Moldova Part 1: First Experiences

Hello all! I'm back in Riga now and just spent two weeks in Moldova finishing up ministry! Just an overview of what we did ministry wise: spoke in churches and youth events, prayer walks, teaching English, going to disabled school. Below is just a few of the highlights for me.

Our team will stay in Riga until the 8th for debrief week and then fly back to Newcastle for commissioning week. I get home the 18 of March.

Quick note: This blog was written as a journal every night before I went to bed or whenever I needed to get my thoughts down on "paper". So this was written over the course of the 2 weeks I was in Moldova! Some things are written in past tense, and some present, because of the span of time I wrote it in--so don't be confused :)

I'm not sure where to even start. Before traveling to Moldova, I felt like God was preparing me to just really go hard while being there. I myself wanted to just really give these last two weeks my all. One, because I think this time is an opportune time for the enemy to attack our team. The reason I say that is because since we're so close to being done with outreach, it would be easy for us to just coast and think about going home and being reunited with our friends and family. I also think since the culture and spiritual climate here is so much different (and I'll get to that later) that it would make us an easy target for attacks. And the second reason why I want to give it my all is because I have been realizing as of late that I had sort of been relaxing ministry wise in Riga. Of course I particpated in outreach there, but I don't think that my heart was totally in it. And I want that to change while we're here in Moldova.

While traveling to Moldova, I felt really cheerful and happy and was just laughing a lot. For the most part, our flights and such were really smooth and traveling in general wasn't bad. Once we landed in the capital, Chisinau, it was about 1:30 am. We were all pretty tired and weren't really sure what was happening. We weren't sure who was picking us up and how we were getting to the place where we were staying or anything like that. Just to give a bit of background on the country of Moldova, it's the poorest country in Europe  and nicknamed the "Africa" of Europe. In 2000, around 10 million people lived in Moldova, but now only about 3.5 million do. That's because people can't find jobs here so they leave to countries like Russia, Italy, and Spain to find work. Often times parents leave their children with neighbors or grandparents. And this is also the way that people are trafficked--because they are so desperate to get out of the country that they'll agree to do work in other countries even without knowing really what they're getting into.  So, all of us knew that it was going to be impoverished, but I wasn't expecting what we saw. After a few hours, we arrived to the place we were staying at in Cahul (a small town 3 hours outside the capital). Our team was split up into two different apartments, and at this point it was like 4:30 am, and all we wanted to do was sleep. Oh, by the way, there's like virtually no city lighting in this place so we couldn't even see where we were. I think our team felt a bit of fear and anxiousness for a bit because we had really no idea what was happening or where we were, and we were in a country we had never been to before and a very poor one at that. We had to trust who was driving us and who was leading us to our apartments even though we only knew that they were part of ywam. The whole time I felt like we were just praying protection over our team and God really saw that through. We made it safely to our designated apartments (I'm staying with 4 other girls in a family's flat and the other 4 girls are staying with our contacts), and slept the whole night (day? haha) through until 1pm. When we woke up, we still didn't really know what was happening, but that was fine because we all had peace that God had it under control. We met up with the other half of our team and headed out to find some food for breakfast the next morning.

This is where it get's hard to explain for me. I'll try to do my best in describing what it's like here. Since we're not in the capital city, it's even less developed I feel than what it is in Chisinau. Anyway, we walked outside of our apartment, and there was just trash and dirt everywhere. The sun was no where to be seen, so just a fog of gray covered the place. There were makeshift playgrounds for kids outside the pretty run down apartment building. To my right there were big garbage bins with about 3 or 4 stray dogs there just digging through it. My heart broke at the moment when I realized that we really were in a country stricken with poverty. We started walking, and we continued to see tons of stray dogs around the place (I suppose it would remind me of Mexico if I had ever been there) and let me tell you about the people. It's so strange because while we were in Riga,  I felt like we blended in relatively well and the only way people could tell we were foreigners was because we would speak English or talk pretty loudly. But here, even if we are completely silent, people just KNOW we are foreigners. They stare, and a lot. It's crazy. I've never felt so on the outside than I do here. I guess I just assumed that here it would be like Riga except a little bit more poor. But it's absolutely completely different. I feel so out of my element here. I've been praying a lot about how to portray how things are like here and what I've been learning, and I feel like God just wants me to do my best in describing, and He'll take care of the rest. I don't have to try to explain every single detail to you because you're not here, so you won't exactly be able to feel everything I'm feeling and see everything I'm seeing. That may sound harsh but in reality, that's how it is and it's really hard for me to not be able to explain things better. And when I get home, I'm still a bit worried about how to explain and describe all of my experiences to you, but I have realized that, hopefully you will be able to see the changes through how I act and how God is working through me.

