Thoughts

Thoughts, so many thoughts have been running thru my mind. I started to Blog 4 days ago and couldn’t wrap my arms around all my thoughts and feelings. What I do know is that God is wrecking me, breaking me to my core. God has once again broken my heart for what is breaking his – broken for what I saw in Moldova and broken for what I should be seeing here at home. I have tears of sorrow intermixed with tears of hope.

 

  

On my first Reflection post I mentioned we met in the city center with the children living in the transition homes and how there were many who were familiar to me. Some of those children remembered that I had visited last year, I can still hear the words ‘I remember you’ (Я помню тебя) being said and see the faces those words came from. There were also faces in the New Hope Moldova team that were familiar but I could not exactly place. I feel so overwhelmed with sadness that it was not until Friday evening, after our work at the Transition Center in Balti was complete that it was revealed whom the familiar man’s face belonged to. We were speaking of the house father Ян, the construction Ninja  who worked from sunup to sundown. This gentleman had a serious yet gentleness in his eyes. Ян is Ian (I could not recall at the time that this was how it was translated from Russian sound to English sound) – the gentleman who shared last year in the Village of Sofia, how he an orphan being raised by his grandma, had his life changed because a missionary cared enough to come to share a small gift but even more important, share love. It gave him hope and changed his life. Now, because of that love, he is changing the lives of orphan boys, caring for them as his own, raising them to Know God, Grow Strong and Do Great Things. That is so incredible to me, truly a reflection of how God works as in Ephesians 3:20 Now all the glory to God, who is able, through his might power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. The first picture is my memory of Ian in 2013 and the second is of him in 2014 with his family and team.

A second experience that has touched my heart deeply was shopping at the market for a school uniform for Costa and Alex. The boys were being given a rough time at school because they didn’t have the appropriate clothing. Boys who had been marginalized in so many ways were yet again having it happen – when they were trying to learn at school. Each boy got a pair of dark colored dress pants and white long sleeved dress shirt and Costa was able to get a belt. While we were blessing them, they were blessing me – just the look in their eyes was so telling.

I would like to share what was asked of me in a letter from a loved one: ‘Think about everything you have seen and accomplished, literally everything, even the small things. Now look at that list and know that NONE of that could have been done without you because everyone there did their own part on this mission. Look at it and be happy that so many lives were touched and that we will remember each other. Remember it was from God, and being obedient to his request.’ I would like to share just some of those things.

Presented in 3 schools on Human Trafficking – including a college, a school in the poorest section of Balti (the marginalized of society, gypsies and the poorest of the poor), and a Romanian school

Passed out new shoes and socks to young children living in an orphanage ( boys and girls who are often referred to by number rather than name, boys in flowered pants and girls with butch cuts, and the joy in the child’s eyes and laughter of getting superhero shoes that light up)

Shared my personal testimony

Met new friends

Made salvation bracelets with children – I have one too

Washed windows and doors, swept floors

Gave manicures to each other at the girls transition home in Orhei

Watched a teenager from the boy’s home teach another neighborhood boy how to jump rope

Gave and received many hugs, but the biggest bear hug was with Sonja

Sang to God

Climbed ladders and steel stair framing (not as coordinated as I used to be)

Saw God working

Sat in the dirt and played with a child (including holding a screw while a 2 year old used a sledge hammer to pound it into the ground and no smashed fingers)

Saw the light in children’s eyes despite the circumstance they lived in

Was welcomed with a handshake each time we saw Sasha (at school and the camp), an orphan being raised by his grandmother

Saw adults working with New Hope Moldova who when they smiled, I could see joy in their hearts and the light of Christ

Watched construction including cement mixing and pouring for porch posts and septic tank

Danced

Listened to beautiful music

Ran (slowly – I’m getting old and these legs don’t want to move as they once did)

Saw once again how we could live simpler and still be happy

Listened to people talk – both in English that I could understand and in Russian and Romanian that I could not Witnessed love in action

Ate the delicious food provided to us

Talked and shared

Blew up balloons

Cheered kids on

Rode down bumpy roads

Watched an obstacle race

Could not have asked for better weather

Shared tea and cookies

Glued up posters for Human Trafficking awareness

 

Saw beautiful flower and vegetable garden

Picked and ate grapes off a vine

Got up early and went to bed late

Walked to the corner store

Laughed

Heard a rooster crowing most days and dogs barking

Made a card with construction paper and crayons for a child

Painted faces - we are warriors of God

Demonstrated my acting talent by impersonating a thunderstorm and the city of Nineveh

Cried with my fellow missionaries

Watched a talent show

Learned about the value of time, purpose and goals

Been thankful for the prayers and support we have received from family and friends – because without it, this would not have been possible

Witnessed Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is love

I am glad to be home but I am also grateful that I had the opportunity to return to Moldova and witness God’s Glory. I don’t know where God will call me next, but I do know that he will call me to step out of my comfort zone, to step out in faith for Him. I can do this as I know He is always with me. It is my hope to return again to Moldova, to see old friends and meet new ones, to be his light in the darkness.