Rachael and Abigail at Summer Camp

Both Rachael and Abigail went to a summer camp for 5 days this year - it's the first time they have been away to such a thing as we usually have day camps in Gotesti.

The camp was run by Anatol and Nadia Dunas the pastor of the church in Cahul - he is pictured in the background in the red shirt.

Both our girls had a wondeful time of fun and also learning of the the Lord

Rachael came back changed and Nadia rang me from the bus on the way home to say what a helpful blessing Rachael had been - she's at that age now where her faith is maturing.

Abigail had a lovely time also and here they are pictured with David one of Anatol's sons and Andrea, the daughter of Mariana our manageress of the coffee shop and one of Abigail's best friends

We thank the team of Americans who came and participated in the summer camp and also carried the bulk of the expenses for the camp.

Pastor Mark

Water Melon fellowship

As the summer began to draw to a close we organsied a time of fellowship with the believers

from Gotesti.

We shared water melon together and had a time to chat and relax

The big man in the photo is Sergiu a new believer who had lived a prodigal life until he recently repented in the Alpha course along with his wife Liuba.

They are planning to get baptised in the autumn when we have our next baptism meeting.

To his right is Georghe one of a pair of twins who are our members and who both have a muscle wasting disease - both walk to every meeting at the church although it takes them over an hoour to get to the church for what would be a 10 min walk for the rest of us. Courtesy of King's Fellowship in NI we have a car to transport the physically disabled which means we can take them home after the meetings. It will probably only be a year or so ( unless the Lord does a miracle ) before neither will be able to walk to church

Behind Sergiu is Tanya Rascovschii whom many of you know as she is Igor's wife ( our youth leader ) and is also one of our main translators.

Contrary to how it may seem she is not hiding a water melon under her shirt. They are expecting their second child some time around September.

After bloating ourselves with water melon we all went to play a game of volley.

Only the wise ones like the pastor didn't play

Yours and His

Pastor Mark

A Summer of Weddings

We have had a rich summer of weddings this year with 3 taking place and another due in late october.

The first was between Claudia Caraivan and Roma Cheptene. Claudia is one of the 4 daugthers of Avraam and Veta whom many of you know. I have done the cunonia ( marriage ceremony ) for the 3 daugthers that have now been married ( Nadina the remaining one is just turning 18 so watch this space )

Claudia and Roma were married in Vad lui Isac church were Andrei Ciobanu ( whom many of you know) is the pastor. Andrei afforded me the priviledge of doing the cunonia while Misa Caraivan, Claudia's brother preached the message which meant the many non Christians had a chance to understand something of God's love for us.

Claudia and Roma have decided to live in Vad lui Isac which is his home village

As the summer progressed we had our second wedding this time in Gotesti between Viorel Regus and Olesia Vladimirov. Viorel assists Igor in the running of our youth group so all the youth took part in his wedding.

Slavic Bufenco was M.C for the celebrations afterwards and led us all in many interesting and original games - he's becoming quite proficient in this role

Finally at the end of the summer Mariana Cara married Andrei Taranenco the assistant leader of the sports ministry at O.M Moldova.

Mathew Skirton, the leader of the O.M work in Moldova and an old close friend, ( that is to say the friendship has been for a while not that either of us are old ) came to bring the message in the wedding along with many amusing anecdotes. Thus the whole wedding was conducted in Romanian by 2 English missionaries ( although I for one have spent more time living in Moldova than I did in England - having left NI in 1982 to live in England and then come to Moldova in 1994 )

Again there were fun celebrations afterwards.
In one case Mari and I were called out to participate in one of the games - something I hate doing after I was called on a previous occassion to participate in a game where I was blindfolded and needed to pick out Mari from 5 other women by feeling her hands - I chose the wrong wife's hands!!!

However in this case it was a game of Charades and Mari and I won easily - no pictures of this historic moment I am afraid ( and no prize either !!!)

Pastor Mark

Mariana has gone with her husband Andrei to live in Chisinau and the are serving together on the staff of O.M.

