Thank you, Pastor David. And good morning, everybody. So how is everybody today? That’s good. If you didn’t have a good week, I pray that next week will be better than this week. And June and I are so, so very delighted to be here this morning. And thank you, Pastor David, for the wonderful invitation to be, is it 20 church or church 20? So what’s that about, David? Everybody is 20 years old or? Yeah, something like that.
But we are so delighted to be here today. It’s a wonderful, wonderful privilege for us to reconnect again. And we’re just overjoyed that we could enjoy the conversation, to know good friends. Last night, we stayed with Heather and Tony and just had a great time chatting together. But David, we go back to, I think, the late 80s, early 90s. Somebody mentioned your name to me. And I gave you a phone call. And I said, David, I would like for you to come and whatever. We had some services. And you did some special events.
And with, I think, maybe a little short seminar on family life and that sort of thing. And you were so good, we actually had you come back again. Then we had April. And you were toast. No, not really. But April came and gave that testimony that you gave this morning and blessed our people there in Labrador City. June and I have been in ministry now for over 50 years, something like your pastor. And we started in Newfoundland, in Labrador. We pastored there different churches for 19 years. And then we got an invitation to come to Napanee, Ontario.
We pastored there for nine years. And while we were in Napanee, David, you came to Napanee and shared with us. And you sang a song, Broken and Poured Out. Remember that song? That’s a song you sang on that Sunday night when you were there. Then after we left Napanee, we went to our district office, Eastern Ontario, Nunavut District Office in Coburg. And we were there for 16 years. And then we came up to the age of retirement, whatever that is. And we left the district. But we felt what we call a second call of God.
And now we’re missionaries in the Eurasia region and have been now going on 10 years. So we’re not getting any younger, but thank God for energy and for the wherewithal to continue going. So 10 years ago, when I turned 67, so now you can do the math and find out how old I am. So my grandson said to me on my birthday, he said, Poppy, how old are you? I said, I’m 67. He says, wow, how long did it take you to get that old? It took me a long time, buddy. But for the last 10 years, we have been ministering in the Eurasia region. I do at the beginning wanna encourage you after the service is done, come and look at some of these displays here, these posters. They all tell a story that I don’t have time to tell you, but they do tell a bit of a story, a little bit of history of what we have done.
Now, some need to be updated. And I just got back a few days ago from Europe again, and there’s other things going on. You go overseas, David, and you go to one project, and there’s 100 more projects that come up and so on. So always something to do, but take a look at these. And we do have a newsletter here. We try to publish this four times a year. And we got one, I think, for at least one per family. So if you would, looking around here afterwards and take one of those and pray for us, that would be phenomenal. When we go overseas, we try to have at least 100 people praying for us. And I think it generally works out that way too, 100 or more.
But thank you for your prayers and for that. I felt much of God’s presence in the place this morning. And I’ve been praying for you this past week. Every time I’m invited to speak, I ask the Lord to give me something that I need to pray for the congregation. And so I’ve been praying for you. I’ve been praying that God would help you. Maybe some of you are suffering from anxiety of some kind. That could be one person here, it could be several. But every now and again in life, we have some anxiety here and there. And I have prayed for you that if that’s you, that God would touch you even right now in Jesus’ name.
And the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5 and 7, they cast all of your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. And then the psalmist said in Psalm, I think it was 94 and 17, 19, one of those verses there, that when anxiety was deep within me, I was filled with your joy. It’s what, read those scriptures later today. And so I’m praying that if you have any anxiety, that God will touch you today. And how do you cast your care or your anxiety on the Lord? I mean, it’s not something tangible that you can take and actually move it from here to there, but there’s a spiritual exercise that I cannot explain how that happens. But in Jesus’ name, if you have anxiety, that it will go from you this very day in Jesus’ name. Then the second prayer that I’ve been praying for you is that you will not focus on any regrets in your life. A lot of people live life in regret. If I had it to do over, I would have done this, I wouldn’t have done that.
I wouldn’t have said this, I would have said that. We have regrets of some kind, some are big ones, some are not so big. But I pray today that you will not live in that space anymore. You will move on from there and surrender everything to the Lord. And again, it’s a casting upon the Lord. We can’t change anything, can we, in the past? And there’s no point in even trying. So why live there? Why camp there? So in Jesus’ name today, if you have a need in your life, that way, if you’re living in regret, you’ve asked the Lord to forgive you if you need the forgiveness for that, and God has, let’s go on and let’s face today.
