Me Too!

The other day Kristin and I went to an orphanage to spend some time hanging out and playing with the kids. We played volleyball and frisbee (the frisbee game started after the child threw it into the side of my head quite forcefully), played with the puppies that were wandering around, and helped transfer some blankets across the campus. After we left and were heading home, a young man walked up behind us and asked, "Hey, you're from the States?" We said yes, and he wanted to know what we are doing here. I told him that we're working here for a couple months. His next question stunned me. "You're missionaries? Christian missionaries? You love Jesus." We smiled and nodded, and he burst out with, "Me too! High five!" Our bus arrived right about then, but it's amazing how encouraging just those couple of words could be. So, in case you need encouragement today: You love Jesus? Me too!

Some Travel Laughs

Most days we can't stop talking about how much we love the transport in Chisinau, namely it's cheapness and ready availability. But some days, like today, our limited knowledge of Romanian and rutiere (van's that travel along specific routes and stop when requested) routes gets us in a bit of a jam. Our instructions were to get off at the first trolley bus stop after MallDova, a trip for which we normally take the number 115. Seeing as how we were in a hurry and a 154 was coming, which we were fairly certain would get us to the same place, we queried the man in front of us and the driver, "MallDova?" and got some nods, so we got on. I was standing up so I couldn't actually see where we were, but after a while the man sitting next to where I was got my attention and kindly informed me that we were coming upon MallDova. I smiled and said thank you. Then I noticed another gentleman informing Kristin of the exact same thing. We started to move forward, and our driver, remembering the kerfuffle when we got on, remembered our intended destination and stopped and opened the door. He was met with a chorus of, "No no no!!" and some frustrated gestures to continue on when he insisted this is where we wanted to get off. When he kept driving, he asked if we spoke Italian, and we said we didn't, but could do French, English, or German? No, just Italian. We got there in the end, but definitely had some laughs along the way!

Rassvet (Sunrise)

This last Friday we had the opportunity to head out to the village of Rassvet (which means sunrise) and spend a weekend with a family there. We left without much of an idea of what we would be doing, so we shouldn’t have been surprised by the unfolding of events, but we were. What we did wind up doing: climbing cherry trees and making pies, fishing in the dark of the morning, singing in church, hanging out with local youth, watching the sun sink below the beautiful horizon, and much more. We also slept all four of us in one bed, which was interesting, to say the least. The family was an absolute delight, and we spent lots of time laughing as we tried to communicate with a mixture of languages and proficiency levels. We also had lots of fun trying new things that we’re not accustomed to from living in cities. I think it was a first for all of us when one morning’s breakfast was boiled fresh milk over Norwegian bran cereal (covered by a generous heap of sugar if you were our host, Sergiu).  We were really blessed to be a part of their lives for that brief time, and I know personally, it will be a treasured memory from my time here.

Treasure Hunting

Last Thursday evening were we going to do a treasure hunt. If you don't know what that is, it's where we go out on the streets to search for God's treasures. This involves listening for God's directions and talking to people. Elizabeth and I were going together and we started by writing down what God was saying about names, locations, appearances and prayer needs that the people we were going to meet would have. After writing down the phrases ”God loves you” and ”Can we pray for you now?” in Romanian were we ready to go.

Quite quickly on the treasure hunt we walked passed a woman standing at a popcorn-stand. I felt we should talk to her so we went back and approached her. She didn’t know any English at all so Elizabeth asked her in Russian if her name was Anna since this was one of the names we had written down earlier. To our great surprise she answer that Anna was her name. I showed her the sentence we had written down earlier (God loves you) and the smile that lit up her face at that moment was priceless. We realised that one of the locations we had written down was a popcorn-stand; even more conformation! Happy and encouraged that we found one of our treasures, we continued the hunt. 

There were more interesting things to come. After a while we came to another popcorn-stand where a woman where standing. We talked to her and asked if she had pain in her knees because that was one of the prayer needs we had. She told us that she did have pain in her knees and we prayed for her there and then. We prayed in English so she didn’t understand anything but she almost started crying. And again God had used us to bless a lady at a popcorn-stand.

Lastly, we approached two women that sat under a tree. They didn’t speak any English, so once again Elizabeth’s Russian studies saved us, with some help from Google translate in the few minutes when the WiFi was strong enough. Anyway, they had both back pain and one of them sore feet too. On our list we had: sitting under a tree, back pain, sore feet. God had definitely sent us to these women. We got to pray for them and one of them got healed in her back. We got their contact information and will hopefully meet them again. 

What an amazing way to spend a Thursday evening. So much more exciting than I thought!

Kristin.

Chisinau Apartment

Kristin and Anna are away at a retreat that's put on by Campus Crusade this weekend.  So Shelby and are missing them with a mostly empty apartment.  This morning (Saturday) we cleaned and grocery shopped for the next week. The afternoon was nice and lazy, but tonight we'll go out to the park and see if we can get people to talk to us, along with doing some planning for next week.

Tomorrow (Sunday) evening, after Anna and Kristin get back, we'll go to a homegroup and share a word and some testimonies.  It should be a good time to meet people and hopefully, we'll be a blessing to the Christians here!

Now, a short video of the apartment we live in here.  It's huge and beautiful and we love it!

Chisinau_Apartment.wmv Watch on Posterous