Ruslan at the church service in Cupcini

Ruslan, a 17-years-old young man, was saved at the Franklin Graham Festival that we partnered in organizing in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, in 2006. Since then, Ruslan has joined our church in Cupcini and brought his mother and grandmother to the Lord.

We could not imagine how the Lord was going to use this young man for His glory! Now he sings on our worship team, and his whole family is very active in church ministries.

Every summer Ruslan joins Moldova for Christ English Camp as a team leader. This gave him the opportunity to share Christ not only with the kids who come to the camp but also after the camp when he wears the English Camp t-shirt with Acts 16:31 printed on the back.

At school, his teacher had Ruslan sit in the front desk, so the whole class could read the Bible verse on his back. The scripture says, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved – you and your household. Several students approached Ruslan and asked him what those words meant. It was an answer to Ruslan’s prayer for the opportunity to share the Gospel with his classmates! Ruslan shared the Word of God with his classmates, and many were amazed by his answers. Even teachers asked how he knew the Bible so well.

Ruslan continued to pray for his classmates and for another opportunity to present the Word of God. Every day, he took his Bible and Precept study book waiting to see how the Lord would answer his prayer and ready to give an account of his faith at any time.

God heard his prayer – a teacher let someone from the class lead a lesson. Ruslan was the first to take this offer. He said, “This is my time and opportunity!” And for 45 minutes, he preached the Gospel and presented the Bible Study book to the whole class and answered their questions about God!

Last week during the history lesson, the teacher gave Ruslan an interesting assignment – to present a lesson on the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament. As he was preparing this presentation, his concern was how to present the Ten Commandments and present the Gospel by explaining how to be saved.

The books of Romans and Galatians were used to lay a foundation for regarding the Ten Commandments from a New Testament point of view. Ruslan had enough materials and Bible verses to speak for more than 40 minutes in from of the whole class! The teacher was very pleased, and when some of the students were not paying attention, the teacher called everyone to listen to the lecture since it was a very valuable lesson for life.

This generated dozens of questions from his classmates. As a result, Ruslan began a Bible study for his classmates to come once a week to his home and study “Having real relationship with God,” a Bible study course by Kay Arthur.

We praise God for the power of the Gospel to save people and to equip them for ministry, as we have observed it at work again and again all over Moldova!

From January 2-11, we had two Precept Leadership Training Institute sessions in Cupcini. God blessed us with 34 students from seven cities across the country. Young and older, men and women, Russian and Romanian speaking – all of these were united by a passion for the Word of God and the desire to tell everyone.

Lessons started early in the morning and went until late afternoon. They studied in class, and everybody was studying at home till late at night. The next morning everybody was in class, joyful and ready to start another day’s journey through the Bible in order to know his or her Savior in a more personal way.

We taught two different courses. The Russian speaking group studied the Gospel of John, Part Two, that covered chapters 12-21, and they also learned how to study a difficult subject in the Bible. The Romanian speaking group studied the book of James and Homiletics, and each student learned how to study a passage, prepare a sermon and then deliver a message. Two trainers taught in different groups: Pastor Vasile Sanduleac from Balti taught the Romanian speaking group and Pastor Vasile Rusnac from Chisinau taught the Russian speaking group.

Because our church building is not finished, we had to rent two classrooms at a local high school. We thank God for not just opening the door for classrooms for us but also for opening the school leaders’ hearts toward helping us in the ministry of training God’s people and establishing them in God’s Word so that they will know Him and will know how to live accordingly.

Since we do not have a dormitory facility, each student who was not from Cupcini stayed with local families, and we are so thankful to God for every family that received a student or two or even three for the period of training, giving them a place to stay, providing food for them and many times helping the students with their homework every evening. It is truly a blessing to see the unity of Christ’s body working toward the goal of knowing Him and getting the Gospel into every village and home in Moldova.

At the end of the training during the midweek church service in Cupcini, every student shared with the body of believers his or her personal testimony on how God was at work in his or her heart during the Training Institute. The church was filled with church members and guests eager to hear of God’s work in our days. It was a great time of building the faith and encouragement for the ones who had opened their home to students from other cities of Moldova.

Every Precept Training Institute involves a practical assignment when students go door-to-door and teach at least one lesson that they have studied in class. It helps them to catch the vision to do the same in their own cities and villages and to start home Bible studies when they will teach the whole course they studied at Training. As a result, many went home and started more than one study group, and people were saved and wanting to join our churches or form a church if there was none in their city, which was often the case. After this training, God put on the hearts of the students from both groups to start new Bible study groups in their cities where local people will come to study God’s Word right in their own neighborhoods.

Please pray that God will move in a powerful way through our students as they boldly proclaim the Gospel and start new home Precept Bible Studies, and pray that people will be saved and join the church.

School # 2 staff with our calendars

Every year for the Christmas celebration, Moldova for Christ ministry provides wall calendars with a nice picture and a Bible verse for each month to the schools, college teachers and mayors of the cities where we have churches planted. The calendars are presented to the whole school staff along with greetings on behalf of our church that is working in the city. This special meeting is a great opportunity to share God’s Word in public schools to teachers.

The calendars are placed on the walls of each classroom so dozens of students have a verse from the Bible in front of their eyes for the whole month. Every month they get another Bible verse to read, which totals 12 Bible verses in a year that teachers, students, parents and guests read on the classroom walls. It is such a blessing to visit schools during the school year or mayor’s office and see the Word of God displayed for everyone to read!

The word of God is alive and working, as God says in Hebrews 4:12. And we know that God’s Word does not return void, but it accomplishes His work of salvation to His glory!

When we came to one of the schools, the principle invited us into her office and said: “You have no idea how many times the Bible verse from your calendar was the support I needed in difficult times. Every time I knew I would have a difficult meeting or discussion with somebody, I first went to the wall with your calendar and read the Bible verse, and God filled my heart with peace and confidence. Many times when students or parents attacked me verbally, I came to the Word of God on the calendar to regain peace for my soul. Thank you so much for bringing a new calendar! Now, I am ready for another year of my work of investing eternal values into the hearts of our children!”

Cupcini Tech School Staff with calendars

Going from school to school, we met hundreds of teachers who were tired and burdened in their hearts. And we could see how the expression on their faces changed completely when they saw us coming with a calendar for the new year – at the end of our meeting, their faces were smiling and happy. We were able to share 950 calendars for Christmas! It means thousands of people will read Bible verses and receive direction from the Lord during the coming new year! We pray God will produce the fruit of faith in their hearts as we continue to work with these precious workers in education and encourage them to trust Jesus and become His servants, because faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God (Romans 10:17).