Easter flowers

Our Heavenly Father, true and eternal God!

We come to You as your children and we praise You and worship You this Easter morning as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man. We are eternally thankful to You for raising Christ, the Messiah from the dead, Who paid for our sin, conquered the power of death and brought us eternal life.

We thank You, Almighty God, for making us alive together with Christ, in abundance of your mercy and love with which You loved us. You seated us in heavenly places in Him forever.

And we thank you for working in us, in our everyday life with the same power with what you raised Christ from the dead, which gave us power, hope and victory.

Let our celebration raise us up and renew our lives through Your Word by Your Spirit that is within us! Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You forever and ever.

Amen!

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses… – Acts 1:8

God is moving in the hearts of people in our churches. More and more people are going into the mission field as church planters, missionaries and leaders. Recently, we received the good news from Helen Vasilishin, a single mom with a 12-year-old daughter, Carolina, that she heard God’s call to go into missions and to move 400 km South from the city of Edinet where she and her daughter live now.

Helen & Carolina Vasilishin

Helen is a French and English teacher and speaks two other languages, Romanian and Russian. Since she was saved, Helen took a number of training sessions at our Institute for Leaders in Cupcini. She completed a number of additional courses as well. Her experience in outreach projects include: the free medical clinic, evangelistic English camps, Vacation Bible School and puppet shows.

As soon as Helen heard the call from the Lord, she said “yes,” and was ready to move to Cahul, South Moldova immediately. When she was asked when she wanted to move to Cahul, she said, “I am ready to go right now, why wait?”

We met and prayed for this adventure with the Lord, and in a couple of weeks we were on the road with our van filled to the top with all of Helen’s belongings. It was a winter day and a blizzard came in the afternoon that made us turn back and take another road in order to get to southern part of the country.

Helen is joining our missionaries who minister in the Radio Ministry in Cahul, Vladlena and Iurii Semeniuc. The place she will stay is a rented room in a house where we pray to start Sunday church services for all people involved in home Bible studies in the city during the week. Three to four times per year Helen will be taking more training at Cupcini Institute for leaders along with many other missionaries and leaders from Moldova and other countries.

Please pray God will use Helen and Carolina in starting home Bible studies in Cahul with children, students and adults. Pray God will touch the hearts of people and bring them to salvation as Helen starts one-on-one studies with people in the city and English clubs for children and youth.

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. – 2 Timothy 2:2

From January 4-15, 2010 one of our pastors from Balti City Church of Hope, Vasile Sanduleac, visited Kharkiv, Ukraine to take a leaders training institute on evangelism and discipleship. More than two million people live in this city, with less than one percent of evangelical believers.

Kharkiv Students 2010

The Precept book of the Gospel of John study was used as curricula for the training. Brothers and sisters from many churches came for the training, and a number of them are serving the Lord as pastors and deacons in local churches. There were 24 students total. Everybody was on fire for the Lord, ready to start their home Bible study groups and teach the Word of God.

The study of the Gospel of John discussed evangelism approaches our Lord Jesus used in different situations with different people, with many times through fulfilling their physical needs first. He moved the discussion to the spiritual condition of sin, showing his listeners the solution. Students were trained to use these same approaches in bringing people to Christ, when they will understand their need of salvation and forgiveness that only our Lord Jesus can give.

It was very encouraging to see Brother Alexandr Lah who attended our training in 2007 when a Church Planting course was taught. That training had such an impact on Alexandr that during the training he asked everybody to pray for the calling he received from the Lord – to move with his wife to the Chernigov region and plant a new church in a city where not even one believer was. Now Alexandr has a church of 15 believers who study the Bible using Inductive study materials. This time he came for the next training to study the Gospel of John and to be prepared to teach it to his new brothers and sisters at home.

Vasile Sanduleac teaching

During this training, the Russian Orthodox Christmas was celebrated on January 7, but our classes were not cancelled even for Christmas day. Everybody was present at the training with all their homework done.

We thank God for a special couple, Victor and Zinaida who coordinate the work in this city and have sacrificed so much to keep this Institute going. They organize the training for us every time we come, and the training becomes a successful effort that brings good results in people’s hearts through the Word of God that is planted.

Please pray for the students as they start 14 home Bible study groups where they will teach 97 students in four cities.

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. – 1 Peter 4:10

Spiritual Gifts classes

God has blessed us with another training institute for leaders from all parts of Moldova that we held January 2-10 in Cupcini. The subject for this institute was Spiritual Gifts, a study by Kay Arthur from Precept Ministry International. We had 56 leaders from many places all across Moldova who studied tirelessly for nine days at the Institute.

