Moldova. Our last country and last month on the race. Moldova is a small landlocked country in Eastern Europe located between Romania and Ukraine. The fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 brought independence, but power and economic trouble continue to plague the nation. Moldova remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. Communism and Orthodox Christianity offer little relief for people’s daily needs or hope for their future. However, Moldovans are spiritually open and hungry for the gospel. This month, our team is blessed to work with John and Diana Ribca, Moldovan natives who are passionate about bringing hope through the gospel of Jesus to villages in Moldova. The Ribcas also raise money and provide labor for humanitarian relief to those in need. This month we are helping the Ribcas remodel a run down house for four children whose parents have both died.
House we are helping remodel
Yard prior to cleanup
Cleaning up the yard
Inside of house prior to remodel
Scraping off the old wall paper in preparation for painting
Mixing cement by hand
Picking up debris
Mihai and Juliah, two children we are remodeling the house for. We
celebrated Mihai’s 13th birthday at the community center:
Mihai’s party included pizza and ice cream
Mihai’s favorite gift
Movie night: each week we host a movie night for local children
We also host an English club through the week
Our contact’s children: Emy and Luca enjoying pizza
We held a harvest party on Halloween where we:
Carved pumpkins: this is the 1st time any of the children carved a pumpkin.
Played various games
We also led a Vacation Bible School Program:
With lots of singing (children learned Christian songs in English
along with hand motions):
Fun Games:
Zoom
Zoom
Bowling (the children loved this so much they played for 1 hour straight one day!)
3 legged races
Baseball
Dizzy Bat
Sharing the Word through skits and Bible lessons:
And Crafts:
The final day of Vacation Bible School we handed out Operation
Child gifts to the children. They were so excited and grateful to
Child gifts to the children. They were so excited and grateful to
receive these gifts!
Please keep John and Diana in your prayers as they continue to bring hope to Moldova.
Also keep our squad in your prayers as we travel and transition back to the States. Thank you
for your prayers and support on this journey.
