Jesus Christ commended his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. To accomplish that mission, we need to plant the seeds of the Gospel into the hearts of people, as it says in Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.” One of the strategies we used was our partnership with Campus Crusade for Christ in bringing the Jesus Film Project to Moldova.

Since its release in 1976, the Jesus Film has been watched by more than 6 billion people and has been translated into more than 1,000 languages and shown in more than 200 countries. This does not come as a surprise because it is an actual, dramatized presentation of the Bible from the Gospel of Luke that describes the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a very interesting and attractive way and filmed in Israel.

Jesus Film Shows Planning

Our first mass project and shows were in the summer of 2001. The Moldova for Christ vision is that every person in Moldova will hear a clear presentation of the Gospel and be given the opportunity to trust Jesus and be saved. Since this is our mission, we decided to show this movie in 65 cities and villages in Moldova.

The project began with a prayer conference with about 100 brothers and sisters coming to pray for this project, for the people of Moldova to be receptive to the Word of God, and for us to be guided by the Spirit of God when we were going from village to village and from city to city.

Jesus Film Teams Training

Five teams were formed to take the Jesus Film into five locations at the same time. We rented and borrowed equipment for our teams, and with much prayer, in obedience to the Lord’s command, we went to these cities and villages. Two to three days before the show, our teams went door to door inviting people to the program and putting up posters. On the day of the show, Christians saw the result of their labor and prayers. As soon as the sun went down and the time of the show was approaching, people began to gather – starting with children, then youth and followed by adults and grandparents.

During the program we watched their thoughtful faces as they were watching the story of Jesus, and we prayed that they would trust Jesus with their whole hearts. At the end of the show, we gave an invitation to trust Jesus as personal Savior and Lord, and we saw hands going up at every show. We heard the sinner’s prayer repeated out loud by children and adults, and our hearts were filled with joy and thanks to our Lord for saving new people again and again.

During this project that lasted three months, we showed the Jesus Film more than 120 times, and more than 15,000 people watched it and more than 1,200 trusted Jesus. Praise the Lord! After each show, we had discussions and answered questions for up to two hours. People did not want to leave, and they asked us lots of questions about God, the Bible, eternal life and salvation.

And of course, we did not miss the opposition. In many places the evil one made himself visible to us and our team members. In some places our teams were met by angry people, who were sent by Russian Orthodox priests. In the village of Burlanesti our team was stopped in the middle of a forest by a gang of angry and drunk Russian Orthodox people with sticks and shovels in their hands ready to beat our team up in order to prevent the Jesus Film show from taking place. In the village of Stolniceni right before the show pieces of wood with nails going up were hidden in the grass right in front of the Culture Hall where our team arrived and where people from the village had to walk to enter the place. It did not surprise us because throughout history the witnesses of God’s Word had many who opposed them. Opposition was further proof for the Apostle Paul that he was on the right path, as he stated in Philippians 1:29: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.”

God uses ordinary people for his extraordinary plan. And all glory is His. All we need to do is to surrender to His will. We strive to bring people into personal relationship with God in every place He sends us: in schools, in places of work, in neighboring villages or in far away countries. And the results of our obedience are His.