The training took place at a local high school, just across the street from Cupcini Church. The outside temperature dropped to 30 below zero and with the heat turned on at the school, it was still very cold in the class. But this did not stop students from coming to the classes. It was a very special time of praying together, sharing meals at one big table at the school’s canteen and doing homework with roommates.

We are so thankful for our church members at Cupcini and Edinet Churches who hosted all the students who came to the Institute from other places. The dedication of these students was incredible as they studied in class for seven hours and did homework for four to five hours more. In the class we had to translate from Russian into Romanian language and back, since we had students who did not understand the other language.

Lesson plan presentation with translation from Romanian to Russian language

Here are some testimonies from students who attended the training:

-               Now, I can better understand the idea of church as Christ’s body and now I understand my role in the church. Also, I think I know what spiritual gift I have.  – Vladlena

-               I learned how to prepare a teaching plan for the lesson I am planning to teach to my students, and I learned how to conduct discussion lessons in the group. – Tatiana

-               This training equipped me with God’s truth to be able stand against false teachings concerning spiritual gifts. I found out how the gifts are given and how to minister to others in Christ’s body with your gift. – Ruslan

-               I learned the difference between spiritual gifts and natural abilities. At the same time all our gifts and talents are to be used in ministry to the church for the glory of the Lord. – Dmitrii

-               I have decided to get actively involved in ministering to the church in order to find where God wants me to serve Him. – Olga

Nicolai grew up in orphanage, now is studying to be Bible teacher

-               I learned how to fill out the lessons in the study book and how to prepare a teaching plan for group discussion. Now I am ready, with new joy and strength to continue studying the Scripture. – Dmitrii

-               During this Institute I learned that spiritual gifts are supernatural abilities given by the Holy Spirit to every believer. I learned that such gift as prophesy exists even today and are practiced in the church.  - Paul

After the training, many students decided to start their home Bible study groups and the number of projected groups was raised to 59 groups in 12 cities across of the country. We pray God will use these men and women of God who love God and His Word and are eager to serve Him in the church and communicate His message of Love to a generation that needs the Gospel so desperately.

Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen – 1 Peter 4:11

So then, those who had received his word were baptized.  - Acts 2:41

7 people join the Cupcini Church

December 13th we had a celebration of God’s Grace in action, as seven new people joined the church and followed the Lord in water baptism.  Our joy was so full because that day our son, Paul Sanduleac, was also baptized and publicly testified of his faith in Jesus Christ. All seven people were from Cupcini and the Lord brought each one of them to the point where they trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior using different people and different pattern.

It was a process each of these people went through before they decided to be baptized and to join the church. For example, Maxim, Peter and Nicolai grew up in orphanage and throughout their childhood they heard the Word of God from Christians that were visiting at the orphanage and teaching the Word of God.  When they enrolled in the Technical School in Cupcini, our sister, Rodica Caraus, started teaching a Bible study and they came.

Paul Sanduleac is being baptized

They were so interested that they wanted to come to the church and see how other people were studying the Word. After a church service they came forward and gave their lives to Jesus Christ. God continued working in their hearts and they responded by dedicating themselves to God completely and joined the church, ready to serve Him wherever He leads.

Valentina is a medical doctor at a Cupcini clinic. Her office was visited by our sister, Lidia, who began telling of the Word of God. Valentina was so interested that she decided to attend church services at our church and a Bible study group. She was saved at an English Camp she attended last summer. In spite of a husband that does not approve of her attending church, she joined the church along with their daughter.

At the market, Olga heard the Gospel from her co-worker who invited her to our church and to a home Bible study. She came and enjoyed studying God’s Word and was saved at the end of a church service. Olga brought all her family to the church baptismal service, her husband and daughter.

Paul gives his testimony

Michael heard the Gospel in the central square of Cupcini when we held Evangelistic meetings and a free medical clinic for the whole city and for needy people. He decided to start attending our church, where later he was saved at a Sunday morning church service.. His baptism was attended by his family, his wife, his children and grandchildren.  They also began attending the church with him.

Paul, our son, was exposed to the Word of God from early childhood. After he was saved, he continued to study God’s Word at home and in Bible study groups, learning the Word in Russian, Romanian and English.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, tothe breaking of bread and to prayer.   –    Acts 2:42

The church was filled and many new people who came to observe a New Testament baptism of their friends and relatives. After the baptism we had the Lord’s Supper for all church members. Everybody who was baptized that day received a bouquet of flowers, a card and Bible study book, called “A Surrendered Walk”, by Wayne Barber.

