Ministry in Cornesti, Moldova for me has been a lot of manual labor, working at the farm mostly. I’ve tilled more soil with a shovel than I ever thought possible, harvested gourds, removed stumps from a steep hill, shoveled/hauled dirt and various other things. You get the idea. I actually really enjoyed it, but my last day of ministry I ended up going out to the forest to work instead.
I heard tales from the men that had gone so I was a bit intimidated. It turned out to be a great day and a nice change of scenery.
First, we walked down the street and caught a train.
After the short train ride we met up with a guy in a van and rode out to the forest to begin our work.
We were dropped off at the edge of the forest and then continued to hike up, deeper in.
It was absolutely beautiful and just smelled of fall!
We gathered small trees that had been cut down in the days before and stacked them into piles. We MAY have taken a few breaks and gotten some really good girl conversation in…but hey, we’re girls, that’s what we do, even when we’re being lumberjacks out in the woods.
We had a delicious lunch of pork (with quite a bit of fat in it, there was probably more fat than actual meat) and potatoes lovingly cooked over an open fire. We dug in with some yummy bread and ate it up!
It was refreshing to do something different. I had some really great fellowship with 2 girls from U Squad, Genae and Chelsea, and some other wonderful people as well. They’re pretty much amazing!
Almost everything we’ve done this month is to help support the children’s shelter run by the church. The kids there are at high risk to be trafficked if they are not at the shelter. Providing a safe, godly environment for them is a top priority and the reason for all of the rest of the work. It all goes back to the kids.
I don’t know what I thought being a missionary for 11 months would look like, but I guarantee that you cannot put ministry in a box. For our teams this month fighting human trafficking has looked lots of different ways. Some people have taken pictures, gone on prayer walks, put together a human trafficking awareness event, developed a kids’ program, cut down trees, played guitar, encouraged the believers here, tilled the land and much more. No two days are quite the same. For me, fighting trafficking on our last day of ministry was stacking trees in the forest. It’s all about perspective.
Thank You, Lord, for a day in the forest fighting for Your children.
