During the 1990s there was a move of God in Moldova. Maureen Wise has collected many testimonies concerning what happened
One very significant event occurred in June 1988.
There was a celebration of 1,000 years since the first Russian convert was baptised. Sister Natalia, my colleague in the Bible College, spoke of that time and the first indications of an awakening:
‘In January 1987 our churches set aside the month for prayer and fasting, both for the free expression of the Christian faith in the Soviet Union and for the release of Christians from prison. A month later, Gorbachev freed the Christian prisoners and announced freedom of expression of faith.
‘Towards the end of the month of prayer it was a Sunday and my father was preaching. The theme was prayer for the children of believing families. He was preaching about Samuel and his family and the need for his children to believe for themselves. I understood clearly what my father was saying and there were tears in his eyes as he preached and the Holy Spirit was convicting me through those words. That day I repented and believed.
‘In 1988 I was baptised. Until then we used to baptise secretly, but liberty was starting to come. I was baptised in the lake openly and lots of people came to the service. From 1988 we were able to start evangelising more freely. We celebrated the 1,000th year anniversary of the first Christian baptisms in Kiev and we went to the Orthodox cathedral giving out Christian books and we preached the Word there.’
A thirst for God
I interviewed a dear older Christian, Brother Liviu, who was a doctor and a member of the intelligentsia of his day. He described his sense of ennui with the Communist system: ‘During the 1980s, few here realised what was happening. But everyone longed for change. We were weary with the Communist slogans and understood that we could not expect anything from the system. We also wanted change in our own lives. It was as if there were an echo sounding through the people at the end of the ’80s—it was a thirst for God.’
A scar in the soul of so many
Sister Aurica, a dear friend, was converted during the revival: ‘It was as though there were a scar in the soul of so many. There was great sadness in their souls, but people began to pray. Before that they had been afraid to pray and they had no peace and were unable to forgive others. They had not been taught about the importance of forgiveness. People had been looking for justice anywhere apart from in God. They had suffered so much and they had no peace in their souls. If you cannot forgive, there is no peace. Satan has no power to give peace – it is only the Lord who can do that. After 1990 there was a very great awakening and so many came to church and so many repented.’
Flood-tide of revival
From those early stirrings during the latter years of the 1980s, the Holy Spirit worked in such a way in Moldova in the 1990s that believers describe how they entered the full flood-tide of revival.
All the people I spoke to agreed that the awakening started in 1988 to 1989. Despite many having prayed for a time of refreshing from the Lord, it came suddenly and unexpectedly. Many said that the church had been completely unprepared for such a move of the Spirit of God. As I listened to one and another relating the events of those times I was thrilled to hear of the power and mercy of God in visiting Moldova.
Brother Serghei is in his 40s and is a pastor and a lecturer in theology at the Christian university. I have known him for years. He trained in theology in Oradea, Romania and returned to Moldova to teach others.
‘I was in Transnistria at the time of the awakening. Things were much stricter there and we were not allowed to use the stadiums for evangelism. Nevertheless we used the churches for evangelism and a great number of people repented even as the war1 was going on outside. In the church in Tiraspol where I was there would be tank explosions outside and the church would be full and the whole congregation would be on their knees. I was the church watchman during that time! Even when there were no services due to take place, people flooded into the churches. We held services every single evening and the church was always full to bursting. There was a great hunger for God everywhere. People would take tracts without any prompting and they had so many questions. A brother would start preaching at a trolleybus stop or anywhere and a crowd would quickly gather to listen. This lasted from about 1990 to 1997. We were baptising 50 people at a time. Our parents had prayed for such a revival. They had lived through times when Christians had suffered much for Christ. They were used to fines and imprisonments.’
Everyone wanted to listen
I spoke to another pastor called Nicolae, also in his 40s. As he related the events of those years he became animated by what he was describing and told me he could have spent many hours recalling those times. He has recently been appointed as bishop of the Baptist Union in Moldova.
‘The period from 1990 to 2000 was a very special time. Often I would walk six kilometres to church to preach the gospel and would talk to everyone along the way about the Lord. On Ștefan Cel Mare, the main street, in about 1995, as soon as you started preaching a crowd would gather. Everyone wanted to listen. They were starving to hear the Word of God.’
Pastor Alexandru (the brother who became a Baptist pastor through the blessing of an Orthodox priest!) said: ‘During the 1990s very many were coming to faith. There were so many that they couldn’t fit into the churches – they would be at the windows, in the courtyard – the churches were packed. The Lord put it on the brothers’ hearts to plant churches in every sector of Chișinău (the capital). We only learnt the term, “church planting” afterwards; then we had no adequate vocabulary for what the Holy Spirit was doing.
‘Many pastors understood what the Lord was doing. We need to grasp when the Spirit begins to move and follow his leading. We needed new direction for the work because of the way the Holy Spirit was working. He works where he wills. Some of the unregistered churches did not always use the time when the Lord began to move in power, but the registered churches did use those opportunities. It is the Lord himself who opens doors – our task is to go through them. We were united in our desire to evangelise. There was a great wave of opportunity when the Holy Spirit was working in power and we needed to take advantage of that time that the Lord gave us when so many were calling on the Lord. We need to go at the movement of the Spirit.’
Like the angel
In the 1990s there was an awakening across the land and the stadiums would be full for preaching services. Our prayer houses were full too and so many repented then. God wanted us to use that time. Maybe we did not use it to its full – nobody knew how long it would last. It was like the angel in the New Testament troubling the waters and it was the time for us to act.
Brother Petru remembered: ‘We made our own tracts to give to people. What I remember about those years in the 1990s is that so many people were hungry for God. We used to give them slips of paper to write details about their names and addresses. On the back of the paper it asked if they wanted a visit from a pastor. Most of them did and they had so many questions about God when we visited them! This movement of God’s Spirit lasted powerfully until about 1997. We would preach everywhere and there was a lot of street evangelism. It was no problem to approach anyone and they would stop and talk to you. Everyone was open to talk about the gospel and in schools they were happy for us to preach. We even had opportunities to preach in the Army Base and to the Special Forces. And they listened. Everyone wanted to hear what we preached.’
This is an edited extract from Celestial Fire: A recent awakening in Eastern Europe by Maureen Wise, published by Bryntirion Press, ISBN 978 1 783 972 432 £8.99
FOOTNOTE
1. 1991–1992 Moldovan Civil War between Moldovans, (who were ethnically Romanian) and Slav separatists, (who were ethnically Russian or Ukrainian) who feared Moldova would join with Romania to the West. A bloody inter-ethnic conflict broke out. Russia’s 14th Army provided arms and sometimes troops to the Slav separatists. July 1992 saw a ceasefire and the autonomous Dniestr Republic was set up in Moldova to the east of the River Nistru.
