Sunday, December 30, 2007

Christmas goes on


Well we were encouraged that we still had a good turn out to the meeting after Christmas.
Around 40 non Christians came.
As you look at the left hand side of this picture nearly all are non Christians from Chircani.
Some of these have given their lives to Christ in the last weeks some are sowing interestin finding out more.

I have planned to gather together on Thursday in Chircani all those who are interested in hearing more about how to come into a personal relationship with Christ including those that have given their lives to Christ recently.
In January we will start another "seekers course" for all these and for others in Gotesti that have shown similar interest.


Pray for this family. They are the parents of one of our youth.


Vasia and Catea and their neighbour Rita. We ask for God to bring them to the church regularly.


I hope to visit them this week and encourage them to come.
All others you see in the pciture are unsaved from Gotesti
Pray for our next outreach which is our Christmas programme at Constantinovca, one of our church plant villages.

They celebrate the Orthodox Christmas in that village which is January 7th so we will do a children's progamme in the kindergarten and probably do carols in the village as the time approaches


Here are some of our youth doing a programme in this week's meeting
Some of these will be involved in the carol singing
Also the team that is going to Chisinau Jan 2-6 to take a winter camp for our adolescents are taken from this group as well as some others
Do pray for them and that there wil be a harvest amongst the adolescents during this week
Thanks for all your prayers
Pastor Mark






Sunday, December 23, 2007

Christmas Meeting 2007



To-day we had our Christmas meeting at which 243 adults attended + 86 kids + 94 kids we had in our programme from our groups in Gotesti.


This meant that we were able to share the gospel with 190 unsaved of whom 4 came to give their lives to the Lord after the meeting and another 36 completed forms looking for follow up of some kind or another.



In the message we spoke of Christ, the sent one's mission being to preach good news to the poor, TO HEAL THE BROKEN HEARTED..... and saw many faces showing signs that they were pondering these things in their hearts as did Mary in Luke 2:19

Pray for us as we try to follow up all those that came to the meeting.































Of course we are fully aware that most of these have come not seeking the Lord but rather because it was a Christmas meeting. Some because their children were in the programme some because they were hoping for a Christmas gift or some because they got an aid packet this week but nonetheless we have had opportunity to impart the gospel and, we trust, something of the Spirit to them to-day.


This dear lady on the right is called Marusia.


This was her first time at our meeting, coming because she got an aid packet.






After the meeting she spoke to one of our members with tears in hers eyes saying this is the first time in her life she has ever recived a gift.

Our thanks on her behalf to you who have given money to make these aid packets possible




The mayor of our village was also at the meeting and indeed gave an opening greeting.





Pray for him. He is an honest man working in our village that is anything but.




Our children's groups put on a wonderful programme of which the highlight was probably the angels parade that the adolescents groups put on.


One of the teachers from the Chircani Kindergarten was at the meeting and after seeing their programme asked if they could come and do it in the Kindergarten next week



Pray for Igor and Tanya and 4 of our youth as they take this adolescent group away for a winter camp Jan 2-6. We want to see many of these come through to a new birth. They are aged 11-14 and we believe this is entirely possible at this age.
All of us here at Biserica Baptista Gotesti and us of the McCormick Family wish you all a wonderful Christmas and prosperous new year
Pastor Mark


Christmas programme in Chircani




This year we were able to do our Christmas programme in the Chircani school.

Marin is the Orthodox priest in this village and we have a very good relatioship with him.


Here he is opening the meeting with me in the festival hall in the school. This is a photo that most Baptist pastors would be shocked to see as in general there tends to be very poor relations between priests and pastors












We have about 50 kids in the club in Chircani from 7 -14 and all took part in the programme.





Around 20 teachers and parents also attended and later some came to our Wednesday meeting in Gotesti.







All our kids that took part in the programme received a bag of goodies.

It was a joy for me to see these kids getting a pair of socks, an orange, a bar of chocolate and a pen and being thrilled with it.

It reminded me of clip I once saw on a "You've been framed" programme of a 10 yr old opening his Christmas present on video to discover a
200$ computer game which he smashed into pieces because it was not to his liking


This is good reason for me to consider it a blessing that my kids grow up
in Moldova is ti not?