I also want to share about the villages that I've been to. I didn't even know there were such a thing as villages really anywhere in Europe. I always envisioned villages as being in India, or Africa, or Mexico maybe. But never Europe. So when our contact told us we were going to a village, I was surprised and actually had no idea what to expect. Since this outreach has been one where we're not really sure what is happening and what exactly schedules are like, we've been used to just going with the flow and being flexible. So, one day we were told we were going to be teaching English somewhere, and Katie, Jessica, and I volunteered to go. We actually didn't even know what age group we were going to be speaking to, or acutally where we were going. I just assumed we were going to go to the church we had been to and have an English class there. So, our contact, Lilia walked us to the place we were getting picked up at and we got in a van with a pastor of some church and then our 14 year old translator, David. On our way there, (still not knowing really what was happening but trusting that God had it all planned out perfectly despite of our obliviousness), we were swerving to avoid a ton of potholes because the road conditions were so poor. On either side of the road, there were crop fields that went on forever it seemed. But it was all just so desolate and empty. As we kept driving, we saw rolling hills (but not the pretty kind you think of) filled with houses with tin roofs. This is when we asked David if we were in a village, and he said yes. We got further into the village and there were many makeshift houses and lots of trash and rubble around everywhere. It was like we went back in time or something. There were water wells and a few horse drawn wagon/wheelbarrows. We got out of the car and just stood there dazed. I didn't feel like it was real life either. We were going to do an English class in a "school", for the kids who wanted to come actually outside of their normal school to learn English. It was likean English club. The outside of the church was still being built, so it was just the foundation built with a few walls up--it kind of reminded me of something you'd see in the anciet Mayan ruins or something. Anyway, the room was in the basement of this church. We went down into it and it was really quaint and decorated plainly but somehow beautiful. It sort of reminded us of Little House on the Praire. Anyway, we taught the kids about animals and it didn't go at all how we planned, but that was fine, because I love it when God works through us when we have to be spontaneous. The kids were so eager to learn English and it was really refreshing to see. I loved hearing their laughter and joy when we did something silly or someone made a joke. It was a lot of fun.

