The following post is from CBF field personnel Mary van Rheenen & Keith Holmes.

Dear friends,

An ancient Hebrew proverb tells us that where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18a, KJV). The people of the Baptist church in Nisporeni, Moldova, have a vision. They invite you to pray with them for the next six months (now until Christmas) for this vision.

The church wants to build a community center in the middle of this small city. The ground floor would house social outreach and community-building businesses. One of the social outreaches would be a kitchen to feed poor children, a project in cooperation with Operation Mobilisation.

“I have never seen this in Moldova until now,” Pastor Vitaly Schipou said, “children begging on the street.” According to John Miron, missions coordinator for the Moldovan Baptist Union, 35,000 children live without their parents; 75,000 children live with only one parent. Parents who immigrate illegally must stay three years to receive some sort of legitimacy.

The building would also house the church’s on-going feeding program for the elderly. In the past five years, the church has fed 50; the church also paid for the funerals of some of the 34 who have subsequently passed away. Right now, one church member runs this program from her own home, cooking and delivering meals for ten elderly people each day.

The businesses would help support the church’s outreaches as well as provide employment. Legitimate employment within the community builds the community.

Qualified people are ready to open:

*a fitness center, providing healthy free-time activities for (among others) area youth;
 *a cafe/pizza place, providing a non-bar alternative for families and youth to eat out;
*hair salon;
*shoe-repair shop;
*Internet cafe

The church itself would meet on the upper level of the building. This would free up the current church building, situated in an industrial area, for use as a small factory.

It’s a big dream for a 60-member church. Will you join them in praying for this dream?

Dreaming, too,

Mary van Rheenen & Keith Holmes