Lodging: We were all together in a room on the first floor of a two story country home in the small community of Butar. We had hot water, a western toilet (which is actually semi-rare in Moldova/Transnistria), and wifi. There was one bathroom for the up-to 19 people living in the house. Surprisingly though, you didn’t have to wait much.
Food: Borsht, a stew-like concoction, was popular here. A lot of bread and potatoes. A lot of cabbage, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Salami and anchovies were also popular. And diary- lots of cheese, milk, and yogurt. LOTS. They love their alcohol in this country and most people brew their own beer. Meals were weird because we never really knew if they were cooking or we were and we didn’t know what time they would be. Lunch was anywhere from 1-5pm and dinner was anywhere from 7-11pm. We sat down to eat dinner celebrating the 12-year-olds birthday at 11:30pm. It made things interesting at the very least.
People: We lived with a family with 10 kids, but not all of them lived at home. Two of them go to high school in Israel and weren’t home until the last week. Two are in university in Moldova and only came home on the weekends. One was in the military and we only met them via Skype. The family spoke Romanian, Russian and maybe a dozen words in English. We spoke English with maybe a dozen words in Romanian and Russian. We became really good at gestures and loved the help of google translator. They were the sweetest people and they loved us well. The kids all had their own unique personalities and we loved getting to know and play with them. The youngest was 5 and would be quite content if she was being hugged and kissed every minute of every day. We did our best to make that happen.
Ministry: Anything. Really we were just asked to live with and love the family and help in any way possible. Basically they treated us like their kids. We pitched in with chores- cooking, cleaning, tending to the fields, picking cherries, etc.- and also joined in the fun- dinner parties, movie nights, trips to town, meeting friends, etc.
We also went to the neighboring town of Tiraspol a night or two each week to help with English classes hosted by the church that 3 other Race teams were partnered with for the month. Then we started teaching english classes in the morning out of the parents bedroom for kids in the community in which we lived.We also had the privilege of traveling to Chi?inau, Moldova in our second week to attend and international house of prayer night hosted by a church there. We were able to enjoy a 2 hour block lead by messianic jews (they really know how to express their joy in the Lord and dance like David did!) and then have members of our own squad (who almost all converged on Chi?inau as well) lead another 2 hour block.
Prayer Requests:
– That we would continue to press in to our teammates and ministry as we head into the final months.
-That we would let the Father love us and delight in being His children.
-That we would be given direction and guidance for the next steps we are to follow as we transition back into the States.
Thank you!!
