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.

As we are planting churches and teaching Bible courses to different congregations, we have found studying one book of the Bible at a time, verse by verse, to be very insightful. This approach gives you a good context of the book you are studying and reveals the whole counsel of God from a certain book of the Bible.

The Lord gave us a vision of teaching the whole Bible in our churches, book by book. We developed a plan of Bible study for our churches: the midweek meetings are dedicated to the study of an Old Testament book, on Sunday morning we study a New Testament book, and on Sunday evening we cover a topical course or do a character study. For curriculum, we use Precept Bible Study materials.

In Edinet Grace Church we just finished studying the book of Deuteronomy, verse by verse and chapter by chapter. It took us one year to do the study. The church does not have a permanent place to worship; many times the church services and Bible studies were held under a tree in the central part of the city. When it rained, we were not able to have church services. But everybody was so eager to learn God’s truth, even in the middle of city noise by reading Bible texts aloud, taking notes and participating in discussion. Nicolai, who recently had a difficult surgery on his back and cannot sit down, does not want to miss a Bible study lesson and attends every meeting and stands the whole time.

Edinet Grace Church Bible Study

It is such a joy to study the Word with these precious children of God who love Him and His Word so much! Here are some thoughts from our brothers and sisters after we finished the study of Deuteronomy:

-          Through the study of Deuteronomy, God is preparing us to enter the heavenly land, teaching us every single detail in following Him (Irina)

-          When Israel was so close to the Promise Land, God was not in a hurry. He gave the whole Law again, showing the importance of God’s Word and His guidance (Alina)

-          In preparation of the people of Israel to enter the Promise Land, God gives them teaching and warning about both the blessings and the curses (Andrei)

-          Once again, we see the holiness of the Lord and perfection of His laws (Alex)

-          All of Israel was very well organized, each person was put in the list of his family and tribe and everyone knew his place in Israel (Efrosinia)

-          Moses is a great example to us of obedience, even at his death, when God told him to go up to the mountain to die, and later in the last chapter, we see how Moses fulfills the Word of the Lord exactly (Alexei)

-          Moses loved this nation, in spite of their condition (Elena)

-          Today we have the same options from the Lord: to choose life or death (Nicolai)

-          Moses was brave in telling the Word of God to the people of Israel, not being afraid of people (Tatiana)

-          – In the book of Deuteronomy we can see God’s character very clearly in different circumstances. He is the Great I Am, Faithful, The One who keeps His Word in spite of what people say or do. Israel did not listen to the Lord, but He remains Holy, ready to bless you in every step if you will obey His Word (Natalia)

-          God is preparing His people for all possible situations of life – when there is peace in the land, when there is war, when you are on the field, when you are at home. (Silvia)

-          God was preparing Israel for something much better then what they had in Egypt or wilderness. (Rodica)

-           The Lord always wanted Israel to be a Holy land and even blood had to be washed out. (Tonia)

-          Many times we think that if we do not do it ourselves and right now – it will never be accomplished. But Moses learned to wait on the Lord and obey Him. (Arcadie)

-          Our God is a God whose blessings go for a thousand generations and curses just to the third one. And from the very first people did not live til a thousand generations, so His blessings cover us all. (Valentina)

Please pray for us as we are starting to study the next book of the Bible – the book of Joshua — that this will be a blessed time with many insights from the Lord for everybody of Edinet Grace Church.

…A quiet winter evening..  It is cold and snow is creaking under our feet. In a such freezing winter evening nobody wants to get out on the street, instead, everybody want s to find a warm place in their home comfort, to watch a TV program, to read an interesting book or to do some work in the house. An usual day approaches its end.

It was a similar day, when our Jesus Christ was born, our Lord and God, Creator, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Everything was going its way, people were busy doing their usual work, spinning in the circle of life problems and not knowing that next to them, very close, something great is taking place, not knowing that the event seeming to be ordinary, will change the way the history goes and will open eternity to every person. In that night the Lord sent his angels to tell the shepherds in the field the joyful news for all humankind “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) When shepherds believed this message they became it’s messengers. They overcame their natural fear and stepping in faith “they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child.”(Luke 2:17)

From door to door, from heart to heart

Over two thousand years passed since then. Life goes on. Technology and science din not give us more time in our daily life. We are busy with our earthly efforts and cares that claim majority of our time and many times it is difficult for us to be pulled out of all of that. In spite of this our Lord is calling us today to become messengers that like old shepherds will proclaim the Good News about Jesus Christ. On the eve of Christmas, brothers and sisters from our churches decided to congratulate people in many cities of Moldova, such as Cupcini, Balti, Edinet, Briceni, Parcova, Hasnasenii Mari, Stolniceni – visiting them door to door with carols programs. So, we organized 10 teams from 5 to 15 people in each and went caroling from house to house. 130 doors were opened and people stepped out in the 10 below zero temperature and with eagerness listened to the songs about Jesus’ birth and Bible verses recited solemnly in the dark. We also explained what does Christmas mean for us and why it is such a joy. At least 213 people heard the gospel at their doors in one evening. Many were surprised to see church come to visit them. Many began singing with us. Other were crying being touched by the Word of God. Some hugged us and invited to come again. Almost in every home we were presented with some kind of gifts – cookies, oranges, apples, candies. Some people even gave some money to pay church bills. Some begged we go and visit their neighbors and tell then the Good News about Jesus.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come…”(Revelation 3:20)

In this evening we saw many doors – old and cracked, other were new, armored and expensive. We knocked and some doors were opened wide, some were opened just a little, and other were not opened – people just looked through the door eye and being not brave enough to open the door listened to the program from the other side of the door. Some doors were closed and seemed frozen and lifeless with no sign of any movement. It was just as people’s hearts! In the same way we open the doors of our hearts for Jesus Christ. At the same time we know that we were God’s messengers and He gave a chance to every person to hear the Good News and put their faith in Jesus Christ. And we are thankful to God for the opportunity to share the Gospel with many people.

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!