Monday, August 23, 2010

Summer Highlights in Moldova

Where has the summer gone?! Wow, it is hard to believe that it is time for school to start back. We wanted to share some of our summer highlights here in Moldova with you.
While we only had one team from Tennessee that came to work specifically with our IMB team and our ministry here, God has placed other ministries in our path and has given us great joy in working with them!! The team of two from Tennessee, Michael and Tara, were such a blessing to the children; they are close friends of our colleagues, Chris and Nancy Russell. They have a little boy at home, but they felt called to come and serve in Moldova and share God's love. This VBS was held at the Baptist Bible College in Chisinau for the children of the seminary students.
We also helped with a Kids Day at our church, Hope Church (Biserica Speranta), here in Chisinau. It was a great day of learning about the possibilities of becoming a missionary, and they learned different ways that they can serve God. The other two leaders were Aurica and Ana; both are members of Hope Church, and both work with mission organizations here in Moldova, i.e., Bible League and Child Evangelism Fellowship.
We have worked with as few as seven children and with as many as 200 children at various camps. The wonderful thing about it is that most of the leaders have been from Moldova, and it is a blessing to see God working in these young adults lives to spread His love and His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ!!!
There were two other groups that God placed us with this summer. One group was here through Pastor Eduard Edu's church, Springs of Life (Izvorul Vietii). Most on this team were from Constanta Romania, but a couple were from Oradea Romania. We were with them in Corjova for several days. The children had a wonderful time, planned great skits about what they had learned, and the team went into the village telling about Jesus' love! Many Bibles, tracks, and reading glasses were handed out that week.
The other group that we worked closely with was through Marina, a missionary from Germany. The leaders were from Moldova, and they were wonderful with the children!! There is not an evangelical church in the village where we went so the team stayed at a school. There were so many children at this camp, and they definitely heard about Jesus that week. We had clowns, skits, treats, crafts, games, testimonies, small group time for Bible study and sharing time. The focus was Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life!! There are plans to return on Sunday afternoons to reconnect with the children and have sports activities!
Please pray for all of these children who have heard about the great love that God has for them! May they realize that the void in their lives can only be filled by Jesus!!
Smile, God loves you!

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