It is official I am entering the world of blogging. This is my first official blog. The decision was tough but this will make it easier on me. I will be able to share all my stories with everyone without having to send out a bunch of e-mails. Plus, I can post all my photos on here so that part will be cool. There hasn't been an e-mail update sent out to anyone for about a week and a half now. Sorry it has taken me so long to get out another update but I am trying to do my best. And I think when I wait a little longer it adds a little more suspense. I am just trying to keep you all captivated. Or I just decide to fall asleep at night instead of send out an update. Over the past two weeks we have worked more at the Home of Hope for trafficked women, spent about a week in the small town of Straseni, and a few days in a town called Orhei. Also, our flight got cancelled to Armenia so that is why I am still in Moldova. But we are set to leave this Saturday on our new flight out of Odessa, Ukraine. Here is a review of the past week or so.
When we last talked our team was getting ready to head out to the small town of Straseni for 6 days. But before we left on that Tuesday the 14th we went to Chisinau days in the morning. This is a celebration of the birth of the city. It was a good time because I got to eat some more of my favorite dish here Shoshleik. Plus, I ate a few pastries. As long as there is some good food around I can have a great time. Here are some pictures below of the shoshleik and the festival.
That Tuesday afternoon we headed up to Straseni. Our goals for the 6 days we were up there were: Do activities at the orphinage during the week, put coats of concrete on the back wall of the church to repair it, bring supplies to individuals at their homes, do an outreach for the blind, run the youth service on Saturday, and be a part of the Sunday service. God is good and it all went great. When we first got there on Tuesday a few of the guys stayed back to work on the wall while the rest of us went to the orphinage. I would usually stay back to do the construction stuff but I wanted to play sports with the kids. Gloriann from our group is in charge of all of our kids programs. She does a fantastic job and was great with them all week with the program she put on for them. I am usually in charge of all the sports. Which all I do is just go out there and play games. That isn't too hard. But I was a part of the program on Tuesday that Gloriann put on. It was hilarious. She happened to pick me to play Goliath in her demonstration. She went through the whole story of David and Goliath and at the end she wanted to do a demonstration of David flinging the stone to kill Goliath. I got up on stage in front of the kids and growled and had to flex my muscles. Then the kids got to take cotton balls, dip them in water, and procede to try and chuck them in between my eyes. There was about 110 kids there that day and thank goodness I only went through about half of them. Those cotton balls in water don't feel good when kids are chucking them as hard as they can from about 8 feet away. I don't have the photos or videos my team members took but I will try to get them soon to upload. The funniest parts were when they would hit me in the place of the zipper on my pants. I think some of the kids forgot that Goliath was between the eyes and not between the legs. At the end I started throwing back. After that, we played games with them and yes, I even played soccer. First time since about 6th grade or so. During the week, I stayed at an apartment of one of the guys from the church with our interpreter Tudor and Chad. Don't worry there was no weird cheese I had to eat this time. On Wednesday, I stayed and work on the concrete wall. We used a technique in which I have never seen before. I worked concrete for a summer so I thought I was ready. So far, all the construction work we have done has gone great but this was challenging. In America we have things called forms we pour concrete into when we do walls. But here, they don't have the luxury of concrete trucks or forms. They build the building out of stone and then literally sling concrete on the wall. Rebar is set in wall with concrete at different points so you can properly level off the final coat. It takes about 2 coats of slinging concrete to finish the job and this was a big wall. We worked with two great Moldovan guys Sergi and Peter. The first couple days working with them they probably didn't think much of us. When they would sling concrete on the wall they would throw these huge blobs that would stick to the wall. Yeah, well that didn't really work out so well for us. Chad and I stayed back and worked on the wall while the others went to the orphinage that Wednesday. By the end of the day we were just in charge of mixing the concrete. That is how bad we did. But we eventually got the hang of it. That night we went to a 25th wedding anniversary of one of the leaders of the church. 