For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.   –  1st Timothy 3:13

Cupcini Church Congregation

God has blessed a special celebration at the Cupcini Christian Church.  Planted 15 years ago, the church is now over one hundred and ten church members, and ministers to over seven hundred people in schools, orphanages and prisons.  In spite of many people moving out of the country, missionaries that have moved to other cities to plant new churches, and a large number of students that move to bigger cities and join universities, the church is growing. Because of this, in addition to Victor Vasciuc, our first deacon, God has showed us the need to ordain a new deacon in our congregation.

Dumitru Rusnac was recently ordained as a deacon at the Cupcini Church.  He is a man whose testimony of turning to God continues to encourage many. During Soviet times, Dumitru was looking for a Bible to buy, but could not find one for sell. Finally he found a person that owned a Bible and let Dumitru borrow it for two weeks. Dumitru decided to read it and copy, by hand, just the most important parts. To his surprise, he could not leave out even one chapter.  Everything was very important.  Disappointed he could not copy the whole Bible, two weeks later he returned the Bible to the owner. But he rejoiced as he still got to read it for 2 weeks day and night. Several years later, he found a Bible for sell.  For the price of three months salary, he purchased it as soon as he could.

Years passed and nine years ago Dumitru’s family was saved. First his son, Vasile, second his wife, Lidia and finally his daughter, Oxana. Dumitru decided he would continue reading the Bible, but always was postponing his decision to trust Jesus personally.  He thought he  was religious enough. One day, as he was on the street, he spotted a Christian track on a side of a garbage truck. After asking permission from the driver, he got the track and read God’s simple plan of salvation. Next, right on the street, he stopped and prayed to God, asking forgiveness for being stubborn and for not trusting Jesus. At the next church service he trusted himself to Jesus and asked to be baptized.

Ordination certificate for new deacon

Since then, for nine years, Dumitru has proven himself trustworthy and faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He never missed a Bible study or a church service.  He has a good reputation at work, with neighbors and church members. Both he and his wife, Lidia, are always ready to help with anything needed at the church.  Through both both physical help and spiritual, they prove their spiritual maturity in Christ.

We pray God will bless and grow the church through Dumitru’s ministry.  We pray God will bring many to salvation through the ministry of this couple.  They are dedicated to the Lord in Studying the Word of God, teaching home Bible studies, witnessing door to door, and encouraging and ministering to many church members.

Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples!                                                                      Psalm 96:3

Blog-training class

On Dec. 5, with God’s help, we had our first blog-training seminar for people from our churches who are interested in this ministry field and ready to use the Internet for the proclamation of the Gospel. It is a great opportunity since over 1million people who live in Moldova have a computer connected to the Internet, and young people spend many hours a week in Internet cafes in cities and villages.

We felt God calling us to start a Web ministry to reach as many as God gives us over the Internet and outside Moldovan borders. Our vision is to build a team of bloggers that will provide a wide spectrum of spiritual materials online, but at the same time, be united in offering the Word of God both to unbelievers and believers.

Many people wanted to come, but based on the number of computers available and room size, we had to limit the number to 25 people from many churches that were registered for the training. We also had a young man, Anatolii from Ukraine, who wants to use this tool to proclaim the Word of God in the Ukrainian language.

We began by reading text from the book of Romans where Paul says: “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish” (Romans 1:14). We also studied a segment from Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians: “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some” (I Corinthians 9:22).

We understand that our responsibility in the Gospel is to serve people where they are and bring the Word of God to them so that they might be saved through faith in our Lord Jesus. This is the goal of this ministry. Also, we want to provide encouragement and instructions from the Word of God to the believers online.

Next, we studied blogging itself. We went through the basics of blogging terminology and techniques, and every participant started his blog right away!

“I have never dreamed of having my own personal blog,” said Cristina.

“I did not imagine before that the Internet can have such an impact on society!” shared Raisa.

The blogs that were started are in two different languages: Russian and Romanian. Some are for couples, some are for young people, some are for children, and some are for adults.

“This seminar opened a new door and new opportunity for me to serve God,” said Alla. “All the information I got at the training was new to me, but it was very interesting information as well.”

Ruslan decided to participate in this new ministry and to make maximum effort in offering quality and interesting material for people to read, and in this way, share the Gospel to people who do not know Jesus.

“It was very inspiring and encouraging,” he said.

