For those of you who have read my last few blog posts, you know that I am working in a “country” called Transnistria that is within Moldova. This place actually isn’t recognized as real country; they are a providence of Moldova, and live and operate on their own. I wanted to share with you one of the accounts of a typical day for Walking Third in Transnistria. My team has decided to call this “country” Narnia, and on this particular cold and drizzly day, our contact had arranged for us to tour a military fortress that a week ago, no one had ever toured. We had other ministry business to attend to in the afternoon, so we decided to leave a little early that day and check out this fortress.
Tottering along in the bumpy, kinder-egg van, all of a sudden, our contact (Andrew) turned off the engine and looked at me over his thin-rimmed glasses,
“Jess, we are out of gas,” was all that he said.
Thinking of all of the logical reasons about how we could’ve avoided this problem, I quickly pushed them aside and went into ‘fixit’ mode. Before I could get out a word he had hopped out and motioned to the guys to come help him push the van down the hill to give it a kick start. Being the independent woman that I am, I jumped out as well to help push. So there we were, 1 Moldovan, and 3 Americans pushing a big white van down the street in the cold, wet air. What a fantastic way to start our day!
After the engine finally cranked and hopped back in, we were off to the fortress. Driving along the ‘imaginary’ land, I noticed that the large walnut trees that bordered each side were hovering over our van. I hadn’t noticed them before, but this time the leaves were glowing yellow and orange fall colors. Pulling up to the Fortress, I noticed that a small, stoney path curved up the side of a mountain led to the fortress. We met our tour guide, who happened to be the captain of police for Transnistria, and hiked up the side of the hill to start our tour.
The fortress looked like a miniature castle out of the Princess Bride, or Braveheart, or some movie like that. It was a cold, cloudy day and most of the tour was held outside. The guys on my team ran up and down the tower, were the first Americans to lift an 80 kilo cannon (176 pounds), and found the tunnels that led to the city center. As it turns out, we were in the first group of Americans to tour the fortress; it was just opened for tours a week before we visited. Only on the World Race…
As the day continued, my team and I went to pass out fliers for an English class we were teaching with campus crusade. My teammate Tommy and I parked ourselves at a bus stop, right across the street from a teal colored building that is owned by the medical university of Transnistria. While we were passing out fliers and practicing our Russian, Emily pranced up to us with a furry little friend in her arms. Her and Kyle had found a new addition to our team; a tiny brown and black puppy! Yes my friends, team Walking Third is now the proud parents of a little dog named Stephanie. We are keeping her at the church, and after we leave, the children we have been working with are going to continue to take care of her.
After we passed out fliers, we met with our contact’s friend to discuss speaking in the public school systems about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. She was so excited about what we were doing in Moldova that she invited us out for pizza, milkshakes, and ice cream. That’s right, both. We ate savory pizzas for our main course, and for desert we enjoyed tropical pineapple, APRICOT, and raspberry ice cream in a waffle bowl with an umbrella poked in the ice cream. We are really suffering here in Moldova.
We ended this gloriously random day hanging out and loving on the children at the church. Sometimes the Lord just gives you days like this to realize that yes, He does in fact still love you, and amidst the craziness of today, I laughed at this realization. From pushing a van down a hill to eating delicious tropical ice cream, I realized that God has a huge heart for His children.
