Month 5 already! Well Team Cypress is teaming up with team Living Faith in Transnistria. Transnistria (spelled in English because I don’t know how to spell it in Russian) is a break off from Moldova. They have their own money and all that good stuff so it’s even harder to get cash out. This month we are teaching English to adults in the morning and in the late evenings and teaching kids English in the afternoon. Also in between the morning and afternoon classes we do digging/construction work. So busy busy month with lots and lots of walking.
Yuri, our contact and church pastor, spoke those daunting words “I will explode you” and “I will stretch you and you will hate me” but since he said it with a smile it wasn’t so bad. It was the “pep talk” or kick in the pants that we all needed. His intentions to grow and stretch us and his passion for this church and for the area are admirable. I like the guy
The church family here is awesome too and so kind, they really make me feel at home. They are down to earth and joke around a lot, my kind of people
Our first prayer/worship night was ridiculous! We were all pretty tired from a full day of work and were ready to go home come 6pm. But yup you guessed right Yuri had other plans for us. He “strongly encouraged” us to stay and when a couple of us tried to escape on the bus we were yanked back in;) That is when we got the kick in the pants and man we were all so happy we stayed, not that we really had another choice, lol. God always knows better than we do. This was not your typical prayer night either; it was as if we had walked into a club. There was loud music, lights, people of all ages, jumping and dancing, laughing and talking all around us. I was definitely umm out of my comfort zone to say the least, but I quickly warmed up to all the craziness around me. The pastor brought us to the front of the room and gave some of us flags and the rest of us just moved with the music and prayers. At one point Pastor Yuri brought us girls up on stage to dance with the rest of the women. I know this all sounds weird and awkward to many of you especially those that know me that I would feel comfortable in this kind of environment. But the truth is I have never had so much fun worshipping the Lord….ever. It was so beautiful to see so many people of different, ages, backgrounds, languages, classes all worshipping God so freely and honestly. Although I didn’t understand any of the words that were being said I felt God’s presence in that place and felt so at peace in His presence with His people.
This is definitely going to be a month of awesomeness! Thank You all who are praying for me and my team and the people I get to do life with. God is always showing up to step in for us. God is good.
