Mari's Passion

In October Mari was invited to Chisinau to speak to a ladies meeting that is run by Isus Salvatorul church and held in the Emanuel clinic chapel.

The meeting takes place every month

and draws ladies from dirrerent denominations with around 40 usually coming.

Eugenia, on the left in the grey jacket and white blouse runs the meetings.

She does ministries for the baptist churhces throughout Moldova.

She gave Mari the subject to share on - Passion in mariage -

Mari addressed the subject over 2 meetings; one in October and one in November.

At times you could hear a pin drop as

my wife touched on subjects that clearly all the ladies would like to hear more about

Afterwards I was asked what I thought about Mari's talks

"It's the longest I've ever listened to Mari without interupting her" I said

Mari says to know how the talks really went we would need to ask the husbands. As for me I've had a smle on my fce ever since

Pastor Mark

New liver new heart

Thought I would share a story ( without pictures ).

About 9 months ago one of our members called on our church for prayer for her married daughter living in Serbia who was not a Christian.
Tanya, had contracted Hep B twenty years ago while living in Moldova and now, at 39, according to her doctors had just a short time to live.
Her only hope was to get a liver transplant.
As a church we began to pray and fast for her to receive a liver transplant.

Not long afterwards a liver became available, she had the operation and everything went so well that she was out of hospital care within 2 months.

At the end of October she was with us in the church and shared of her experiences - it was moving for all that were there.
We were away but the following Sunday Tanya came to speak to us after the meeting wanting to get right with God.

We came to meet her the following day at her mum's and explained the gospel in detail to her step by step.

When we came to talk about how Jesus had died on the cross to take our sins giving his life so that we could live she began to weep profusely.

Soon it became clear why. A young man of 20 years of age died in a car accident and because of his death and the heart breaking suffering and gracious gift of the boy's parents she received a new liver and thus a new life.
She saw the even greater sacrifices of Jesus and His Father, when He, a man without sin, willingly and consciously gave His life dying on the cross in her place for her sins to give her a new life.

With tears she put her trust in what Jesus had done for her on the cross and asked the risen Jesus to come into her life as her Lord and Saviour.

Moments later we read John 6:47 together "Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me has etrenal life"

"Did you believe in Him just now?" I asked her"
"Yes" she said
"According to this verse what does the Bible say you have?" I asked?

She read the verse again
"Eternal life" she said, joy replacing the tears

"When do you have it?" I asked
She looked at the verse again
"Now!" she said with a mixture of incredulity and thankfulness on her face

It was a special moment for us too

Pastor Mark

Missions in the South 4-8 Nov

A series of missions have been taking place right across the South of Moldova during 4-8 Novemeber.

We had one at Gotesti to which we called different preachers for each night while I went to other churhces to preach the gospel

This is one of the churches we went to - Antonesti - and here Maricica and 3 of the girls from our church at Gotesti are doing a programme of songs and a testimony before I came onto preach

I also had the priviledge of being invited to preach on Saturday night at the church in Vad lui Isaac where around 150 came.

This is Jonathan and Richard who are living and ministering in Bucuresti. They took part in the service sharing 2 songs

There were 5 people who gave their lives to the Lord in an appeal after the message including Cristina and Eugenia pictured here.

This was a particularly special moment for me to have participated in - the occassion when they both gave their whole lives to Christ. Both girls had gone to school in Gotesti for 3 years living with Iulian during that time and coming to the church at Gotesti. Despite many opportunities they had not given their lives to Christ but we always felt they were close.

Meanwhile, we also had John Dyson, my pastor and one of our trustees, over with us along with Geoff Collier a member in my home church.

They had come to preach and give testimony, respectively in various other venues in the mission week of the South.

Unfortunately since we were never in the same place I have no photos of Geoff giving testimony and only this one of John preaching at Gotesti with Igor translating at the baptism meeting on Sunday evening in Gotesti.

Natasa and Colia were the 2 that got baptised and both gave their testimony in the meeting

Igor assisted in the baptism as he is the youth leader and largely responsibile for the discipling of both Natasa and Colia

Colia could not get the smile off his face from start to finish

His brother Viorel was baptised last year and both are very active servants of the Lord already

Pastor Mark

Trip to Kinmel Bay

In October, Mari and I were invited to come to Kinmel Bay Evangelical church in North Wales.

