Pictures from Day 4 and 5

Enjoy some pics...

Day 1 at the Chisinau clinic.

Who let Kilroy in the clinic?

Clowns going to evangelize at the preschool and Jake looks concerned.

150 Eye glasses distributed in 1 day!

Playing spoons with the transition home girls.

Walk by faith not by sight

“We walk by the spirit when the desires of the spirit are stronger than the desires of flesh.” John Piper

God ran the show all day! We had a program for just shy of 300 preschoolers today.

Today I felt very led by the Holy Spirit. In the smallest of tasks I would know what was about to happen, I already knew the correct path to take, the correct people to discuss things with, or an answer to what I was facing. For example, this morning was very hectic and I didn’t have time to read my bible. I grabbed my daily letter from JR to read on the go. I read it as we walked out the door and by the time we got into the van the letter was buried in my backpack. We had about 5 minutes of standing and waiting until we loaded up to leave. I was racking my brain trying to think of the Bible verse JR wrote on my letter. As I was thinking Cathy walked out of the house wear a shirt that said, “Walk by faith” 2 Timothy 4:7 That was it! That was the Bible verse JR wrote to me this morning. 

Another God trick, as most of you know, I take photos of EVERYTHING. A huge part of my job on this trip is documenting what’s happening here for our mission, for Oleg’s mission, and for the community we are being involved with. Most of the schools we are attending don’t mind photography. Actually, the kids absolutely love it! They love to see themselves on the camera. The first school we attended today I picked my camera up and immediately felt the need to set it back down. I just keep hearing, “No!” After the end of the program I said something about it and it turns out that the principle at this school would have had a big issue with the camera. 

The children today were amazing. One school had 160 kids and the second school had 120. Each kid I got to dance with, high five, or hug I truly connected with. I just knew what to pray over each tiny head and I loved being able to squeeze some love into them. One little boy was so excited about a Hershey Kiss that he was vibrating with excitement  in his chair. I think today was one of the few times I have truly been able to pray within the spirit. 

Say some prayers for our health! We have one person not feeling so great and I didn’t feel very good today either. We are getting very tired, constantly busy, around tiny germs all day, and ill feeling people in the medical clinic which is inside our home. We are drinking lots of water and they do feed us extremely healthy here! Looking forward to delivering some more food bags out in the community tomorrow!

Laughter

In the past 24 hours our group has not stopped laughing! Such a huge difference compared to the spiritual warfare we faced yesterday. 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6:21‬ ‭“Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.”

And Cathy doesn’t need mace anymore. She scared a man away with her foot. Hehehehe

In addition, Jake is going to create the iPoddy when we come back 💩 It is going to track your “health” in an angry French accent. And for your convenience, you’ll be able to share your data straight to Facebook. 

Pictures from Day 3!

Here are some pictures, enjoy!

Val playing with some kids at the transition home.  Maybe a quick game of dodgeball?

The team on the way to evangelize at the preschool.  What is Cathy doing?

Singing songs at the preschool.

Building 3 tier bunk beds at the transition home is fun.  

The transition home girls pick out their new flip flops!

This burger never had a chance..

Being on the front lines

This morning I was reading my daily devotional and I thought to myself, “I need to get a new one. I’m not really connecting with this and getting much out of it.” A few hours later I walked out of our bedroom to leave for the day. Stand in the front door was a women who spoke broken English. She told Nan and I about how she is leaning and trying to get better at English. At 11:00 every day she goes to the library to read to some children and teach them English as well. She asked if we had any books in our language. I jumped on the opportunity to give her my devotional, but she was really wanting books that she could read to the children. 

I brought 4 children’s story books to leave here, not thinking about the fact that they are in English, and asking myself last night why I brought them when not many people can read them. Well, God answered my question on that one! When I told her she could keep the children’s books as well as the devotional, she smiled so big and gave the books a big hug ❤️ I LOVE God tricks! I’m so thankful to know I am hearing him correctly, and we are all being stretched in our faith immensely on this trip! 

