The Beginnings of Ministry in Moldova
It is impossible to fully understand or explain the workings of God in Moldova these past fifteen years. Giving numbers and statistics can give us only the slightest gleams of what really happened in the far away land that - in all its history - never had the Gospel preached in mass until the fall of the Soviet Empire.
In truth, it was God and God alone who put us in Moldova and, more specifically, in the rebellious city of Tiraspol. If we had followed our own path, I and my wife and four children would have started in Odessa, Ukraine. However, God in His wisdom and perfect timing put us in a city where no one wanted to go. Tiraspol was a city of about 200,000 that clung to the old Communist ways and refused to yield to the new central government of Moldova. In 1992 she fought a bitter civil war with Chisinau in which many died. Russia was eager to reestablish herself in Moldova and sent the Russian 14th army to aid Tiraspol. In Russia, the war was billed as a fight to help the oppressed Russian minority in Moldova. In reality Tiraspol was to become a hot bed for the Russian Mafia. Everything was sold or exchanged there for a profit. Even nuclear waste was brought from Russia and stored there. To this day there are vehicles of war on both sides ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.
There are questions that must be addressed at some point: How did we end up in this spoiled city of all places? Were we afraid of the possibility that new violence could erupt at any time? All of this will be addressed later, but now let me explain what happened in Tiraspol. We have heard it said before that God works in strange ways, and that could be said of our experience as missionaries.
I arrived in Moldova in late May of 1993, less than one year after the bloody conflict; my family would follow me in July. We spent the first half year getting our family settled and adjusting to the culture and studying language. It was absolutely necessary that we gain knowledge of how to live in Eastern Europe during this period. Life was very hard in Moldova during the ‘90s.
My first ministry in Tiraspol was that of intercessory prayer. I could not say that I understood the principle of being in constant prayer or praying without ceasing. However, every time I sat on a bus or walked in the town or looked at any individual, I asked God to save them and that the truth of His Word would reach them. I cannot say that I prayed all night or that I walked for days in the woods deep in prayerful meditation, but the Spirit of God was constantly speaking to my heart about the needs of the people, and I responded in prayer for them. Honestly, I had a broken heart for them and no doubt that came from the Lord. I also realized my own inadequacies. I understood more than ever that if God did not work through me, we would not see people saved or accomplish the mission.
We decided to hold our first evangelization in November of 1993. On that Sunday we were concerned because the first snow of the winter had just fallen on Saturday night, and I knew there was no heat in the rented building. At that time in Tiraspol there were no public heated buildings for rent. The State controlled the heat, and our homes were barely heated; we understood just how bitterly cold a Russian winter could be. However, on that first Sunday, to our surprise, there were over 100 persons that attended. That first service lasted for about one hour, and it was clear to me that God’s Spirit was working through me and in the 100. We announced we would be there every Sunday and informed them that Stephanie would have a class for children in the lobby that next Sunday. Stephanie had already started a class in our home that had grown into two classes with over 120 children attending.
The next Sunday there was nearly a capacity crowd in our 300 seat auditorium. Stephanie had more children than she could count that first week, and we were off and running. Some of what fueled the crowd was the giving away of whole Bibles. I promised the people a Bible if they attended five services. In those days very few people owned a Bible, and everyone wanted one. By making them come five times, I was assured of getting five chances to preach the Gospel to each attendee. There is no question that God was working in hearts and gave them a great desire to listen to His Word.
I told the people every week to leave their problems at the door and come ready to receive something from God. I can honestly tell you that the meeting place was the most peaceful and serene place I have ever been in my life. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the People of Tiraspol had seen war and economic collapse. One man told me that one day he had been worth enough money to buy a summer home and a car, and the next day that same amount of money was worth five loaves of bread. These were very hard times for the people. Yet it was clear that God had prepared them for receiving the Gospel.
The meetings were not what most would expect. My sermon was not only the main event, but it was the only event. There was no music, no testimonies, only the preacher with His Bible. Of course, I used a translator, and he wasn’t even a Christian. My first translator was a former student of the military academy in Kiev. Since he had never studied the Bible, he did not know Christian terms. So we went over every detail days before the message. I realized only later that he did not use the terms we would use to describe a doctrine, but he would give the detailed version or description of my words in the translation. This turned out to be better because no one would have understood the Christian terminology. God was in every detail.
