A Full Day in Moldova...

9/25/08

Today was the team’s first full day in Moldova. We woke up in Chesinu, spent the day in Milehni and are spending the night in Bells. It was quite the day. Moldova is a very pretty country. It is green and full of rolling hills. As you go into the country it is like stepping a back into time with a few cars and cell phones thrown into the mix. We saw multiple times a horse and cart serving as transportation, shepherds and livestock roaming in front and back yards. There is a lot of agriculture here and we saw people harvesting their crops.

We met with the pastor, the deacon and some other church members from Milehni today. They introduced themselves and shared some of the history of the church. The pastor’s grandfather was martyred during the years the country belonged to the Soviet Union and Communism. When they were trying to build the current church in early 2000 the Orthodox church protested by threatening to tear the building down and then by trying to buy half the land to squeeze them out. Neither one of these things happened. Today the church is in its final phases of construction. We will help texture and paint it tomorrow. In American we can worship God so freely. We can go to church when and where we please. There may be a handful o f times that the American church faces vandalism and mockers, but rarely are we in harm’s way for professing to be a Christian and for attending church. These freedoms are awesome and I wish every country could experience that freedom. The truth is that in many areas of this world Christian’s lives are threatened everyday from the countries of the Middle East, to some of those in Asia, to the current persecution going on in India and so forth. We need to remember to pray for our brothers and sisters, our fellow God worshippers, around the world who face persecution for believing the same thing you and I believe.

After lunch we set up for the next day. Since the weather has been less than ideal we are staying at a church in a different town. This means a longer drive in the morning, but it also means we don’t have to rough it out quite as much as predicted. We have beds, a hot shower, and internet so not too bad at all.
=)

* My comupter is about to run out of battery, so I will post pictures at a later date. Also the spelling of the names of the cities need to be corrected.