Following graduation, contact with the students can be limited as graduates are scattered over a wide geographical area. So, an opportunity to visit the village church in Natalievka where mission school graduates Yuri & Larisa Didik are serving the Lord, was all the more precious and special for an SGA team which visited recently.
How encouraging it was to hear this couple speak so warmly of their experiences in the school and how God had prepared them for His service in a village setting. Life in this village is challenging for them without the amenities which we in the west accept as normal.
Travelling to Natalievka from Balti was mostly on non–tarmacadam surfaces. Off the beaten track, we were driven down a narrow lane, and to our amazement there stood a beautiful church building. Already gathered inside was a healthy village congregation both numerically and in age variation.
The singing was inspiring, the atmosphere welcoming, and the vibrant spiritual life was exciting. How wonderful it was to witness at the end of the service, one person spontaneously responding to the Gospel call in repentance and faith!
It was heartening to witness the youth participate in the service with such sincerity and genuine love for the Lord, and to observe young families with a passion to serve the Lord.
Later Yuri explained how recent funds from SGA had helped to renovate the building. The newly painted walls and varnished wooden floors with the upgraded heating system certainly created a bright and warm building for worship.
Yuri was an early beneficiary of the SGA project ‘Getting Men Moving’, when he was provided with a motorbike six years ago. Until then, his mode of transport was a push bike. Today the motorbike is also used by his sons in a pioneering work in a nearby village.
Three years ago, they had a Christmas programme in the village where they distributed gifts. Now every Sunday afternoon seventeen children and five mothers gather for a service. Brothers Ivan and Sasha minister in the adult Bible study group and the children’s Sunday club. They are enthusiastic about reaching other villages with the Gospel. Ivan is a student at the current SGA mission school in Balti.
Yuri and Larisa (above with their family) are only two of the three hundred and sixty people who have been taught Biblical truths in Balti Mission School. They are also part of the sixty–two evangelists who have been provided with motorbikes.
Funds for the renovation of Natalievka House of Prayer is part of a greater SGA project through which over thirty church buildings have been built or purchased and renovated.
Partners in Mission with national believers continues to be SGA’s strategy. Through people like Yuri and Larisa, God is fulfilling His promise – ‘I will build my church’.
Praise God for those who faithfully serve Him in Moldova. While it is the poorest economically in Europe, the spiritual harvest is rich!