We as a squad left Brosov Romania at about 4:30pm on monday. We borded a bus headed for Moldova. Now the original plan was to catch a train from there to Odessa Ukraine, but as we have learned well…plans on the race change. Always. After our overnight bus ride, we arrived in Moldova, at 3:00 am, to find out that the train we thought we could take, doesn’t exist. This was a problem, because four out of eight teams were supposed to board that train, thankfully our Squad leaders had stayed back to “rest” (as much is possible when your whole squad is traveling), and were fast to find an alternate train route for three teams headed for odessa and a bus for my team.
The bus station was 3 km from the train station, so we asked a couple of taxis how much it would be to take us there, their reply being 100 US dollars! Not an appropriate option. So we waited, being that the sun was still down, we couldn’t walk, and knew that there had to be a more logical means of travel. Tired team leaders decided to sleep until morning Earilier that night the “Squaties” as we like to call them, sent an email to a missionary in Moldova that could help us out. At 9:00 am the other teams startred buying train tickets to leave, and I started trying to figure out our transportt. I had almost given up on talking to the Missionary cantact, and decided that I needed to get our bus driver to help me get a Taxi for less money. So walking out of the train station I said a little prayer, and just then my phone rang, and it was the contact! God is so Good! With in ten minutes he had sent his friend and we were on our way to Odessa.
Traveling by van 3 hours to Odessa, should have been a sinch but our driver didn’t have the papers to cross the border. In all honesty i think that he litterally forgot the paper, because he was very distressed about making sure that we made it okay. The lady at the border wasn’t giving him any grace, so he ended up calling some taxi friends to take us the rest of the journey,
We arrived at the one of the Odessa bus stations at 4:00 pm, and were supposed to meet a girl named Natalie, that would help us find a place to stay for the night. While waiting a young woman named Ann met us. Her and her boyfriend were bording a bus to go to a friends wedding. We talked about the Ukraine, and live here, she bought us chocolate, and helped Natalie find her way to us. She and her Boy (as she calls him) stayed with us the whole hour and a half we were there just keeping us company, and she offered to translate for us if we ever needed it. Gods favor had found us. Once Natalie and her friend named Sasha arrived we have been nothing but blessed. We spent last night at Sashas mothers apartment, and have been helped to find our own.
It has been awesome just to see how God takes over when we give up control. I am VERY excited to see what the Lord has for us this month and so is the team. We are safe and sound here in the Ukrain, and will be updating everyone soon. Thanks for the prayer and love.
