July 11th

MOLDOVA UPDATE: Sorry there was a delay in posting...The team has officially finished up their time of formal ministry in Moldova. Their last two days of evangelism were great! For those of you who like the stats: 598 Gospel presentations were made, 98 believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, 23 discipleship follow-ups and many more lives touched than we can keep count! Praise God for his work in Moldova through our humble NEBC team!

Alan's updates were mixed from the last two days...some of his follow-ups, like one with a doctor whom they'd been chatting and sharing with, didn't show up, which was frustrating, but on the soccer field, he's been having a blast and having lots of opportunities to share God's Love and Truth!!! He will have lots of stories to tell in person when he returns! His translator and national were doing awesome sharing the gospel by the end of the week, which was one of the team's main goals - to build up, train and encourage the believers who live there, so that the ministries continue to grow when our team leaves.

PRAYER REQUESTS for their last few days: Please continue to pray for the team's health and safety, for them to jump on opportunities to share Christ during their last couple days there, for safety traveling home, for the Moldovan believers to grow in their knowledge of who God is and to boldly continue to share their faith, for the elderly people in Moldova who are often forgotten and neglected by the younger generations.

I will end today's posting with another segment from one of Sandra's e-mails because she has such a way with words, vividly describing the scene and the people she has encountered. You can really hear her love for the Lord...

" Well, God has proven Himself faithful and generous yet again, and this day was exactly what I hoped it would be with the exception of visiting the shack beacuse Anatol was drunk. We left him and went to the old mans house, and I can't remember his name right now (oops), to do some work. well they duped us; they didn't want us to help them do work, they wanted to just hang out. So we had tea and cookies and saw every photograph in their home. It was a 2 hour hang out, and it really was fun. It is really interesting that these people are so sad and without hope that spending just a little bit of time with them will make them weep. I asked them if I were to come back next year, would I be able to visit, and they said I would be welcome anytime, and "thank you so much for giving my time to them". I did get to go the gospel presentation, and the wife (Nastia) was brought up by baptists, so she was really familiar with it. But more than anything, it was a sweet time of hanging out with true Moldovans and experiencing some of their sweet and humble generosity.
The old people are treated so poorly; many of the children will steal the apartments from their parents, pensions are not paid, and they are forgotten. All they need (other than a Savior) is time, and they are so grateful for any amount that we give them. There are so many babushkas that will tell you how horrible that it is, their children are in jail, are drunks, are prostitutes, are out of the country... It is so heartbreaking to know that the elderly are not being taken care of. We visited another babushka (from my story yesterday about the 2 friends who don't understand each other), and I gave her some glasses and she literally squealed (a 93 year old squeal) because she could see. she didn't want to take them because she didn't have any money, and when I told her that it was my gift to her, she wept for 30 minutes. she was so overcome by my generosity (HA!) that she wept. those were from the dollar store. SO there is a hip babushka walking around with awesome stripped glasses who can now read the tracts we gave her. what a precious woman; how has she been forgotten?
After that we turned the corner, and the spot where the kids are was empty. My heart absolutely sank. but we decided to stop and sit, just in case, and as soon as we sat down, alex and a couple others came out! We did a little followup (mainly questions reaffirming what they believe, and using the Bible to show the truth), and played farkle. For most of these kids, their parents are out of the country for work, and they are being cared for by their grandmothers. These kids need to be plugged into a church group that will really encourage them to grow in the Lord. What Moldova needs are good, solid, Godly, young men. It is painfully obvious how the men lost the battles with their addictions. at 9am the cafes are already full of men drinking wine, while the women work.
we walked down the street and saw a gang of pre-teen Pat Benetar looking girls just watching us walk towards them. it was the girls that had been hanging out with Alex, and they waited to visit with us, and they came to church.
Let's not forget the plum tree where I have so many sweet memories. We picked a whole bag full, and they were scrumptious.
The last service was sweet, all of my kids came, which made me so happy. they promised to come to church on sunday, and I really hope they do. all the americans got up to sing some songs, and I was belting my heart out ot the Lord, when I heard a bottle fall on the ground. then I smelt alcohol over my shoulder. then there was a large hairy slovak breathing down my neck trying to see what I was singing. I was pleading with my eyes (in Russian) to Serge to come and move him from me. then I felt a hand on my back... but it was alan telling me he had my back, and I thought it was the hariy beast, and alan wasn't doing anything. but alan and serge were the heroes, and I continued to sing unto the Lord. WOW!"