Our best days are ahead of us in Jesus’ name. It doesn’t seem like that when all of those around us that we love are passing away or getting sick or bad things are happening to good people. It doesn’t seem like that. I want you to know that our best days are ahead because Jesus is coming soon. And we’re looking forward to that day when we shall see him face to face. And so we thank God for his provisions. I want to encourage you to pray a simple prayer every day. I pray this prayer often. I would ask you, and I do this sometimes, even before I’m out of bed in the morning, or if I wake up in the middle of the night, I put my hand upon my chest and I say, Jesus, have mercy on me. Jesus, have mercy on me.
Would you do that even right now? Say it with me, Jesus, have mercy on me. Jesus, have mercy on me. Then I pray that Jesus will have mercy on June. I pray that Jesus will have mercy on our children and their spouses and our grandchildren, seven grandchildren, three children. Jesus, have mercy. And you know, the mercy of God is amazing. Remember the blind man sitting by the road, Jesus came. What do you want me to do? It seemed to be fairly obvious what needed to be done, but Jesus asked, what do you want me to do?
Lord, would you have mercy and would you heal me? Would you give me my sight? Back 18 years ago, our son was 23 years old and he was playing hockey on a Friday night and he woke up on Saturday morning and he was bruised across his chest. He went to the doctor and he got x-rays and they found an eight inch tumor in his chest. And long story short, we had to have some treatments. We prayed, we asked people around the world to pray and on and on it goes. And that was 18 years ago. And you know, he did get some chemo, but do you know that by the grace of God, that tumor shrank from eight inches to less than two centimeters in the name of Jesus. That builds faith in your heart, my friend. It builds you up in the most holy faith.
And then 15 years ago, he had his second child. They had their second child. And if you can believe this or not, I know you will. It’s almost too hard to believe. Bronson was born with fourth stage cancer. His adrenal glands and his liver was destroyed. Again, a long story short, we prayed, we sought God. People around the world were praying. How many know that prayer works? And things don’t always work out the way that we would like and so on.
I don’t understand all of that supernatural happening when God touches somebody, but I know that he’s real and I know that he can. And we prayed for Bronson. And the first three months of his life, he was in Sick Kids in Toronto. I remember the day that we brought him home and just this past May, right after we’re at General Conference, David, we were down in the valley where his dad, now the one that the Lord touched with the cancer, he’s an RCMP officer in the valley in Nova Scotia, Annapolis Valley. And while we were there, we celebrated Bronson’s 15th birthday. He’s six feet tall now and he’s way taller than me, as you can tell, but I give God praise and glory for that. And we think about Pete and we think about others and I’ve never forgotten that testimony about April. I don’t know how many times over the years I’ve thought about that. And David, you were instrumental in my ministry as a global missionary now. When I was in Labrador City, I phoned you one day and I said, David, I’m going on a mission trip.
He said, oh, that’s nice, where are you going? I said, I’m going to Africa. He said, who are you going with? I said, nobody. He said, Cal, you can’t go by yourself. I mean, I was so naive, it’s not even funny. Like this green Newfie boy going to Africa. Where am I going to go? Who am I going to stay with? David said, Cal, you can’t go by yourself.
You might not even remember this. Anyway, you set it all up with Gerald Morrison. You set up the flights. I sent you the money and you met me in Toronto and we went to our head office for an hour and back to the airport and away we went. And you know that fire, David, burning our hearts for missions, burns in my heart and is intensified even more to this day. Even though I’m getting older, even more to this day, that fire is still burning.
And so God has a path and a journey for us all, doesn’t he? And we can be fruitful for God, no matter what age we are, where we live or what our station in life is. And I just encourage you today to be yourself, to be all that God desires you to be and to use you in these days just before Jesus comes. Well, I want to say thank you for all that you do for global missions.
This is a great ministry around the world and we are very, very pleased that God has called us. I was telling David in April that this is like a second call of God upon our lives. Over 50 years ago, we felt God call us in the ministry. I went to a little place up in Brick Bay, Newfoundland. We had three and one half families in that church. And I stress the half because I was looking for every number I could get. But anyway, the half families, but we invested in young people there and God led us and used us and so on. Then as we were thinking about retiring, I didn’t know what retirement would look like. And I kind of had an idea what I might do or not do. And it never worked out anything like I thought one way or the other, but we felt God call us.
