Category: Moldova

Articles with information about Moldova

Change

Ben had been preparing long and hard for this moment.

Before him lay the first course of what he expected to be many. This first course was itself a plentiful affair consisting of a plate strewn with tasty delights, all sorts of cheese and meats and salads, accompanied by bread and washed down with various juices or fizzy drinks (considered a luxury in these parts!).

Ben knew what Romanian weddings were like, so he had spent a few days beforehand intentionally eating less than he was accustomed to, not to mention refraining from eating breakfast that morning. So, now he was ready. In fact, he was probably too ready and found himself tucking more heartily into this first course than he would really have wanted.

Once people were finishing off these first delights, the waiters began collecting up the plates and after a short break, it was time for the second course. This time it was fried fish and what was locally known as Mamaliga, otherwise called Polenta in English, which to the uninitiated is boiled up cornmeal, making a soft, but firm, bread like food. Pretty good, depending on what you eat it with, fried fish being a good option.

Ben got stuck into this course as it was one of his favourites and did a good job of polishing it off. By this stage, he was starting to feel a bit full, but he wasn’t too worried. After all, he had trained well and one more course and a bit of cake was well within his stomach’s reaches.

Sure enough, after some tomfoolery on behalf of the wedding’s organisers, consisting of different games such as the blindfolded bride guessing her husband’s tie by feeling a selection of ties adorned around the necks of various wedding guests and the classic ask the bride and groom about the tasks of their marriage, and get each one to raise a knife or fork to indicate who they are expecting to fulfil said tasks (wipe the children clean or take out the rubbish, being examples of tasks that often produce telling differences of opinion), the third course appeared. Ben had been expecting a sturdy piece of meat, but it was actually sarmale, stuffed cabbage rolls that many a Balkan country likes to include among their national foods. Despite his surprise Ben got started on them as a way of celebrating the fact that the wedding games had passed and not just passed but passed without incident.

Once he had finished off his plate of sarmale, Ben was feeling decidedly full. He wasn’t the sort of person to leave anything to waste, so he made sure he ate up every morsel. It was certainly now the time for some exercise, so he was glad that some of the other wedding guests suggested going out for a walk. They wandered aimlessly around the surround area for a while before heading back to the wedding feast. Ben was starting to feel just about ready for some cake. Alas, he had underestimated the wedding organisers.

As Ben entered the wedding hall again, he started to feel uneasy. There was something going on and it didn’t seem like people getting ready to cut cake. He approached his place and as he did so, a sinking feeling came over him. There was a plate awaiting him on the table and it looked like it was full of something, but it didn’t look like cake. Getting closer, the contents of the dish before came into focus. It was a large slice of meat accompanied by some rather tasty looking potatoes. How could Ben have made such a mistake? The sarmale that he had gobbled down, thinking that was the last of the savoury dishes, was just a precursor to the icing on the cake, except that this was a very fleshy cake! Ben had miscalculated things wildly. Instead, of sitting down to enjoy the best part of the meal, he was now confronted with the challenge of imbibing a fourth course that was beyond what he had prepared for. Ben couldn’t let it go to waste though.

Summoning all his strength, he got started. He began filling all the nooks and crannies of his stomach with this unexpected fourth course. He did a surprisingly good job and thanks to gritty determination he managed to get it all down. Hurrah, it was over! Or so he thought.

After a musical interlude and then some more meaningful games (his table had written the Bride and groom a romantic poem using the words fence, torch, bee, rubber duck and chewing gum) the pièce de résistance arrived, although sadly for Ben it was actually only the pre-pièce de résistance; desert.

Plates were brought full of all sorts of cake. None of them looked like wedding cake though, which was what alerted Ben to be cautious. Indeed, in spite of his rather bulging belly, he was tempted to dabble with gluttony, but refrained. He nibbled at a few of the sweet delights on offer but didn’t consume too much. Once bitten, twice shy.

It proved wise as, after a closing address by the groom (thanks for coming and making the day so special – Ben had done his bit with some insightfully poetic lines comparing love to chewing gum’s ability to mend rubber ducks that have been pierced by aggressive bees), the actual, definitively final, cherry on the cake that had been the day’s tour de force through the cuisine of Moldova was revealed, the wedding cake!

