the Orthodox church as babies and their doctrine is such that this means they are baptized into the church and thus are saved. It is thus understandable that those who are convinced this is the truth are thereby hostile to us who baptized these ones a second time ( since the majority were baptized as babies ). They feel we are baptising them out of salvation and into who knows what ( in their view ). So often the unbelieving partner is angry and accuses the new believer of “changing his/her law” Sadly the new believers if women often receive a beating to go with the accusations.
The vast majority of those that were baptized were ones that got saved in the Alpha course that we ran throughout the autumn and winter. We had around 70 come each week for the 10 weeks of the course of whom 50 at least were seekers. In the picture you can see some of the discussion groups. The format and level of teaching seems to work well for all ages as we had ones from age 15-71 attend the course.

Unfortunately culturally it doesn’t work for us to do another Alpha immediately after this one as people are starting to work in the fields and it is difficult for them to come to a 10 week course.
Keep us in your prayers as we start to visit and talk to people over the next few months that they might become ones that will come to the next Alpha course planned in November