"Nunca he estado tan orgulloso de ser moldavo como hoy. Gente de todo el país se está lanzando a ayudar a los refugiados de Ucrania", dijo Eugen, director de OM en Moldavia, tras ver cómo el país más pobre de Europa se ponía a la altura de la tarea de atender a los que huyen de Ucrania.
Moldavia
In Moldova, OM focuses on outreach & church planting in the lesser-reached regions of Moldova, as well as mobilising and equipping believers for local and global mission.
OM’s involvement in Moldova started with smuggling Bibles and Christian literature into the country during the Soviet Union, of which Moldova was a part. More focused outreaches began in 1995 and developed into a varied ministry in areas like relief and development, youth and children’s ministry, equipping local believers, or offering short-term mission experiences to believers from around the world.
Today ministry is focused on outreach & church planting in the lesser-reached regions of Moldova, as well as mobilising and equipping believers for local and global mission:
Reaching Moldova's Least Reached
The gospel spread in amazing ways in Moldova when the country first opened after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, this growth has slowed down, and there are still many locations in the country that have never had any community of true Jesus followers established in their midst.
Local Ministry & Church Planting
In our desire to see churches planted in the lesser-reached regions of Moldova, we partner with local church planters who are already involved in such locations, as well as encourage established churches to send workers to places that have no Jesus followers yet.
We support these workers practically, with resources, training and encouragement, while also helping them to build their own supporting networks.
Where possible, we send Local Ministry Teams - small teams that come alongside a local church planter and live within the community, serving and reaching out to its people, thus supporting a church planting initiative in its very first stages.
Outreach Resources
We also offer a variety of outreach resources - projects which enable workers to engage with specific groups in these communities (e.g. mothers of young children). Many such projects are in the area of relief and development, meeting some of the desperate physical needs which still exist in every Moldovan community. This can mean bringing a daily hot meal to elderly who have no-one else to care for them, offering firewood or warm clothes during the harsh winter months, providing a family with seeds to grow their own vegetables, or running a Day Centre for the most vulnerable children of these communities.
These projects provide workers with many opportunities to share the gospel, and not only care for people in a holistic way - meeting both spiritual and physical needs - but can also help to provide an entrance into new places, opening doors with local authorities and impacting the whole watching community.
Our extended networks and long experience in this area have also allowed us to quickly react with help in unforeseen crisis situations, like the Covid-19 pandemic or the Ukraine refugee crisis.
Mobilising
We mobilise believers for mission, by helping them to understand global needs and their own potential to bring change, as well as coming alongside them as they take practical steps.
Mobilising the Moldovan Church
We maintain close partnerships with existing churches, and - through publications, organising youth events or speaking at churches - we seek to develop an awareness of global needs and realities, directing the focus of the Moldovan Church to what God is doing and how they can be part of bringing His love to those who have not yet encountered it, in their own country and to the ends of the earth. We provide resources that encourage the Moldovan Church to pray for the world, as well as to send and support Moldovan missionaries. Moldovan nationals not only make up the majority of OM workers in Moldova, but also serve in some of the least-reached areas of the world.
Short-term outreaches
Specific short-term opportunities for Moldovan believers help them become aware of needs and possibilities for ministry among their own people, as well as offering experiences of inter-cultural ministry in other countries. Through these, many participants start believing for the first time that God can and wants to use them.
In the same way, believers from around the world can get a practical taste of mission through short-term outreaches in Moldova. Coming alongside ministries in Moldova, they experience how God can use them to bring joy, hope and transformation and are encouraged to continue investing their lives in God’s Kingdom. Outreach locations focus on the least-reached areas of the country.
Equipping
Various training programmes help to prepare and equip followers of Jesus, who want to know how they can obey His call to make disciples, or who are already in ministry, but seek further support and growth. Our desire is not only to pass on knowledge, but to come alongside people so they can grow closer to God, find a passion for sharing Christ and become disciples who themselves go and make new disciples.
REACH
Reach is an international training that combines teaching, mentoring, discipleship and practical outreach experience. Participants grow deeper in their faith, in their understanding of mission and in their experience of making disciples. Reaching out to people in little-reached communities in Moldova, they can imeediately apply what they learn in practice. The course runs for five months each year and brings together participants from across the globe, as well as from Moldova, offering a unique cross-cultural experience.
Training local workers
We have also developed and adapted a series of discipleship training tools, which are suitable for the Moldovan context; and we are constantly looking to identify other specific training needs of Moldovan believers - from pastors and church planters to new believers - seeking to support them by offering adequate training to help them grow themselves, as well as providing them with tools they can use to disciple others.
How you can get involved:
Pray:
- Pray for the Moldovan Church to continually grow in vision and active involvement in missions to the ends of the earth, as well as in the little-reached places of their own country.
- Pray for open hearts and fruit from the work of the teams and church planters who work in locations of Moldova that have no believers or churches yet.
- Pray for the believers who are being equipped for ministry through OM’s training programmes to become active and effective disciple-makers among the least reached of the world.
Give:
Besides needing funds to cover the cost of running our ministries, our biggest financial challenge is helping to raise support for Moldovan OM workers. To help support the work of OM in Moldova, give here (http://www.om.org/int/give) or through your local OM office.
Go:
Come to Moldova for a short-term outreach (1-2 weeks), take part in the REACH programme (5 months) or join our team full-time. Please contact your local OM office for more details.
More information about Moldova:
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Formerly part of the Soviet Union, Moldova has been an independent country since 1991, but continues to be among the poorest countries in Europe, crippled by a high level of corruption, political instability and failing economy.
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The population is currently estimated at 2.6 million and continues to decline. A high percentage of Moldovan citizens work abroad, and the economy depends highly on remittances these workers send to their families in Moldova.
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The vast majority of Moldovans are nominally Orthodox Christians, but most have no true understanding of the gospel of grace and have never had the opportunity to read the Bible.
For more information about OM in Moldova contact us at info.md@om.org