And so for the last nine plus years, we have been in the Eurasia region and doing what we feel God has called us to do. So thank God for the call of God. And as we look at the work of God around the world and what God is doing, it’s absolutely incredible. And I will share some stories with you this morning that are almost too incredible to believe. Actually, you can’t make it up. I heard these just recently. I just got back a few weeks ago from Eurasia, from the region. And as we look at Europe in general, we call Europe the new dark continent. We always refer to Africa as a dark continent. We now call Europe the new dark continent.
As you know, of course, it’s a secular society. It’s post-Christian. The magnificent museums are all but tourist attractions now. I mean, the architecture in these is indescribable and so on. And one time, large congregations met there. No longer does that happen. You go to some and there’s a paltry few people, older ones that would go, but not too many. And so it’s certainly a secular society. And to proclaim the good news of the gospel in many of these countries is absolutely foreign. They know nothing about it.
And so I think about the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter nine and verse 37, and you are so familiar with this verse, where Jesus was moved with compassion upon them and saw them as sheep having no shepherd. And he said, truly the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. And that has struck my heart these last nine years plus. The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. And that is certainly true indeed in our present day, the laborers are few. I keep praying that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into his harvest field. Now, as we look at the great Eurasia region, it’s a large, large region. I mean, it’s about 750 million people. And we have over 50 countries, and we have a presence probably in 20 of these countries. And over the last few years, we have lost a number of personnel through sickness or age or whatever the case might be.
And it seems like our group is getting larger and the harvest is growing even greater. But this region spans 12 time zones. We look at the average of evangelicals around the world, and they tell us about 6% of the world’s population are evangelicals. Canada apparently is 7% evangelical. But most of these countries in Eurasia, there would be 20 countries that would have 1% or less. And when I say less, I mean a lot less.
And seven nations of the 308 have 308 unreached people’s groups. I mean, it’s horrendous when you think about it. And so, as we have been led by the spirit, none of this has been planned. It’s been a walk of faith as God has been leading us and directing us.
And our focus recently has been on the Balkan nations. And there are very, very, very few believers in the Balkan nations. You do a little bit of research, you would find out that these nations, maybe 10 or so of them, there’s 10 or 11, depending how you count them, but I don’t know how they work that out. But the population is more than 111 million. It’s probably close to 120 million in all of these Balkan nations. And the common religions, as you can see, are Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christianity and Sunni Islam. And as you look at these nations, you can see them listed there for you and see where they are. And many of these, of course, are the former Yugoslavian nations. And as you look at the all of the political ramifications of these nations, the borders of countries have changed immensely over the years. And one guy told me that his father lived in the same house for all of his life, and he’s lived in three different countries.
That’s how much it changes. But as we look at this area of the world, they need God, believe me, they need God. So we’re looking at the Balkans, but we’re gonna start with Moldova. And I wanna keep an eye on the clock and not keep you over time, but we’re starting with Moldova, which is not a Balkan nation. I just got back from Moldova, and honestly, I felt that while I was there, for the four days I was there, that I was walking in the supernatural because of the stories that my friend Victor told me and the other two or three guys that were accompanying me. Just too incredible, pretty well, to believe. Moldova is the poorest European country. Population of about close to two and a half million. Capital city of Chisinau is probably about half of that population, 720,000. The capital cities and the nearby communities.
But as we look at this country of Moldova, it’s incredible. The ministry that’s taking place there, they didn’t really fundraise anywhere. It’s been a walk of faith. As they started a church here and a church there and an orphanage here and a senior’s home there and a home for people that are not well and so on and so on. Many, many wonderful stories. I’m standing here with a young man by the name of Valery. Valery is now in his 20s. When he was 10 years old, his mother sold him for 1,000 bucks to the gypsies. And the gypsies took him to Moscow and forced him to serve on the streets, begging money so that they could enrich themselves. Valery was not born without the use of his legs.
That happened because of the severe abuse that he’s been through in his lifetime where he was living and what was going on in his life. Somehow, Valery was able to escape from the clutches of these people that had kidnapped him. And he found a place to live in an orphanage somewhere in Moldova. So then he turned age 18. He’s only early 20s now. Turned 18. When you turn 18 years old in Moldova, you cannot stay in a government-sponsored orphanage. So where do you stay? You stay nowhere. You put out on the street.
