here’s a glimpse of my experience sheep herding via my teammate, Natalie…enjoy!
Anyone reading my past posts saw that there was an
opportunity for me to herd sheep…well guess what?? IT HAPPENED!!
After a few hours of walking around the village to
see if we
could find people to invite to church, help in anyway, or just talk to,
we saw
that the man with the sheep was coming back from taking them out to
pasture.
After a few minutes of talking to him he told us to come back 9am the
next
morning to help him. *Happy
Dance*
and Nica
(the sweet 19-year-old Moldavian girl who translates for us sometimes)
headed
out. At first we were all confused as to what to do, so we just started
following the sheep and took all kinds of pictures.
way through bushes, up and down little hills, and trying not to slip
down the
little slopes we came across. It seemed like a nice little walk with our
sheep
friends, and then BAM, we look up to see that we were standing at the
bottom of
a rather steep hill that we were to climb up. On our trek up said large
hill,
we were able to talk to the sheep herder some. He didn’t seem too
interesting
in chatting much, but was very lenient with us even if we did manage to
scare
the sheep towards the wrong direction multiple times….apparently sheep
herding
is NOT my calling. Ha.
fall off of
us, we tried to have a little. The sheep herder (tried to get his name
but
could NOT understand it) grabbed a sheep for Juliette. She swung her leg
around
and pretended to ride it!
Twins!A few minutes later, he called all of us girls over
and
handed us what Nica told us was fresh goat’s milk. We were all pretty
hesitant,
but grabbed the milk and each took a swig. My face doesn’t say it, but
it was actually pretty tasty!!
and take a rest.
bearing witness too. I was on top of a hill herding sheep, drinking
goats milk
in Moldova! This is my life!! Psalm 23 come to mind anyone?
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
I had my bible in my lap as I looked out over the
view, and
the shepherd walked over to me. He pointed at my bible and asked
‘Biblia?” I
turned and said “Dah.” And waved Nica over and has her translate a few
things
for me. I asked him if he read his bible, and he said that he did
whenever he
had time. He leaned over my shoulder for a bit and seemed to attempt to
read
the foreign English I was reading. He smiled, said bene (meaning good)
and
walked away to sit and rest under a tree.
I decided to walk the rest of the way up the hill
while the
other girls rested, and was greeted by an even more spectacular view.
Walking
toward one end of the top of the hill I was able to get a full view of
all of
Cornesti; it took my breath away. Unfortunately my little camera could
never do
the sight justice. Alicia’s blog from Prodigal describes it well from a
little
adventure she went on herself.
Have you ever felt an overwhelming since of just
pure joy?
Like your whole body gets warm (even though it’s literally 40 degrees
outside),
and at your core you just feel an overwhelming sense of peace. Talk
about an
awesome encounter with God. You could see him on that hillside,
overlooking all
of Cornesti.
God is so good. He never ceases to amaze me. While I
try not
to complain about getting blisters from handwashing my clothes, or be
frustrated with the smoke in our cottage that burns my eyes, or the cold
and
the mud; it is still so easy to forget just how much I am blessed. I am
on an adventure
of a lifetime, being able to help and love people around the world.
Thank you God for
blessing me with your creation. Thank you for this amazing experience.
May I
honor and glorify you with my every step.