Every participant was so excited to learn how to blog and encouraged to use it for furthering the Gospel. We decided to hold these trainings once a month in order to provide ongoing training for people who are involved in the blogging ministry. Please pray God will use this ministry to reach many with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Iurii is teaching "How to have a real realationship with God" study

On Nov. 14-15, a team of seven people from several churches in Northern Moldova went on a short Mission trip to Cahul in Southern Moldova. These men and women joined Vladlena and Iurii Semeniuc, our missionaries in Cahul, and with God’s help, were able to conduct street evangelism, visitations, and teach home Bible studies to families who had previously invited us to come, as well as in families they visited for the first time. As we were praying for this project, God put together a wonderful team of people!

A total number of 30 families opened their homes for our people who also visited dozens of other addresses, but nobody was at home to answer. In each home, our missionaries presented the Gospel using the Evangelism Explosion program by Dr. D. James Kennedy. We presented the gospel to 12 families on the Gospel of John (8:31-47). Eleven families invited us to come back and continue to study the Word of God! One person was saved as a result of this project!

Here what our team members had to say about the trip:

Nadejda with her first disciple

“I have been praying to God to show me what ministry He prepared for me in the church. When I heard about the mission trip to Cahul, I immediately knew I need to go. And as I needed to go to work and sell vegetables at the market, otherwise it will jus go bad and I will lose money, I decided to leave my vegetables at home in God’s hands and go to Cahul to proclaim Gospel of Jesus Christ to people there. I am so glad I went to Cahul! God has answered my prayer and showed me the ministry He prepared for me – to be an evangelist and preach the Gospel to people that do not know Jesus yet!” – Nadejda

“It was such a blessing to see our people come and support us not just from a distance but to be in our home, to pray with us, to study the Word with us and to visit all these addresses walking many miles per day! It was such a help for us in our work!” – Vladlena

“As we were coming out of an apartment building and nobody responded at the address we were looking for, several ladies asked us at the door who are we and what are we looking for… We told them that we are Christians and we preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ! All three ladies asked us to tell them what we are telling everybody and this way God gave us three more people that heard the Gospel! Praise the Lord!” – Silvia

“We were going to the family that asked us to continue Bible study at their home. On the way, we saw a group of ladies and decided the Lord wants them to hear the Gospel as well. We asked them if they would give us 5 minutes for true story to share. They agreed and we presented the Good News of Jesus Christ using Evangecube!” – Raisa

Vadim and Genadii are ready for new visits

“We went to visit an eleven-year-old boy who attended one of our Evangelistic meetings before. His grandmother met us at the gate and did not agree to let us into their house. She said that she can only believe Russian Orthodox priests and nobody else. God still used this meeting to further the Gospel, since for 30 minutes we were talking from the Word of God and two adults and two children heard a clear presentation of the Gospel in spite of the grandmother’s arguments!” – Genadii

“We went to visit a lady named Alla and presented our Bible study lesson to her. As we were finishing teaching, Alla’s husband came home. He had many questions from the Bible, so we gladly spent more time in their home answering those questions. At the end, both Alla and her husband decided to start a Bible study group in their home!” – Vadim

Please continue to pray for the city of Cahul where about 60,000 people live so that a church will be planted there. Pray for our missionaries, Vladlena and Iurii Semeniuc, who run a Christian radio station 24/7 and teach a dozen Bible study groups per week. Join us in praying for more missionaries to move to Cahul and assist them in accomplishing this task for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.   –  Matthew 28:19

Russian Orthodox Church building in the center of Comrat

We praise our Lord Jesus Christ for the opportunity He gave us to organize a mission trip in November 2009 to Comrat, South Moldova! It was an effort of several churches combined: a team of five went to Comrat from Northern Moldova churches and another team of five went from Chisinau, the capital of the country. They met with Ecaterina, our first convert from Comrat, that leads our visitation ministry in the area. The goal of the mission effort was to visit people that had previously visited our evangelistic meetings, those who had expressed the desire to learn more about God and start a home Bible study.

It was interesting to see how differently we were received from home to home. Some people were ready to start a Bible study right away, and others told us they did not have time. We were glad to see new converts from our churches joining the team with a great determination to tell others about Jesus Christ.

Lenin monument in the center of Comrat

Our teams, organized by two people, taught from the Gospel of John 3:1-21. People listened with great attention, and agreed with what they read, even forgetting that they had a limited time to spend with us. As a result, two ladies trusted Jesus and gave their lives to Him! Praise the Lord!

