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.

Kids enjoyed time together

At the end of the year 2007, Vasile Vaganov, University student from our Balti City Church of Hope, heard God’s call in his heart to start visiting people door to door in the village of Hasnasenii Mari where a new church plant was started. He began visiting local people and telling them the Word of God.

As he was going house to house, he observed that many children in this village do not express any love or openness. The cause was that many parents left their homes and village and moved to other countries looking for jobs that would pay their bills and provide food and clothes for their families.

At the same time, Pastor Vasile Sanduleac invited Vasile Vaganov to help organize a summer Vacation Bible School for children in the same village. It was already on his heart, so they prayed and decided to start setting all the details for the camp with much joy and expectation in their hearts.

Our trained youth teams from Cupcini and Balti churches joined efforts in this project in order to invest themselves into the young lives of Hasnasenii Mari village and to teach them heavenly treasures and to help them to know Lord Jesus Christ, the only Way to heaven.

The program would start at 10 a.m. every morning and went until 1 p.m. During these hours, children learned God’s Word and many worship songs and games. Everyday, children learned a Bible story, like about David, Daniel, Jesus and other stories. We could see how children’s hearts were changed every day, and they were more and more open to the Word of God. This gave us new strength and a new blessing for every day.

We are so thankful to Pastor Vasile Sanduleac and his wife Vera for organizing this camp and to the leaders that accepted God’s invitation to work with us in this village. We pray God will repay everyone according to His surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7). We praise God for His work in our hearts through the work in Hasnasenii Mari!

Hasnasenii Mari is a village with 1,600 of people, but almost half of the people have left the country to work abroad in order to help their families in the village survive. No evangelical presence was in this village.

A few years ago, my father, Pastor Vasile Sanduleac, was invited by a local mayor to plant an evangelical church in the village. A home Bible study was started and people began to come one by one. It was a joy to see their curiosity and hunger for God’s Word. The only one who was not happy was the local Russian Orthodox priest, who began visiting door to door trying to stop the people from attending our Bible study. The priest even told them that when they die, he will not do the funeral for them.

In spite of the threats, people continued to come every week. And as a result several people were saved! Six of them were baptized in churches in Chisinau and Balti. But this year we had our first baptismal service in the history of Hasnasenii Mari village, which was a great testimony for the village people. Each of the new church members invited his relatives and friends to attend their baptism and to celebrate with them. The Vintu family from Balti church had worship program and led everyone in worship.

Now, all new church members are growing in the Lord and continuing in the study of the God’s word weekly. You should hear their prayers for the rest of the village to get to know the Lord and be saved.

Now, we praise God for the youth and students from our Balti City Church of Hope that are helping us in this church plant. They work with children, teaching them God’s Word and doing door to door visits every week, presenting the Gospel and proposing a free Bible study in homes.

We praise the Lord for the work He is doing in this village, and we know He will accomplish it! We know that we have to stay faithful to His call. Please continue to pray for this village and for His light to shine brighter in the dark though all of us.