5:55am: Sound asleep on my wooden pallets, headphones wedged down into my eardrums. The melodic playlist has been at a stand still for hours but did its job as needed earlier on in the night, canceling out the symphony of nasely bellows.
5:56am: Chaos ensues. The 9 men of the house arise for the morning and the volume goes from a calm 10 to 100 in a matter of seconds. Random Russian is shouted across the room, yawns from a dinosaur casscade around, and a techno beat leads the procession from a cell phone.
5:57am: The crazy cat next to me proceeds to get dressed and make his bed. Every morning I manage to get hit by 1 of 3 things: his blanket, his shirt, or his pants as he puts them on… Without fail.
5:58am: I roll over to get a glimpse of the perp through my hazy first morning gaze. He smiles with his remaining teeth he has, says something in Russian as he motions a head to pillow signal at me, and proceeds to laugh at me as if I’m sleeping in.
5:59am: I dig out those firmly rooted headphones and make my way to the upright position rather sloth like. All the men have gathered in the dining area and are going hard in prayer! Shouts of praise are given, declarations made, and requests are laid before the Lord! Some are pacing the room intensely, others stand with outstretched arms, and still others speak in tongues as the Lord meets them all where they are at!
6:00am: The day commences, us world racers grab an hour plus in the Word, porridge is served, and we are out busting a move on the days tasks by 9am. Whatever our duty is for the day one thing is certain, we go hard at it! Each teammate is putting out mad effort with a heart that desires God to be glorified through the work that gets accomplished, no matter how menial it may be.
This month has been full of some pretty humbling tasks; tasks that we have questioned and tasks that didn’t yeild inspiration enough to wake with a stirring desire to work each morning, haha. I’m going to be honest, at times my attitude got in my way and I had to side step it a few times to keep working diligently. But in those weak moments God came to stand in the gap for me. And it he shined through not only my teammates, but through the former prisoners I did life with. After hauling buckets of sand for hours we had to get the 110lb cement bags up to the 1st floor. So me (5’9″) and Sergey (6’5″), who is built like a tank and was well versed in greco-roman wrestling, together threw these bags over our heads up to the 1st floor. In the midst of a “heave-hoo” this dude starts going off in tongues like you wouldn’t believe! After each successful toss he would shout “Hallelujah!” This not only spurred me on but directed me back to where I should have been drawing me strength from in the first place. The Lord.
Each guy we stayed with had a past. Was roughed up, in with the wrong crowd, and did jail time for numerous crimes. Each of them were flat out broken. Yet, if you asked me what the early church looked like I would point you here to Transnistria (or narnia as it has been dubbed). God has granted immense freedom in each of their lives, seriously real true freedom! We just got out of a 3 hour plus testimonial session with some of the men here. God is alive people! Countless miracles were witnessed and God literally transformed lives to use for foundation (literally building the church) of His church here. He is ushering in the Kingdom through these men, here & now! The Holy Spirit flows through this halfway house and the church here! I am stoked to have been in the presence of the Lord; too feel him, hear him, and see His character through these men. God told me to drop future planning and focus on dwelling in His presence. Transnistria has been perfect as He is alive and thriving right here.
Only when we are truly broken will we find ourselves alive in His Spirit. Today we journey across the globe to our next destination in Central America! Chisnau, Moldova to Istanbul Turkey for a 2hr layover. Istanbul to LAX for 13hrs with a preceeding 9hr layover on US Soil! And from there we fly down to Guatemala for Month 10! Team tereo will be staying in Monjas, Guatemala; a rural “cowboy town” where we may be doing more construction at an orphange, along with doing some ministry with the kids there! Get pumped for month 10, and thanks for sticking with me this far!
WR Fun Facts of Narnia:
– Machine gun fire is just a shrug your shoulder type of thing during the day, haha.
– Tanks rolling the streets during english class, also quasi normal! – You can buy any kind of snack food for less than a buck at the local sherrif (oligarch).