“One time, by mistake, we rang the bell at the wrong door. When the people answered we found that it was a family that also attended our programs in the past, but did not fill out the registration form at the end of the service. We began our discussion on the porch, but ended teaching an inductive Bible study in the kitchen. This lady graciously invited us into her home for a cup of tea. Her grandchildren also heard the Gospel. This lady had many questions from her previous contacts with different cults. She had many religious books on her shelf, but when I asked her to bring her Bible it took her a while to find it. When we were leaving, the lady invited us to come back and continue to study the Bible.” says Lidia, a missionary from Cupcini.

For Valentina, a new convert from Cupcini, it was her first mission trip. She worked many hours visiting families in Comrat. When someone would say that they do not have time for the Word of God, she mentioned that our team traveled 350 kilometers to tell them about Jesus! It usually changed people’s attitude and they agreed to do a Bible study lesson or listen to the Gospel presentation.

Vasile, our missionary and pastor in Chisinau went to the village of Feropontievka to do Church service with a Gypsy family.  He said, “When I arrived, seven adults and two children gathered to hear the Word of God. The words that I heard upon arrival were, “We were waiting for you!” We studied Ephesians 4 and as we were studying they were repeatedly saying, “It is exactly about us!”

Russian Orthodox Church Bell Tower

Rustam, our missionary from Briceni, shared with us about his experiences in Comrat as well. After looking for the address for several hours, he finally found right house. “After some time spent in a spiritual discussion, we learned that the lady we were talking to lost all of her family members in a short period of time. Our visit to this devastated soul was so important and timely, that only Our God could have orchestrated it all.”

As result of this mission effort, God blessed us with twenty meetings where the Gospel was presented and the Gospel of John was taught.  Two people were saved. Once again we saw how large a need there is for the Word of God to be taught and the Gospel to be presented to these people that are in great need of salvation. Please continue to pray for all of the people that received us into their homes so they will continue reading and studying the Bible, the true Word of God. Pray that they will come to a personal knowledge of the truth and be born again into God’s family.

Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. – Hebrews 13:3

For decades, Christians in Moldova faced severe persecution from the soviet government.  Our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ were harassed, fined, arrested, sentenced to prison, and even killed for their faith.  Believers from different denominations paid a price for following Jesus Christ and for bringing their children to church services.  Today we experience partial freedom in our country, but at the same time, we remember it was not always this way.  We also know brothers and sisters in other countries who are facing persecution.

Cupcini Day of Prayer for Persecuted Church

Our family was one of many who went through persecution during these times.  One instance, the soviet government brought my uncle to the center of the city and intentionally ran over him with a truck killing him.  Another time, schoolteachers came to our home and yelled at my parents for hours just because they took my two brothers and me to church.  Another time, doctors at the hospital would not provide treatment for me because I was a child of a preacher.

This past Sunday, joining with churches worldwide, all of our churches dedicated our Sunday morning service to pray for the persecuted churches in today’s world.  We began all of our church services with worship songs and prayer.  After reporting on the persecution in other countries, everyone formed teams of three to four people and prayed for each country where our brothers and sisters are currently undergoing persecution for the beliefs in Jesus Christ.

World map presentation at the Day of prayer for persecuted church

As suggested by the World Evangelical Alliance, we also prayed for other religions in countries where Christians are currently suffering religious persecution.  We prayed for the Muslim world in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Algeria, and for communist countries such as China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Turkmenistan.  We included Buddhist countries, Burma and Sri Lanka and Hindu countries, Nepal and India.  We also prayed for countries such as Ethiopia, The Philippines, Columbia, and Mexico, where Christians are persecuted for reasons other than religious beliefs.  It was an eye opening experience to actually hear personal testimonies from our church members who been to many of these countries.

We also prayed for the part of Moldova called Transnistria.  The Russian 14^th Army currently controls this area and has attempted to declare a separate new state, but has not been successful.  No other country officially recognizes this area as independent from Moldova.  However, the communist regime is in power there and Christians are not free to share their faith with others.  Please pray with us for this small area of our country that needs the Gospel proclaimed.

Day of Prayer for persecuted Church, Balti City Church of Hope

Most people listened to the report with a notebook and pen in hand.  Now, with people in their home Bible study groups, they will share and pray for persecuted believers around the world.  Therefore, prayer does not stop at the end of Sunday church service, but it continues.  It was a day filled with more prayer than usual during our Sunday morning church services, but it was a great blessing and was very helpful to everybody who attended.

We pray for those all around the world who are suffering persecution.  These are God’s precious children.  We ask that God touches every one of them in a very special way and will pour His peace into their hearts.