My trip to Moldova

I returned last night from a week long ministry trip to Moldova 🇲🇩 . This was one of the most fascinating trips I’ve done this year.

My thanks go to Aidan Patrick Benbow for the invitation and for organising the packed programme (I think he got more tired than me 😜).

I flew into the capital Chișinău but spent the week in the third city Bălți known as ‘the capital of the north’.

Moldova is the poorest country in Europe and is under developed but I found its people warm, welcoming and friendly (strangers overheard me speak in the street and stopped to speak to me and wanted to sit down for coffee!).

It felt like being in a time capsule of what the former USSR was like (it was a strategic city in the Soviet era having a number of munitions factories).

Since it gained independence from the USSR in 1991 it’s deeply divided between factions who are pro Russian (and Putin) and those who are pro western.

It is 95.2% Orthodox (Romanian & Russian) and 2.9 % protestants (mainly Baptist).

Protestant Christians are a beleaguered minority and often divided among themselves having little or no connection with the Orthodox majority.

Normally my trips are about 70% training and 30% doing evangelism but this was 100% doing evangelism which I loved.

On the Sunday, I spoke at two large Baptist churches, one in Bălți and the nearby town of Răuțel.

This was expository evangelism which taught the Bible with an evangelistic edge and a number came to Christ in the morning.

All the other events were for youth or students (apart from a team devotional and speaking to a group of women who were Ukrainian refugees).

As well as the youth and student events, I was asked to go and teach in two local schools.

The condition of this was not to be overtly religious (which I was more than happy to do) and so I gave lessons on English (6 lessons) history (1 lesson) and politics (1 lesson).

The first was the Ion Creanga High School.

The English lesson was called “15 Top tips to speaking the Kings English” and I was able to share my testimony afterwards.

This was initially only going to be given to one class but the teacher loved it so much she invited us to address another two classes and then come back another day and teach three more!

The politics lesson was taught by an American Fulbright scholar and I assisted him. It was on segregation in the USA and apartheid in South Africa and I was able to speak about Archbishop Desmond Tutu and how his Christian faith encouraged him to oppose the evil of apartheid.

The history lesson was in the Liceul Teoretic Orizont school (a private Turkish school) and entitled “10 Great Britons who shaped the world”. In it I attempted to teach a snapshot of British history through 10 biographies of individuals who have impacted the world.

As well as the usual suspects of Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale I included William Wilberforce and John Stott and shared about how their faith in Christ was their inspiration and motivation.

The schools kindly allowed me to invite people to an evangelistic event I was speaking at held in a coffee bar..

The event was full of young people and about 30% of those in attendance where people who had heard me give lessons in the schools.

It was so exciting to see this connection between serving the community at a point of felt need and pre-evangelism leading to more overt evangelism which was conducted in secular space in the coffee shop (which saw people come to Christ).

In the space of 7 days I did 18 talks (13 different ones and 5 repeats).

About 10 came to the Lord in total and I chatted & prayed for many others and gave them advice & encouragement.

I had about 8 formal pastoral meet ups with individuals over a meal or coffee.

I got on the plane yesterday exhausted but got talking to a member of the cabin crew (a Chinese man from Hong Kong) and led him to Christ at the back of the plane.

At Luton Airport, I had to wait for my connecting bus back to Oxford. I waited in a bar and chatted to an Irishman who sat next to me and I shared the Gospel with him which ended up with me leading him to the Lord.

I’ve now arrived back home in Witney and I’m having a crash day completely and utterly exhausted but nonetheless exhilarated at seeing the Kingdom of God to break in.

Today I think I have the best job in the world! (this isn’t always the case 😜).

#numailuiDumnezeufieslava

#Богуодномуслава

👆🏼 Romanian 🇷🇴 and Russian 🇷🇺 for:

“to God alone be Glory”

(the photograph above shows the Orthodox Cathedral, the Catholic Church and the main Baptist Church in Balti Moldova 🇲🇩

I only got to preach in the last one 😜)