This month, my team adopted a nickname: The Gypsy Team. We had several temporary homes throughout the month.
Our first resting place was in a small town in southern Moldova called Cornesti. We spent two weeks living in an orphanage/church. We were able to help work some farmland owned by the church and play with local children during their street kids program. Our main ministry, though, became building relationships with the older orphans living there with us.
The culture in southern Moldova is influenced by Romania. Most people speak Romanian, and we noticed a lot of similarities between the two countries. Both are agriculturally driven, so fields of corn, sunflowers, and other crops are EVERYWHERE. Most “religious” locals are Orthodox. The few Christians we met were still very legalistic and charismatic. Cornesti is a very small town, and its people are a good representation of the heavily impoverished population of Moldova. Here we were also able to learn more about the human trafficking problem facing Moldovan youth, and the corruption of government-run orphanages in the state.
Next we stayed at Vulturas Camp in Saptebani. We assisted a team of Danish missionaries who live in Moldova full-time and run a Christian camp for several weeks each summer. We shared a few testimonies with the campers and helped get them up and dancing to begin worship sessions. (I can’t wait to teach Morningside youth the Moldovan version of the Interlude dance I learned!) During our first week there were older youth/college students at the camp. For the second week, pastors and other Christian ministers and their families came. My team organized Bible storytelling, crafts, water balloon fights, and other fun activities for the kids. We also helped with various cleaning and maintenance jobs around the campgrounds. One night we even got up at 3:30am to play a crazy night game that had something to do with Winnie-the-Pooh and wrestling. (If that sounds weird, that’s because it was…)
At the camp, we were able to experience a different side of Moldovan culture. Northern Moldova is heavily influenced by Russian culture. Many of the students we met were from Chisnau, which is basically the only city in the country whose residents aren’t necessarily likely to be poor.
At least half of the people we met at camp spoke Russian. Most of the rest of the campers spoke Romanian, and a handful of people spoke English (as a second language). The missionaries from Denmark spoke Danish, and I heard stray conversations in Latvian, German, and French. My teammates and I joked we must have found the Tower of Babel!
After helping shut down the camp for the summer, we spent a night at the very home-y caravan compound of our Danish missionary contacts. Then we headed to the northernmost town in Moldova to camp in our tents for a few days with another team from our squad. Their ministry contact was kind enough to drive us to the train station at 4:00 in the morning to hop on a train to Kiev, Ukraine, where we spent five days with the rest of the squad for a Debrief.
It was a difficult month for my team, but we learned a lot through our struggles and movement. I can’t wait to see what Month 3 in Coleraine, Northern Ireland (UK) has in store for us!
