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March 2006
Dear friends,
It has been a harsh and snowy winter in Moldova. I am using past tense, but
here we are in March and we still have lots of snow outside. So much for
global warming!
When we took the staff and the students out into the country to study
Romans it got up to (or should I say down to) minus 17F. It was not too
much warmer inside so sometimes the sound waves were freezing on the way
from the speaker to us and we did not hear much. If it was not for that hot
tea and coffee which we kept making and drinking our brain would have
probably turned into ice-cream. But we have all survived! Like good marines
leaving no man (or woman – to be pc) behind we have all made it back to
Chisinau. And yet there was one more surprise awaiting us at home. We found
a one-foot icicle on our exhaust and a frozen gas heater. Because it was so
cold outside the outgoing vapor was freezing right away so the heater has
“suffocated”. You should have seen me standing on the windowsill with a
candle trying to defrost the pipe. It was sure getting darker outside and
colder inside, but PTL we have been able to find help and warm the place up
(it only took us 24 hours to do the latter!)
Our campus ministry has held its main annual event – Evangelistic Student
Conference. This time we had about 200 students there from 8 campuses
representing 4 cities. It was so special to have new students there from
new campuses. Last fall we launched a new ministry up in Balti sending a
staff team there and already see the fruit. 13 students came from that
city. Another group of students from Comrat (south of Moldova) has
contacted us and asked to be invited! Somehow they have heard about the
conference and did not want to miss it. So, in some places we do not have
to go after the students; they go after us. As we read students’ responses
it was obvious that God was working in their hearts. 23 students have
indicated that they have made a decision for Christ! Other people wrote
that they improved their fellowship with the Lord, a 2nd year student told
us she wanted to come on staff, another one wrote that it was amazing to
see so many students believing in God. This reminded me of my first
impressions as a Christian. I believed in Christ back in 1992 as a result
of the first ever summer project CCC has organized in Moldova and then 4
months later went to my first student conference. It took us 2 days to get
there by train, but when we got to Moscow we saw about 1,000 students from
all over former USSR worshiping the Lord! It was truly amazing to see so
many as I thought I was the only “weird” guy choosing to follow Christ at
the age of 19. There was one strange thing, though, I just could not
understand. After spending the summer with American staff I thought that
Christian choruses only existed in English, so I could not figure out how
come all these students are singing “Step by Step” in Russian God is truly
a great God! He has saved me when I was still young and He still saves
students!
Before closing, I would like to kindly ask you to pray for something
important. 14 years ago yesterday a civil war was unleashed in Moldova. I
am not exactly sure who won, but up to this day we have a breakaway
“Republic of Transnistria” which legally does not exist, but in reality it
very much does. When going to study Romans we had to go through their
territory and I was almost ready to sing “Back in the USSR” together with
the Beatles. I truly felt I went back in time. Quotes of Lenin, lots of
armed militia, lots of xenophobia and unfortunately no freedom of religion.
One of my colleagues was trying to take some New Testaments through (not
even into) their territory and they almost arrested him. Local KGB
officials were alerted and they were trying to decide what to do. Finally
they let him go but told him to “never do this again”. Well, I do not know
if we can promise that. It kind of reminds me of Acts 4:18.
I wanted to send you a picture of a “comrade” carrying an AK-47, but then
decided not to, lest I would have to write my next prayer letter on toilet
paper using a pencil doing it in a dark room with a small window up high.
But instead of a picture I am sending you something else. Did you ever get
a stamp of the country that technically does not exist on the map?! Well,
here is one for your collection!
From Moldova with love,
Yuri and Olga Boldirev
March 2006
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