Sandu D. - February 2009 Report | Print |
Eastern Europe: Reports - Ukraine - Reports
Thursday, 05 February 2009 00:00
By God's grace I was able to be useful for the Lord's ministry in our area this month. We had a more turbulent time than usual in Pasat village. The members felt frustrated because nothing was done yet for the construction of the church. Many people who would like to hear the Word of God do not come to our meetings because they are held in the house of a family. In the beginning of the ministry some of the men involved made promises regarding the church building. They have already broke some of the promises and it sounded like we broke them, as well. This situation is not very helpful for reaching people.
This month, during one of the services, the members of the church rebuked us for these broken promises. On our part, we are trying to have a good testimony among them. We also struggle to bring as many villagers as possible into contact with the Gospel. So far, we have not been too successful in bringing new people into our group. But, we are glad for those we have come and for the ministry we do with them.  

In February the churches from this area usually have evangelistic services. I was invited to preach for this purpose. I preached at 3 evangelistic services this month. At one of these services there were ten non-Christians who listened to the Gospel. Two hundred people participated in the second service. The church has 40 members. I do not know how many were from other churches and how many were friends. There were over 100 participants in the third service, but I do not know how many of them were non-believers. In both cases I was told that there were friends in the audience.

I also preached at two funerals. I preached evangelistic messages. One of the sermons was preached in the church at Vasile Partica. There were approximately 20 non-believers. At the end of the service, two Orthodox ladies thanked me for the sermon. I discussed it privately with them and I urged them to read the Bible and to have a relationship with God. One of these ladies, who was 70 years old, confessed to me that she never read the Bible.

The second funeral was in Ion Gireada's church. A woman from the church died. She was a faithful woman and she had a big family. Besides the church members, approximately 80-90 unconverted people attended the funeral. The Lord gave nice weather during the entire service. For two and a half hours the people listened to the Gospel. There were also people at the funeral who ministered in the Orthodox church. In the past, through some of these people the Orthodox church has harmed the believers and the Baptist church many times. But, they listened to the Word of God and they did not dare to argue against it. When we were going to the cemetery, a choir woman from the Orthodox church came to me and confessed to me that she wanted to serve God. This woman also said, "In our church, too, the Bible is preached but not like in your church." I saw that God used this occasion for showing the real face of His Word. We were neighbors with this woman when we lived in Tereblecia.

I participated in three youth meetings and I visited five churches where I preached. With a group of men who minister in Herta and Hliboca districts, each of us decided to visit at least two other churches a month. The purpose was to encourage the smaller churches. This initiative was encouraging for each of us because everyone had his turn to be visited.bOur church from Pasat was visited, too. Everyone confessed their joy for the fellowship with other churches because the pastors always came with a part of the church or the entire church. This month we had not been visited and the believers remarked that it is important for them to relate with other believers.

I also had the opportunity to visit several churches, especially at evangelistic services. I saw the fondness of the people for the Gospel from the entire area. But I also noticed a mistake we sometimes did, namely we allowed people to preach even though they were not qualified. Another problem was the small number of those who could preach. Generally the preaching level in our churches is very low. However, the Lord blessed the church in spite of our weaknesses. His grace is great for us and people still repented.  

Thank you for your support! God bless you!

Serving the Lamb in Ukraine,

Dorotea, Amiel, Sara, Marta and Sandu
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