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• A five and a half hour journey in thirty two degrees.
• A two hour wait at a border post contending with awkward border guards.
• A round trip of about two hundred miles, on some difficult and sometimes dangerous roads!
These are just some of the hassles of one recent long day in SGA ministry in Romania and Ukraine! |
Was it worth it?
A thousand times over - YES!!
The purpose of the visit was to link up with David Chidesa to see and hear something of his work among Romanians living in the border areas of Ukraine. His ministry is tough, and physically and spiritually demanding. But it is also EXCITING!! Why? Because it is plain that God is at work among these people.
David commenced his ministry in 1997, sent by fellow Romanian pastors to evangelize and teach the Bible to these people. For the first seven months of his ministry he received no financial support, and lived from hand to mouth with the villagers to whom he had been sent. Those were difficult days for David and his family, but he believes that God was teaching him lessons in dependence and humility – and allowing him to be fully identified with the people and their great needs. It was at that time that he came into contact with Trevor Harris and SGA, and began to receive some help and practical support.
David’s ministry is centred in Solotvyna where there is a church of over fifty members and the same number of ‘attenders’ or adherents. The very fine church building, visitors’ quarters and pastor’s residence are on the site of an old barn, and they are a testimony to the careful planning and God-glorifying efforts of God’s people there.
From Solotvyna David reaches out to the Romanian speaking villages in the surrounding area. Two other churches have been planted in Dibrova and White Church, and David has a burden for another church plant in Carburnesti where there are as yet no believers. He has distributed Bibles to all the homes in the villages in his area, but there is a desperate need for more pastors and missionaries to follow up this work, and to enable this further church plant in Carburnesti.
It was thrilling to witness the enthusiasm for the Gospel, which was so evident in David and his wife Rosa, and we knew we were in the presence of a man of God with a big heart and a big vision!
BUT – that’s only half the story! For David’s vision extends beyond the villages in his own area to another area near the Ukranian-Hungarian border – Poroshcovo. Already there is one church in that area, but without a pastor. David has identified three more villages there for further church plants, but for this vision to be fulfilled at least one additional pastor is essential.
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There are some remarkable features of the work in the Poroshcovo area. David was introduced to a Romanian woman who has written a number of hymns and has been a witness to others in her village. There is now a group of about seventy meeting there, to whom David ministers regularly, and there are forty waiting to be baptized!
Another outstanding feature is work among the children of these villages. David and his helpers teach the Bible to around seven hundred and fifty children who gather in open air meetings to hear the Gospel simply presented in Bible stories. The great need is for more workers to carry on and expand this and other facets of the work also.
There is one final part to David’s vision – a permanent camp-site for children’s work and youth work! A plot of land comprising about two and a half acres has been given to David and the believers on which to erect a church building, and on which he also envisages a permanent camp-site. Children’s and youth camps are a huge part of the work of evangelical churches in Eastern Europe, and the development of this project would be a huge asset, not only to David’s ministry, but to the much wider ministry of the evangelical churches as a whole.
An impossible dream? Not at all! Rather a magnificent vision! Pray that God will supply all that is needed for that vision to be realized – especially the need for more dedicated and committed workers to assist David in his expanding Christ-exalting ministry.
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David Chidesa with his team of children’s workers in the village of Solotvyna.
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The children from Solotvyna enjoying the singing during the children’s evangelism. |
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