This month our ministry is split in two. For the first two weeks we are in Speia, Moldova living with our contact and his family. Their house is connected to the church and is four rooms: one for their family of 4 (Sergio, Tanzi, Laura (5 years), and Tabita (6 months)), a kitchen, a bathroom with a toilet and sink (that was made two weeks before we came), and a common room (where we sleep, eat, hang out, etc).
When we got there, we assumed all of us would just cram into the common room to sleep. Little did we know, they found a place for the guys to sleep and a place for Ty and Molly (married couple) to sleep. So only four of us are sleeping in the common room. The common room has a bed, couch, and two chairs so we assumed one of us would be sleeping on the floor. To our surprise, both the couch AND the chairs fold out into beds! Being World Racers, we’ve slept in tents and cramped on the floor, so every time we have a place off the ground we feel extremely blessed.
Bed time!
Sarah, Kristin, and Alicia ready for bed
Not only do we all have nice places to sleep, we also have our meals made for us by Tenzi. She is Romanian so we get wonderful traditional Romanian (maybe some Moldovan) meals made for us! Thus far, I have greatly enjoyed every meal, which is surprising due to how picky I was before I left.
Kristin, Laura, and Me eating lunch outside
This week our ministry is mainly house visits where we talk to people, pray for them, and help them with anything they need. Our first house visit was to this older woman’s house, Olga. She lives with her daughter and granddaughter, Madelina. She recently injured her leg so she was having a hard time working in their garden (and by garden I mean the field that takes up their entire back yard).
Olga and her granddaughter, Madelina
When we explained why we were there and that we wanted to help her with her field, she began to cry. For the next couple of hours we raked the field, cleared it of sticks and weeds and moved a pile of dirt. After we finished everything she asked us, we continued working because in very broken English, Sergio reminded us of Matthew 5:41 “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”
Our team and contacts talking with Olga
What took us a few hours would have taken her a few days. It was such a joy to help this woman and to see how grateful she was. It was also a blessing to explain that we helped her because we wanted to show her God’s love.
“…And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:39
