About "God's Design Church"

On Sunday the Team gathered at "The Diner at Northpoint" for lunch.  Andre and his wife Olga and one other Moldovan team member Uli were able to join us and it was wonderful to meet the three of them and ask lots of questions.  Ian, one of our Global X team members already knew Andre & Olga quite well.  It was great to see their interaction with each other!  We all were pretty laid back and relaxed with one another and this makes me even more excited about the trip.

About God's Design Church: Andre told us that the "church" is not really known as a church locally and their main events and gatherings are not usually on Sundays and are not considered "Church Services".  Locally, the gathering place is known as a Community Center and the gatherings are usually concerts or guest speaker events or fun events for young people where Andre may speak some words sort of like a sermon.  They also have some regular gatherings for "insiders" to fellowship and grow their faith and community with one another.

Apparently there are quite a few people who are asking "God Questions" so Andre and his team desire to get some of the insiders trained on the Starting Point materials so they can get some Starting Point Groups going.  Starting Point is such an excellent environment to ask questions and learn more about where we fit in God's Story.  I am very excited that we're bringing this to them!

We found out that Chisinau is actually pronounced with a hard K sound instead of the ch sound in our language.  We also found out that Moldovan food is mostly meat and vegetables which suits all of us just fine!  Andre said the pizza is good but different from here because they put mayonaise on their pizza!  Sounds icky to me but I've never tried it so I guess I can't knock it until I've tried it...

I'm really hoping that the other team members will begin posting soon so you can meet them.  Some have been really involved with the Drive Conference for church leaders that's been going on over the past few days.  Drive ends today so perhaps they'll have more time now.

You're going where? Yep, we're going to Moldova...

So far nearly everyone I've told that I'm going to Moldova has looked at me with a blank stare and asked "Moldova, where in the World is Moldova?"  Well, in case you're curious to know, it's a tiny, landlocked country smack dab in the middle of Romania and Ukraine, it's below Poland and above the Black Sea and was once part of the USSR. 

The team met for the first time nearly two weeks ago and we're all very excited about the trip.  This Sunday we will meet with Andre, the pastor of "God's Design Church" our Global X Partner Church in Chisinau, Moldova.  Andre and his wife and a few of the church team members will be in town for the DRIVE Leadership Conference put together by North Point Ministries.  The church has been around for about seven years and has been a North Point Ministries partner for about five.  They're growing well and have quite a few regular attendees and they desire to get Small Groups/Community Groups moving in the church and we will go and help them get groups started.

Also, since the latest Starting Point Conversation Guide has been translated into Russian we will be bringing the Starting Point "Curriculum" to them as well.  Starting Point is a 10 week Small Group Environment for Seekers, Starters and Returners and is a perfect environment for participants to get a taste of what Community Groups are all about.

As we get to know each other and our mission better we'll fill you in on more details so you'll know how to pray for us but in the meantime please pray that we become unified as a team and that the Lord would clearly show us exactly what He wants us to do.

In His Mighty Grip
Tracy Anne