My New Home

You take the number 35 ‘routiere’ (minibus) from Chisinau to Ialoveni (pronounce yellowven) and you get off at the town ‘centrum’ and walk back up the hill. Turn left at the corner where the goat is tied by the lamppost and it’s just a few houses down on that road.
The house is #11 and like all Moldovan homes it is surrounded by a fence. Most fences are either blue or green – this one is green. You open the gate and go through to the door and ring a bell that sounds inside with a melody like a cellphone. Sister Lena opens and greets me and the language challenge begins.
(My house is the one on the right in the picture.)
I have a room at the back of the house which looks out on the road and am careful to turn off the lights at night before changing as the curtains are merely lace. They certainly don’t keep any cold out but my hostess kindly provided me with a nice comforter that enabled me to stay warm at night. That is, once I put on my sweatshirt and wrapped a polar fleece around my legs and happily wore the cozy socks that Elaine gave me before I left. I have been so grateful for those socks! I do have to get myself a pair of proper slippers though for walking around in the house. Moldovans always remove their shoes upon entering, so slippers are essential as the floor is cold. So tomorrow is Saturday – my day off – and I will go to the market and buy some slippers and hangers and other essentials.
Anyway, my house is luxurious by Moldovan standards (i.e. it has an indoor toilet and electricity and running water) and my host is so kind. Please pray for patience for all of us as I grapple with the language. We try to communicate and I might understand one out of ten words she says. At our training they said that we would be tempted to give up and withdraw and I am beginning to understand that now. It takes so much effort to have the simplest conversation but already I know I have learned a great deal in such a short time. So I must persevere! Two hours with my language teacher each day helps but also makes me realize more and more things that I still need to learn. That can just be scary! However, the motivation to speak Romanian is that much greater now that I am in a home. And Matthew told me this morning that he would like me to help him next week with a seminar on how to share your testimony. Then he said next January I would be teaching that seminar (I’m thinking to myself, that’s something I can do) and then he adds in an offhanded kind of way with a slight grin….”in Romanian”. And the wires connect, reality hits, I realize that six months from now I will look back and think how hard it was and how I thought I would never learn it and yet I will have learned it and I will be able to converse and it will just be a distant memory of the past. I have to believe that, as so many missionaries before me have done. I put my hand in the Lord’s and thank Him for new challenges and that ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
And the Lord blessed me so much this morning. Some of you know that my favourite tea is peppermint. Since I came here I have not been able to find a brand of mint tea that really was very good. This morning with my breakfast, Leona offered me ‘cheai’ (the Romanian word for tea) and when I tasted the delightfully hot drink it was the most wonderfully flavourful mint tea I have ever had. And of course, she showed me the mint leaves that she had grown in her garden! How good is the Lord, to grant such a blessing – small perhaps – but it is in the small things that those who love us demonstrate the depth of that love. As the hot tea warmed my insides and soothed my spirit, I felt loved by God this morning. I hope and pray that each of you are also experiencing those little miracles and blessings that are there to remind you that you are precious to the Lord and He loves you.
One last thing I want to share. As I came out of the house this morning to walk to the bus stop, the first sound that greeted me was the “Moooooo!!!” of a cow that wasn’t there last night but today is tied to the fence across the road. Welcome to Moldova!