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Christmas getting close

It's a great time of year if you are a pastor and evangelist like me to see the meetings full of rejoicing Christians and a large number of non Christians.

We counted 36 non Christian adults amongst us as well as 15 or so adolecents

One young woman Anisoara, the married daughter of one of our Christian families from Chircani gave her life to the Lord after the meeting.


We feel this is likely to be a new birth as she was part of the church 7 years ago until she ran off to live with the first boy who swept her off her feet. She knew the word of God well and has been coming again to the meetings for some months now so we suppose she understands all about the cost of being a Christian in terms of His Lorship etc.


We also had 17 people complete reponse forms asking for follow up visits or wanting to start a bible study etc. Many also completed the point that says I gave my life to the Lord to-day but from experience this usually means that they haven't fully understood it's implications.


However one who wants some material to read to discover how to have a personal relaionship with God is a doctor from the village whose cousin is a believer from the village of Pascani and who visited us to-day bringing this doctor with her.


She visited us to-day because Grija ( see photo ), a preacher from her church, was our speaker to-day.


Another one of the response cards was completed by a 10 yr old boy who gave his life to the Lord to-day but also wrote under the heading "other comments or questions"





"I want to know why God loves me"

What a text to preach on.

We also had the 6 out of the 9 new believers who are in the discpleship course along with their disciplers come out to the front and sing a carol.

For Alexei, the former mayor ( front right ) it was the first time ever siniging in public. He was relieved to agree with me afterwards that he did it for the Lord.


We are hoping that some of these will come through to baptism probably in February.




This time of year sees us also involved with giving out aid to poor families and is probably the reason why we get so many non Christians coming at this time of the year.

It is not an easy thing to select who should get aid and who we have to pass by as the need far outstrips the resources we have to give but we are nonetheless able to do something significant for around 160 families in our villages this year with the generous gifts of many of you who are reading this blog
















We thank you all on their behalf


Many of you have been asking how the pizzerie is getting on. The answer is that we are still battling bureucracy here with the final stamp delayed yet again. But we are trusting the Lord as to His date for opening and are feeling this might be in January


Here is a typical example of the problems. The sign ( see picture ) which should now be up isn't because it is not properly made and unless we do some extra work on it is will leek water etc.


Keep praying for us though. We have truly seen much answer to prayer this last year and really depend on your intercessions
Pastor Mark
16 December 2007

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The Gift of God



Christmas will soon be upon us and things are becoming very busy. We have just had a visit from the Eurovangelism team including the director Dave Roderick seen here preaching in our church.








Eurovangelism supply funds for us to be able to buy a food packet to give to poor families at this time of the year. We are able to help 150 families with a food gift of flour, potatoes, rice, macaroni etc. amounting to the equivalent of a month’s salary for a teacher.



It makes a substantial difference to these families to have this help


The husband of the woman above left her 2 years ago with 6 kids to bring up and no income


To the left is a family whose husband is honest and works when he can but only available is the odd day digging someone's garden or working at a house where they are doing repairs.


Taking these gifts to families also gives us an opportunity to speak of a greater Gift that God has given us.

In the past many of those receiving aid have then proceeded to come to the church and some have gone on to get saved.
Nicu our blind member is an example of one of these and yesterday he did a song with his accordian in the meeting

We had 39 non Christian adults at the monring meeting as well as around 20 non Christian adolescents.


Around 10 of those where at the meeting for the first time while two adults from Chircani who have been coming to the meetings for some time now gave their lives to the Lord after the preaching.


We were also fortunate to have international worship leader Rob Newey with us, who came with the Eurovangelism team.

He took 2 days of seminars on leading worship which was attended by around 70 people from many diferent churches in the South.

Pray for us as we do a Christmas gospel message every Sunday with our Christmas special on Sunday 23 December. We usually get large numbers coming and many have been coming for a while so we are looking to the Lord for a harvest amongst these.
Pray for the coffee shop which has been again delayed with documents and other problems. We will not now open before January.
Wishing you all a restful Christmas and a prosperous new year in all respects
Pastor Mark







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