So Valery heard about our mission there in Moldova. And he heard about Victor, who runs that mission. And he called Victor. And he said to Victor, he said, you’ve got to take me. You’ve got to take me and look after me. And Victor said, I have no place for you to go. He said, we’ve got a little bit of a senior’s home there.
But he said, I can’t put you there. He said, I don’t care where it is, Victor. You have to take me.
I can’t leave here in this wheelchair and, like I am, incapacitated and have nowhere to go. You have to take me. He prevailed upon him to the point where Victor finally relented and took him and put him in the senior’s home. Wouldn’t you know, out of that came the vision to start an orphanage. So they started an orphanage. And that orphanage is built. And that’s where Valery lives. He got a lovely room there. He’s very handy with his hands. And he can fix any kind of an engine.
He can’t lift them. But he gets the other guys from the orphanage there. And they would lift up, whether it be a lawnmower or whether it be some other kind of small engine. And he repairs it and puts it all back together again. It works like a clock. And so Valery is very fulfilled and very happy to tell people about his commitment to Jesus Christ. Do you know what Valery did just a short time ago? He found out where his mom was living, his mother that sold him years ago for $1,000. And consequently, he ends up the way that he is, in a wheelchair. He found his mother.
He went to her. And he said, mom, I forgive you for what you did to me. It broke my heart to hear that story. But I thought, this is what the love of God can do. And this is what missions dollars do, when people give. And we all can’t go. I don’t know how much longer Jude and I will go. But we’ll go as long as we can. That’s up to God to tell us when. And I’ll leave that to him.
And we’ll do whatever we can for the extension of God’s kingdom. And so people like Valery. And so that orphanage now, just this past May, just a few weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, they opened a whole new section of the orphanage and also another section for the seniors that are there. It’s just amazing what God is doing. Let me tell you the story about how God provides. So there is one woman, I believe, that her name is Natasha. Natasha lived in a hole in the ground, literally, for 15 years. There’s no social net. There’s no social help from the government. You’re just totally, totally on your own.
She lived in a hole in the ground for 15 years. And it gets rather cold in Moldova, not unlike it does here in Canada. And so how she kept warm, she had a few rags around her to keep her warm. But the dogs, the stray dogs at night in the community came and laid beside her and kept her warm all of these 15 years. Victor found her, rescued her, brought her to their home, and cleaned her up, gave her some good clothing to wear, fed her some nice meals. And three days later, Natasha says, I have to go back. Victor says, what do you mean, go back? She said, these dogs have been loyal to me for 15 years. She said, I gotta make sure they’re okay. Victor said, Natasha, I’m gonna go back.
I know people that live in that area. I’m gonna go back and make sure that these dogs are okay. So she was settled in her mind and she stayed there and they were able to take care of her. That’s just one story on that. And it’s amazing what God is doing. They have established a bakery there in this community. Some of these names are very hard to pronounce, but believe me, it is in Moldova and I’ve been there. But I want you to take a look at this. You see the flour there and you see the baking equipment and so on. It was not always like this.
They started out, because there are so many hungry people in the area, and again, you’ll remember, I just said that there’s no social net. They can’t go and get a food stamp and go somewhere and get groceries. They have nothing, absolutely nothing. So they started a bakery and their equipment was so antiquated. He was ashamed to show one guy when he came what they were using for ovens to bake. This guy was from Germany. He eventually prevailed upon them. He wanted to see their bakery and they eventually showed him and he went back to Germany. They never saw the guy before and they never saw him after. But a few days later or weeks later, a truck arrived with all of this equipment, the mixer, the ovens, the whole nine yards.
And here they were now able to bake bread for the hungry in the community. They started baking with 500 loaves a day for five days a week. And then COVID came and he quit because he had no flour. He just had a few bags that would last maybe a day or so and that was it. And so people came lined up only to be turned away because the bakery wasn’t open. No staff, no employees, no nothing. And so the people started complaining to the mayor. We have no food and the bakery is closed. The mayor called Victor. So what’s going on with the bakery?
