Note: This is a very long and full post after a very long and full day. There is just soooo much more to tell than this. I am impressed by the fact that the people we met today work so hard and so diligently for the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope when you read all this you will simply see Christ, because that is who is fueling the energy and providing all the love and means it takes to accomplish what is being accomplished here!!!

God is blessing Moldova!!! Mike and I could never have surmised the amazing things God is doing in this small, poor, beautiful country without seeing it firsthand, and it is not possible to adequately relay in this post all we witnessed today with our own eyes, ears and hearts!

Bishop Victor and our American friend, Dale showed us the works of God in His Church in several towns and villages in northern Moldova. The effectiveness of the effort and the enormity of their vision is simply staggering! In the late 1980s, before the fall of the Soviet Union, Christians met underground. They met discretely in an obscure building and left a few at a time so attention would not be drawn to the congregation of believers of Jesus Christ. That was then. Today, church buildings are boldly being built, expanded and renovated on prime property, and the Prime Minister favors their progress. He has approved government donations of land for the churches to build more facilities as well as attending the dedication ceremonies of these facilities, because they are meeting the needs of orphans, elderly, the poor, and the disabled.

As you look through the photos and captions of what we saw today, notice the evidence of God's blessing and provision as these workers maintain vision along with organization and hard work!

Mike, Dale and Bishop are standing at a building site of a new church building in Chisinau, Moldova's capital city. The beauty of this location is that it is central to 3 main roads of the capital city and is surrounded by new apartment buildings.

A welder works on rebar for the foundation of the three story building.

A sign with a rendering of the finished facility. In spite of the new freedom the church has with the Moldovan government, the Pentecostal Union had to fight in court in order to keep the government from taking this property back once it realized its value. God is still winning battles for His people and His purposes!

Next we drove to the outskirts of Chisinau to the Bethany Christian Center which houses the only Christian high school in Moldova as well as a community of family groups for former street kids. The facility was a communist camp during the Soviet rule of Moldova.

Mike with Dale, Bishop and Nikolai, who is the administrative leader of this incredible Christian school which houses children from the streets. The bus is one of two that are used to transport the children to and from the city center where the affiliated elementary school is located.

  They have 100% success rate for children graduating and successfully passing exams. The street children have priority, but children from all over the country are on wait lists if there are openings. This school impressed Mike and me tremendously. Respect, discipline and JOY were all evident in these children and the faculty and staff. For the past 3 years the Prime Minister has sent the Ministry of Education administrators to learn from this school's model.

The school is also home to the best gym in the country. The ladders were brought over and put together by a volunteer from Sweden.

They live in groups of 12 with caregivers in small homes on the property.

The kitchen is modern and immaculate.

Eugenia is one of the house mothers and also works in the kitchen.

Bishop, Dale and Mike were very impressed with this boiler room. Look close and you'll see the clear labels of all the workings here. It is an example of the quality of all the projects we saw today.

Horse stables are part of the property as well as cows and crops for corn and potatoes.

Bishop, Mike and Dale in front of one of the 12 houses for the family groups that care for street kids. Each house is a working home and has a married couple that are the parents for up to 12 children who would otherwise be on the streets. Instead, they are living in safety and receiving the best education Moldova has to offer. 100% of these children go to university after graduation.

This is one of several greenhouses on the compound. They grow primarily tomatoes and cucumbers. The goal is self-sufficiency. It is one of many ways they make the most of contributions and keep the budget far less than government programs were able to do.

The vision of the Bishop is to build and establish a Christian University. Training children to become doctors, public administrators, lawyers, educators, etc. will enable them not only to make their living in Moldova but to contribute positively to their communities and to keep moving forward "little by little" in building on what God has given by giving to others in need. It's an upward spiral.

 Not far from there, in the town of Hincesti, the church is being expanded to accommodate its rapid growth.

This is the current meeting room in the church in Hincesti.

The new meeting room is under construction. Mike loves a good building project! It is especially exciting to see God growing His church!

The small building in the back is for the "pinea vietii" or "bread of life"-an after school feeding program that provides food, homework help, Bible lessons and even showers and fresh clothes for poor children in the town. Across the country, children are abandoned when parents are forced to leave the country for work. Many children are also abandoned by parents because of alcoholism.

This is the "Bread of Life" sign outside the door.

 Church members like Natalia (R) care for and know each child who comes to her after school everyday. On weekends they have crafts for the children to do as well.

 

 

Next we visited a sweet church in a very poor village called Vozneseni. There are many of these poor villages outside the towns of Moldova.

These children are attending a Bible lesson at the after school feeding program. Children like these would likely not eat or have anyone to help with homework if were not for churches providing for them. We watched as several children stood and recited Bible verses. "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee."

Pastor Mike and his wife Liuda work hard for the poor in their village.

The garden touched my heart!

Horse and carts and wells are common sights in these small villages. We passed many horse and carts along the way, but they were moving and I couldn't get a good pic from the backseat of the car. I was so glad to find this one parked across the  road from the church in this small village.

This is a very nice well on one the church properties. We passed many primitive wells along the way, but they were too far away to get a good picture.

In the town of Sarata-Gambena we visited a home for the disabled and the home church of Bishop Viktor. This congregation is blessing the people of the town so much, the people want the current pastor to run for Mayor. He has no plans to do so right now, because he knows his calling is to pastor this church.

This facility was so dear to Mike and me! In the town of Sarata-Gambena, they converted an abandoned government daycare center into a beautiful home for the disabled. The house has wide doors, roll in showers and ramps everywhere. There are also opportunities for work such as electronic repairs for those with use of their hands. A few of the disabled people are even able to work at the retirement house for the elderly. This was the first dedication the Prime Minister attended. The media coverage mentioned nothing about the Church having a part in this facility at that time. Now the Prime Minister even prays publicly for the projects at the dedications he has since attended!

Bishop, Mike and Dale are admiring the newly renovated main sanctuary at the Serepta Christian Center. It is the church Bishop was raised in and became the pastor of 25 years ago. His son-in-law is now the pastor there and has overseen many expansions that bless the town of Sarata-Gambena immensely.

Ladies prepare food for the elderly in the retirement house that is just across from the sanctuary. I didn't take any other pics because I was enchanted by a couple of the elderly ladies who were incredibly cheerful and grateful to be there. These elderly have no family because they have left the country for work, and one dear soul was a retired teacher who was in a government facility that was privatized and she could no longer afford to stay there. She spent time living on the street before coming to the retirement house.

The children here right are blessed to have food and a home to go to after school. They are also given bread to take home, because the church also houses a bakery to feed the poor in the village.

The bakery ministry about knocked our socks off! These brick ovens were part of the original property, but were labor intensive, so they are currently renovating the kitchen facility. Check out the progress in the pics below:

State of the art industrial equipment!

They plan to be able to feed up to 1000 people at a time when they are done! God bless this ministry. They feed the poor of this village with this bread! The children all bring home loaves of bread every night. The flour has been donated by different companies. Jehovah Jira!

Note: I have no pics of the last place we visited, because it was getting dark and it was, once again, a building project with no electric lights. It was expanding because of the growth of its membership! We arrived just after the last of the elderly had left from their daily meeting and meal. They had 100+ elderly come for the meeting and their current room seats 80-something (can you tell my brain is on overload?!) We walked through the buildings' 3 stories and from the 3rd story we could see the neighboring property, which has been offered for the church to purchase at a very low rate by the owner. People like to see the churches expand this way since they have done so much for the needy over the years. The church in Moldova is impactful in this way. They are in tune with people's need and they provide in obedience to Jesus call to serve and to seek and save the lost. All this from the poorest country in Europe.