Archive for October, 2023

Today, The Moose, I & our translator Viorel (Theo) took 3 very different meetings.

Our first meeting was in the Speranta church, Carhul with a group of 40 to 50 physically disabled people. A great opportunity to speak to these folk that society has mainly rejected.
A good response to the gospel with many making a response at the appeal.

Our second meeting was in the village of Cotiana where they are trying to plant a church, this supposed to be a home Frank group but ended up in the Church.
Once again, we enjoyed a good response to the gospel with many making a response at the appeal.

Our third meeting was a young people’s meeting in the Speranta church, Carhul,
I spoke there last year, and it was good to meet Mark & Gabriella who last year responded to the appeal to trust Christ, one year later they are baptised and members of the Church. We know that “One sows, another reaps” and others care and disciple the new believer!
Once again, a good response to the gospel with about 8 young people making a response at the appeal.

An emergency for one of the Pastors meant we had to rearrange some of today’s meetings and move them to Monday, but we were still able to do two meetings per team, Moose & myself along with Lance went to the village of Badicu Moldovenesc.

The first meeting turned out to be a Bible study for four young Christians, a thrill for me was to see one of the young men (second from left in photo) who was saved last year when I spoke in a FRANK meeting in that same village, when we asked them what they hoped to do when they finished their studies, he replied, “be a preacher!”

The second meeting was small with just two neighbours turning up, we shared the gospel and one of the ladies (second from left in photo) responded to the appeal. The two ladies wanted to know more and talked about starting a Bible study in the home of our host.Svetlana.

The fun highlight of the day involved the evening meals provided by the believers in whose houses we met in. The Moose and myself enjoyed a traditional Moldovan chicken dish, but when we went to meet up with Lance and translator Ecaterina, they were enjoying another Moldovan dish called neutrie (Large rodent), we were offered some but declined, Lance & Ecaterina, took one for the team!

As far as I know it is not available from Deliveroo!

1 John chapter 1 verse 14 – English & Moldovan translation – sermon by Gordon Curley

Translator: Theo Regus

Download

Good to have Lance join the team from Northern Ireland, and a bonus for the Moose & myself as he paid for the coffee after our team meeting this morning!

This afternoon/evening we were in the town of Vadu Lui Isac for 6 meetings, 2 for each team.
Meeting 1 for the Moose & myself was in the orphanage, it was a mixture of seniors and children who attended, the meeting wasn’t helped by distruptions from people arriving late and children coming and going.

Meeting 2 for the Moose & myself was in the conservatory of a very new home, lots of the Church members came along which swelled the numbers and gave it a slightly different feeling to the smaller more intimate meetings that we are used to.

It was good in between the two meetings to visit the local school for an hour and play volley ball & basket ball with the children.

No real visible response today for the Moose & myself to the gospel, but we sow good seed and leave it to the Lord!

This morning we visited the Church of Pastor Claudiu in Mata. The Moose shared his testimony and I preached. Good see about 8 folks responding to the appeal. Please pray for those who will follow them up.

Two house visits with Pastor Alexander (Sasha) in Laga. Laga is the only village in the South that does not have an evengelical Church! It does have two Orthodox Churches, one Moldovan Orthadox and one Russian Orthadox. Pastor Alexander (Sasha) & his wife Ina are planting a Church in this village and so it is a real priveledge to be part of this process.
They have a plot of land and hope to start working on the building soon – please pray!
I preached Pastor Alexander (Sasha) sang but we decided not to make an appeal on these occassions.

The Moose went to a house with Pastor Claudio to a house, just to share his testimony, but ended up preaching and making his first appeal in Moldova! Glad to say one person made a resoponse.
(sorry no photo)

With Pastor Alexander (Sasha) in the village of Larga, Moldova where he is planting a Church.
Today we took a kids meeting and visited two families (not FRANK meetings). It was good to see 6 children make a response to the gospel.

The Moose with Emilia one of our translators.

The very musical young people.

The Moose with Emilia as he shares his testimony.

Gordon & translator Theo telling the story of the lame man lowered through the roof.

Family visit, The Moose on his own without me! But he did have the Pastor and Emilia for compamy.

