Hemmed in on All Sides… except 1
Have you ever felt trapped in your life, in whatever difficult circumstances have befallen you? Sometimes, this world has a way of breaking us down and backing us into a corner, leaving us no hope in anything we can see. Somehow, every door of opportunity shuts in your face, and everywhere you look you see only darkness. You feel empty, without any power or ability to grope your way back to the light.
This is the feeling I sense every day in many of the people in our church here in Cornesti, Moldova. For many of them, holding on to the hope of a thriving life and ministry building the Kingdom of God seems like trying to hold on to water, as it slips through your fingers no matter what you do. Let me try to paint a picture for you…
First and foremost, the Swedish sponsor organization that helped the church financially get to the place it is today, has pulled out its funding, offering much less than its original funding for the same number of orphans, an impossible offer the ministry has currently turned down. Many of the orphans have stuck around and are living with people in the ministry and have been trying to find work, as most of them are over 15. Some have gone back to their hometowns to live with their extended family etc. Next, without this funding, the pastor and his leaders have no income now, forcing all of them to get jobs. None of the jobs they have been able to secure, however, are seriously able to sustain their families. Selling fruits and vegetables, minor construction work, factory work, selling milk… all in a country where $200 a month is a good salary, yet in an economy that is regulated by the Euro which drives cost of living higher and higher by the month.
On top of all that, a major drought and heat wave has all but decimated the vital crops that support most of the people in this region, including the people in our ministry. Without grass and corn growing, there’s almost nowhere left to get food for the cows, chickens, pigs, and ducks that the ministry raises for its self-support business. The crops they have been growing are barely still alive, some already scorched by the heat and no rain. So with much less to sell, and of much less quality, the self-support business is failing, and all the while, the drought is driving produce prices in markets through the roof.
There’s plenty of other serious, unbelievable problems I could tell you about, but I think you get the point. Hope is perhaps the only resource scarcer than water right now in Cornesti. Yet this is the very resource that my team and I have been fighting to cultivate and spread through our love, prayer, and service to this community.
Sometimes, or perhaps more often than we realize, the way of the Cross calls us to carry hope for those who have no hands left to hold it. After almost daily conversations with the pastor and other members of the church, I find myself no more than 2 feet tall, humbled, burdened, and beaten down by the unimaginable pressure and stress that they must be experiencing, of which I can only catch a glimpse. Nevertheless, my prayers and spiritual communion with God continually leads me to a place of firmly and passionately reminding them of the hope they have in God’s everlasting goodness and faithfulness to His people. From encouraging them in the many gifts they have, to recalling with them the many amazing and miraculous ways God has blessed them and saved them from falling apart before, my team and I are fighting to ward off the many enemies of hope and faith in this place, holding on to it with every ounce of love God has given us for His people and His broken world. Right now, I feel like we are the bearers of one of the only real flags of hope left in this community, the flag of Jesus Christ. Just as Christ bore the Cross for us who could not bear the penalty of sin and death ourselves, so too are we called to bear the burdens others carry and look with a smile and assured hope to promise of resurrection and redemption that lies ahead, regardless of what dangers stand in between. Now, we are holding on to the hope that this community can’t seem to hold to for itself… their hands are tired, working in seeming futility, bruised from the many broken promises and crashed dreams that have come their way. We are trying to point to God in the midst of the chaos everyday, believing that the storm will pass, and peace and new life are on the way.
We wont’ be here forever though… this is not our home, not the place to which God has called us to be full-time residents and community members. Who will carry the hope for them when we are gone in about 17 days? I know they can carry it, and I believe they will… but as I’ve said, their hands are full right now. They need help carrying this mysterious hope we see only in faith. My team and I can continue to carry it as we can in prayer from afar, which I believe has more power than any of us realize… but we need help too. We have other hopes to carry at home. And we all know that every burden is easier to carry with more helping hands. Thus, I'm asking all of you, will you offer a hand to help us carry God’s Kingdom hope for the ministry of Sinai 30, for the community of Cornesti Moldova?
I’m working on putting together a regular mode of support to offer the leaders of this ministry and the orphans. I don’t have the details yet, as I'm a little tied up and far away at the moment (J), but I’d still like to hear from you if you have a passion and desire to join me in holding on to hope for Cornesti in prayer and financial support.
Please email me at [email protected] with any questions or offers to help. I will be in touch with all of you when I get more things ironed out for this hope-holding community. In the meantime, thank you for your supporting me and backing me in prayer, the only reason I'm able to continue carrying hope for this community with my team. Thank you!