Pastor Mark

Summer Ministries

We had 3 teams from Mission Direct come out to us this summer and as always they were involved in many and varied things in our minsitries in both Gotesti and Chircani.

Their building project was helping us with our church community centre in Chircani. This is the trench they dug by hand at the back. Unfortunately because of all the hassle we've been getting regarding the documents we were unable to start construction on the main body of the project so the team helped renovate the house of a needy believer.

We had 3 summer camps for children - 2 in Gotesti and 1 in Chircani. Around 80 came to the first camp in Gotesti of which quite a number responded to the gospel while around 30 came to Chircani. Our final camp was for a group from our Sunday school.

The MD teams got involved with crafts and games and also helped much with cleaning and dishes and other such things

Each year the teams also participate in our meetings at the churches in Gotesti and Chircani

This year we were very pleased to have some old friends on one of the teams. John and Marian Shaw in the centre of the picture.

We first met them when they came out to Moldova around 1995 to visit their daughter Julia who was on our team at the time.

John preached in all the meetings while he was here.

The teams also went out on visits to various needy homes in both villages taking aid packets to them.

We'd value your prayers for these things especially for the Chircani Community Centre which we have now been released into working on

Pastor Mark

Dedication of Sasa

At the church we do several dedications each year usually of babies whose parents are members in the church.

They are all special to me and the church.

Many are often children of a couple who were both saved in the church and baptised as adults.

Some of the parents were saved as children and have grown up in the church

So I trust you can see why they are all special to us but this one had even more significance

This is Sergiu and Lilia Traistar dedicating their first child whom they had named Sasa, after Sergiu's late father.

Why is it particularly significant? Because Sasa Traistar was the brother who planted our church in Gotesti.

It was in it's infancy when he was discovered to have terminal cancer. He worked until it was no longer possible for him and then moved with his family including the young Sergiu to USA to get the care he deserved until he died.

A few years ago for various reasons Sergiu came back to Moldova and to Gotesti where he met Lilia whom he later married and here they are dedicating and praying along with us for the young Sasa to grow up in his grandfather's footsteps in the very church that his grandfather planted those years ago.

I am sure Sasa senior was in that cloud of witnesses watching on with his hands raised in praise to God the pose of him most remembered by those of us who knew him
I know I was thinking of him as his son prayed for his grandson.

What a faithful God we have

Pastor mark

Cristina and Ovidiu's wedding

The day after Kate and William got married in late April our own royal couple Cristina Cara ( sister of Marina ) from Gotesti and Ovidiu Voicu from Pitesti in Romania got married in his home town.

I was invited to do the ceremony while Ovidiu's pastor brought a message from the Bible.

We and various relatives of Cristina all travelled to Romania together and stayed over night. They had a set meal for the reception.

They had planned to have the wedding out in the garden but just before the start time a thunderstorm swept in and the wedding needed to take place inside.

However the sun soon came out and the photos were taken in the garden.

Here's the bride with her sister Marina ( Iulian's wife )

Our friends Neil and Joan were still with us and came along to the wedding before travelling back to the UK the next day.

Cristina was one of our main worship leaders as well as being a children's worker so it is some loss to us as a church but she is already active along with Ovidiu in their church in Pitesti

Yours and His

Pastor Mark

Chircani's Easter Programme

On Easter Sunday in the afternoon we did a programme for the parents in Chircani.The kids smartly dressed as you can see sang songs and shared poems.

The outfits were made by some of our believers.

Joan Robinson, one of our friends, who with her husband Neil was with us over the Easter period, gave her testimony during the meeting.

Ruslan preached, explaining why Jesus, God the Son, left heaven and became a man. He used the example of lots of tiny birds being outside a house in winter time and a child opening the window and calling them to come into the house before they die.

The birds don'tt come. Then the father of the child comes and tells the child that they only way she can convicne the birds to trust her and come inside is to become a bird herself live among them and convicne them of the danger they are in then they will come into the house. Thus Jesus did becoming and man, sufffering in every just like us so that he was and is able to understand and empathize with us. Ruslan appealed to those parents that were there to come into the house - God's family through Jesus and be saved.

A word for us?

Pastor Mark