So for the past 3 weeks I have been in a country that I didn’t even know existed until about 4 weeks ago and as the rest of the world is concerned, doesn’t really exist at all. I have been in Transnistria, which is a small country inside Moldova. It’s basically a little Russia, too good to be a part of Moldova, so they gave themselves a special name and different currency and speak Russian instead of Moldovan. Obnoxious? I know, I’m with ya.
We have been staying at a construction site for a future training center the church will use. We have mattresses on the floor of a big cement room, we like to call it the princess palace, it’s definitely appropriate.
Anyways, the month was looking like it would be a lot of construction and teaching English classes, our contact warning us it was going to be hard work and a tiring month. Bring it on! There was also an English camp that some of us were going to get to go, but I was not among them. Yeah I was disappointed, I wanted to hang out with kids and build relationships, but that was not where God wanted me I guess. But then the night before those people were leaving I got asked to go! I was so happy, I get to have fun with kids instead of digging in the dirt! Little did I know the challenges that would be awaiting me…
I was assigned to a group of girls from the ages 14-16 with another squadmate Sarah. The gist of the week was we started with 7 girls and ended with 3. What the heck is wrong with me you ask? I just don’t know.
It was your basic summer camp, lots of games and activities and Bible lessons. The first two girls who went home didn’t know it was a Christian camp and they wanted out. A dad came by the next morning to pick them up. Well, it saved us a conversation on her “shorts” that were lovely enough to show her butt cheeks.
The next girl to go was…interesting. She liked to wear the V for Vendeda mask when we talked to her. She was a nice girl and spoke pretty good English, and we talked to her about God. Later that day she was just very depressed and just wanted to stay in her bed and listen to music. She would not come to Celebration that night with us, we got one of our leaders to talk to her, there was nothing else we could do. The next day she seemed fine; her normal self and then when we went into the room that afternoon all her stuff was gone. She never said anything to us, neither did the leader. Just puff.
Well now we have 4.
Then we went to the river one day. All the kids were having a blast, including myself. We got to roast sausages on the fire for our dinner, it was great! Then after dinner one of our girls, Luda, got in an argument with her siblings and then ran off into the woods. Neither me nor Sarah saw anything. Her siblings tried to get her to come back, but she wouldn’t so they just left her alone. Then when it was time to leave, she still hadn’t come back yet. We started yelling for her, and still nothing. We had to leave so we went back and left 3 guys to keep looking for her. Finally around midnight they found her, she had walked about 5 hours home from the river. Needless to say she was in big trouble and would not be coming back. Her siblings were also going to have to go home as punishment, oh their dad is the pastor of the church btw, awesome. But the kids made a deal with him, so they didn’t have to go home anymore. Their new punishment is now working at the construction center where we work. Oh the irony.
So now we are officially down to 3 girls. I don’t even know what’s going on, but the best part is this wasn’t even our biggest challenge. Oh not even close. Our challenge this week was definitely Luba. A girl who fights God harder than anyone I have ever seen.
She fought with everything we did and said. Our patience with her was inhuman, it had to be from God, I don’t know how else we could’ve done it. But God also gave us many opportunities to talk to her about Him, and boy did she have questions. From creation and evolution to who Jesus is and all the in betweens. The words we had for her were straight from God, they had to be. I don’t know what will come of this week in her life, and I probably will never know, but God is going to use it, that I do know.
After the week ended, I felt exhausted emotionally and mentally. As impossible it seems that Luba will turn her life over to God, who am I to tell God what He can’t do? This is the thought that I am grasping onto to have peace about the week. It was all in God’s hands and I know there was nothing more God wanted me to do, in this I place my trust.
God is moving here, in this strange country that doesn’t exist and He is doing awesome things we can’t even see yet. It’s been quite the experience already seeing how God is using us here. He is so much bigger than I can fathom.
Thank you so much for your support and prayers! I don’t know how I would do this without knowing I have brothers and sisters praying for me. Please be praying for me to stay focused here in this country for the next 10 days we are here, I feel ready to move on, but I know God has more for us here.