Every Sunday I would invite the people to stay after the service if they had been touched by the message, and I would give them an opportunity to accept the Lord. I learned many lessons in dealing with Orthodox and atheist people. It was very difficult to get past the works element that was entrenched in their hearts. For example, one Sunday I realized that many of them thought that the prayer of salvation would save them. Several of the ladies came to me and asked me to have that prayer printed so they could pray it every day to guarantee access to heaven. I simply stopped using the language used by so many to lead a person to Christ. I have never led a person in the sinner’s prayer in Moldova since, because that prayer becomes the crutch on which they base their salvation. Honestly, I am skeptical of all the mass evangelisms that took place in the early days here in the former Soviet Union. In my experience very little long term results came out of the mass meetings from those early days. Nothing can substitute a missionary giving his life on a mission field. I understand pastors, evangelists, and laymen want to be a part of a great evangelist effort. Yet the Scriptures are clear that you can not reap where you have not sowed. It was easy to get folks to pray a prayer but few were saved on the first meeting or even the fifth meeting leading up to receiving their Bible.
After many months of labor or sowing, I saw one Sunday the Spirit of God fall on our gathering. We had changed meeting places and moved to the largest auditorium for rent in our city; we actually rented all three auditoriums on that site to accommodate the Sunday schools. That Sunday in the spring of ‘94, with over five hundred persons in attendance, I faced a weeping and sober group of people. As I started my sermon, it was clear I needed to stop and let God have His way. I asked the people if they finally understood that salvation was all Christ - not works or prayer or religion. “Yes,” was the answer given almost in unison. The invitation from me was to come and kneel on the dusty floor in the front of the auditorium and stay there until you know you have Christ. They came by the hundreds, and that day I knew in my heart many had been saved. There was such a change in them that can only be described as glorious and miraculous. After that Sunday we saw folks saved in almost every service for several years.
Many of my dear attendees of the earlier meetings were middle aged women with grown children and grandchildren. This group of women later became my most stanch supporters of the work. However, when they first started attending the meetings they were the most troubled. Many of them were plagued by dreams and visions. After listening to them relate their problems, that I will not describe in detail here, I was convinced they were being oppressed by evil spirits. This continued until the day they were saved on the great Sunday I have described to you. After that I never heard a single lady who had been saved speak of these events again. They had been completely delivered. Many of my men attendees were alcoholics, and they were delivered from that sin. There were many hearts delivered from sin that day, and God continues to work in them even now.
In the summer of ‘94 we prepared the people for baptism and were given permission to use the local swimming pool for one hour at 8 AM on Sunday mornings. It took three Sundays to baptize all the people that had been saved. My ministry has always been characterized by folks getting saved. I saw hundreds of Koreans saved in the San Francisco bay area several years before coming to Moldova. Honestly though, I have never been a part of or seen anything like what happened in Tiraspol from 1993 to 1996. It was truly a work of the Spirit of God and a blessed time. After 1996 the Communists clamped down on all evangelistic efforts and made it difficult to work. God moved our family to Chisinau to work with camps and to begin our effort to reach Moldovan youth. I turned over the churches that had been started to the nationals, and the works became self supported. All of the churches exist today. They are smaller due to the fact that the government’s policy of communism has forced most of the able bodied men to work in Russia or somewhere in Europe. We lost our first pastor to immigration, and he now lives in the Seattle, Washington area.
Our work with youth in Moldova has been no less miraculous. But I will never forget those happy days in Tiraspol where so many new brothers and sisters in Christ were born. It is impossible to say just how many were saved in those days; that knowledge rests with God, but I can say there were thousands saved or touched by the work. Including the camp ministry, more than 30,000 have made professions of faith in Christ. It is not possible for me to travel in Moldova and not meet one of the converts of our ministry. I was talking to a young pastor one day, and he asked me if I knew he had been saved in the camp. I hadn’t known it, but I was glad to hear it.
It is obvious to me that no credit can go to any man for what God has done in our ministry. I am just an average guy who was willing to come by faith. I knew from the beginning that God would need to build the house or there would be no house. My story is simply that if man will obey, God will work through that man. When God chose me He was choosing one of the weak things of the world. The main point is, if God can use me, he could use anyone. My family is living testimony that God will go with you, take away the fear, and use each family member for His Glory. To experience this, you must first be willing to go, and then to go upon His calling and command.
