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

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.