We wrapped up Albania with a 36 hour bus ride from the coastline of Lezhe to the capital city of Moldova, called Chisinau. At the train station our squad was divided up again into our teams. Akal Esh was on mission to find new potential ministry contacts for the World Race this month. We call it Unsung Hero month because we are highlighting ministries that are furthering God’s Kingdom with needs of both physical and financial support and prayer. We had spent our first week in the capital city, calling, emailing and meeting up with local contacts there. We’ve had been beyond blessed with reaching out and meeting several ministries through an International Christian Fellowship church. All of them had been eager to share their hearts, their wisdom and knowledge of culture.
Over the course of 3 weeks, we met up with over 20 new potential contacts for future World Racers to partner with. Of those of 20, we met an incredible couple in Chisinau, Doina and Slavik who direct a college and high school group called CSC (Christian Community of Students). They are dedicated to discipleship and growing up leaders of the next generation of Moldova. Through them we become fast friends with some of the student leaders who took us to the city’s color paint festival where they adopt the tradition of India’s Holi celebration. We were also introduced to a church friend of Doina’s, a woman with three small children and a husband who left them to fend for themselves. The woman mills her farm, caretakes her children and also runs church from their small cement home for no recognition or pat on the back but become she just loves Jesus. We were able to visit one morning and help harvest her entire yard.
Through CSC, we learned about a university a couple hours north in Balti. There we met an English missionary, Aiden, who had given up the traditional life for a life dedicated to campus ministry. Aiden belonged to a church in the city called Emmanuel. Naturally, the church immediately took us in, fed us and continued to stuff us with endless feasts. Us girls were hosted for the week by the pastor, Constantin and his wife, Sondra and their 4 daughters. We had sweet memorable moments huddled around an iPad of google translate trying to get to know each other and laughing over our struggles to communicate. One night after a church service we were invited with the young adults and students of the church to stand in the middle of their city center, pass out flyers for a youth conference, and join in the street worship. The fearlessness of these kids didn’t come as a shock, because most of their stories. Stories that involved them embracing the Gospel as their source of hope and acceptance from being rejected from their Orthodox families for their beliefs.
While in Balti, several of us on the team were introduced to Anca and Raluca, two women in their mid 30’s. They left their comforts in America to move to Moldova and live in a dorm with 17 troubled/orphaned girls ranging from the age of 14 to 26. As a 24/7 ministry, they literally raise these girls from helping them purchase clothes to getting enrolled in school. They take in those who age out of orphan homes, who have been physically and sexually abused, and who come from broken families. They have to deal with girls who can no longer trust men and some who even want to kill themselves. They take care of these girls with pure joy, though, and have to depend on God each and every day to provide the finances, patience, and wisdom necessary to help these girls live a God honoring life.
One of the missionary couples we had met in Chisinau, Nancy and Chris, supported us immensely. They shared culture lessons, helped find resources and contacts in the southern part of Moldova that we had as a team all felt called to go to, and even hosted us for a traditional american cookout. Before leaving for Moldova, Drea had a connection with them but could sense a sensitivity with them partnering with World Race after a mishap with an older team. We felt the wounds when we first met them but we were dedicated to bringing restoration and a restored perspective. God did just that and more. We became family with them. They shared information on churches in the small rural villages of Moldova and set us up with a Maxi-Taxi that could take us there.
In Budai, we were dropped off in the middle of no where with all of our packs waiting for a man named Alex to pick us up. A random car with a random man, not with the name Alex who spoke no English, ushered us into his car. We soon later found out it was Alex’s brother and Alex was the lead pastor of a small school house church in Budai. We had no translator except for Illya, a Russian native and a leader in the church, who learned a few phrases and words of English through movies. We stayed with an elderly widowed woman, Tamera, who gracious gave us a warm placed to sleep and even tried to give up her own bed for us to sleep on. Her missing teeth and gold tooth smile reflected the face of Jesus and she continued to speak to us in Russian like we understood everything she said.
We attended church Sunday morning with them and we were invited to join they’re Havest day (Our Thanksgiving tradition) celebration which was endless eating day. We were later invited to join the pastor’s family for dinner. On our way with him there we stopped by an elderly 85-yr-old lady’s home. We walked into her cement home and were greeted with a rope that lead from the door handle through the hallway to a windowless room where she sat bedridden holding her cane that tied off the other end of the rope. She invited us into the cramped room and offered seating on her cluttered filled bed. Through her pain of a broken hip she still laughed and cracked jokes at us in Russian. She scolded us for not knowing any Russian, but became emotional when she couldn’t believe that 7 Americans answered her pleads for help from God. She invited us to sing in English over her. So we chose Oceans by Hillsong and Amazing Grace. After we prayed over her. Our dinner with the family followed which was filled with sweet moments of passing the guitar around the table and sharing talents. One of the 4 sons of the pastor even pulled out an accordion and serenaded us with traditional Moldovan music.
The following day, the Pastors brother drove us about an hour away to the next village of about 500 people called, Paicau. There we met Tamara through Operation Mobilization. She was born in this village but moved to the capital when she was older to begin working for OM. She then returned back to the village of Paicu once she felt God’s calling to plant a church where she grew up. She immediately began praying over a piece of land to build a church on for days in a row. The price was extremely high, yet after some prayer, was brought down unreasonably to an affordable price. As a single woman in her early 30’s, she figured out a way to buy a piece of property and organized the whole process of building a church and home on this piece of land.
As soon as we arrived to Paicu, she shared her testimony and heart with us. I cannot even fathom half of the things she has been through; from being abused and chained up in the backyard by her own father to then being kicked out of her own house once becoming a Christian. She now has to live in the church with her mother and sister, because they too became Christians and were kicked out of their house. Yet even with all of this opposition from her father, Tamara still chooses to bring food to her father every single day. She also runs the whole church; feeding the elderly and delivering them food every day, running a kid’s program and feeding them after school, leading family ministries and planning date nights, organizing bible studies and prayer groups, and leading nights with the youth to cook and learn about Jesus. The only way a single, 35 year old woman can do this is through Jesus.
Later in our visit, Tamara ended up explaining to us why her face was so swollen on the right side. She has infected salivary glands and is in a lot of pain, making it difficult to even eat. Because of the lack of medical care in Moldova and no health insurance, she has to travel to Germany to have the surgery. The cost of this procedure is $8,000 and she only has about 100 euro so far. Our squad is passionate in helping to raise money for her. We began a fundraiser called “10’s for Tamara.”
You can visit her page:
