This week my team of 7 other individuals made the move from Romania to Moldova. Our journey began from Draganesti, Romania to the Black Sea to Chisinau, Moldova to Ocnita, Moldova. This involved a total of a 29 hour bus travel time and 5.5 hour train ride.
On travel days, there are specific things that are needed:
Dramamine
Water
Toilet Paper
Patience
Snacks
Clean Undergarments
Barf Bag
Passport
Grace
Camera
Sense of Humor
Love
Traveling with 50 people is not an easy task and at times, it can be completely chaotic. Walking into supermarkets with 50 people who appear to look very different than that of the natives can be very distracting; especially when these people are wearing attire very different than anything that would be seen in a 3rd world country and even more so, when this clothing has begun to smell like a sloth due to the inability to wash it for days at a time. Observing 50 people who are constantly pulling out their cameras to snap a photo or video a scene in order to take away a memory can be like the paparazzi in full force. Hearing the voices of 50 different accents speaking English from 4 different countries can be quite the traffic translation jam. And most importantly, traveling in countries where English is not the first language and might not even be taught in public schools is and can be a tremendous barrier.
Our team of 8 had to catch a train to one of the northern most cities of Moldova. Ocnita: population 9000 and only 3 kilometers from the border of Ukraine. This is a small village that has become quite impoverished as a result of the Soviet Union. Moldova has only been a free country since 1991 and the people here struggle to find employment resulting in family members leaving the country in order to find work in Russia and Italy.
Our time on a Moldovian train was awesome. We purchased our tickets an hour before the train would arrive and got 3rd class tickets. Third class = sleeper seats. As the minutes crawled forward and as the train stopped and picked up more passengers, our team began to be moved around into different seats and eventually one seat was lost altogether. However, in the midst of train transitionings and communication confusions, I learned something that we all should learn.
The woman whom sat across our 4 sleeper seats, asked if I was Italian and after telling her where we were from, we wanted to share what exactly we were doing. Although in most countries 'Jesus' is an easy answer, some don't quite grasp what it is we are doing with, for, or because of him. No matter if we use any means of sign language we can think of to draw a cross in the air or mime our version of praying; sometimes, communication just isn't easy.
In that moment, Jeff grabs his iPad with his nearly finished video he had been working on from Romania and sits next to the lady in her late 70s. Although, she didn't understand the lyrics to the song in the background or the words that were spoken by the missionaries; she could see a piece of what we had done and what we do. She saw missionaries playing sports with the local children. She saw missionaries doing community service. She saw missionaries who had walked away from their lives in order to go out and love the least of these. She saw love – the good kind, the God kind.
As laughter filled our mustily warm area of the train,
As looks of curiosity covered the faces of those who laid around us,
As communication no longer held the weight that we thought it would all year;
We learned that there is no true barrier in communication.
There is no barrier in love and even more, there is no real barrier with God.
If you would like to continue with me on this journey, prayers are greatly needed and appreciated. If you would like to donate, please click on the link below and know that any amount can make a difference. Thank you in advance for your sacrifice 🙂
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