Michael's post Moldova

Hello family and friends,
This is Michael blogging on Tracye’s blogger. Day 3 and off to Orhei for a morning visit while the other kids are taking their exams. I thought that I was a little more prepared for the trip today because of Lannette’s stories from last year, but that proved not to be the case. My experience today was filled with many emotions. We were received with open arms, literally…hand shakes, hugs and even a song in the parking lot. We brought bananas for the older kids/men and yogurt for the little ones. We first went to feed some of the more severe cases…emotions ran high with sadness and joy all rolled up into one, sadness for the sickness that these children have had to endure, and joy for the happiness and smiles that were created by something as simple a little bit of yogurt and a touch. Small amount of time was spent for such large amounts of joy shared. Good day. I was not prepared for the next room that I was to enter. The room was similar to the previous, with one exception…half way across the world I was able to find Jonah 2. He was 15 yrs old and about 6 inhes shorter than Jonah, but something caught my eye……the “STICK”. He was carrying a shoe string in the same way. I immediately bent down for a hug and he wrapped his arms and legs around me and hung on. I noticed that he dropped his shoe string so I bent down to get it telling him that he has “dropped his stick”…at the time it was like second nature to call it that, later to realize that I doubt he would call it a “stick”. This experience brought me home for a moment. This day was truly blessed by God and has been added to my memory forever and will have forever changed me. I wonder what God has in store for our team tomorrow!! Today was a great day.