Summer has begun...

...and with it, heat, outreach programs, and lots and lots of short term visitors. Last week we had a group of 10 Americans who came to work with a church that some of them had worked with previously. My department (Personnel) is responsible for running the Orientation day so we were able to hear from them about their hopes and expectations for the week coming. Their plan was to build a playground in a village and also run a day camp for whatever children showed up. By the end of the week, they had lots of stories and excitement to share with us as we conducted the debriefing session with them.

For the last months, Ianosh ( a member of our team) has been working hard on getting a bunch of bicycles across the border into Moldova. The bikes had been donated by someone and were to be used for the new summer outreach we are initiating this year - a cycling outreach. Dealing with all the documents that were required and just the logistics of getting the bikes here was no small feat but with the Lord's help, Ianosh managed to do it and so today the cyclists had opportunity to try out the bikes and choose which one each will use. Last week at our prayer meeting we also prayed over these bikes and for the villages through which they would travel.

Today, my personnel team conducted an orientation day for the first-ever cycling outreach. Nine brave souls will venture forth to cycle from village to village sharing the good news of the gospel and encouraging and assisting the local churches in their ministry. The team is being led by newlyweds, Vlad and Veronica, and they are excited about this opportunity. (Hopefully, they won't have trouble deciding which direction to go!!) The group, consisting of Germans, Moldovans, an American and a Brit will have a challenge to communicate with one another and to work together in presenting children's programs in the different villages. Moldovan children have three months off school in the summer and there are not many planned activities in small villages. The arrival of a foreign team will be a source of great excitement and the programs that will be run and the attention the teams will give to the children will be a source of great joy. Today the cyclists learned some Romanian children's songs as well as began to put together dramas for the programs they will do. We know that the children in each village where they go will be thrilled to have this team among them. When they all come back, I'll post some photos of this exciting outreach.