This is the Sunday morning meeting to which around 150 come regularly.

We were sharing about the work in Moldova and particularly about churhces in UK partnering with churches in Moldova which Kinmel Bay are interested in doing.

This is Gwyn Parry the pastor preaching and the lady in the background on the right is his wife Eunice.

We had a great time with them on the Saturday when we arrived each sharing about our experiences in the ministry.

Later in the evening we shared with the leadership team about 2 church plants in Moldova that they are considering partnering with - part supporting the pastor and partnering in the work of the church in various ways. They listened intently and put the kind of questions that encouraged us as to how serious thy were about their about their partnership plans

We stayed with Alan and Maureen Tuttle, a lovely and intersting couple

Before retiring he was a professional children's entertainer

And he still had the knack
On the way out we took the flight from Liverpool airport which is named John Lennon airport after the famous assasinated Beatle

His statute stands in the hall on the way to departures.

It was quite a moving moment to think of his life, times and death

Pastor Mark

Bayfarm Visit 2009

It was great to have the team from Bayfarm with us again from 2-9 October. Their pastor Jim Meyer came with them this time. He hasn’t been since 2006 and we used every spare moment of his time.

He preached at a wedding we had on the Saturday when Viorel from Pascani and our own Aliona were married. Then he was the preacher at our Sunday morning service and here he is speaking at a conference we had for our pastors from the South – around 90 came the first day and some 50 on the second day. Jim taught and answered questions on “handling conflict in the church.”

There were quite a few who came for individual help after the meetings and we also went to visit some others

Jim was also our main speaker to 50 of our teachers from Gotesti on National Teacher’s day which we held in the pizza parlour and later that day he preached in our mid week meeting following on from Sunday’s topic of forgiving one another and why it is sometimes hard.

Teachers day is an opportunity for us to show our appreciation of our teachers who do a very difficult job for very little pay. A free meal once a year isn't exactly life changing for them but at least it gives us the opportunity to give something back to them. However much to our surprise the teachers felt they would like to bless us and here is Oleg the head teacher giving us a gift of a flower

We also took Jim with us on our trip to the church plant in Pelinei where Jim was the preacher in their meeting while his wife Kim took the other half of the team to Baurcii.

The team were of course as busy as ever they have been while in Moldova.

Here is Bob Wilbur giving out aid to one of many needy families that were helped with food while other homes received wood for the upcoming winter when it can get down to -15C.

Every winter hypothermia brings untimely deaths.

Christine and Bob Wilbur were the new recruits this year and here Christine is giving here testimony in a meeting. It was a very moving story of traumatic and abusive experiences in childhood and youth and how she found Christ to be her saviour and then friend and comforter in the midst.

Bob used his guitar playing gift in the visits to kindergartens and schools and also gave a powerful testimony in the meeting in Pelinei after recovering from two days of flu that left him confined to bed.

Kim, Jim's wife, was, as always, the
driving force behind the trip.

She had just recovered in time from a virus that looked stopping her being on the trip and here she is sharing at the teachers meeting with Mari translating.

Her fortitude in dealing with the main physical ailments that she has to contend with is an example and inspiration to all.

Chris Modic is the other veteran of the Bayfarm trips having been on all so far.

Here he is standing beside the Soba sponsored by Bayfarm that Ilusa built for the Constantinovca kindergarten.

Chris also led the men's meeting.

He is much loved by our men as he always shares honestly from the heart - warts and all.

He shocked us all by telling us his method of stopping a conflict with his wife getting out of hand

When the conflict is getting too hot Chris begins .................

If you're reading this Chris I felt this was just too hot to put on a public site but if anybody e mails me I'll be putting them in touch with you

Pastor Mark

Harvest Service at Gotesti

Any one who has been following this blog recently will think that the only thing we do in Moldova in our churches is have harvest celebrations
This is the cake that some of our youth made for our harvest meeting in Gotesti on Sunday 27th September.

