Easter Week

Well it has been Easter week here in Moldova as in all Eastern Europe

We've had a busy week starting on Tuesday with a meeting for some of the physicaly disabled people in our village

We did a programme with songs and testimonies - indeed Nicu who is blind and a member of our church gave his testimony

Grisa who is now a part time evangelist with us ( see earlier blog ) is also physically disabled having part of one leg missing and he led the meeting while I brought the message. The mayor was also there and stayed for the whole message.

We were able to have a meal together with those that who attended due to funds given to us last Autumn.

Also Grisa was able ot get in contact with another source who gave us second hand clothes and thus all who came received a packet of clothes

Pray for Misa ( here pictured standing ) and Grisa as they try to develop this ministry something that is not easy as we do not have suitable transport to be able to bring most of these ones to the church except on special occassions such as these.

On Wednesday we had our special meeting with mayors from our region.

We have 27 mayors looking after around 40 villages in our area and we are 14 pastors in the region.

We paid for them and their wives ( or husbands ) to have a meal with us for Easter while we also provided a musical programme and Valeriu Ghiletchii the president of the B.U was the main speaker.

There was a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere during the meeting and brother Valeriu brought a word that was just exactly right for the audience. Every guest at our table listened intently right throughout the mssage.

Such was the atmosphere that many of the mayors felt free to share some thoughts etc at the end

This is mayor Petru from Tsganca which is a village about 6 Km from us in Gotesti.

The village has no evangelical church of any kind and neither does Ghioltosu a nearby village which he is also responsible for so it was great getting the opportunity to get to know him and we hope to be able to follow up this contact - maybe inviting him to a baptism that we have soon

Please pray for him

We had our Easter service to-day with a very full programme

Here the adolescents did a very moving sketch about how to deal with Jesus' death on the cross

The smallest kids also did a prorgamme of songs

And the youth did songs and a sketch that was so powerful it left me in tears before getting up to preach

One lady came after the meeting to give her life to Christ

Do please pray for the many non Christians that were at the meeting and came under the sound of the gospel

With all our affection

Pastor Mark

Baptism photos

I finally managed to get the photo of the 5 people who were baptised at the meeting on Sunday at Emanuel church onto the blog site

See previous blog

Mark

Cahul Baptism

Here Mari and I are preaching the gospel at a baptism meeting at Emanuel church in Cahul on Sunday 13 April

Unfortunately I am not able to get a photo of the baptism candidates onto this blog site

Five were baptised and all gave testimony that spoke clearly of their relationship with the Lord which was helpful as the message was on "I came to give life" and this life is having a personal relationship with God

There were around 200 people there of whom many were as yet unsaved and 5 or 6 responded to the gospel appeal.

Emanuel church are one of the fastest growing in the South having had already 15 baptism meetings since they began 8 years ago and they have already around 80 members

They meet in a school but a new law means that by this September they will no longer be allowed to meet in the school and thus they have started a church building.

The problem is even though they have given sacrificially they still need around 100,000$ to finish.

They hope that they can move into at least the unfinished meeting hall by September 14.

Pray the Lord provides the money

Women's day

Here are some of our ladies gathered together in our as yet unopened pizzerie for a special ladies day.

Mari led the meeting and they had a time of worship and sharing and then a word from the bible by Mari and then discussions in groups.

There was a lot of positive feedback from all who attended

Around 50 were there from our 2 churches.

Here are some of the Baptist pastors and their wives for the South

We meet on the first Monday of every month where we plan things together like evangelistic events or teaching seminars etc





We also have opportunity to see how we can help one another in all the ways that we can as well as share the burdens.





In the centre front in the light brown coat is Andrei Ciobanu who is the Baptist Union leader for the South.










This is Ruslan and Larisa Telpiz with
their children David and Rut.

He is the deacon in our church although eh is really assistant pastor to me as well as taking responsibility for the Chircani church plant

Larisa oversees all the children's work in our 3 villages which amounts to about 160-180 kids every week.

Pray for this couple as they are a very important part of our work here



With much love

M&M&R&A