Gordon & Theo visit Mother and daughter in their home,

A nice start to the trip, as we headed into the airport to park the car with Meet& Greet. Luton had a massive fire in the car park we usually go to and the whole parking part of the airport is full of cones and diversion signs, but as we approach the airport way a car pulls up beside us with four Asian men and they beep the horn, I ignore them and they continue beeping their horn at us, we come to some lights and they indicate to us to roll down the window, we do and they say, “Mr Gordon?” We reply yes, looking very confused until they say we are coming to meet you follow us. They then directed us through a maze of turnings until we reached our parking spot – humanly speaking a coincidence they recognised the registration plate of the car that one of them were collecting, don’t want to over spiritualise but nice to think they were sent to guide us in!

And we are off! No delays just slow service as tehy only had one person on ticket check in and then later one person on boarding!

We were met at the airport by Dennis, because of a miscommunication Dennis did not realise there were four us and he brought with him his wife, meaning 6 people for a five-seater car and luggage! We Got the luggage in alright but for those in the back, all four experienced some very close (and in England illegal) fellowship!

A break in the journet to streach those legs and enjoy some coffee!

Arrived safely in Cahul, glad to be unpacked and we are ready to go in the morning!
The city of Cahul is home for now and we will use it as our base to reach out the the villages in the district.

At Luton airport waiting for take-off!

11 day gospel preaching mission planned in association with The Moldovan Mission and local Churches.
The week is organised by The Moldovan Mission and we will be working alongside local Pastors.

Vă mulțumim pentru interes și rugăciuni, ne vedem peste două săptămâni!

Thank you for praying for the Moldova Mission 2023.

The team is made up of four from England, Myself & The Moose (Mark Majunusz), plus David Brown & Matt Downs. The eleven day mission is organised by Mark McCormick of The Moldovan Mission (www.moldovanmission.org). The mission starts Saturday 27th October and we are due to fly back on Tuesday the 7th November.

FRIDAY 27th October:
We fly from Luton and arrive into Chisinau International Airport on Friday evening and travel to our base in Cahul, a city in southern Moldova.
Cahul is 112 miles, about two & half hours car travelling from the airport,

Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th October:
We (myself & the Moose) are with pastor Sasha who is trying to plant a church in the village of Larga (on the Ukraine, Moldovan border). We will be doing aid visits in the day with two Frank (an acronym for the believers unsaved Friends, Relatives, Associates, Neighbours and Kids) evangelistic meetings arranged for the Saturday & Sunday evenings. Biorel and Emilie will be Translating for us.
David & myself will preach Sunday morning in two local Churches and The Moose & Matt will also share their testimonies. The Moose & I will be preaching in Manta (Manta is a commune in Cahul District, Moldova. It is composed of two villages, Manta and Pașcani).

A busy time ahead
We expect to be busy everyday with lots of last minute additions to a busy programme but this is confirmed to us the night before and can even change by morning breakfast! But that is the joy of Moldova! For now this is all the info we have…

Thursday 2nd November
we (myself & the Moose) will go pastor Ion Pavalache to a village called Cazangic (Cazangic is a commune in Leova District, Moldova. It is composed of three villages: Cazangic, Frumușica and Seliște) where pastor Ion is also trying to plant a church. This will also be aid visits and a FRANK meeting at the end we might get a chance to speak to school kids and even teachers – TBC.

The power of prayer:
For the past 12 weeks the believers linked to the mission have committed themselves to pray everyday for 12 individual FRANKs!
The have prayed that God will draw their FRANKs to Christ and that when they invite them to the outreach meetings in their homes they will come
.Weeks of prayer from the believers mean those we encounter will have already been prepared by God to listen to and receive the gospel and I believe the mission will be especially fruitful because of that!

I hope to be able upate regular news & photos of the trip on this website!

Please pray for:

·The wives back at home.
·Health (bed bugs, COVID, etc.)
·Safety (bad roads & mad drivers)
·Energy (2-7 meetings per day)
·Guidance & flexibility over what to preach on
·Translators, who are vitally important
·Hearers to turn to Christ in repentance & faith