Well, he said, you know why I’m closed. He said, I’m not supposed to have people there working and we’re not supposed to do this. We’re not supposed to do that. Nonsense and blah, blah, blah goes, as you know. And the mayor said, well, he said, I have no flour. I just have a little bit for a couple of days. So the mayor said, well, leave it with me. I’ll get back to you. Mayor phoned him back a short time after and said, Victor, he said, take your truck. He said, I have 22 tons of flour for you.
Go and pick it up and come back and open the bakery again. They opened up the bakery and they started baking bread. And do you know that in a short time the people were saying there’s not enough bread to go around and they thought like, how in the world can we do this? Like we’re kind of, we got 21 tons. Are we going to get any more flour? Like, can we do that? They said, we need to do 800 loaves a day, 800 loaves a day. And Victor thought, oh my, he took a step of faith. And you know, from that day to this day, they have never been low on flour. They’ve always had flour.
It’s like in the Bible, we used to sing the song, remember, like the cruise of oil unfailing is his grace forevermore and his love unchanging still. Come to the father. And so they did and they’ve never failed. They do 800 loaves a day, five days a week. And you know how they distribute this? They have people in the church and in their community there that actually sign up and they sign up, tomorrow I need 25 loaves. Somebody else will say, tomorrow I need 40 loaves. Somebody will say, I need a hundred loaves or I need five loaves. And they come and get the bread and away they go and they knock on doors of people they know and give the bread away. They came to one lady who’s a blind lady.
And she came to the door. They had a loaf of bread for her. And this is hot bread out of the oven. And David, I almost said out of the hoven. I almost said it. New face, it just comes out when I get excited. And so she came out and she knew who they were at the door. They gave her a loaf of bread, fresh bread right out of the oven. She took the bread and she began to kiss the bread all over. She was so happy.
She took the bread and she made her way over as best she could to a container on the table and took the lid off and put the loaf of bread down in the container, put the lid back on and she put a rock on top of the lid. And she said to the people that brought the bread, she said, I put that rock on there. So the rats won’t get at my bread and eat it before I eat it. You cannot imagine such abject poverty. Just unbelievable. But they rescued this woman too and touched her life in a powerful way for God. I mean, it just goes on and on and on, the goodness of God and what God has done and what he continues to do. I want you to hear this story. Time is moving quickly, but I want you to see this. The people there on the left, that’s Michael and Luda.
And that little guy that I’m with there on the right, his name is Dimitri. Dimitri is 10 years old and Dimitri was abandoned by his mother when he was a baby. So Michael and Luda have been ministering in Moldova. They are Moldovians. And the Lord spoke to them to start an orphanage. They had nothing, absolutely nothing to start an orphanage with. No building, no money, not even a car to travel. They would hitchhike from where they lived to this community where they’re gonna start the orphanage. And there was an old barn there that they begin to fix up. And so over time, they started doing all that.
And hitchhiking now, no money to pay a taxi or had no friends that had a vehicle that could bring them. But every week they would go out there and they would do this and start this orphanage. So as they were continuing with that, they used to get some clothing that was sent in from England, you know, like boxes of clothing and that sort of thing. And so she went and picked up, he and Michael and her went and picked up a box of clothing one day and brought it back to the orphanage and she was sorting through it and so on. And their son was helping them. You think about God’s provision. Just listen to this story about God’s provision. They needed a ministry van. They had nothing to buy a van. They needed 5,000 euro to buy a van, which is about what, 7,500 Canadian dollars.
And so Luda was talking to Michael. She said, Michael, should we write some people in the US? She said some friends that we know that might give us a little bit toward this ministry van that we need. And they just kind of felt a bit awkward about it and thought, no, I don’t think we’ll do that and so on. And anyway, their son was working with them and of course he had to have a job beside that somewhere because they needed to have money to live themselves. So this morning he was getting ready to go to work and it was a cold morning, a cold winter’s morning. And she spoke to her son and said, I just saw a coat in that box I got the other day. She said, it’s a nice warm coat and it will fit you perfectly. She said, take that coat and put it on because she said, it will really help you to be warm today. He took the coat and put it on and he was putting it on and so on.
And as you do, guys, put your hand in your pocket, put his hand in his pocket, something in the pocket. He pulls out this, here’s a wallet. Nobody’s name there, no identification whatsoever. He said, mom, there’s a wallet here with some money in it. And lo and behold, he puts his hand in the other pocket. Same thing, same thing, no identification, nothing. And they had been praying that God would provide a van. David, when they counted that money, there was over 5,000 Euro in those two wallets. Isn’t that amazing? Give the Lord a praise, hallelujah.
