Archive for the ‘General News’ Category

Well it’s all over for another year, but not quite! When you sow good seed it is a case of wait and see!
Thank you for your support & prayers they were very much appreciated.

Last day of preaching for the Moose & me!

This morning –
A preach at Tiganca, to share the Word of God with the mixed ages present! No appeal made but we felt it was a useful meeting.
Please pray for Denis & his wife Valentina (& 3 children) who are Church planting in this tough village. The Church meetis in the only room available for hire.

THE CHURCH:

MOOSE’S TESTIMONY:
The Moose (Mark Majnusz) sharing his testimony at the morning service in Tiganca.
Translator: David Telpiz

This afternoon –
A FRANK meeting at the Church in Gotesti, those who came along were the mothers of the children who regularly attend kids Clubs or Sunay school. We had three groups all going on at the same time, one lady Dianna made a response at the appeal.

This evening –
Our final meeting of the Mission:
A FRANK meeting a home in Gotesti. This was my favourite meeting of the day because it sums up the unique beauty and unusualness of Moldova.
We had a Russian speaking lady who moved into the ajoining room with her baby, a deaf lady who needed all things signing as well as translated, a man who had no concentration and looked like he was taken up with his own thoughts, two senior adults who had obviously been drinking, add to that a young child who kept running in and out of the room! Our translator then got a ‘frog’ in his throat and had trouble speaking during the second part of the sermon. Then at the appeal, I am praying a prayer of response when the doorbell goes (by doorbell we mean mad barking dog in the yard) and in walks the pastor (yep, all about timing!) – on a human level it is chaotic madness, but God is sovereign and five people responded at the appeal and it would seem the Pastor will do a Bible study in that home with them.

A day of resistance in Chincari, from argumentative men to uninterested teenagers, but we press on and preach the gospel. Today was also a varied day.

A FRANK meeting with three senior ladies, all three were crying at some stage during our preaching (yep, I can hear you making your own jokes up!), so we assumed they were touched by the message, but no visible response to the appeal.

A few home visits to cha to contacts in the village, great to meet Vanya(lady on the right) who quoted John 3:16 from memory and knew some of the Bible stories, she used to attend the Church but married a non-Christian and no longer attends, she asked for a Bible, but it would be great to see her going back to the Church.

An outdoor meeting under the porch, there was thunder, lightening and torrential rain and the temperature dropped but the FRANK group turned into two big discussions (heat6ed arguments) because of what was said. Pray that the Pastor will be able to follow up and develop the conversations.

This evening was a youth group, typical teenagers but it is hard to get a repour when the local youth leaders allow the young people to come in and out the room as they please, or sit at the back looking at phone messages etc. There was good listening from a couple of the lads, please pray in the word spoken!

p.s.
We heard today (Sunday) that this was the first time these young people had listened to a preacher! I spoke for about 30mins, so PTL for this opportunity!

THE MORNING:
The team split up into various distribution teams and took the Food Aid, parcels to some of the villagers.

THE AFTERNOON:
WOW! What a reception, anyone would have thought we were royalty! A meeting in the park as the buildings were all occupied due to local elections, but when we arrived the mayor was on hand to greet us and alongside here was about thirty-five people from the village.
This was my favourite meeting of the week, we taught the kids an action song and they enthusiastically joined with us in copying the various movements, the photos cannot capture the peoples excitement or the concentrated way they listened to the Moose share his testimony and I shared the gospel through the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector, for us as a team, it will leave a lasting memory in our hearts.
The mayor was also thrilled as we were the first English people she has ever met in person.
Not the place or the time for an appeal but as a seed sowing opportunity it will compliment the ongoing outreach in this isolated village.

The second meeting was in a small Church in Antonesti, the tiny chapel was full, and people responded to trust Christ at the appeal. It was so nice to hear the girls voices on the front row all saying the resonse prayer out loud, I hope they meant it!

THE EVENING:
The third meeting at Larguta was again vastly different, this was a typical FRANK meeting as we waited for those invited to turn up, as you can see from the photo they came! The room did not help as it was thin and narrow and the light was not great, but the people listened and so much laughter as they enjoyed the illustrations and storytelling. Once again, there was a good response to the appeal.
It is good for the ego when you hosts tell you the meeting was, “Absolutely perfect.” We give God the glory for using the likes of us to speak to these lovely people.

A long day (12 hours) for our team – Pastor Ion, The Moose and I with our translator Viorel (Theo) went to the village of Cazangic, we made 8 aid visits leaving behind some much-needed food packages & one wheelchair, some of the poverty we saw today is heartbreaking!

The evening finished with a FRANK group, just as I was about to make the appeal when two ladies and child turned up, one of the ladies had been drinking and so their appearance changed everyone’s focus, so we did a review and the session and that flowed went into a Q&A session – some great questions and real sense of God’s help & presence.

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!

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,