I am just going to share briefly about what it looks like to
get from Ireland to Moldova. I find that different people are curious and
entertained by different aspects of the race so this is what a 48 travel day
looks like.
First: You wake up after a not so great night of sleep
because a wind storm attacked your tent all night, take a baby wipe bath and
begin to pack up your things, and then pack your tent up in the rain when you
cant feel your hands.
Second: You are picked up by a rather large bus and the half
our your squad that is going to eastern Europe piles on. You travel to the
airport and wait for your plane. Then your flight is delayed so you watch Toy
Story 3 bootleg in Russian with a
squad mate. You get coffee yummy! Then you board your flight and enjoy
the Irish accent of the pilot one last time.
Third: You fly from Ireland to Hungary, about a three hour
flight. After landing you rush to get your luggage which is soaking wet because
it always rains in Ireland and you rush to the taxi station in the airport even
though it is late at night… Oh wait, there is wireless… remove laptop from
backpack and email family that you landed safe, not knowing when the next time
you will be able to communicate with home will be… ok, ready go, hop in a taxi
in Budapest and rush to the train station.
Fourth: Get dropped off at an empty train station at 11 pm
and try and find the place to by the tickets for the train that you must get on
that is leaving in 20 minutes. Team leader meets a random guy who has a hook up
and sneaks us to the back of the train and says we can buy our tickets on
board…then you pray… get on the train and you leave. You are exhausted, but
everyone is fighting to stay in good spirits… half of the teams that are
traveling are getting off in a few hours… you try to sleep but everytime you
fall asleep some man talking in a weird language needs to see this passport or
that ticket etc…
fifth: the teams that are getting off in Romania begin to
get there things ready to get off the train. Their team leader jumps off and
then the train leaves… without the rest of them… it is 3 am, he is left alone
in Romania somewhere… YOU PRAY. Two hours later you drop off the rest of the
team members and PRAY that they meet their team leader somewhere, somehow…
without phones and without a game plan… (it all worked out perfectly by the
way, and the team leader is fine and was waiting for them when they arrived in
their ministry town)
sixth: You sleep, play cards, make funny video blogs and try
to forget that you are hungry and thirsty because you haven’t had food or water
in over 10 hours… the sun finally comes out and you see the beautiful
countryside… and yes, Easter Europe looks exactly like what you thought it
would.
seventh: you finally arrive in Bucharest, Romania. After
lugging all the stuff that you have in that one backpack of yours(by this point
in the race you are starting to think about all the things you can get rid of
out of your pack) to a safe place where a few people at a time will play guard…
you come up with a game plan for food, because you are starving…
eighth: you eat a mcdonalds in a train station in Bucharest
and chug a bottle of water in about 7.4 seconds. then you go with a large group
to pioneer the city and walk around. The city is beautiful and you soak up the
culture… loving life. You try to ignore the fact that you haven’t showered in
over 4 days.
ninth: you buy flowers and ask god to reveal to you who
needs to receive it and meet an amazing old woman in the city park that can
speak, Russian, Spanish, Romanian and a tad of English. You tell her that God
loves her and hug her and enjoy every second that the lord is blessing you
with. then you find a food stand with grilled chicken, YUM, protein! and make
your way back to the train station.
tenth: you board the final train to go to moldova. The Lord
has provided sleep cars this time, so you finally get to rest… and sleep 8
hours. You are abruptly woken by a border patrolman speaking in Romanian asking
if we have any drugs. He checks our passports and we go back to sleep. You are
then woken up by a loud crashing metal sound… the moldovian people are
switching the train wheels to fit the tracks of moldova… you go back to sleep.
Finally: You arrive at 9 am in Moldova and meet your
contact, who is awesome! and you travel another hour in a van to the town you
will be doing ministry. Eat lunch and go to church and get settled into your
stone cottage and REST!
Hope you enjoyed this. And yes, I know that my punctuation
and grammar is ALL wrong in this one… but it is just a for fun. Internet is
very sparce here so I will post a really fancy fun blog about our ministry next
internet day… until then know that I am safe, Moldova is very beautiful and the
people are desperate for Hope. Please pray that we can bring life, light and
hope here… Love you all! Sign up for the blog if you haven’t… that way you can
get all the things I post when I post them! and email me!!! I miss you!
