So here I am out in the world again…loving it and getting confirmation after confirmation that this is where the Lord has me. This squad that we’ve been entrusted with is full of amazing men and women of God and I feel so flipping blessed for every day that I’m getting to spend with them. God is doing so much in each of them and that much more through them for His kingdom out here. The second night in Moldova something pretty crazy happened (which, oddly enough is what’s becoming “normal” in my life) but I feel like it summarizes perfectly how our first two weeks have been in ministry.
So to set this thing up…the Greek Orthodox church is the predominant church throughout the country of Moldova. From everything we’ve been told they are very much into tradition and the priest holds all of the power in the church. The people are able to communicate to God through the priest and we’ve also been told that in many of the churches there are also idols such as figurines of Mary and other saints that are also worshipped. So with all of this in mind the Greek Orthodox church in the town we were in did not like the evangelical church…at all. Some even went so far as to say that we were a cult. Understandable considering we were going in with a message that threatened the position of one of the most powerful men in town…we were finally telling the people the truth that THEY could talk to God because of what Jesus did for them. That God was looking for a relationship with THEM…not just their priest.
Day 2…yes day 2 the Orthodox priest comes over to the church after dinner. Our pastor came in trembling because the priest was drunk and threatening to hit him with a brick because we were “stirring the waters” and he didn’t like it. So after some chatting and the Lord being the peacemaker He is, the priest calmed down and even invited us to his church. By the way when I walked out and looked at this man he resembled a bear… a very large bear. Our pastor was still sweating bullets because he didn’t know the purpose of the priest inviting us over. His first question to me as we got in the van, “Garrett is it okay to get persecuted tonight?” and the response… “Heck yeah let’s do this thing”
The pastor proceeded to tell us he didn’t know what the priest would do and he was very concerned but throughout it all the Lord gave me a tremendous peace with the situation, and what an experience for these men day 2 of the race right??? Okay that really didn’t cross my mind but in hindsight..YESSSS this was awesome for them.
So we go down a creepy road and back into this broken down church. As we get out of the car I hear the comment from one of our guys, “There are people surrounding the car” to which the pastor responds “Oh my goodness start praying”
We follow the pastor into his church and it’s really dark and he’s still pretty drunk just showing us around. He then tells us that he’s been upset because his church has many members but no one will help in rebuilding the church so he has been doing it all himself. We start praying over the church and praying for him and then he starts singing. The pastor later told us that he was singing about butterflies and trees and clouds but hey singing is singing right?? So we then just start belting out sounds as it echoes through this church and our voices all just started harmonizing and it was one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard.
Then the pastor asks me to give this priest, Gregori, my testimony. It was amazing to be able to tell him everything the Lord has walked me through and shown me through our relationship. I was able to explain to him we were in Moldova to tell the people about that same beautiful, merciful, graceful, loving, ferocious God who desires to be in relationship with them and all the freedom that comes from that relationship. I asked about his family and he called them and invited them up to the church and we met his two sons and wife. Slowly the atmosphere in the room changed from one of chaos and fear to one of love and friendship. Gregori asked us if we could help him with some things the following week to which the pastor agreed. We even invited him to our church and I just heard that one week later he CAME to our church!!
There is so much more to this story but in the attempt to make it brief and readable I’ll stop here. Please continue praying for our church and pastor (Vitali), for Gregori and his church and for restoration and redemption in Moldova.
We saw God turn something really bad into the beginnings of a beautiful relationship centered on bringing His Kingdom to Cornesti, Moldova. I love it…I love Him.
