Goodbyes & Hellos

Life on our team is always full of comings and goings. The only constant is change, and sometimes it is harder than other times. One of the most difficult recent changes was to say goodbye to the Christovam family. Vitor, Ivanir, Marina, and Joao have been with us for the last 5 years - since before I arrived - and I have worked closely especially with Ivanir. These Brazilians are precious friends who are full of life and love and a desire to serve the Lord. They have a been a huge blessing to our team and their absence is deeply felt. Before they left, we had a team day of prayer and saying farewell to them. We went to an awesome place called Orhei Vechi (Old Orhei) which has an old monastery as well as fascinating geological formations. It was a very hot day and the only shade was under the single tree on the hill. So we set up there for the morning and in the shade of the tree we prayed for this family as they return to Brazil, that they would continue to remain under the shadow of the Almighty. A few days later a whole group of us gathered at the airport at 3 a.m. to say goodbye to them.

Just a few days befor our team day at Orhei Vechi we said hello to our sister Viorica, who is on furlough from Angola. It's wonderful to reconnect with her, to hear her stories and to help her to prepare to return for ongoing ministry with children and young girls. One prayer evening Viorica made a presentation of her work, and here is a photo of her modelling a traditional African outfit.

For a while now we have been waiting to say hello to a new member of the team. Slavic and Snejana, who were married last summer, have been expecting their first child. Little Samuel was born on June 13 and I went with Jessie and Justin to visit Snejana and the new little darling in the hospital. What a beautiful child! Of course, this just makes me miss my own grandchildren even more! But it isn't hard to rejoice together with this young couple in the new joy they are experiencing.

Not long after saying goodbye to the Christovams we have bade our farewells to yet another family, Silas & Michaela Mullis and their little daughter Carmen. They had actually planned to leave at the end of the summer but their departure date was moved ahead for reasons related to visas and the new challenges created by strained relations with Moldova and Romania. Moldova now requires Romanians to have a visa to enter the country (and vice versa) and Michaela is Romanian. She had gone out of the country to visit her family and was planning to return but obtaining an invitation and a visa became increasingly difficult. Meanwhile, Silas was in Moldova finishing up his work and Michaela was in Romania and it was very difficult for them as a family to be separated. Finally, they decided to not continue trying but to just go directly back to the USA. So Michaela was not able to be here in Moldova for us to say goodbye to her and Carmen. We did the next best thing - had her join us on Skype, projecting the webcam image on the wall and giving the whole team an opportunity to say goodbye to the family all together.

And so goes life here in Moldova. People coming and going, going and coming. Today we are looking forward to the return of Dana, another Romanian who has been stuck without a visa longer than she wished. Today our first group of short term missionaries are leaving after two weeks in Moldovan villages. Tomorrow about 30 new short-termers will arrive. This week I said farewell to the four girls heading out to Central Asia for 3 weeks. Summer is a busy time here, and with the departure of Silas and Vitor, members of our leadership team, it means more responsibility for those of us who remain. Thankfully, we have a God who promises never to leave us, and who provides strength equal to the tasks He calls us to.