Month #3 was spent in Moldova. We weren’t able to go to Russia due to some visa issue so our route was changed to Moldova. Although my team was actually technically not in Moldova, we were in an unofficial country called Transestria that declared their independence from Moldova in the early 90’s. It’s actually still a communist country, and run by the Russian Mafia and they all speak Russian instead of Moldovan or Romanian like the rest of the country. So in a way, we still got to go to Russia after all!
Our home for the month, an orphanage that the church runs. The orphans were in church member’s homes while we were here.
We worked with a large Charismatic church in the city Teraspol. Our focus was to help the church grow by helping with some of their ministries. We did evangelism with their youth on the streets, free English clubs for college students in the park, helped teach Sunday School at church services and then our main focus was teaching English classes through the church every day. This seemed like an odd “ministry� to us at first until we realized that the money brought in from the English classes raised money for ministries the church was doing, like the orphanage, and more importantly, it brought people to the English classes that usually would not attend anything related to a church and encouraged them to form relationships with people there. We even had several people from our classes start attending church while we were there!
Some of the youth from church
My sweet friend Christina from church
What I loved is they used us as bait for these English classes. The announcement said “come to English class, we have REAL AMERIKANZIES� (Americans in Russian) and they taught us to say “Ya priglashiu tibia na stretcha se Americkansa me� which meant “I’d like to invite you to come practice English with Americans� on the streets for youth clubs. And it worked, our classes continued to grow throughout the month!
One of the boys from our youth English class took us to school with him as like show and tell. The teacher was SO excited to have a real American in her English class.
English club for college students in the park
We taught English classes 3 times every day, which sometimes would seem mundane but overall I loved it. I loved having conversations with the students and hearing their stories and learning about their lives, I loved how eager and willing the people were to learn a language they may or may not ever use again. I loved how patient they were with us “teaching� them when we ourselves didn’t know any of their language. I loved that they would teach me the same word 15 times and still just laugh when I couldn’t remember it 5 minutes later. I loved how excited they were that “Real Americans� came to their small city. I loved their curiosity on why on earth we would want to be in their small city. And more importantly I loved seeing their hearts soften from “what’s the catch here� to “hey, these people really do love and care about me� and I loved God’s unmistakable presence throughout the whole thing.
Some of the wonderful ladies from our morning English class
Youth Class
But this month also had a lot more struggles for me. Before we headed to ministry in Moldova we had a week break for squad debrief which included lots of rest, encouragement, prayer and spiritual growth. Through this, God firmly told me it was time for me to stop staying in the background and step into the destiny He has for my life, the destiny that partly includes leaving the “quiet Katie� behind and start being bold and ready to speak up, step out and do His will. I knew this was to prepare me for the rest of the Race and the rest of my life. Armed with this spiritual high, I set out determined to take on my new challenge.
Megan and I stayed with this family a few days to practice their English.
But then right off the bat I got sick, again, which kept me back from ministry during the first few crucial days of relationship-building. It discouraged me a bit because I felt left out of both our team and the group of people in English class; there were already inside jokes and new words and other things I had missed. But I brushed it off and pushed through, determined to catch up. Then I started having other struggles; there was homesickness (which I never thought I would struggle with), vivid nightmares (I rarely dream and never remember them) and then difficulty sleeping. I was completely physically and emotionally exhausted. But I’m stubborn, so I downed lots of coffee and forced a smile on my face, determined to keep pursuing what God had in store for me.
Then, my laptop disappeared from the orphanage we lived in. Nothing else in the whole orphanage, no signs of a break in, but my computer is gone. I thought, “Ok, God must know I don’t need one, or he has a lesson here somewhere for me, something�. And I still believed that God was going to show his awesomeness and the computer was going to come back. But then, I left my precious DSLR camera (aka “My Baby�), on the curb outside the church when I jumped up to hail a taxi. Don’t remember even setting it down, but apparently I did. And it’s gone. Had someone check for it 10 minutes later when I realized it was gone and it had already gotten up and walked. When I asked about making a sign to post in the area in case someone found it, they laughed at me. “The people here are poor, nobody is going to bring that back�.
Finally, I’m mad. FURIOUS at myself for losing it. Mad at whatever heartless person found it and didn’t try to find the owner. Mad at whoever took my laptop. Mad at how tired I am, mad that I’m always sick, mad that things always have to be difficult, mad at God for allowing all of this to happen, and most of all, that He wasn’t even using it to teach me something. And if there is still something I’m supposed to learn, why couldn’t he just tell me what he wants me to do instead of this???
But that’s exactly what satan wants. He wants me to feel “left-out�, he wants me to be tired, he wants me to be mad. He doesn’t want me to grow, doesn’t want me to find my boldness, doesn’t want me to share God’s love, doesn’t want me to go to Africa, doesn’t want me to finish the Race. He wants me to be discouraged, feel like a failure, and go home. But I’m determined, with God’s strength, he will not win. I’m picking up my still ridiculously heavy pack (even with all the stuff I’ve lost!) and moving onto Africa, ready to take on whatever God has in store for me.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. – 2 Corinthians 4:17
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – 2 Jeremiah 29:12-13
