We're still waiting. Waiting for the Transnistrian customs officials in the country's capital, Tiraspol, to email the approval that was given more than a day ago to the customs office here in Dubasari. We should have begun building the beds here on Monday or Tuesday, but communist governments don't seem to care about the plans of a small bunch of do-gooder Americans. In the meantime, we play with the children and do crafts and tell Bible stories. It's hard to win them over in such a short period of time, but soccer (aka football) is an international language and they're happy to use the soccer balls we brought to play basketball in a freezing gymnasium, too. The orphanage is really well run, much better than many seen in Moldova on past projects, but it's still hard to see all the children with no parents to go home to each night. Many aren't true orphans - they have families, but they can't care for them. Pastor Serghei at the local Baptist church has been working tirelessly on our behalf to get the beds to clear customs, but at this point it's unclear if we'll get to leave here having built any beds at all. So we're all trying to adjust our expectations. It's so disappointing to not be able to do all the work we came here to do, but we're assuming there is a greater purpose. In the end, God cares for these orphans more than we do and we have to trust that whatever happens this week, it's what He had planned all along. No matter what, I'm so grateful and blessed to be a part of it.
-w
p.s. One of our translators, Ilie, sends his greetings!
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I'll keep hoping and praying that the beds will get there and that most or all of them can be built before you leave. I'm sure it's very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteMaking me cry....let them have the beds!
ReplyDeleteJana
i'm hoping your'e feeling a bit more encouraged now that you've had some time for perspective. i know it's impossible to help the feelings of being disappointed, but i see so much more god wanted to accomplish through this trip. and, most of all, i have the faith that when god calls us to step out and serve him it is for his purposes and not for our intentions.
ReplyDeletehere's a verse i wanted to share with you. i might blog about it later, so if you see it again....
"As the rain and the snow (you'll associate with this since it was snowy in moldova) come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from y mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what i desire and achieve the purpose for which i sent it.
you will go out in joy and be led in peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
isaiah 55: 10-12
mull this over. we'll have coffee and talk more about it.
grateful for you,
jen