The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) begins
its new Great
Commission Partnership with the Baptist Union of Moldova in March.
The Baptist Union of Moldova is asking its partnering
churches to participate in a day of prayer and fasting on Sunday, March
13, in preparation for the events of the following week. The focus of the
day of prayer and fasting will be for God to prepare the hearts of the Moldovan
people for revival and spiritual renewal.
North Carolina Baptist churches
are encouraged to join with Moldovans March 13 in prayer and fasting
as well.
Moldova is a former communist country surrounded by Romania
and Ukraine. The partnership is an opportunity for North Carolina Baptists to
impact one of the unreached people groups in the world today. About 96.4
percent of the people in Moldova do not have a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ.
“God has opened the door for the gospel of Jesus Christ to penetrate
the lostness that is still so great in Moldova,” said Michael Sowers, senior
consultant for Great Commission Partnerships.
The launch of this partnership begins with a series of three
Great Commission Partnership conferences March 16-19 in Moldova. These
conferences will be for pastors and church leaders, women and youth. These
events will take place in five venues in three cities across Moldova and will
directly impact about 1,400 attendees and many more people indirectly in the
years to come.
The pastors’ and church leaders’ conference will focus on
Revelation 3:8 in which Jesus reminds the church in Philadelphia that He has
opened a door that no one can shut.
This timely conference for the nation of
Moldova will be led by: Allan Blume, pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in
Boone and chairman of the BSC Vision Fulfillment Committee; Bobby Welch,
strategist for global evangelical relations for the Southern Baptist
Convention; and John Ewart, associate vice president of project development
and director of doctor of ministry studies at Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary.
The womens’ conference, which will serve as an encouragement
and time of equipping for pastors’ and deacons’ wives, will be held in three
locations throughout Moldova. The conferences will be led by Bobbye Rankin,
wife of Jerry Rankin who is president emeritus of the International Mission
Board (IMB) of the SBC; Pam Blume, who has served on the IMB Board of Trustees
and various BSC committees; and Ashley Allen, director of Embrace women’s
missions and ministries for the BSC.
John Miron, executive director of the
Baptist Union of Moldova, shared that this is the first time that women in the
Baptist Union have had a conference that will focus on their needs.
The youth conference will focus on the last command of Jesus
and will serve as a challenge for students to go to the unengaged and
unreached people groups of the world. Sowers and Chuck Register, executive
leader for church planting and missions development at the BSC,
will lead the youth conference Saturday, March 19.
Students in
Moldova have the opportunity to go to parts of the world where others have no
access. It is the hope of the Baptist Union and the BSC that this conference
will inspire a generation to take the name of Jesus to those who have not heard
of His gospel.
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