It was an extravagant affair as one might expected after such a lavish and full meal. Four tiers and we are talking Camp Nou proportions here. The bride and groom cut the first slice, after which the waiters and waitresses had their work cut out, slicing up the rest and delivering it to the arguably not-so-eagerly awaiting wedding guests.

For Ben it was definitely a mixed blessing. He loved cake, but not after four rounds of the finest Moldovan cuisine that had already been complemented by a fine selection of sweet things. He sighed, nibbled a little and then surreptitiously wrapped the rest in a couple of serviettes and slipped it into his pocket, although slipped would be a bit understated as there was so much he had to give it a good stuff to get it all in.  

The Bible also famously talks about a wedding. This is to be found in John chapter 2. Here we find Jesus in a town called Cana in Galilee, Jesus’ native area of Israel. He and His disciples, as well as His mother have been invited and are no doubting enjoying the occasion when a problem occurs; the wine runs out. This might not seem the end of the world to us, but, just as a lack of food at a Moldovan or Romanian wedding would be a disaster, it was a big problem in ancient Israel. Something that was important to them in their culture to be present at the wedding was now missing. This could potentially have had repercussions.

Aside from spoiling the party, for many years to come this would be remembered as the wedding where the wine ran out. This in turn could easily have caused tension in this new family. In any case, we can imagine how the bride and her family would now feel about her new husband and their new son-in-law as he hadn’t been able to take care of this important detail of the couple’s big day.

However, there is a light and hope in this situation. Whatever mistakes had been made; one wise thing that had been done was that the couple had included Jesus in their wedding plans. His presence there ultimately leads to a solution.  

His initial response to the problem is unclear, but Mary, His mother, obviously has faith in Him to sort things out because she tells the servants (John 2:5):

‘Do whatever he tells you.’   

And indeed they do, even though what He asks of them is not very practical or logical. They are asked to go and fill six stone jars with water (a bit of a task seeing as each held up to 120 litres and presumably they didn’t have water on tap) and then take it to the master of the banquet (even though they knew it was water). Their obedience shows a certain faith on their behalf in Jesus as well.

The upshoot of this obedient faith is that the water turns into wine and when the master of the banquet tastes it, he’s impressed. As a result, he calls the bridegroom to himself. The bridegroom was probably expecting a telling off. However, not only does he not receive the criticism that he deserves, not to mention the ruined wedding and its consequences, but he actually receives something good in exchange.  Alongside the fact that they now have the wine they need to bring the wedding to a successful conclusion; the master of the banquet praises him (John 2:10):

‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’

This is a beautiful picture of God’s grace. The fact that although each of us has done things wrong, that deserve shame and bad consequences, in His grace, when He intervenes in our lives, Jesus actually changes things around. This means that we no longer need to live ashamed of what we have done because Jesus has taken the shame upon Himself and we also don’t need to fear the consequences as Jesus has also suffered those on the cross. Instead we can look forward to a new, abundant life like a wedding celebration filled with the best wine (or the tastiest sarmale!)

As Ben was heading home from the wedding, he reflected on everything that had been there. It was fine, but with one less course of food it would have been excellent. He brought this issue up with one of the fellow wedding guests that was travelling in the bus home with him.

‘That was a nice wedding. There’s one thing I don’t understand though.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Well, why did we have the plate of sarmale? It seems like things would have been fine without it. The starter, fish and meat finished off with desert and wedding cake were all great and more than sufficient.’

‘Yes, well actually, that was the original menu, but you see, there were guests at this wedding who had come all the way from America and so they wouldn’t say afterwards, ‘we came all the way from America and you didn’t give us sarmale’, the couple decided at the last moment to include the extra course with sarmale.’

Ben reclined on his seat and turned his head to stare out the window. Somethings just weren’t for English people to understand.

Socrates Club

Moldova

For some, the name Socrates Club will conjure up images of a fan club devoted to a certain Brazilian footballer. For most though, it will give rise to thoughts about one of the world’s most famous philosophers. Indeed, this is the origin of the name (sorry, football fans!)

The Socrates club however is not so much named after the man himself, but a method of analysing things to reach a critical conclusion, the Socrates method as it were. This basically involved someone presenting an idea, ‘the world is round’ for example and then by a process of question and answer, with someone representing an opposing point of view, investigating the idea to try and get to the bottom of it as it were, ‘But why don’t we fall off?’, ‘Have you seen it’s shape?’, ‘How does it rotate?’, ‘Isn’t it supported on the back of a tortoise?’ etc.

