Hey Everyone! SO I have talked with mom since arriving, but not really with anyone else…. Tim a little bit. SO I am in Transnistria… it is trying to be separate from Moldova. It believes it is its own country, but the UN does not agree. So we say we are not in Moldova, because the people here are a bit touchy about the subject.
SO our ministry here is working with a pastor named Yuri. He has 3 or 4 children, and has an amazing heart of God. He wants to see us grow and develop into the people God wants us to be. He kinda talks as though he is a drill sargent, which is kinda true, but I think that we are going to grow individually, and as a team. Things are going to be shifted in the Spiritual realm this month.
We are living in Slobatdia, it is 15km from Tiraspol. During the week (tuesday-friday) we travel on the bus into town at 0730. We don't make it to the church until 0900… because every bus is jam packed. We have English club from 0900-1030… then we have time off (sometimes- sometimes we help hand out cards that tell people about english club, sometimes we do manual labour at a constructions site… basically we are at their disposal to do whatever they decide we should be doing). At 1600 we have english club for kids (ages range from elementary school age to high-school age). Then on thursdays from 1800-2000 we have "prayer" (worship night). And every evening there is collage and career age english club from 2100-2300. Only 2 people per night stay this late for this lesson. So, somedays… like thursdays… our schedule is pretty busy, and other days we don't have much else to do.
The building we are staying in is an old orphanage. there are no kids there because they all have been adopted. But last night, thursday, I found an orphan. Her name is Dania. Dania somehow made it into the church last night. She was about to leave, but I thought she was someone from wednesday who helped us hand out cards, so I grabbed her. She then clung to me all night. A couple of times I had to check myself to see if the body odour smell was my own or hers, I couldn't tell (yup, sometimes I get that bad… but the shower is not hot…). Anyway, she came up on stage and danced with me, she stood by me when I was worshiping in the crowd. At one point, Gabe spoke over me that I was blessed to bless others, and where I go blessing follows, so Go. I said, ok I don't know where to go, but I'll be listening. The the girl asked me to follow her out, but she doesn't speak any english. I followed and one of the girls from the morning english club was out in the hall, and so was the pastor. Dania got very shy all of a sudden. Turns out she wanted to ask me for money. Which I did not have cause not every machine works around here… we were told there was only one in the whole country (I think now they were joking… but at that time we thought they were serious). Anyway, pastor Yuri offered her a job, and a place to stay, and the woman from english club was going to help her out with clothes. I was so overwhelmed by the love of Christ in the pastor and the people of his church. God is so cool! It turns out she didn't end up going home with the woman who opened her home to a homeless girl. But Dania knows when and where english club is, and also she has been shown the love of her Heavenly Father through the church. So keep Dania in your prayers! Dania said she is homeless because her family abuses her. I dont know if this is true, but even if its not, she needs God, His love, and His provision. It is up to her to accept it.