The other village I went to was with Kathryn on a Sunday morning. We were told that we would be giving testimonies at a church there and that it was very conservative so we had to wear dresses, little makeup, and no jewelry. When we drove to the village, it was about the same scenery as the last one, except not quite as impoverished it seemed. When we walked into the church, there was about 10 elderly women standing in the pews waiting to greet us with kind handshakes and some with kisses. It was very sweet. They tried to talk to us in Russian or Romanian but of course we did not understand, so our contact Lilia tried to help us the best she could. None of the women's husbands were there with them, the only men in the small church sanctuary were the pastor and a guest and his son. We were sitting on the opposite sides of the room as well. As we were sitting down, awkwardly waiting for the service to start, a woman in the back started singing a song in Russian and others joined in, so we just sat back and listened with delight. Then we stood up and they started singing more songs, and I was just trying to worship God the best I knew how without knowing the song they were singing. One kind lady came up to be with a hymnal trying to show me what song we were singing and I just smiled and said, "sorry, only English". Then she understood and went back to her seat. I was really touched by the kind gesture. After a few songs, we sat down, and the pastor invited Lilia up to share something and then invited me up to share my testimony. Nervously and uncertainly, I got up and started to share a story from lecture phase where I clearly heard God's voice about washing people's feet. While I was sharing, a few ladies in the back were observing me pretty harshly it seemed, and the rest either had smiles on their face like they were interested in what I had to say, and some just looked stoic. The whole time I was just trusting the Holy Spirit to speak through me completely exactly what I need to share. Then Kathryn got up to share as well, and after that, the pastor shared a short word from Psalm. Then a guest from Bulgaria I think stood up and shared from the passage in John 15 about abiding in Christ and the importance of that. That was cool in and of itself because I had just been studying that passage a few days before. After that, we stood up and sang another song, and then one lady, Valentina, stood up and was having a conversation with the pastor (we had no idea what they were talking about) and she accepted Christ into her life that day! It was incredible. Then we got in groups of 3 and just prayed for each other and worshipped some more--there was a lot of sitting down and standing up. Then after, we were told we were going to a lady's house in the village for something. Still not sure of what was going on, we walked out to leave only to get joyfully stopped by the ladies to hug us and kiss us. They thanked us and we tried to thank them back as much as we could. Then Valentina stopped us. I won't forget the look of joy she had on her face after that service. She was smiling so brightly and just hugging us and kissing us with all her might. It was beautiful. We eventually had to leave, and so we got into the pastor's car and patiently waited to go to this house. Since the roads are pretty horrendous in Cahul, let alone the villages, we were expecting a bumpy ride to the house. But, we weren't expecting this! We pretty much drove through a forest to get to this ladie's house and got stuck in the mud a few times. Even though it looked really scary and unsure, I was totally at peace and comfortable with the whole situation because I was trusting that God was taking care of us. I think normally I would have freaked out and got really nervous and scared, but it was different this time. I think that through outreach, God has taught me to be really flexible and trust in Him for every hour of everyday, despite not knowing what is going on. Anyway, we got to this elderly woman's house and walked in, and she willingly and graciously offered me her house shoes to wear. It was such a simple act of kindness, but it really blessed me and encouraged me more that people here are so hospitable and open. I still wasn't sure what was going on, but as she was leading us into a bedroom, I had a feeling that we'd be praying for a sick person laying in the bed. When we walked in, her husband was sitting on the bed. It's hard to describe what he looked like and what emotion I saw coming out of him. Physically, he looked mostly fine, except he had one droopy eye and it looked like there was paralysis on that side of his face, so we assumed he had sometime recently had a stroke. He was leaning on one hand, his elbow to his knee, and he looked really downcast and defeated. This man's wife and the pastor were talking back and forth and it was hard to see what was going on the whole time, but we found out that the man, Simion, had started having heart problems in December and wasn't doing well, so his wife wanted prayer for him. She was a Christian, but not for too long I don't think, and he came from a Christian family, but had never accepted Christ into his heart. We stood up and started praying for him, and I was just praying God's truth to really be revealed to his heart, as well as physical healing. We sat back down and they started dialoging more, and we found out that the pastor was just sharing the gospel with him, and Simion said that he believed all of the things, but he wasn't really ready to accept yet and give Christ his life. So the pastor just encouraged him to read scripture and to really discover for himself who Christ is and when he is ready to accept, to just pray it out. All the while this conversation was happening, Simion still looked pretty somber and sad, and there were tears rolling down his face. It was actually really heartbreaking to see, but I walked out of that house with so much joy in my heart because I knew God has his heart. He's so on the verge of Christ in his life that I could taste it! I don't know, I just felt peace about the whole situation. While we were driving back from the village, Lilia shared with me that the name of the village was "Bucuria" which means "joy" in English. I was seriously so excited when I heard that because I really felt that God's joy was over that place even though it didn't seem like it.

**Those were just a few of my thoughts during this trip, and stay tuned for the next blog about what God really was teaching me through it all!

Love you all, see you soon.
xoxo,
Laura