Moldova 2014
I have been back from Moldova for a few weeks now and I'm ashamed to say I haven't written about it yet. Let me go back to shortly before our take off. Around the middle of April I went to Frankfurt to pick up my dear mother. She's not the most confident traveler ever, so I was glad she made it to Germany without any mishaps. Margaret arrived and got a nice welcome from our ladies. I'm not sure if she had many clothes in her bag because it seems she had more in that thing for our girls than for herself. "And this is from . . . Here you go." It's nice to get visitors even if they don't bring gifts. So we had a few days to hang out with her and catch up. After a few days Bird and I flew out to Moldova with our team. It was a fun change up to have Bird along, even if it was only for a week. My dearest mother stayed with our girls until Bird flew back the following week. Bird was then able to meet the people and see the places she had heard so many stories about.
Moldova is a beautiful place. The people are some of the warmest you can find. The landscape is hilly without any real mountains rising to great heights. The springtime is fresh and green with new life on all the farms. There are however many problems in Europe's poorest country: 80% unemployment, rampant alcoholism, and a busted social system. So we naïve westerners arrived to save the day. Anything is possible, but I expected this trip to be an expression of love to the churches and villages we visited in out time there, instead of us coming in and showing the locals how things are done. How that love looked was various. We planted corn, played with kids, told Bible stories, delivered lunch to shut-ins, taught some English, preached, cleaned, and basically did whatever was asked of us. I have told all past groups we lead there that I don't want to be a burden to the local church, but a blessing. I want to give everything I have and come home exhausted. We did that.
We were in two villages. Both lay in the southern panhandle of Moldova next to the Prut river which is the border to Romania. At our first stop we had rainy weather with cold nights. Bird never got to see the legendary sunsets she had heard so much about. But we were busy doing whatever we were asked. For Easter we had a sunrise service and I got to preach as the bright red sun was coming up over the gray horizon. A new day full of life, hope, and freedom! It was an amazing service for me. I won't forget it.
A little over half of our time was spent there when we moved our base to another village in the extreme southern tip of the country. The town's name is translated 'Big Freedom'. It was a place to which Slavs moved to and away from Ottoman control some centuries ago. They moved up the river and settled on the banks to start anew. Here we visited more sick and elderly as well as doing a kids program every afternoon . Usually we had a service in the evenings. In 'Big Freedom" I got really homesick for my girls. I toughed it out. But I kept getting messages of how things were going on the home front. I tried to remain rooted in the present with limited success, but it wasn't easy to stay there.
In the end I think every year is a great experience for our group. We fly into a completely unfamiliar place, drive another three hours on roads like no one has seen, we hear a language no one understands and give and serve people who welcome us like we've never been welcomed. It changes a person. We can't report of any huge miracles this year or a long list of conversions. But we went to be a blessing, we were, and our kids were changed more into the image of Jesus. I like that. I might go again next year as well.
peace,
Mike
Moldova is a beautiful place. The people are some of the warmest you can find. The landscape is hilly without any real mountains rising to great heights. The springtime is fresh and green with new life on all the farms. There are however many problems in Europe's poorest country: 80% unemployment, rampant alcoholism, and a busted social system. So we naïve westerners arrived to save the day. Anything is possible, but I expected this trip to be an expression of love to the churches and villages we visited in out time there, instead of us coming in and showing the locals how things are done. How that love looked was various. We planted corn, played with kids, told Bible stories, delivered lunch to shut-ins, taught some English, preached, cleaned, and basically did whatever was asked of us. I have told all past groups we lead there that I don't want to be a burden to the local church, but a blessing. I want to give everything I have and come home exhausted. We did that.
We were in two villages. Both lay in the southern panhandle of Moldova next to the Prut river which is the border to Romania. At our first stop we had rainy weather with cold nights. Bird never got to see the legendary sunsets she had heard so much about. But we were busy doing whatever we were asked. For Easter we had a sunrise service and I got to preach as the bright red sun was coming up over the gray horizon. A new day full of life, hope, and freedom! It was an amazing service for me. I won't forget it.
A little over half of our time was spent there when we moved our base to another village in the extreme southern tip of the country. The town's name is translated 'Big Freedom'. It was a place to which Slavs moved to and away from Ottoman control some centuries ago. They moved up the river and settled on the banks to start anew. Here we visited more sick and elderly as well as doing a kids program every afternoon . Usually we had a service in the evenings. In 'Big Freedom" I got really homesick for my girls. I toughed it out. But I kept getting messages of how things were going on the home front. I tried to remain rooted in the present with limited success, but it wasn't easy to stay there.
In the end I think every year is a great experience for our group. We fly into a completely unfamiliar place, drive another three hours on roads like no one has seen, we hear a language no one understands and give and serve people who welcome us like we've never been welcomed. It changes a person. We can't report of any huge miracles this year or a long list of conversions. But we went to be a blessing, we were, and our kids were changed more into the image of Jesus. I like that. I might go again next year as well.
peace,
Mike
Comments