Beyond the gas crisis

Let me begin by sharing with you the most recent photo of my angelic granddaughter, Eliana. Here she is being held my her 'god-grandmother', Vicki, in British Columbia, Canada. Eliana and her brother Alejandro and their parents just spent a weekend together with their wonderful god-grandparents who kindly stand in the gap for their absentee grandmother from time to time. Thanks, Eric and Vicki!

Don't you all agree that Eliana is absolutely adorable? (This is Grandma missing her babies.)

It could be that some of you are wondering whether for lack of gas I froze to death in my apartment here in Moldova, mourned only by the pigeons who gather regularly outside our building and only eventually to be discovered under the powdery snow at the time of the spring thaw. In fact, had Ukraine (don't you just love their prime minister - or is it president?- and her very Ukrainian hairdo?)and Russia not made a deal, we may still have survived easily in the mild temperatures that have stayed with us over the last weeks. Fog, rain and mud. That's the current situation in Moldova. And I emphasize mud! (Yuk) During the gas crisis there were in fact many Moldovans who endured hardship with lack of heat in various situations. Schools were closed an extra week at the end of the Christmas break and when they did open, some were still woefully under-heated. Personally the only real effect of the gas cutoff for me was that the central hot water in our apartment complex was turned off and my electric water heater was not working so I had to have a few cold showers. Thankfully my wonderful landlady had a repair guy come and together they ensured that the hot water heater was repaired.

Anyway, so here I am alive and well and living in Moldova. In the last few weeks we have been preparing to receive our new recruits - a couple from Australia and a young girl from Austria. At the same time we have been making every effort to keep the other couple from Australia here in the country. Sadly we were unsuccessful and last Friday I travelled to Romania for a last visit with Ben and Becca before they flew out to England to join up with one of our teams there.

That hasn't been the only disappointment. Eugen, a Moldovan on our team was hoping to attend a training program in England and has been refused a visa. Maybe an appeal will be possible but we need prayer in this world of seemingly random visa refusals.

Another highlight in the last few weeks has been the opportunity to meet with Vlad, who has returned from his two years of ministry in Nepal. It was interesting debriefing him about his time, but it was also great to be with other friends who attended his church the day he made a fascinating presentation about his work and ministry and life in Nepal. Stories of trekking in the Himalaya mountains and sharing the gospel with Hindus and Buddhists who had never heard the name of Jesus was the stuff of genuine mission adventure.

My mission adventure here in Moldova is not quite so ... adventurous. But nevertheless it is full of relationships and opportunities to mentor and encourage and train as I serve a team of people who are involved in many different types of ministry. I enjoy having people over to my home for a meal on occasion and recently I hosted our team leader and his family of 5 children (who are being home-schooled!! by their brave and competent mother.) I have begun meeting with Helen, their mother, for a weekly Bible study and time of sharing as we discuss the gospel of Mark. I was also happy to welcome back to Moldova my good friend Corinne and her dog Silas, who came for a movie night and sleepover one weekend.

Most recently my time has been consumed with preparation for the arrival of our new recruits and planning of their orientation time. It's great to finally have them with us and last Saturday I returned from my visit in Romania in time to meet them at the airport on their arrival from a new recruits' conference in Germany. In the photo you can see Justin and Jessie, from Australia, on the left and Michaela, an Austrian girl, on the right along with our Moldovan teammate Lilian.

So dear readers, that is what I have been occupied with over the last two weeks. It's always nice to know that people miss my blog when I don't get around to updating it. Thank you, Inga, Joyce, and Dana, for reminding me that it's been too long. I also want to say hello to someone who reads my blog regularly but whom I have never met but someone told me about you and gave me your name and I wrote it down somewhere and was going to surprise you by greeting you by name on my blog but now I can't find where I wrote it down!! So, if you read my blog but have never met me, I just want to say hello and welcome to my ramblings about life in Moldova.