The idea of Socrates clubs was probably first made famous by the Socratic club at Oxford university. This particular version of the Socrates club had a big help in creating its fame due to the fact that one C. S. Lewis, a renowned Oxford University professor and darling of those who like to share insightful Christian quotes on the internet, was the first president. It met from 1942 until 1972, but its most popular period was inevitably up until 1955, the years when C. S. Lewis was an active participant before his move to Cambridge.

Since then, many have endeavoured to take this Socrates club concept and create their own version. Such attempts have even made their way to the Republic of Moldova! Hence since the beginning of 2018 the IFES student ministry here (otherwise known as CSC, the community of Christian Students) as been organising their own version.

In true post-soviet cultural style and taking heed of Isaac Newton’s famous idea of standing on the shoulders of giants, the Socrates club (Sokratov Klub as it’s locally known) in Moldova is based on a combination of three concepts. There is the aforementioned Oxford Socratic club, but to this is add the modern-day TED talks concept and mixed in with a Russian idea of 15 by 4 talks, and hey presto ‘Сократов Клуб’.

TED talks involved a speaker giving a short talk on a topic of general interest. The 15×4 format is popular in the Russian speaking world. As the name would suggest it refers to an event where four speakers have 15 minutes to present a topic of interest (as opposed to 15 speakers having four minutes – that would be quite an event!). Finally, the element of the Oxford Socratic club that has been carried over to Moldova is  the fact that he talk is analysed using a question and answer methodology (in the Moldovan case, thus far, the audience serves as the questioners rather than an invited expert).

Hence the average Sokratov Klub evening in Moldova addresses four different topics with four different speakers. The speakers are free to choose their topic, but the evening’s moderate discusses with them beforehand to make sure the topic is suitable. Because the Sokratov Klub is organised by the previously mentioned CSC student group, the speakers are often, but not exclusively, students. Other speakers have included politicians, Catholic priests and even famous footballers! Following are some examples of talks that have been given by students:

–The awkward Czech language.

–The History of the Evolution of Learning

–Spirited Away by Comics – I am the ruler of the world!

–Two Kettles

One important aspect of the original Socratic club from Oxford that has been partially carried over is that this first Socrates club was created with the aim of discussing ‘the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in particular’ Thus, our Moldovan version includes at least one presentation that addresses a topic connected to Christianity.

Just as the first Socrates club at Oxford university has spread to other places and developed different guises, so to has our Sokratov Klub in Moldova spawned a relative. The things written above related to the first club in Moldova which was started by the CSC group in Moldova’s second biggest city, Balti. However, since then the student group in Chisinau, the capital city has also started up their own version of the club. The format is similar with the main difference being that they have a theme for the evening and all the talks are related to it.

Some quotes from students who have been involved in the Sokratov Klub in Balti:

“The Socrates Club has helped me become less shy and given me much knowledge that I didn’t have before. I have learned to be more eloquent, succinct and responsible. It has also helped me find like-minded people, with whom you can have interesting conversations and share your life experience.”

‘’It was interesting, and the atmosphere was relaxing after a hard day. The subject presentations were exceptionally interesting. At Socrates club, there is always something new and instructive. New in the sense that although we know many things, often we haven’t discussed or touched on their nuances. Socrates club however does.’’

“I enjoyed being here. I found out a lot of things. It was interesting. There was a pleasant atmosphere where I could find out the answers to my questions”

“It was very interesting. Thank you for the evening!”

Student Ministry in Moldova Summary

Moldova

The concept of student ministry has been around for a long time. Some use the example of Daniel and his three friends in exile in Babylon as an example of the first Christian student group.

The first chapter of the book of Daniel tells us that these four young men were to be trained along with other fine young men who had been taken captive from Israel in the language and literature of Babylon. This was obviously a challenging situation for these Jewish youngest as the Babylonian way of doing things didn’t necessarily match up to God’s law. Thus, Daniel boldly asks permission to not defile himself with Babylon food and wine and the first student fellowship is formed as Daniel and his friends are tested by the royal guard, eating only vegetables and drinking water.

Over the centuries not much is not known about Christian student fellowships until more recent times. From the later part of the 1800’s there is information that suggests God was starting to stir the beginnings of what would eventually become worldwide student ministry under the banner of IFES (the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students). A prominent example is the CICCU Student Christian Union at Cambridge university.