Now family, don’t freak out at first... I keep telling everyone that we are here to support Oleg and his team. Oleg is on the front lines over here. He finds people to rescue out of horrible situations, and brings them to Christ. But today, a group of us delivering food bags got to see him in action. 

This afternoon I truly got to see God work before my eyes. We were driving around and trying to find a home. We were having a hard time locating it and Oleg stopped and thought maybe this was the house we had been looking for. We got out and started talking in the street with the family that lives there. The mother was extremely angry, the daughter was ill, and the man in the house was an alcoholic. Also he was drunk while we were there. 

My sprit could feel the warfare while we were standing there, but I didn’t understand what was happening until we discussed it afterwards. The mother was angry at God for the poverty in their country and how the government abandoned them when they pulled out. The daughter believes in God, but not the Bible. And the man was at first oblivious to what was happening until Oleg started speaking. As soon as he starting sharing with them about Jesus the man walked up to Oleg and stared him dead in the face. Probably because he was drunk, but it truly looked like he was having an out of body experience. They all began fighting with Oleg, but he stayed standing firm in Christ. It was incredible to watch!

Before leaving that day Nan and I were talking about how we were a little nervous to do the food bags today. In our country it isn’t “normal” to pray over people let alone give your testimony and preach to them. We only go to church so we can be preached to. I felt convicted to share my testimony with the mother of the family, but they kept fighting with Oleg. The mother left and it was just the daughter and man left. Nan then felt like she should share with them so she did. We had fear to go today, but God pulled through to show us both that the fear was not from him. 

When we left the house we gave them the food, a bible, some medicine, and toys for their children. The man had tears in his eyes, shook all of our hands, and thanked us. He had another conversation with Oleg and was grateful that we came. They asked us how we ended up coming to their home, and of course since it was a mistake, we replied that Jesus sent us. 

We got back in the van and someone from our group asked, “So was that the correct address or did we still never find the house?” Oleg’s reply was, “Yes ma’am, that was the right address because Jesus wanted us there. That house is filled with demons. It’s not me working, it’s Jesus working through me.” Stand firm in your faith because God is holding you in his hands.

Lessons Learned

Today we delivered gifts and prayers to teenage mothers living in a shelter and also to families struggling to survive and provide for their children in the city of Cahul. Meanwhile, the nurses on our team provided much needed care to 87 patients in the medical clinic.

Wherever we were at work, God blessed us with the opportunity to connect with the Moldovan people. As a side effect of our collective effort to connect the ‘least of these’ to the powerful love of God, each of us found ourselves drawing much closer to Him on our spiritual journey. In a way, the ones we thought we came here to serve were actually serving us! God is SO incomprehensibly GOOD!

When we visited with a young mother who grew up in an abusive household and was clearly deeply scarred by trauma, I felt deep gratitude to God for the imperfect but ALWAYS loving family life my daughters enjoy. 

As I delivered unrehearsed testimony to two groups of strangers, I was forced to practice setting my fear aside and trusting in the Holy Spirit to supply me with words when I did not know what to say myself. 

One food delivery we made was to a woman whose husband was killed when he left the country to find work. She tended a beautiful small farm to provide for her two daughters. The manual labor she must do daily for her family’s survival seems exhausting and impossible, yet her face radiated peace and beauty. I felt God’s love and presence powerfully in that garden.

I end this day with prayers that each person I encountered today fully experiences God’s love, peace, and favor, as well as newfound gratitude for the blessings I too often take for granted.

Day 1 and 2

Enjoy some photos from day 1 and 2...

Welcome to the town of Cahul!

Day 1 setting up the medical clinic.

Cathy getting the eye glasses set up.

Patients start waiting for the clinic at 7am, but the clinic doesn’t open until 10!

Jake Spending some time with one of the kids at the clinic.

Mission team delivering food bags to a local family.

Day 2 - One of the patients came to sit at our morning devotional!

Nan captures the attention of the pre school students with a story of Jesus!

The team takes a break to walk the city of Cahul!