We’ve officially made it to the 11th and
FINAL country of the race!
We
arrived in Moldova a few days ago after an 11 hour train ride from Macedonia to
Bulgaria…a 10 hour bus ride to Romania…then another 12 hour train ride to
Chisinau, the capital! Whew…gottta love WR travel days! We’ll do anything to
save a buck! J Our squad stayed together for one day in Chisinau.
Most of us haven’t seen each other since we arrived in Ukraine, so it was a
sweet reunion!
only be in ministry here for 2 weeks, so it’s basically the beginning of the
end…such a weird feeling! Our squad had a briefing with our Moldova contacts on
our first day. Moldova is the poorest country in Europe. It’s obvious that most
people do not want to be here, they want out. It’s hard to imagine a life where
you constantly want to get out. It makes me feel so blessed and a tinge of
guilt for being born in America. We’ve been blessed to travel this whole world
and in every country we hear the pleas of people dying for an opportunity to
just visit America. This year has been great, but I know that in 20 days I go
back home. No matter how bad the conditions might have been, I know that my
family is waiting for me on the other side (with Mexican food, chocolate cake,
a hot shower, and a comfy bed). I’ve struggled some this year with worrying
about how all these people must perceive us. No one has ever openly “judged”
me, but sometimes I feel ridiculous coming into their lives for a few weeks
appearing all “self-righteous” and being a “super-Christian,” and then
leaving… I try to channel these frustrations into what I’m really going to do
to help this world be a better place but it can be so overwhelming at times.
Ok, now I’m just rambling…that’s for another blog… back to this month…
my team loaded a van and took off to Balti, a good size town about 2 hours
away. It is an old soviet factory town and still appears the way you might
imagine… It’s a bit grey, gloomy, and almost abandoned looking. The streets
seem dark and unkempt but there are still people and motion in the city center…
month our leaders announced that our team, “the athletes,” as they described us,
would be working with SportQuest . My first reaction was to laugh,
“Athletes?! We do have some, but what about the rest of us?? I mean, I am
active, yes, but I would hardly put the words athletic or coordinated in a
sentence describing myself!” Granted, the whole team was still excited to hear
about the Christian soccer camp we would be running this week. It’s so ironic,
this sport…soccer, or as most of the world calls “football,” has invaded my
life all year! You can probably only imagine our time in Africa during the
world cup! I almost wish I had of paid more attention all the times my friends
attempted to explain the game to me, although I was always more concerned about
which fashion the players planned to wear their socks, up or down? In our first meeting, Uri, our main
contact, proceeds to tell us about the game our team is playing in the tournament. I quickly interrupt to say that
I don’t even know the rules and positions of basketball… Don’t worry, my team
didn’t let my blonde moment go unpunished! Either way, I don’t know the rules
of soccer either so I’ve spent the past 3 days playing dodge ball (…and I’ve
only been slammed once)! Ok…I’m
starting to ramble again…
SportsQuest
is a really awesome ministry! They have locations all over the world that bring
in athletes to train and connect with communities. We were so blessed this
first week, because the founder, Kent Susud, was in town visiting from the
states. It was so interesting to hear more about his ministry and visions. He
had some amazing stories from their first sports camps in rural Africa that
made our journey there seem sugarcoated! Kent is a mighty man of God and it’s
always exciting for me to see people living out there dreams and doing what God
created them to do…