3 of the girls from our group were staying with them during the week and they were great people. They weren't christians when they got married but the wife gave her life to Christ and the husband then soon followed and have been happy ever since after starting off rough. So we sang songs with them and at these things filled with cabbage, rice, and chicken. I think I ate about 8 of them. Then we watched a slideshow of all of their pictures on a dvd. They put an r&b song along with the pictures. The song was in English and I don't think they understood the words. It was a song that probably would have fit better after everyone left and it was for them when they were alone. That part was quite funny. Thursday, we got up in the morning and I worked on the wall for the first half of the day while others from our group did house visits. They took groceries and cut wood for a lady. We ate lunch then I went to the orphinage. We put on another program then I got to play some games. The first game we played dodgeball. I got to get some redemption on some kids for the cotton balls. Then we played some cool variations of tag. I could tell I haven't really had a chance to exercise this whole time. Also, we made them balloon animals. That night we put on the service at church with a couple songs, Mikellah gave her testimony and Noah preached. On Friday, we took the day and completed the wall. Others from the group did the house visits and went to the orphinage and the ones who worked on the wall finally figured out the whole mud slinging thing. It ended up looking really good. When everyone got back from the orphinage we set up and packed 200 bags for the blind outreach on Saturday. This outreach is for the visually impaired in the community and surrounding area. We got the bags packed and just in time. The past two days the forecast was for rain. If it would have rained we couldn't have worked on the wall and finished it. I guess God had a different idea than the weatherman and we were able to finish the wall as well as pack the bags for the outreach. That Friday, Peter, the guy we worked with all week, had Chad and I stay at his house. We didn't have an interpreter but from what we could get from him he had such a sweet story. Peter now is a wonderful family man who is a hard worker and wanted nothing more than for us to come to his home so he could serve us in his home. 6 years ago he was in prison in Romania when he decided to let God come into his heart and completely change him into the man he is today. Before that time I think he was trying to say he was into some sort of racketeering. He was in Romania in prison because he had to leave Moldova because he was in trouble there. Then he got in trouble in Romania and was put in prison there. By the way he has 6 kids and on in the oven. Now his wife and him are believers and are wonderful people. Peter's brother is an evangelist in Russia and they hadn't talked in 6 years. A month ago his brother called him and found out everything that had happened in his life. It was such a good time there. We got to get water out of his well with him and he showed us how heated his home with his hot water heater. As a side note, Chad and I did have to sleep in a bed together again. This was a full size this time and we figured out that Chad likes to be against the wall, while I prefer the outside of the bed. That Saturday, we loaded up the bags and headed off to the arts center in town to do the outreach. I got up and introduced our team and spoke to the crowd about our mission and why we do what we do. Zach from our team also got up and gave a message and we did a few worship songs. We then handed out the bags and headed back to the church. In the afternoon, we put on the youth service at the town sports facility. A lot of volleyball and soccer was played. I played mostly volleyball and all I can say is USA 4 Moldova 0. Then, we sang some more songs with them and Bracy gave his testimony. Then we played a game of monster tag and went back to the church to hang out with some of the youth. It was cool because a lot of the kids at the sports complex never get a chance to go there and never go to church so it was good to see a lot of the kids there. Back at the church we had a round table discussion with the youth from there where we got to ask questions and they did as well. On Sunday we then had the church service. The musicians of our group got up and did some more songs. Don't worry I don't get up there and sing. I don't want to scare off anyone. Then Chad preached, as well as Andy Raatz the missionary that we work with here. Him and his wife are awesome and I have learned a lot from them. Sunday, we headed back to Chisinau. Our plan was to leave Tuesday on our flight to Armenia but it got cancelled. We didn't get another flight until this Saturday so we got to stay another week here. Plus, we found out that we get to help out refugees in Georgia for 2 weeks while in Armenia. But here are some pictures from Straseni.
After Straseni we came back to Chisinau for the next week. We worked at the Home of Hope another day then went to a church in Orhei to do drywall work. Also, we went and played a basketball game against a Moldovan select team. Troy Darrin, a missionary here with his wife and daughter, set up a game at the training facility where his daughter plays. We actually played against another team with jerseys and everything. I am happy to say we represented the USA well and we actually won. But now we are getting ready to take a bus to Odessa tomorrow and we are now going to be off to Armenia. I had a blast here in Moldova. I came here to try to help people and I probably got more out of my time here than the people I helped. I learn more and more about myself everyday being here, both the good and the bad. I want to say thank you to the Raatz Family for their dedication and great hearts. Sarah their missionary associate for putting up with us all this time. Also, the Darrin family for letting us hang out with them and invading their home as well. Until Next time, take care and God bless.
Chris McCulloch
Hebrews 12:12-13
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