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.

Moldova for Christ Team in Cahul

In October 2008, God opened a door for Moldova for Christ ministry to start new radio ministry in South Moldova. Yuriy and Vlada Semeniuc moved from Balti to Cahul to lead this new ministry. As result of the effort in Cahul, not only did thousands of people hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also a door was opened and the hearts of the people were prepared to start a new church in the same city.

First, we organized a prayer chain for 32 hours: 64 people from all over Moldova and our church members signed the list of prayer, each taking 30 minutes to pray for the city of Cahul and the new church plant.

Many children came to our Puppet Shows

Second, we fasted for the people who live in Cahul – for the Lord to call people from our churches to join us in the effort of setting up an evangelistic campaign. We prayed for 30 people to answer the call and go on a short-term mission to Cahul. Little did we know what God was about to do!

God began calling one after another of church members, and the first five people were enlisted. Then, more and more people joined the team until we had 46 people from all over Moldova! The team was ready to go and start working.

Travel took almost the whole day and invitations were printed.  Since we did not have places to house our people, we had to pray for a place for everybody to stay. God provided six homes of people who were glad to receive our people without knowing us. Thus, our team went door-to-door and shared 10,000 invitations to evangelistic meetings that the mayor of Cahul let us conduct in the City Culture Hall. To our surprise, while sharing the invitations, 11 families invited us to come back and start home Bible study groups in their homes! And we had not even started the meetings yet!

Precept materials presentation at Culture Hall, Cahul

The weather was not favorable – the temperature dropped and it was constantly raining. On top of that, when we started the evangelistic meetings we had to face another major problem – the city stopped providing running water for three days…but it did not stop the work! Our guys carried water in buckets and plastic bottles of water from the nearest public well that was about 2 km away, making four trips daily to the well. The Lord was at work and we saw more than 110 people at our evening programs, plus dozens of children.

We thank God for Bill Grubbs, (Gainesville, GA) and Neal Walls (Memphis, TN) who shared the Word of God and their personal testimonies with everybody during the meetings. Twenty-seven men and women trusted Jesus and were saved. Children enjoyed watching the Agape Puppet Show team presentations every night and became close friends with our children’s ministry leaders. We were glad to serve children’s ministry leaders from other churches in the area who came every evening to take notes during our Puppet Show programs and Gospel presentation for children. Gospel songs, personal testimonies and Precept Bible Study materials were presented as part of the everyday program at the Culture Hall.

Many got very interested in Precept Bible Study Materials

The whole mission project lasted nine days. We spent the last four days surveying the population on spiritual beliefs. We asked questions about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, church and the devil. 470 discussions occurred and the Gospel was presented right on the streets during these meetings. We prayed for each person and asked if they would like to learn more. 270 people said, “Yes,” and they wanted us to visit them at home and teach them the Bible, and gave their addresses and phone numbers.

We were also blessed to hear so many people thanking us for the radio station we have in Cahul and for Christian music and Bible study we offer live on the radio 24/7. Other people said our radio station is the only radio station they listen to.

Please pray for Yuri and Vlada as they do follow-up work in Cahul as well as continue the radio ministry. Pray God will call more missionaries to Cahul and that we will be able to involve all these people in home Bible Studies.

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.

…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.