To everyone that told me Eastern Europe would be cold during the fall, I raise the white flag, YOU WERE RIGHT. Except it went from extremely hot to freezing cold in a day; one day sunshine, the next ice cold wind and rain. It has been a real challenge to be excited about living in Moldova, here’s what our living conditions look like:
*7 girls, one 10’by 10′ room, the only other in the house we have to walk through to get in and out of our room…a married couple lives in there
*One squatty potty
*NO way of showering…except once a week at a “sauna” which we are pretty sure is normally a ring for prostitution
*Have to walk about 2 minutes to the “farm house” to do laundry…hand washed
*Food cooked for us for each meal….SCORE!
*No internet, except when the nice guy we live with gives us his internet stick or Mondays when we go to the sauna
Now one of my teammates has this awesome theory which I’m now going to impart: You get a five minute pity party, then you are done. So I’m officially DONE with the pity party and am going to share all the amazing things about Moldova!
-They have a farm which includes 42 “beavers”…really muskrats…and we’ve been asked to pray for their multiplication…yes that means exactly what you think it does
-Everything that we do on the farm goes to helping fight human trafficking because it supports the orphanage we are working with!
-The church here is on fire, they worship God like He is peeling back the clouds and looking directly down on them! It’s fantastic to be part of!
-We get the PRIVELEDGE of rely on God for warmth and full stomachs!!
-The church opened a huge room FULL of winter clothes and let us go through them to keep some for the month!
-I JUST SHOWERED WITH HOT WATER!!! (one week till I shower again! 🙂 )
I am really excited for this month and how much we get to rely on God. We will be doing house visits, working on the farm, helping with sewing classes, working with orphans and just loving people like always. We are working with two other teams, so part of our ministry is to fight for team time and also get to know the other teams and spur them on to greatness. I’ve also learned that LAUGHTER may be the only thing that gets me through this month of cold weather…but guess what? The Kingdom of God looks like laughter…
photo credit: Briana Danese
