Moldova Trip 2014

‘The Moldova 2014 Team’ are back!    The team consisted of Brian, daughter Michelle, niece Emily and Anna.   Our trip was from  Thursday 24th July to Monday 4th August (with the exception of Michelle who returned to the UK on 30th July).     We thank God for a safe journey and a blessed time.  Some brief highlights:

• Cup Cakes:  Upon immediate arrival at Chișinău, en-route from the airport to the village of our stay in Malcoci,  we required an immediate stop at The Metro, a huge cash’n’carry place in Chișinău, to buy resources.   Michelle was set to spend the whole of the Friday making 160 cupcakes for the wedding.   They turned out to be a novel  delicacy for the wedding reception, enjoyed by all.

• Nastea & Victor’s wedding :  Saturday 26^th July.  Those who have visited Malcoci over the years will have  seen them grow from small children into two fine young adults; they both have  a strong faith in Christ.  Nastea is one of the key people who translates for us.   The bride and groom looked stunning.  The marriage ceremony and reception was held at the same location,  a modern church in the capital of Moldova, Chișinău,  called ‘Casa de Rugăciuni‘ (meaning House of Prayer).   The interior has a novel design, shaped into a cross.    The ceremony took place in the main part of the church, which is on ground floor level, and with the reception down into a spacious basement hall.     There were about 160 guests who attended  in total.  Most of the guests brought bouquets of flowers for the bride & groom – this is traditional in Moldova and flowers are a home grown commodity.   See above video for an overview of the day).

• 2 brothers for 2 sisters!   On the Sunday, a day after the wedding,, there was a very pleasant surprise with  the bride’s sister, Cristina, and the groom’s brother, Illie, announcing their engagement, so we were invited to another party, to celebrate but this time it was at the groom’s parent’s house   Their wedding date  is set  for 20th December

• The children’s work:   During last year’s trip we were told of a national  project which was due to be introduced at the end of 2013-beginning of  2014  where community-based services such as primary education and healthcare were going to be provided as replacements for institutions that often neglected these basic needs.  The after school support for the  disabled and disadvantaged children in the local Malcoci school which, at that point,  was being provided at “NAŞTEREA DOMNULUI” (the Malcoci Baptist Church)  was in the process of change and set to be provided by the local school.  This has meant that the church no longer operates its Monday to Friday programme of after school support for the local underprivileged children.  However, it has continued to keep in contact with most of  those children who had attended the “ANCORA SPERANTEI” after school club,  and now offers a once a week Saturday Bible Study.   Igor advised us that he has plans to extend this to a a further 2 evenings as there are further children in the area who are in need of support – despite the national project there are still some very sad cases where children are left neglected and abandoned, which demonstrates the extent of the social problems in Moldova.  We were pleased to have 30 children attending on both of the 2 days of activities  at the church.  We were impressed that the children have a heart for prayer and are keen to learn more about the bible.  Furthermore, there were 32 children and 18 adults who attended the day at the Acqua Park.    On a separate day we took 8 of the underprivileged children to Chisinau for new school shoes and clothes

• The hospitality:    The hospitality and fellowship we received was amazing.  They love to offer what they can, which is mainly food based, a lot of it grown on their own land – it’s good food, beautifully tasty and delicious fruit and vegetables which is evidence of their fertile land.   We also saw a lot of preparation to get ready for their harsh winters which require conserving their surplus fruit and vegetables in jars

• Church community:  –  the church strengths are prayer – they fervently pray for their community and for each other.    They also love to listen and study the word of God; having a respect for the word of God, at the Sunday services they stand whenever a bible passage is read out and they appear happy to listen to long sermons.   Furthermore, every Thursday they attend a one hour prayer meeting; on Fridays they attend a one hour bible study; on   Saturdays there are three, two hour long, sessions for the  children, teens and youth groups.  Sundays is a when they all gather together for their church service.   On the first Sunday of each month they have ‘An Agape Fellowship Meal’ where the church prepares a meal and the congregation sits down and they eat together following the church service.

Prayer Needs:  Their main prayer need is their job situations.  There are many who need to go abroad and leave their families behind in search of jobs.   Moldova’s job situation is rather dire and the ones who hold jobs need to work long hours for low wages.    They also asked for their faith  to remain strong in God and to follow His will.

To Him be all the glory.

‘MOLDOVA 2014 TEAM’