CICCU was officially formed in 1877. It was a group of Christian students at Cambridge university who desired to make Jesus known to their student friends. Not to be out done, OICCU (the Oxford version) was founded soon after in 1879. Gradually, a number of such Christian student groups began popping up throughout Great Britain and even the world!

The British Christian student unions eventually formed a national organisation to help unite and coordinate them all. Today this is called ‘UCCF’ (the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship). In 1947, representatives from ten such national Christian student movements came together in Boston, USA where they decided to form an international organisation to help link all these national movements. This was the beginnings of IFES.

The work of IFES was not just to help and oversee already existing Christian student movements, but also to pioneer new ones. During the days of the Soviet Union this was hard in the individual states that made up the Union, but after its fall, IFES style student ministry began propagating throughout these countries.

In Moldova throughout the 90’s student contacts began to be formed by visiting missionaries until by the end of the decade there was already effective ministry taking place and a leadership structure formed consisting of both Moldovans and international volunteers. By 2004, CSC (Community of Christian Students) as it was called, became officially registered. After this the ministry spread and became established also in the Northern City of Bălți. This resulted in two student ministries, one in Chișinău, the capital city, and the other in Balti, the second city of Moldova, which function even until this day.

The aim of the two CSC groups, as in any ministries one would hope, is to do evangelism and discipleship, with the IFES specific of this being concentrated on students. There are a number of means that are used to try and obtain these goals, which will be presented shortly. Before that it is worth mentioning that something that probably makes the CSC groups different to other similar ministries is that the emphasis is on student leadership. After all who is better placed to reach other students than students themselves. Thus, the intention is that each CSC group will be led by a group of Christian students with the help and guidance of a more experienced staff worker.

In Bălți, here are some of the ways we are trying to achieve the aim of doing discipleship and evangelism:

Socrates Club

Over the past couple of years, one of the most popular events in our student ministry has been the Socrates club. This is a monthly evening where 4 speakers (often but not always students) share a topic for 15 minutes and then answer questions on it.

The most recent Socrates club was attended by 41 people and there were talks on ‘the principles of love’ and ‘everyday Metaphysics’ sandwiching a presentation of our CSC activities and a talk on the difference between grace and legalism. Some photos here!

Bible and Life conference

The conference is based on different levels of training. The first presents the basics of the Christian life, the second is on the topic of preparing and leading manuscript Bible studies and the third level is about discipleship. An encouragement for us is that we have five people from Balti have completed level three and so we now have five members of our student group who have been through all three levels of training! Next semester, we will have to do for the first time ever in Moldova level four or get them involved in helping run the seminars of the other levels! Here are some photos

Rethink! Mission Week

The main evangelistic event each year is to organise a mission week for students during the autumn term. Here is some info about the most recent one last November:

After much planning, the event finally arrived in early November. The first evening (4th November) took place at our office and was a preparation time for Christian students and other helpers who were taking part in the event. Then, from 5th to 7th November, each day we went out to start inviting students to come to the evening talks, which were held in the festivities room of a local and well-known hotel. We invited students by giving out flyers and attracting their attention by playing songs on the guitar. One group had a particularly interesting experience as the director of the educational institute that they were visiting called them into his office. Initially, he was very angry, and they thought that he was going to call the police. However, after they explained that they had come to tell people about Jesus and invite them to an evening event, he all of a sudden, and almost miraculously, changed and said that they could go around all the classes taking place and give out flyers!

We had three evening talks, each on a different subject: Why does suffering exist? / Was Darwin right? / and what is the secret of happiness? We had planned for 80 people to come and were nervous that there would be nowhere near that number. But actually, on the first evening there were nearly one hundred people. On the second, over a hundred and on the final evening around 150! Of these, 86 people left their contact details and on the last evening, 26 indicated that they had prayed together with Slavko Hadzic, the speaker. There is a video of one of the days here and some photos from day two here

We also have other regular activities such as English club, Bible studies, Kino Klub and special events!

Moldova History

‘So, where do you live?’

Ben’s face sank. He looked incredulously at the jolly, rotund face that was staring back at him, waiting for an answer. Usually, you would expect such a simple, basic question to receive an equally straightforward response. However, not in Ben’s case. His living arrangements were complicated to explain and as such, he liked wherever possible to avoid the question. Nevertheless, it had been asked, so as always, out of politeness, Ben was going to answer.

