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Alexandru Sanduleac

“Church for the world” Training Conference in Cupcini

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Matthew 5:14

We had a very encouraging and refreshing time training our 70 leaders from all over Moldova at the “Church for the World” Conference in Cupcini, Northern Moldova, which was conducted on September 27th.

We had pastors with their families, as well as lay people, who traveled for several hours by public transportation to attend the conference. The main speakers were Trevin Wax from Tennessee and Brian Chocrane from Arkansas. The teaching was translated into Russian and Romanian languages because attendees spoke different languages. At the same time, we felt unity in Christ in spite of the language barriers. Many participants asked us to organize more events like this one in the future.

Church planting in Gagauzia, South Moldova

 

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.  Matthew 28:19-20

From October 7 to 15, a group of 25 people from several of our churches joined the effort in starting church planting work in the city of Comrat, which is the capital of the Gagauz Autonomy, South Moldova.  Gagauzia is the area where about 200,000 former Turkish people live. Hundreds of years ago they were converted to Orthodox Christianity from Islam. God laid on our heart to start an evangelical congregation there with Bill Grubbs and Neal Walls, two preachers from the United States who traveled to Moldova to assist us in this effort and whom we thank our God for.

We visited about 4,000 homes door to door, inviting them to come to our evening Crusade programs. Our people walked miles and miles on the streets of the city since just one main street is 6.5 miles long. Our youth conducted Puppet Show programs right on the main square of the city, and 50 to 70 children attended with their parents daily. Many people brought camcorders to tape the program for their children to able to show it again at home. Sixty-five adults visited our Crusade programs at the central Culture Hall and two people were saved.

In the first part of each day we shared Jesus on the streets. We met several Muslims and a number of people were telling us that they sympathized with Muslims since this area is under heavy influence of Turkey. Amidst the divided population God blessed our discussions and we were able to share Jesus with 150 people on the streets. Everyone filled out a survey on his or her spiritual point of view and 98 people gave their phone numbers and addresses so we could invite them to visit us and tell them more about God.

Please pray God will help us start home Bible studies with new people in Comrat as we keep in touch with them through telephone and mail and as we visit them and start Bible studies with them and their families.

God works, saves, and prevails in Moldova

       For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see. Psalm 36:9

          God’s power is best displayed when we admit our human strength is insufficient to His sovereign strength and ask Him to show up and move in our midst. The children’s English camp just outside the city of Chisinau, Moldova is a perfect example of how God can work through ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

God works. A camp originally intended for 80 children from a local area brought 330 children and youth, ages 6 to 18, from all over Moldova as well as Romania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Poland and Siberia. Three American teams from different states and church backgrounds met each other just one day before camp began. More than 30 Moldovan young people with basic English skills arrived to translate for the American teams and work with all the children. God truly brought all things and people together to achieve His purposes.

            In big and small ways, God showed up. He provided big blessings like great weather, health and safety for the children and volunteers. He also provided small blessings, like a warm shower or piece of fruit for an afternoon snack. And He moved in a huge way across the expanse of the camp. More than a third of the children made decisions of faith in Christ. The “12 and Under” group were taught Old Testament stories about men appointed for God’s work before God sent His Son Jesus to earth. The “Over 12” group studied scripture from John 17-21, which covers Christ’s last days of ministry, his death and resurrection. Songs like “One Way, Jesus”, “Forever”, “Praise Adonai”, “You are Holy”, “Crucified”, and “Your Love is Deep” rang out as themes of praise throughout the week.

O Nations of the world recognize the Lord; recognize that the Lord is glorious and strong.

I Chronicles 16:28

            The Glory of God is man fully alive (Waking the Dead, John Eldridge). Our team discovered the meaning of being truly alive as we used the gifts and abilities God enabled us to give during camp. Anna (Fiser) ministered by teaching and playing soccer and baseball; Shara (Reed) shared her talents of craft-making and story-telling, and Mitzi (Quarterman) witnessed through teaching dance and song. Everyone also shared in small and large group settings. By week’s end, my team truly understood the meaning of Jesus’ words: It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). The day we returned home, I read an excerpt from a daily devotional that spoke to me and seemed to capture our mission experience:

Whenever the Holy Ghost sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality and simply make you blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ (My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers).

            Camp is now over but God’s work is just beginning in the lives of many of the children from camp. These children heard the gospel and witnessed the hands and feet of Christ serving them all week. Christians from all over Moldova are following up with our new brothers and sisters, inviting them to church and Bible study. Just days after camp ended, 15 children attended First Christian Church in the village of Cupcini for the first time. Currently, several teenagers from camp are going through an in-depth Bible study on godly marriage with Pastor Alexandru (Sanduleac).

God saves. The book of Acts gives an account of how the early Christian church was formed and how the message of Christ’s salvation was spread to other nations. Whole nations were reached by a mere handful of zealous followers of Christ. Peter introduced the gospel to one Gentile in Caesarea, Phillip took the message of Christ to Samaria and to one Ethiopian man, and Barnabas influenced the ministry of Paul who spread the gospel to many non-Jews for the first time.

Never underestimate whom God will use to bring His message of redeeming love and salvation to the ends of the earth. 330 children heard this message and returned home to families and friends who perhaps have never heard about Christ’s atoning love and grace. Pray for these young people. Pray they will be part of a mighty generation of believers raised to lead a spiritual awakening in Moldova and beyond. God used one boy to share his loaves of bread and fish with Jesus and thousands were fed and became believers (see John 6). And God can work in the hearts of these children to impact and redeem lives well beyond the borders of one camp, one home, one town and one country.

