Moldova
Blog Sunday 14 October
Plans change in Moldova and the simplest
plans are often the most complicated to execute.
Take Sunday Morning for example –The service
in Brinza starts at 10:00 am, it’s a one hour drive from Chicani to Brinza, we
all had things to get ready before the service and needed at least 30 minutes
to do so. The six of us at Nina’s were ready to be collected at 8:30 (Even
Ellie was up and dressed!) when the call came we’d be collected at 8:45. At 9:00 while we were still at the road side
waiting – we started to get a little anxious.
The good news was Mark was well and
recovered and was to be our driver for the day.
Mari his wife was also joining him, they are such a great couple and the
thought of spending the day with them cheered us all.
It’s amazing how things change in a
week, whereas the hour long journey used
to be new and interesting; strange and exciting – now it seemed perfectly
normal and natural to us all. The disused factories, flat landscape to the
Romanian border, yellow gas pipes around the houses and beautifully painted
green and blue fences were all familiar to us now.
As we pulled up to the church in Brinza some
of the local children ran around the bus to greet us, Pastor Vasille was on the
step to welcome us and the service was almost ready to start. The ladies
quickly put their skirts and headscarves on and we were ready to roll.
The morning service was quite different
to the week night mission evenings. The choir sat behind the pastor and led the
church with harmonious gusto. For me an absolute highlight was the service
starting with a song I last heard sung in Albania. In Albanian the song is ‘Do të japim lavdi dhe nder’ which in
English means something like ‘We will
give glory and honour’ I’m told its
originally an English song but I’ve never heard it sung in English. How special
to now hear the same song in Romanian.
Kostan the youth leader led the service
all under the watchful eye of Pastor Vasille. Tim shared his testimony, it’s
been amazing to see how Tim has honed his testimony from telling his life story
– to talking about God in his life – ask Tim if you want to know more about
this. Pete commented to Tim as he sat down ‘That
was amazing’!
I had been told at the start of the week
that the Pastor in the group must preach on the Sunday- luckily for this
service I had come prepared and shared a message based on the armour of God-
encouraging the church to fight back against the lies and deception and
corruption that seems to have infiltrated into so much of Moldovan
culture.
Following the service Pastor Vasille
invited myself Pete & Tim to meet with his team of leaders to talk about
how the partnership between Upton Vale and Brinza could develop. Moldovan men
can appear quite serious and dour at time so it was lovely to see a room full
of such men break into broad smiles and laughter as we dreamt dreams and shared
visions of the future. It was music to
our ears to hear that they would love another UV team to visit next year – just
try stopping us.
Following lunch we were invited round to
Pastor Vasile’s house for an afternoon visit. He is an incredibly humble man
living in a two room old house with his wife and three boys (baby no 4 is on
its way soon) We learned that Vasille
had pretty much brought himself up on his own after the death of his Mother
when he was in his teens. His home is built in the old way – mud and straw
plastered over , warm in winter and cool in the summer but these buildings only
last 30 years or so. Vasile’s home is reaching its age limit so a new breeze
block building is going up next door for them.
We all sat around and on their bed for this visit whilst being served
huge portions of chocolate cream cake.
The evening mission meeting was
incredible. We were invited to sing and chose two songs that the Moldovans knew
well. As we sang the chorus to ‘Everybody
needs compassion’ the youth started to join in Romanian. When we sang ‘Our God
is awesome God’ the whole church joined in and we enjoyed a wonderful few
minutes of worship together – different voices, tongues and languages coming
together – an amazing moment of unifying praise to God.
Glens’ testimony was so powerful and
moving we could almost visibly see it connecting with the women in the meeting.
Straight after the meeting a large number the women of the church stayed for a meeting with Glens
and Cathy.
While this was going on Ailsa, Tim and myself slipped off to take a
look at the river Prut which marks the border with Romania. It’s pretty sobering standing on one side of
the narrow river and realising it’s a different country just a few yards
away. What stops the Moldovans from
simply wading across to a new life in Romania?
After our final meal (yes I know – more food)It
was the sad time for goodbyes and farewells. Pastor Vasille summed it up well
when he said ‘Just as we are getting to know you all , you’re leaving’ echoing a sentiment we all shared. Goodbye’s
are always difficult especially with a church like Brinza who had become very
dear to us all over the week together. No one was in a hurry to get in the cars
to drive back to Chicani but alas the mission was over and it was time to
leave.
After a quiet hour’s drive back and a
walk up the muddy hill to Nina’s we all sat around the room sharing so many
good memories of the week together; So many highs, so many challenges, so many
joys, so many jokes. We’d been pushed to
the limits of our abilities and realised again and again the truth that in our
weakness we discover God’s strength.
One word summed up how we felt as we sat
around the room after such a great mission week: ‘Flat’.
Graham
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