‘Moldova’, straight away bracing himself to see which of the varied responses he was going to get this time.

A blank expression followed by a slight smirk was this time’s offering. ‘Oh, I was expecting you to say somewhere like Coventry!’

‘No, I’ve never ever even been to Coventry’, said Ben, glad at least that there had been no comment about never having ever heard of Moldova or further inquisitions about its location.

‘I’ve never heard of that. Where is it?’

Ben had jumped the gun with his gladness. He did at least have his stock reply prepared. ‘In Eastern Europe, sandwiched between Romania and the Ukraine’.

He hoped that this would be enough information. It usually was, most people having some sort of idea where those countries are, and the mention of Eastern Europe was thrown in to sure things up.

Ben had been attending his aunt’s church for a short visit and conversing with a plump young man at the end of the service. From Ben’s personal experience most people, except for those who are fans of the Eurovision song contest or European football, are not too hot on their knowledge of Moldova. Indeed, questions such as ‘where (or even what) is that?’ were frequently encountered. This young man obviously didn’t fall into the category of Eurovision or football lovers.

So, for the uninitiated, Moldova is a small country (relatively speaking as a population of around 3 million could by some standards be considered as medium sized), located geographically in Eastern Europe, although politically it has been torn between different empires.

Historically, it would appear that since well before Christ people lived in the area which includes modern day Moldova. There are various archaeologic signs of different peoples and cultures. However, this land is in an area which separates East from West and so there was much squabbling over the years as different groups invaded moving in one direction or the other.

The first signs of a more established settlement are from the 1350’s. At this time, a Vlach (the precursor people to the Romanians) ruler called, ‘Dragoș’ came with some of his people and took charge of the area forming the Principality of Moldavia, a territory which included what we now call Moldova but was much larger, incorporating much of the surrounding area as well.

There are various legends regarding this, one being that he was hunting an aurochs (extinct type of Bull). He pursued it as far as the Moldova river where he caught and killed it. At the spot where he dismounted from his horse, he realised this land was better that the Marumureș land where he was currently living so went back and brought back his people to take over this new territory.

A sad, but probably not too likely aspect of the story, is that his dog was called Molda. He was so exhausted from chasing the aurochs that he collapsed into the river and drowned. Hence the river being named ‘Moldova’ (‘of Molda’ as it were) and so the origin of the name Moldova.

This initial Moldova, or ‘Principality of Moldavia’, stretched from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Dniester river in the East and included much of what is now Eastern Romania and a little bit of today’s southern Ukraine.

As mentioned above, this was a much sought-after land as it was situated at a convenient location between East and West, not to mention contained very fertile soil. Thus, Moldavia was only able to retain its independence for less than 200 years. Indeed, Moldova’s most celebrated figure, Stephen Cel Mare (Stephen the great) is renowned for exactly that, defending the Moldovan territory against various attacks and so keeping it together as a whole.

After, Stephen the Great’s time (1457 to 1504) Moldova’s grip on independence waned and by 1538 it had become subject to the influence of the Ottoman empire. Since then it has had a long history of being ruled by various empires, subsequently being part of the Russian empire, Romania and the Soviet Union. Finally, in 1991 it declared independence again, creating what is today’s Moldova, a much smaller land than the Moldavia of Old, covering just the land between the Prut and Dniester rivers, having lost its western territory to what is now the Moldovan part of Romania and land in the south and North East to Ukraine.

Ben looked at his new acquaintance, who stood opposite him, obviously not really longing to become too immersed in the history of land that he had never even really heard of and certainly never thought about. Ben had no intention of foisting too much information upon him, although a brief history lesson couldn’t do any harm and indeed, knowledge of the past helps us understand the present and gives wisdom for the future.

So, Ben endeavoured to give a brief summary of the above-mentioned history, which was outwardly well received at the very least.

‘Ok, so I know a lot more about Moldova now than I did five minutes ago,’ was the reaction that Ben received to his brief history lesson. Indeed, one way or another this was the reaction he always received.

His discussion companion now turned to attend to other business and so Ben let him go without further ado, at least partially fulfilled that he had educated him in at least a little of what he knew about Moldova. He himself also turned the other way to look for another vict..…..er……willing student.

