Another Picture Blog!
Last month I was in Transnistria, which is a region between Moldova and Ukraine. It is a country not recognised by the USA, but they have their own government and currency. They speak Russian and the Transnistrians I spoke to consider themselves Russian and would like their country to someday be a part of Russia.
I really enjoyed the month. My squad had team changes at our debrief in Dublin, so I started my month 9 on a new team. We stayed in Transnistria with another team from our squad. We shared our living quarters with 8 Transnistrian men who were in a rehabilitation program through the church. One bathroom, one shower, 8 Transnistrians and 15 Americans and we somehow made it work. The rest of the teams on my squad stayed in Moldova for the month.
We were there at the perfect time of year. Everything was green and there were flowers everywhere. It was also the perfect temperature all month. It didn’t get really hot until the end of the month, which was great because the ministry we did all month was construction. We dug out the foundation of the church building. Right now the church is meeting at a community center. It was a lot of work but I felt good about the work knowing what the outcome would be. I also taught at the english club some evenings and helped out at the youth club.
1) My new team 2,3,&4) Victory Day Parade. A Russian holiday celebrating the Germans leaving Russia during World War Two 5) Worship at the youth club. They love techno music and dancing! 6)The Moldovan Embassy was putting on a free American Film Festival so we got to watch films in English! 7&8) Construction! Moving the clay! 9) The men we lived with eating lunch. 10) Here we are eating lunch! Our favourite meal of the day! We ate a lot of potato soups, beets, cabbage, and brown bread. 11) Our room for the month. 12) The church celebrated it’s birthday during the month. This is at there celebration. 13) My translator friends. 14) We wanted to watch a movie and the laundry room was the only space we could find. 15,16,17&18) Transnistria!
I am in Romania right now and can’t believe that I am in month 10 of my race! I am working with a local church in Draganesti.
Prayer requests:
The town we are working in is heavy into witchcraft and we feel a dark/heavy presence here. Many of my squad mates are having a hard time sleeping at night and many of them are sick. Please pray that Christ’s light can shine in this dark area and that the strongholds in the place may be broken.
My foot has been healed for many months from the stingray bite but now the scar tissue is building up and giving me some pain when I walk. Please pray that my body sorts itself out!