And so their hearts are just so, so rich. They’re getting on in years, but now they pastor a church there. The area where they’re standing is a little bit of a kitchen dining room. They have people coming alongside in the community. They have children, Demetri is one. And little Demetri, look at him there. Look at that sweet face, wow. Unbelievable, Demetri. You know, I got more stories to tell you than I can ever tell you. I’m gonna close.
I do wanna tell you this though. So, this was on Easter Monday. I celebrated Easter twice this year. We had it here in Canada, and when I got to Moldova, it was a week later. So I had two Easter Sundays and two Easter Mondays. This is Easter Monday morning right here in this new church. This is the first official church service that they had in this building. And these people are very, very fresh to Christianity, to Jesus, knowing him as Savior and Lord. And you know that that morning, David, this happened to you, I’m sure, many times before. I came to church Easter Sunday morning.
I’m sitting on the front seat with the pastor and others, and the pastor comes to me and says, you’re preaching this morning, right? I didn’t know I was preaching this morning. I said, yeah, I am. That happened to you, I bet, a time or two here and there. Anyway, I got up and I spoke. And afterwards, when the pastor took over, because I can’t speak the language, obviously, gave the altar call, 20 people in that building this morning gave their lives to Jesus. Hallelujah. Very first service in a community called Bijor. And this is a brand new church plant. After the service was over, the pastor and his son, whose name is also Victor, met with the owner of the building, because the owner of the building wanted to sell because he’s moving somewhere else.
He wanted 100,000 euro for the building. And so they had beat him down to 70. They were hoping to get him lower. But anyway, right after the church service, they went in and they negotiated with him again, and he was firm at 70. They gave him 1,000 euro down payment, shook hands, we’ll give you 35,000 down the road a bit, another 35,000 a little later on, and now the building is gonna be theirs. How God answers prayer, and how God worked and moved in that place. They gave a Bible to everyone in that place that morning. And you should see the people come with, we sang about, what was it, this morning, the song that we sang about hungering and thirsting. And so here’s another congregation. In 1989, there were 11 churches in Moldova.
And then in 93, when the wall came down, there were 60. Do you know how many there are today? 387, with 60 preaching points, and with a vision to have another 120 by 2030. You plant churches, you reach out with humanitarian help, you touch the lives of people, and you see the kingdom of God increase. And people that were sitting in darkness now are not in darkness anymore. They see the light, and they are bringing their families to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. Hallelujah. Thank God for his work and for his word, and for the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here’s what they focus on. They have four pillars of moving forward.
Vision, you gotta have vision. Anybody can have a vision. You gotta have faith. Without faith, the vision won’t work. You gotta have confession. I’m confessing this is gonna happen in the name of Jesus, and then you have action. That’s what they operate on. It’s amazing. Bosnia, 3. 2 million people.
Less than 1,000 believers in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We’re just making inroads. The leadership there is fairly weak. They’re good men, they’re strong, but the leadership part of it is not what it should be. We’re working with them. We’re in Montenegro. What a beautiful country. Small country, but a beautiful country. In Montenegro, this is the last European nation to receive the gospel, the last one. The guy you see me standing with there in the middle, his name is Dragan.
He’s the only Macedonian Pentecostal pastor, the only one in the entire country. And Dragan got a great vision. He’s a wonderful man. He got a tiny church there, and God is moving through Dragan in a powerful, powerful way. In the entire country of 630,000 people, do you know how many Montenegrins, that are native Montenegrins, are believers? Between 50 and 70 in the entire country. And if you add the expats, expatriates, into that mix, that’s people from outside and so on, you would have less than 300. Their other pastors are Serbian or Macedonian or from other places. It’s just amazing. And they have a vision to reach the lost.
They’re doing a great, great, they have great favor with the government, and I expect someday, by the grace of God, to be back there again. I want you to pray for these wonderful, wonderful people. They are doing a great project. When I was there, they had three months left in translating the gospel of Mark into the English language. And that, I would say, by the end of July, early August, should be done. Within three years, they want the entire New Testament translated into English, and in 10 years, their goal is to have the entire Bible translated into the Moldavian language, the entire Bible. And there’s a Bible Society out of Africa that’s funding all of this for them. So the word of God is being not only spoken through pastors and leaders, but the word of God is being printed and written and read and so on, and God’s word will not return void. It will accomplish what God wants it to accomplish. So we’re grateful for all that God is doing these days.
