Moldova
Moldova. I had never even heard of such a country until the week before we went there for the month. In case you’re wondering, it’s between Romania and Hungary. The language is either Romanian or Russian.
In Moldova is a town called Cornesti. In Cornesti is a man by the name of Vitali. Vitali is the head of a small church in Cornesti which also houses displaced youth. He is 27 years old, married, and the father of 3 children aged 5 years and less. By his maturity you would think he is much older.
When he was younger he went to seminary. He was saved in a baptist church and baptised with the Holy Spirit in a pentecostal church. During and after this time he spent four hours a day in prayer for four years.
Moldova is a hard spiritual place.
At some point God gave him a vision of what he was to do: Plant 30 churches in 30 years around the Cornesti area. He calls the vision Sinai 30, Sinai because Cornesti is near the top of some mountainous hills. I can’t remember what year the vision is on, not more than it’s fifth year, and God has established one church through Vitali in Cornesti. Remember: God’s timing is not man’s timing; God didn’t say one church each year for thirty years.
Establishing a church in Cornesti is the work of God. Baptists have tried planting a church, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Christian Orthodox… none have succeeded. Cornesti is considered the hardest area to plant churches in, and Vitali’s small but thriving church is the envy of… well mainly the Orthdox union. But Vitali is no special man. He is not particularly business savvy or a skilled speaker or planner or strategist. There’s no human reason why his church should succeed. He tells us that as much as he can he tries to follow the leading of the Spirit, and that one time he asked God in prayer, “Why do I succeed and others fail?” And God told him, “It’s because you are so stupid that I can use you.” Read 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2.
The Orthodox union is the “established spiritual authority” in Moldova and Romania. For the most part it’s a spiritually dead and dying human establishment. Read Lauren Newborn’s blog entitled “Fighting with a Priest” and you’ll understand why. Right now, though, Vitali has agreed to work under their umbrella of rules and regulations in turn for being able to use a building owned by the union. For the most part he complies, but he also is respectfully feared by the union, so he gets away with more than they’d like. Their rules and regulations are just heavy-handed legalism.
Vitali tells a story of why the union has a reverent fear of him. I forget exactly how it goes, but it goes something like some priest was being especially abusive with Vitali and was going to move to take the building away from him for some dumb reason like evangelizing too much and in creative ways. A few days after the priest threatens this, Vitali receives a call from a friend of his whom has given some prophecies before and the guys says, “Don’t worry, don’t fight against him. God will judge.” Two weeks later the priest dies. Now when the union threatens to take action, which is rarely, but when it does Vitali simply reminds them that he must do what he must do: evangelize, preach the truth (not the orthodox doctrines), live out the great commission. Then he says, “And you do what you must do. God will judge.” Then they remember the priest, and nothing ever comes to pass.
So now the church in Cornesti, though on paper falls under the authority of the union, is in reality much more free to grow than others in Moldova. The church is supported by a group of Swedes, but Vitali has plans to move towards a self-supporting church. The soil in Cornesti is very fertile, and with the acre and a half that Vitali recently came into ownership of, he plans to revamp the already existing vinyard, apple orchard, and garden, giving the youth a way to work and make money and support their church home, as well as farm chickens, livestock, and nutris, a large beaver-like animal that is favored for it’s meat in Moldovan restaurants. An adult sells for 150 USD, and that goes a long way in Moldova.
What Vitali needs most, though, is not money. Vitali needs people. God has told Vitali that he will have everything he needs in due time, but Vitali still asks for people. He says he needs a small team to come and stay for a year, to teach him and his kids (youth) how to manage their crops and animals more effectively and set up a strong business using them. With the profits he will support the activities of the church, such as maintaining the youth housing program, job skill workshops and social services for single mothers (divorce and fly-by-night fathers are endemic in the region), as well supporting outreach and the missionaries who will go out to plant the other churches in the Sinai 30 vision.
It was a privilege to work with Vitali and participate in this grand vision, and God has certainly been meeting his needs for people one month at a time through the World Race. We were the second of three world race teams to stay there – a team from O squad last month and N squad in November. After that Vitali walks by faith. If you would like to learn more about Vitali and possibly supporting the good work going on in Cornesti, please contact my fellow world racer Tommy Shireman as he has taken a vested interest in helping Vitali’s church become self-supported.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far! I only have $200 left to raise by November 1st to meet the next support deadline of $10,000! What a huge accomplishment so far, thank you for all you’ve given! That deadline is now only five days away so please pray about supporting me. Thank you also for all your prayers and encouragement sent to me by your emails, they are much needed and appreciated indeed! God bless!
