After a fifteen hour train ride from Kiev, Ukraine to Chisinau, Moldova, and then a four hour train ride from Chisinau to Oknitsa, Moldova, team Crux has finally made it to our humble abode in the hidden hills of a small village. We are working with Crossover Ministries, a church-planting group based out of Chisinau, and a young couple, Andre and Larisa, who are trying to start up a rehabilitation center for alcoholics and drug-addicts. The couple just recently bought a little house along a small river (creek) out in the middle of nowhere and are trying to fix it up so that they can bring people in from Oknitsa and Chisinau to be rehabilitated. Our team is getting blessed in crazy ways here. I’m currently sitting at Andre’s computer so that I can write this blog to you, but where we live (about forty-five minutes away) we don’t even have running water. I would say that even though I have lived in Africa for three of the past four months, and India the last month, we are now living in the most primitive of places I have been in on the Race. AND IT’S AWESOME!!!
Last month while in Kolkotta, India, I had a rough time. Things were chaotic spiritually, and that showed a lot on our team, trying to tear us apart. So I was praying and asking The Lord to bless us with a ministry site that would allow us to serve alongside each other as well as give us a chance to serve each other. I also asked for a place for community to grow and for us not to be distracted. Well, this is a perfect example of the Loving Faithfulness of Our Father. Though we do not have running water but get our water from a well down the road, and though we have to have Andre buy our food and supplies for us, and though we do not have heat in our house besides a little fire we light at night, and though we only have what would commonly be known as an “outhouse” (very small, no doubt, for such a tall guy as myself…) to take care of our business, we are so incredibly excited to see Our Father this month. Andre and Larisa, an amazing couple who have come so far in their faith, take such good care of us. And we are surrounded by a number of “babushkas,” old women in the community, who make you want to cuddle up with them and hear their stories (yes, I want to cuddle with an 80-year-old woman). Just yesterday, Steph and I met a babushka named Lidia, a wonderful woman who cooked us a shmorgisborg of eggs, homemade (and home milked) cottage cheese, bread, red peppers, and apples, as well as lots of chocolate candy. Lidia kept telling me I needed to eat more. I guess she thought my figure wasn’t good enough for her liking. But I later found out that Lidia never had a son, so to have me come in a treat her sort of like my mother was a blessing to her, and I got the kisses to seel the deal.
But this month is not just about living like “The Little House on the Prairie” as Crux jokes about, or about making out with grannies. It’s about showing people Love and Serving people through sacrifices. There comes a point in community living where it’s difficult to think outside yourself. I know that expectations in my head have made me too focused on growing myself, and have held me back from serving my brothers and sisters. I pray that God will grow ME, that God will give ME this and that, let ME see His glory so I can be this great man. But that takes away from the idea that I am only to serve others. The First shall be Last and the Last shall be First. The one who wants to save his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for the sake of The Kingdom of God will find it. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. The biggest thing I see Team Crux doing this month is serving each other and serving our ministry contacts. This is not about Braedon. Even while I’m trying to get over a somewhat serious sickness, I know that the sickness is connected to my selfishness and will not go away until I learn how to love and serve the six other men and women I am in community with.
Theres a lot I will experience here in Moldova, and it’s only with prayer that things will fall right into place. Please join us in prayer for health, community, and serving hearts. Pray that we can bless Andre and Larisa in the next 3 weeks.
by the way, I have Larisa here teaching me Romanian. So here are some words I have learned:
Very Beautiful- foarte frumoasa!
Nothing- ni meek
house- casa (nice!!!)
My hat- mya katchula
Dem brinsa, Lidia!- Give me cheese, Lidia!
Thanks for reading!
