The Boss

Operation Mobilisation started in Moldova, and continues, under the very competent leadership of Matthew and Helen Skirton. They started coming to Moldova in the early 90's on outreach trips with teams of young people. Eventually they were mandated to establish an OM base in Moldova and for 11 years they have been living here. Now they are building a home, so I guess it is home to them in many ways. Both of them are originally from Great Britain. In spite of his youth, Matthew is a man of vision, compassion and competence. Helen is also very gifted and keeps the busy homefront running as well as maintaining contact and care for the many staff members and students who are involved with OM Moldova. Their home was the first one we were invited to as new members of the Moldova team, and it was to their home I went when my first crisis occurred and I needed a shoulder to cry on. Helen was there. And Matthew follows up with all the team, gently touching base from time to time with various members to see how things are going and to address problems when they arise. Matthew and Helen are wonderful parents, obviously united in their intent to maintain a quality family life for their three girls and the little one soon to arrive. Matthew is also a gifted preacher and teacher and I have been blessed every time I hear him preach - even when it is in Romanian! Because Romanian is his second language, even though he is fluent, I am usually able to understand enough of his sermons - given the scriptural context too, you understand - to benefit from them. It is a very different thing to listen to a language from a native and from a person who speaks it as a second language.
The picture above was taken on our way back from visiting one of the student teams working in Anenii Noi. As you can see, we shared in a real cultural experience of eating in Moldova!

And here you see two of their beautiful girls. Lydia is on the left, and little Rachel is their youngest. There is a picture of their oldest daughter, Hannah, in one of my newsletters.