We had around 200 in total come to the celebration and we used it as a time to not only thank the Lord for the material things he has blessed us with in the last year but also all the spiritual things He has done - answers to prayer etc

This is Liuba giving testimony. Her 40 yr old daughter had contracted a cirrhossis in her liver while getting a blood transfusion in Chisinau.

She was now living in Serbia and the specialist there told her the bad news that if she didn't get a liver transplant she would die. This was next to impossible as there are so few available and she wasn't even a Serbian citizen. Liuba brought it to the church for prayer and we all with one heart together with her prayed and fasted for a miracle - either God's miraculous healing or a liver to be provided for the transplant. As she drew close to dying our prayers became more desperate. Can you imagine the joy for us all and especially Liuba when God answered with the provision of a liver for transplant.

She's had the transplant and is going on well. Our thanks also go to the surgeons whom we never met that got the liver and did the operation.

So it was an occassion f0r joy and thanksgiving for us all to remember at the harvest ( thanksgiving ) service God's answer to our prayers with Liuba

Various ones from our church family took part in the service.

This is David, Ruslan's son, doing a poem about how God created the various fruits - looks like he might have eaten the fruit already and our Abigail is about to tell him off after he's finished the poem.

This is Cristina and Aliona singing a duet.

This was Cristina's last Sunday with us as she is going off to University in Romania to study for 3 years

She'll be coming home at end of term times but it did feel like a parting was taking place.

Panainte Chicicov, the mayor of our villages also took the trouble to come to our harvest service with his wife Valentina. He spoke a short word of encouragement and they both stayed and ate with us at the after service meal.

Around 130 stayed for the meal afterwards and we were overjoyed that our believers had brought so many chickens, ducks, veg etc that we had an abundance to feed all and had plenty to spare.

It was a joyous occassion and we pray God's blessing that we may have many more.

Pray for us and the arrival of a team from Bayfarm Church in California on Frid 2 Oct and the ministry that they will do in our villages and others while they are here.

Pastor Mark

Harvest at Slobozia Mare

We had the priviledge of being invited to speak at the harvest service of the Baptist church in Slobozia Mare

The village has approx. 8000 residents and around 300 of them including the lady mayoress came to

the service.

Again as in Giurgulesti the Pentecostal church's youth came to take part in the worship

As well as the harvest service they had a dedication and here we see Nicolai, the pastor of the church, explaining it's significance.

He is standing under the word seceris which means harvest and is made from corn seeds

Vasile, the pastor of Cuslita Prut, a neaby village is here pictured bringing a word of encouragement.

They cancelled their Sunday meeting and the whole church came to this harvest service

Later I brought an evangelistic message taking as my text Jer 8:20. "The harvest has passed, the summer is ended and we are not saved"

I explained that biblically being saved means having an assurance that you will be in heaven when you die, having a personal relationship with God now on earth that also brings you a purpose to life until you get to heaven as well as knowing all your sins forgiven among other things.

We looked at the fact that Eph 2:8,9 tells us that "it is by grace we are saved through faith... not by works ..." and explained that grace is God giving us the opposite of what we deserve going on to point out that although what we deserve for our sins and selfish life is judgment that Jesus ( God become man ) died in our place on the cross taking the judgment that we should have had and now God offers us forgiveness, heaven, abundant life etc something that we plainly do not deserve.

We explained that this salvation is obtained by coming back to God from our own selfish ways, giving the rest of our lives to him and trusting in Jesus to save us.

We ended by saying "The harvest is passed, the summer is ended and I AM SAVED .... WHAT ABOUT YOU!!

Those in attendance were then given the opportunity to make that decision for themselves and come to Christ - around 20 came forward.

It was also our joy to meet Tudor, on the left of the picture.

What a testimony he is to the grace of God.

He was saved in 1949 and is 87 years old and could hardly contain the joy of his salvation as he gave testimony in the meeting even though it is 60 years since his relationship with Jesus began

As per last week in Giurgulesti we were all able to share a fellowship meal together afterwards, celebrating the Lord's provision of a good harvest.

This celebration of God's goodness in an abundant harvest such as this is something that would not be taken for granted by ones like Tudor who lived through the famine in Moldova in the years after the war when many died of starvation.

Next Sunday is our harvest service at Gotesti - please pray for a harvest of souls

Pastor Mark