Moldova was represented at the 50th Anniversary of the Haggai World Institute of Evangelism

Founded in 1969, the Haggai Institute has trained and equipped for 50 years 118,500 key leaders in 189 nations of the world for the effective evangelization of the people of their countries. In the mid-1960s, evangelist John Edmund Haggai, on a trip to the Middle East, realized that the old methods of evangelizing third world countries through missionaries from developed countries would no longer be effective in the future. Therefore, he set out to begin a work of training local key leaders and equipping them to evangelize the world. The training is intensive for 24 days and currently there are centers in Singapore, Maui, Hawaii and on an island in the Mediterranean, where training is provided for Christians in Arab countries.

On September 11-15, 2019, the 50th anniversary of this great worldwide Christian work was celebrated on the Indonesian island of Bali, attended by over 650 participants from 69 countries around the world. I thank God for the joy and privilege to participate in this great and beautiful event in which I represented Moldova. Romania was represented by Roxana Gavrilă and Flaviu Blaga. God honored me to be the first leader in our country to receive this training in 2007 at the Mid-Pacific Center on the island of Maui. Then I was invited to train and join the team of teachers. Now I go every year and for two weeks teach a group of 60 people from about 30 countries a course on biblical and contemporary methods of evangelism. And at the Bali Jubilee, I was offered the privilege of teaching participants a seminar on evangelism through sports and inductive Bible study.

I was glad to see how receptive people were to this subject and eager to apply sports as a method of evangelism. I have received many invitations to go to different countries, such as Paraguay and Japan, to teach the whole course for Christian athletes in their countries and for pastors. The coordinator of the HAGGAI Association for Latin America invited me to teach the course at a conference to be held for key leaders on their continent. Kenia Santana is a radio presenter from Chile and has taught a seminar on evangelism through social networks. I was pleased to offer him a copy of my recently published book, which I wrote as a training manual for Christians to use technology in evangelizing the world. Christians around the world have asked for the textbook to be used to prepare Christians in their countries.

The main theme of the Haggai Institute’s 50th anniversary event was “Ending Gospel Poverty.” Of the 7.6 billion people on the planet, 2.1 billion have not yet heard the gospel. It is the responsibility of every Christian to testify of Christ in every circumstance and to every man.

The Lord Jesus said: ” Therefore, everyone who confesses Me before people, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before people, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven,” (Matthew 10:32-33 NASB). He who does not confess Jesus denies Him. Do you think it’s too harsh to say that? But if you were in a trial and someone needed to put a word in your defense and they were silent, wouldn’t you say they rejected/denied you? So it is with the confession of the gospel. It is the duty of each one of us to speak about Christ anytime, anywhere, to all people, and at this event we discussed how we can use every opportunity to proclaim Christ.  

Because I travel a lot by plane to preach and teach people the Word of God in different parts of the world, I have put together a sermon in which I present the gospel to those who sit with me in the plane. When I approach them, I meet them, introduce myself by name and then tell them: “I am a pastor and I wrote this message for you.” People are very curious because it is addressed to them personally and 9 out of 10 people read it immediately. Thus, on the way to Indonesia, I stayed with a couple from Ukraine who were going there to rest. Ruslan and Ruslana were their names and, after reading the brochure, we had a long discussion, because the flight lasted 12 hours. I asked many questions from the Bible and, because they wanted to study the Bible using the inductive method and to join a church, I contacted them by email with Pastor Anton Timonișin, who will help them in this regard.

From Bali I came to the city of Medan on the island of Sumatra, where I now train leaders according to the method of inductive Bible study. On the plane I gave the lady who was sitting next to me a pamphlet and, after reading it in its entirety, she told me that she was a Buddhist, but she has many Christians in the company she runs and that they are good and calm workers. However, I was amazed that she knew nothing about the Lord Jesus or the Bible, for she listened with delight to everything I told her, and she wanted to have a Bible.  Pastor Samuel, my friend, will invite her to church to give her a Bible and to help her study God’s Word. On the other side of the plane was a Catholic nun from Brazil, who had come to visit a monastery in Medan. She also read the whole pamphlet, and then when I saw how interested she was in learning more about inductive Bible study, I gave her a textbook “Being a disciple – counting the real cost.” She even began to study it on the plane. 

I am now in the city of Medan preparing the leaders to teach the inductive Bible study course “Being a disciple: counting the real cost” I rejoice for the great desire shown by the ministers of the gospel in this city to know the Word of God and to testify it to all men. I will return with an article about the work done in Medan. Thank you for the prayers.

Translated by Liza Bîrlădeanu