            God prevails. God does not waste anything we are willing to give, whether it is time, money or other resources. Pray for these children, the Moldova for Christ ministry, the next mission teams and our home church—that we would not waste one bit of who God made us to be. By God’s grace, may we remain faithful to His calling (Acts 13:43).

His purpose in all of this was that the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him.  Acts 17:27

2008 Summer camps

We praise God for the blessings to work with children in Moldova especially knowing that many children do not have their parents close to them, since many parents left the country looking for jobs in other countries in order to provide money to feed their children. The children are often left with their older brothers and sisters, sometimes grandparents and even just neighbors to watch after them. In this situation our Summer Camps are crucial for them because for many of the children it is the only opportunity to experience love, care and understanding. For many children and youth, our camps are the help they need to stay away from getting into smoking, drinking and drugs.

This year, by God’s grace, we were able to organize 17 summer camps in many cities and villages with over 1,100 participants. Most of the camps were day camps when children came for the day, and at the end of the program they were sent to their homes. In the morning, the program started again. We taught Bible study to them, sang many Christian songs, played games and sports, spent time with them showing love and care, and hugging and encouraging them.

Every morning kids would come 1-2 hours early, because they were looking forward to our programs and just couldn’t wait. When we arrived they ran to our car with a smile and expectation. Our youth prepared Puppet Shows for every day when children could meet different animals and birds from the other side of the world, telling them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Everyday we had newcomers because they were telling their friends about the program and somebody would get interested and join the crowd. Usually the group almost doubled every day. And the most difficult thing was to close the program on the last day. Children were crying and asking to come back and some were even running after our car as we were leaving.

We went from village to village, and every time we found children ready to hear the story of Jesus at any cost. Sometimes it would rain and most children did not have an umbrella, but it was not a problem because they came anyway. Many times they had their little baby brothers and sisters to watch after, but this wasn’t a problem because they would carry them up to 1-2 km in their arms just to be able to hear the stories from God’s Word.

Even adults attended the children’s lessons. In one village, a lady about 90-years-old was present every single day at our lessons. She could not stand for the whole lesson, but it was not a problem – she brought a little chair every day and sat and listened God’s Word.

The camps were also a great encouragement for our missionaries that are planting churches in villages as they participated in these camps along with our teams. It also gave our missionaries a new field of work – visiting all of the families represented in the camps and starting new home Bible studies with these families for follow up.

Baptism in Briceni

It was a special blessing to baptize new believers at an outdoor baptismal service on the lake in the city of Briceni. It was our first baptismal service in this city, and many people came to attend this New Testament baptism for the first time in their life. God touched the heart of every person that attended and even the hearts of the guards of the lake as well as the hearts of the police that came to see what was going on at the lake. We had a worship service at the shore. We sang hymns and preached about the meaning of baptism. Then seven people were baptized and each gave his personal testimony about how he first heard about Jesus and how he came to the decision to be baptized and join the local church. After the baptism, everyone who was baptized was applauded with much joy and support from the whole congregation.

The second part of the service was the Lord’s Supper for the church and new believers when we thanked God for sending His only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Many non-Christian relatives and friends along with family members of the new believers attended the service and heard the Gospel preached.

At the end of the service we presented a Bible study book, a welcome greeting card and flowers to each new believer welcoming them into God’s family.

Everyone who was baptized had a story to tell. Elena is a professor at local Technical school and heard the Gospel when our Student ministry teams went to witness to her students. Dima had a classmate from our church that told him about Jesus. Tatiana heard about the Lord in Sunday school. Corina was saved at our Summer English camp. Dina heard about the Lord from her mother who was recently saved. Galina and Maria heard about God from our team that visited their home. Right before the day of the baptism, Maria fell down and broke her left arm. We suggested she get baptized next time, but she was determined to get baptized this time. She wrapped her arm in a cast with a plastic bag, secured it with scotch tape and was baptized, becoming an outstanding testimony for everyone.

All of these new believers serve God in local churches and are helping others to come to the Lord and be saved. 

Moldova Summer English Camp, 2008

Every Summer Moldova for Christ Ministry organizes English camp, where young people from Moldova and other countries can come and spend 10 days learning English language using Bible Study materials. Each time we use a different Precept study for this purpose. Worship songs in English during our chapels in the morning and evening are another great opportunity to sharpen your English.

This year we had our English camp in July, in a nice place in the Codri Forest or Moldova. Over 360 participants came from Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan and USA. The study for the English Camp 2008 was Jesus: to eternity and beyond, Precept, which is based on the Gospel of John, chapters 17 though 21.

All camp was divided in 23 teams, led by 23 national leaders. Every team met at least 2 times a day for 2 hours of group Bible Study, discussions and fellowship. Activities directors offered a variety of choices for afternoon activities, like crafts, visual arts, puppet show training, ping-pong, baseball, solo training, guitar lessons, soccer and softball.

God moved in the hearts of 25 brothers and sisters from United States of America to come and help us in teaching English and leading teams and the camp itself. We thank our God for partnership with churches from 3 states: Mississippi, North Carolina and Florida in this project.

And we have seen God at work in the hearts of all participants of the camp. at the beginnning of the camp over 70% were non-Christian, but by the end of the camp 128 of them were saved and gave their lives to Jesus.

Please be praying about partnering with Moldova for Christ Ministry in organizing, supporting and conducting Summer English camps. it is an outstanding opportunity to reach the young generation of Moldova for Christ!