Moldovan Misson Day 6 Thurs 11 October

Moldova Mission Trip Day 6 – Thursday 11^th October

This has been our busiest day by far and we are all very tired and hoping for a really good night sleep.  But to give you a taste of our day:

It started early with chips and salad for breakfast with bread or toast! Our host Nina offers us all sorts of things for breakfast, chips being the most unusual so far. We walked to the main road and travelled the hour to Brinza. We had a half hour of devotions led by Matt and that was the quietest part of our day. We split into two teams one half went to see the Mayor and the other group went to a ‘polyclinic’. Both groups had a fairly tough time, not being quite sure what was appropriate to say and being careful not to offend anyone.  I (Ailsa) went to the polyclinic, we chatted to three nurses who had been working there for many years. They were from an orthodox background but were very open to us telling them about the gospel and inviting them to the Mission meetings at the church. They were happy for us to leave them with our ‘tickets’ as invitations to the meeting. 

We went back to the church where we had a great lunch prepared for us which we ate with Vasille (the pastor) and our translators. We were then split into two different groups and went to some local houses where people from the church had invited their neighbours in to talk with us (‘us’ being the strange English people!). Our group arrived earlier than the lady was expecting us so we waited for a while whilst she rounded up her neighbours. Graham was great but it was hard work getting any feedback. We gave our testimonies and one lady from the church shared with the group. We are not sure if any will come to the missions but we hope and pray that our visit will at least enable the local people to chat about the mission to their neighbours. We were fed some pastries and a fruit juice drink and they insisted on our eating as much as we could.   

When the others came to collect us our host was very reluctant for us to leave, standing in the doorway and trying to insist that the others came in to eat with us.  It was very funny as we made our getaway whilst trying to be polite!

Then came our school visit, nobody had any idea what to expect. We had arranged for Matt and Cathy to do the talking but to whom we weren’t quite sure. We were led into a hall where we waited, and then teenagers started coming in, lots of them. We ended up with 76 young people and one or two teachers.  They all appeared to enjoy what Matt and Cathy had to say and all took our ‘tickets’, some agreed to come on at least one of the meetings.

For the evening mission Cathy, Glenys and myself being the married women of the group had to be sure to change in to skirts and have our heads covered.  You can imagine the scene of the three of us trying to get ourselves looking remotely sensible whilst looking like ‘Mother Theresa’,’ a shepherdess’ or an ‘Arabian tourist’. All three of which were used to describe us by the men in our group! I gave my testimony which appeared to go well, one lady approached me afterwards and asked me to pray for her as she has a medical problem. Pete preached and he kept to time which impressed us all. I went out of the service with Matt to do a children’s session. We had no idea of how many children to expect or how old they would be so planning was interesting. We ended up with 40 children in a small room aged between 7 and 12. It was a bit mad but with the help of our interpreter we told the story of the Good Samaritan, wrapped children in toilet roll, made paper aeroplanes and had a flying competition with the planes we had made. 

The rest of the service went well with a young people’s choir, a poem being read and the pastor concluding the service.

Our day ended with our bumpy ride back to where we are staying, a short chill out time and then bed for a well earned sleep.

Ailsa