letter from Moldova
A ‘big God’ for a small and suffering land
Graeme Innes
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Until a couple of years ago, Moldova was a largely obscure backwater but, due to the war on its doorstep, Moldova now finds itself near the new dividing line between East and West.
Though great upheaval continues to dominate the region, Operation World statistics show that Moldova, and her neighbours Romania and Ukraine, are the three countries which have seen the greatest gospel growth within Europe in the last 35 years. After significant openness to Christ during the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there is now a deepening hunger for faithful Bible preaching amongst numerous evangelical churches in Moldova.
news in brief
USA: SBC not to ban women pastors
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has just failed to achieve the two-thirds majority vote needed to place a ban in its constitution on women being church pastors.
Issues impacting women are prominent at this year’s annual meeting of the SBC, taking place in Indianapolis. Church leaders also approved a resolution condemning in vitro fertilisation. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the US, with over 50,000 churches and over 14 million members, and is now a serious political force in the country.
‘Your money & your life’ – but he lived
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Although John thought they only wanted his goods, they also wanted to take his life.
Early one morning, John was walking back from the market to his home in Habai village, in Papua New Guinea’s isolated Highlands. He was carrying three bags of flour and eight litres of oil, which he was hoping to sell so he could pay for his sons’ school fees.
Albania: 3,000 people hear the gospel
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Over 3,000 people have heard the gospel in Tirana, Albania, at a major event organised by evangelicals in the country.
Before the mission, about 800 evangelicals met to focus on the church’s evangelistic imperative and to remember that ‘Jesus teaches us that we as a church should be lifted as a city up on the mountain top,’ Evangelical Focus reported.