And then finally, as we come down to this last slide, we’re right at eight minutes after 12, and I wanna make sure that we’re gonna be on time here. But in Kosovo, we were in Kosovo. Kosovo is 96. 5% Muslim. Now, try to evangelize there, would you? Like, I mean, it’s unbelievable, the things that we have seen and experienced. And yet, the church there is alive and well, and they meet on Sunday mornings, and they have great music and a lovely congregation in the city of Pristina. And people are coming to faith in Christ and many other stories to tell you about there, but time is not here this morning to do it. But pray for Kosovo. We expect to be back there by the grace of God, too, in the not-too-distant future.
And then Macedonia, we were in Macedonia. Have you heard the Macedonian call today? I think this is the part of the scriptures, is it Acts 15 or somewhere around there, where it talks about, is it illiquium or something like that, some of these? Yeah, yeah, come over, and Paul went there because nobody else was going there. He said, I don’t wanna build on anybody else’s foundation. So he went to these places, and a lot of these places I told you about is exactly where he went. And when you look at the history of it, it’s absolutely amazing how it fits into the New Testament. So there in Macedonia, again, a population of 1. 8 million, but very, very few believers, like less than, I would say, less than 500. And the guy that is second from, well, okay, see the map? I can’t always get my direction straight. But the guy in the white shirt, the second last one over there, his name is Zivko, and he and his wife are very, very musical.
They have talent coming out of their ears. They actually arrange really, really good music, and they meet in the big, not an arena, but like a concert hall. And there are thousands of people that come, and they get opportunity in a nation that now is post-Christian, and many people don’t know what it is to have a personal experience with God. They are able to sow the seed of the Word of God, and that’s how they’re building their church. They do it different there than we do here because of their circumstances and culture and everything else. But God is working, and there’s good news. There’s good things happening. I mean, we feel sometimes like we go to a lot of small places, mostly small places.
A congregation this size would be fairly big where we go. And, but yet we go, and one by one by one, and we see people come to faith in Christ, and we lift up the hands of the pastors who are there. They are better than we are in telling the story because they have the language. So our call is to come and bring words of life and words of encouragement. And this final one right here, this couple that you’re seeing right there, Sinesha and Daniela Ljubomirovski. That’s hard for a newfie to say, David. You should have taught me how to speak when you were, what happened? Ljubomirovski, but that’s not a newfie word. They have pastored a church in Vervetice, Croatia for the last 15 years. He’s Macedonian.
She’s actually Slovakian, but she grew up in Serbia. And this picture is taken in Titel, Serbia. And just recently, he has been appointed as the Balkan field coordinator by his church body in Croatia. And we are now working with him to build a ministry center. There’s gonna be a mammoth task. You see that little A-frame in the background there? A year ago, May passed. We had a group from Triton, Newfoundland that erected that, David, in seven days, that little A-frame. You can’t beat them newfies, boy. I’m telling you right now.
And anyway, we put that up. Their camp is about ready to start. They have 60 signed up. They’re maxed out for this one right now. They have to expand it more. And we came alongside of them. And I don’t know, we got a video, but let’s hold off on the video because it takes three minutes. So we’ll just close out with this. But David and congregation this morning, your prayers and your support and all that you do, we go alongside. You’ll see this church here in Sisak. Look at that foundation right there. They gotta build an earthquake proof. In 2020, they lost their building through an earthquake. It was an old building. We came alongside. It’s gone beyond that now. The floor is on. The first floor is pretty well completed. They’re working on the second floor in this small space. And the whole thing is earthquake proof.
And I’ll be seeing it again in the fall when I go. We’ve had a few little snags here and there, but we have provided resources that they can do that. If we don’t come alongside nobody, they have nobody to help them. And in these countries where very few know Jesus as Savior and Lord, I say to God today, thank you, Jesus, for calling us. And thank you for the opportunity to speak to dear folks like you, that you can certainly pray for us. And God bless you today. David, I’ve never finished a message in probably 20 years, and I’m not finished this morning. And I think you’re probably like that. You have so much to say, right? God bless you, my friend.
And thank you, everybody. Thank you for your attention.
And hopefully we can chat a little bit just before we leave today.