Marriage

It seemed like the much-anticipated moment had finally arrived.

Ben spied out of the corner of his eye a figure moving towards him. It didn’t take much for him to realise that it was Nina. She was a tall, dark haired young lady of much beauty. Ben speculated that it wouldn’t be long until she was married, and he had made his own hopes of who she might want to marry. Indeed, he had prayed many a time for and about her and had even attempted more than once to approach her and talk to her but to no avail. She constantly slipped through his fingers. It looked now though like things were going to be different.

The lighter side of things!

Ben was standing next to the refreshment table as people mingled after the end of the church service. Ben wasn’t accustomed to doing much mingling, so he stood alone enjoying the atmosphere and waiting to help with clean up once people had enough of socialising and began leaving.

However, things were now changing and as a long-awaited moment approached. Ben had been unable to enter of his own initiation into a meaningful interaction with Nina, but now it appeared that after much prayer she herself was moving towards him. Ben allowed himself a brief glance as she came closer, lapping up a little of her considerable beauty, but the more he looked, the greater his heart began to pound. What would he actually say when she arrived in his presence?

This dilemma was though short lived. Nina came within a whisker of him, causing Ben’s emotions to reach fever pitch, however they were quickly diffused as Nina veered to the right to avoid collision with Ben, then opened her hand and tossed the waste paper that she had from the snacks that she had consumed onto the refreshment table, finally heading onwards and exiting the room without saying a word to Ben, not even giving him a glance of recognition.

This experience made Ben review his marriage plans!

Marriage is indeed a tricky issue. There’s the old adage that who you will marry is the second most important decision you will make (for some it might even be the first, but from a Christian point of view the decision to accept and follow God’s plan for our lives could well be considered the most important decision). In a cross-cultural setting the complexities increase as different cultures have different perspectives.

The place to start is singleness because everybody is born single and lives for at least a while as an unmarried person (even if they are betrothed!). In the western world this can be seen as a good thing as it allows the person freedom to enjoy life and invest time and energy in career and friends. In other places such as Moldova this is not the case. Here singleness is not generally viewed as a good thing and there is a lot of emphasis on getting married from a young age. This is maybe at least in part due to economic reasons as there are not many opportunities to develop a career here, so it is seen as better to invest in forming a family and it is also easier to get by as a couple, especially if agricultural work is the order of day. In addition to this, due to economic migration, the country’s population is declining, so it’s important for families to be forming and producing children to maintain the population level.

Of course, marriage is not just about practical concerns and the importance of values, companionship, love and romance probably also play their part in making marriage a prevalent aspect of a society.

In Moldova, something else that probably plays a role in attitudes to marriage is the influence of religion and faith. Christianity at both a traditional and living level is very active and widespread and it’s clear from the Bible that God’s plan is for people to live in families of one man and one woman. Admittedly, and tragically, some churches may well promote the importance of marriage as they have something to gain by it, whether financially or by affiliating an outsider to an existing church member. However, once again, beyond such practical concerns there is a Biblical teaching that God created us to have companionship and, as it says in the much-quoted words of Genesis 2:18 ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.’

In the New Testament, Paul echoes this idea at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 7, where he talks about the fact that it is good for husbands and wives to come together regularly as a way of protection from certain temptations and for unmarried people likewise to get married to avoid burning passions. He throws though something extra into the equation. The first verse of this chapter contains the words, ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman’ and later on in verse 7 ‘For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.’  Thus, we understand that he is not promoting marriage as the only option.

In the Old Testament, marriage was very much the thing as the world needed to be populated and indeed, it was God’s plan for his people, the descendants of Abraham, to become ‘as numerous as the stars in the sky.’ By the time we reach the New Testament though, this need has already been fulfilled and the perspective begins to change.

In Genesis 1:28 God tells humans to ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it,’ however inMatthew 28:19 Jesus says, ‘go and make disciples of all the nations’. Hence, the emphasis from the Old to New testament has moved from being on physical to spiritual reproduction.

The result of this is that a Christian’s main goal in life (or at least should be!) to spread the gospel so that people convert and become disciples of Jesus. Christians can be meaningfully involved in this work, whether they are single or married thus the issue of getting married or not is more to do with our calling, as God’s plans can be served in both states, than other practical or personal considerations.