In truth, it was God and God alone who put us in Moldova and, more specifically, in the rebellious city of Tiraspol. If we had followed our own path, I and my wife and four children would have started in Odessa, Ukraine. However, God in His wisdom and perfect timing put us in a city where no one wanted to go. Tiraspol was a city of about 200,000 that clung to the old Communist ways and refused to yield to the new central government of Moldova. In 1992 she fought a bitter civil war with Chisinau in which many died. Russia was eager to reestablish herself in Moldova and sent the Russian 14th army to aid Tiraspol. In Russia, the war was billed as a fight to help the oppressed Russian minority in Moldova. In reality Tiraspol was to become a hot bed for the Russian Mafia. Everything was sold or exchanged there for a profit. Even nuclear waste was brought from Russia and stored there. To this day there are vehicles of war on both sides ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.
There are questions that must be addressed at some point: How did we end up in this spoiled city of all places? Were we afraid of the possibility that new violence could erupt at any time? All of this will be addressed later, but now let me explain what happened in Tiraspol. We have heard it said before that God works in strange ways, and that could be said of our experience as missionaries.
I arrived in Moldova in late May of 1993, less than one year after the bloody conflict; my family would follow me in July. We spent the first half year getting our family settled and adjusting to the culture and studying language. It was absolutely necessary that we gain knowledge of how to live in Eastern Europe during this period. Life was very hard in Moldova during the ‘90s.
My first ministry in Tiraspol was that of intercessory prayer. I could not say that I understood the principle of being in constant prayer or praying without ceasing. However, every time I sat on a bus or walked in the town or looked at any individual, I asked God to save them and that the truth of His Word would reach them. I cannot say that I prayed all night or that I walked for days in the woods deep in prayerful meditation, but the Spirit of God was constantly speaking to my heart about the needs of the people, and I responded in prayer for them. Honestly, I had a broken heart for them and no doubt that came from the Lord. I also realized my own inadequacies. I understood more than ever that if God did not work through me, we would not see people saved or accomplish the mission.
We decided to hold our first evangelization in November of 1993. On that Sunday we were concerned because the first snow of the winter had just fallen on Saturday night, and I knew there was no heat in the rented building. At that time in Tiraspol there were no public heated buildings for rent. The State controlled the heat, and our homes were barely heated; we understood just how bitterly cold a Russian winter could be. However, on that first Sunday, to our surprise, there were over 100 persons that attended. That first service lasted for about one hour, and it was clear to me that God’s Spirit was working through me and in the 100. We announced we would be there every Sunday and informed them that Stephanie would have a class for children in the lobby that next Sunday. Stephanie had already started a class in our home that had grown into two classes with over 120 children attending.
The next Sunday there was nearly a capacity crowd in our 300 seat auditorium. Stephanie had more children than she could count that first week, and we were off and running. Some of what fueled the crowd was the giving away of whole Bibles. I promised the people a Bible if they attended five services. In those days very few people owned a Bible, and everyone wanted one. By making them come five times, I was assured of getting five chances to preach the Gospel to each attendee. There is no question that God was working in hearts and gave them a great desire to listen to His Word.
I told the people every week to leave their problems at the door and come ready to receive something from God. I can honestly tell you that the meeting place was the most peaceful and serene place I have ever been in my life. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the People of Tiraspol had seen war and economic collapse. One man told me that one day he had been worth enough money to buy a summer home and a car, and the next day that same amount of money was worth five loaves of bread. These were very hard times for the people. Yet it was clear that God had prepared them for receiving the Gospel.
The meetings were not what most would expect. My sermon was not only the main event, but it was the only event. There was no music, no testimonies, only the preacher with His Bible. Of course, I used a translator, and he wasn’t even a Christian. My first translator was a former student of the military academy in Kiev. Since he had never studied the Bible, he did not know Christian terms. So we went over every detail days before the message. I realized only later that he did not use the terms we would use to describe a doctrine, but he would give the detailed version or description of my words in the translation. This turned out to be better because no one would have understood the Christian terminology. God was in every detail.
Every Sunday I would invite the people to stay after the service if they had been touched by the message, and I would give them an opportunity to accept the Lord. I learned many lessons in dealing with Orthodox and atheist people. It was very difficult to get past the works element that was entrenched in their hearts. For example, one Sunday I realized that many of them thought that the prayer of salvation would save them. Several of the ladies came to me and asked me to have that prayer printed so they could pray it every day to guarantee access to heaven. I simply stopped using the language used by so many to lead a person to Christ. I have never led a person in the sinner’s prayer in Moldova since, because that prayer becomes the crutch on which they base their salvation. Honestly, I am skeptical of all the mass evangelisms that took place in the early days here in the former Soviet Union. In my experience very little long term results came out of the mass meetings from those early days. Nothing can substitute a missionary giving his life on a mission field. I understand pastors, evangelists, and laymen want to be a part of a great evangelist effort. Yet the Scriptures are clear that you can not reap where you have not sowed. It was easy to get folks to pray a prayer but few were saved on the first meeting or even the fifth meeting leading up to receiving their Bible.
