Some pictures

Can't believe we are beginning our second month of work here in Chişinău, Moldova. I'll try to get you caught up on what's going on. :)

Chris and Phileena Heuertz, David Chronic, and Liz Ivkovich visited us two weeks ago. It was pretty amazing. Phileena facilitated chapel each day, Chris talked about the story of Word Made Flesh, and we as a Moldova community talked about our thoughts/hopes for our work here. It was a really encouraging time. Liz is the director of administration, and a great person, and she stayed with me. The last day Chris talked with us (David and Phileena, too, as they have been working since the beginning with Word Made Flesh) about the importance of a focused vision for our work here. The two weeks prior we visited 3 different organizations and began to dream/think about what our role could be here in Chisinau. At the time we were really brainstorming, but when we met last week, Chris encouraged us to (through prayer and God's direction), try to narrow our focus and make it something within which our whole team can work. So, we decided to go back and work with the kids at each organization for a whole week together.

For example, last week we had chapel, then language learning/program planning, quick lunch, and headed to a placement center for children for the afternoon. The social workers and the directors at this home/placement center try to either re-integrate the child back into their families (if safe), or integrate them into foster or adoptive families. If the children are not placed in a year, then the child is sent to an orphanage. The children are all done with school between 2-3pm, so we arrived about 2:30, helped with homework for an hour/hour and a half, and ended the day with a couple of songs and games. It became so apparent how much these children need someone to come along side of them and tell them how much God loves them, how they can study and are smart and give them praise.

Beginning tomorrow, we will go to a nearby village. Within this village we will be spending time at an orphanage. Currently there are about 330 children there, and they live and go to school on the "campus". Tomorrow we will split up and observe some classes. Then we'll eat with the younger kids and just hang out for a bit.

Here are a couple of albums i've put together for the last few weeks. Note there won't be any pictures of the children, as we haven't really built any relationships yet. However, please enjoy the introduction (of sorts) to my life here.

Living in Moldova
January and February 2010