After many months of labor or sowing, I saw one Sunday the Spirit of God fall on our gathering. We had changed meeting places and moved to the largest auditorium for rent in our city; we actually rented all three auditoriums on that site to accommodate the Sunday schools. That Sunday in the spring of ‘94, with over five hundred persons in attendance, I faced a weeping and sober group of people. As I started my sermon, it was clear I needed to stop and let God have His way. I asked the people if they finally understood that salvation was all Christ - not works or prayer or religion. “Yes,” was the answer given almost in unison. The invitation from me was to come and kneel on the dusty floor in the front of the auditorium and stay there until you know you have Christ. They came by the hundreds, and that day I knew in my heart many had been saved. There was such a change in them that can only be described as glorious and miraculous. After that Sunday we saw folks saved in almost every service for several years.
Many of my dear attendees of the earlier meetings were middle aged women with grown children and grandchildren. This group of women later became my most stanch supporters of the work. However, when they first started attending the meetings they were the most troubled. Many of them were plagued by dreams and visions. After listening to them relate their problems, that I will not describe in detail here, I was convinced they were being oppressed by evil spirits. This continued until the day they were saved on the great Sunday I have described to you. After that I never heard a single lady who had been saved speak of these events again. They had been completely delivered. Many of my men attendees were alcoholics, and they were delivered from that sin. There were many hearts delivered from sin that day, and God continues to work in them even now.
In the summer of ‘94 we prepared the people for baptism and were given permission to use the local swimming pool for one hour at 8 AM on Sunday mornings. It took three Sundays to baptize all the people that had been saved. My ministry has always been characterized by folks getting saved. I saw hundreds of Koreans saved in the San Francisco bay area several years before coming to Moldova. Honestly though, I have never been a part of or seen anything like what happened in Tiraspol from 1993 to 1996. It was truly a work of the Spirit of God and a blessed time. After 1996 the Communists clamped down on all evangelistic efforts and made it difficult to work. God moved our family to Chisinau to work with camps and to begin our effort to reach Moldovan youth. I turned over the churches that had been started to the nationals, and the works became self supported. All of the churches exist today. They are smaller due to the fact that the government’s policy of communism has forced most of the able bodied men to work in Russia or somewhere in Europe. We lost our first pastor to immigration, and he now lives in the Seattle, Washington area.
Our work with youth in Moldova has been no less miraculous. But I will never forget those happy days in Tiraspol where so many new brothers and sisters in Christ were born. It is impossible to say just how many were saved in those days; that knowledge rests with God, but I can say there were thousands saved or touched by the work. Including the camp ministry, more than 30,000 have made professions of faith in Christ. It is not possible for me to travel in Moldova and not meet one of the converts of our ministry. I was talking to a young pastor one day, and he asked me if I knew he had been saved in the camp. I hadn’t known it, but I was glad to hear it.
It is obvious to me that no credit can go to any man for what God has done in our ministry. I am just an average guy who was willing to come by faith. I knew from the beginning that God would need to build the house or there would be no house. My story is simply that if man will obey, God will work through that man. When God chose me He was choosing one of the weak things of the world. The main point is, if God can use me, he could use anyone. My family is living testimony that God will go with you, take away the fear, and use each family member for His Glory. To experience this, you must first be willing to go, and then to go upon His calling and command.
5 comments:
The wonders we miss when we fail to allow God to plan the journey! Thanks for sharing.
My wife and I heard you preach and present your vision for Moldova many years ago at Calvary Bible Baptist Church in Westerville, OH. We felt your passion for the people of Moldova and felt strongly The Lords leading and blessing in your ministry. May God continue to bless your faithfulness to His call.
My heart was again blessed as I read here what you have told me peronally. I have been in that city of Tiraspol and seen first hand the church that grew from your work and will never forget the people and the spirit that prevails there today. Thank you agian for being willing to go to Moldova. May God allow you to reach more of the youth. Blessings on you and your family. Harvey Seidel, Thermopolis, WY
Lord, Thank you for still using people to bring others to yourself.
Eric and Stephanie and girls, Thank you for serving faithfully.
Brother Eric & Wife & family, What a heart-warming blessing it was to read your testimony "blog", and am looking forward to reading more. I printed it to pass around to other members of our "Faith Promise Committee" members. Go with GOD. Your family in Christ, Faith Promise Missions, First Baptist Church. Cambridge, Ohio
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