Shad's blog

This is AMAZING...... God is definitely at work here. We are seeing awesome things at the orphanage, and hearing about other things happening in the city. Victor "the man hosting us in his home" is an awesome christian. He is constantly hosting mission groups in his home. He also has some great ideas about spreading the Gospel in the city.
There is another young man staying here for an open ended stay. His name is Nathan and he is a great inspiration. He is here studying the language and helping Victor spread the gospel.
Our translators are unbelievable, they are all young guys and girls that have a great grasp of our language. They also have a great heart for Jesus. They are allot of fun and a fabulous help.
As for our team..... no doubt brought together by God for this trip. Everybody on the team has special and unique talents and gifts. Go figure.... that's the way the body of Christ works. I cant imagine that we could have had a better team.
Now for me, were do I start. I am so far out of my comfort zone sometimes I feel overwhelmed then I realize that I am just inadequate and that I must relie on God for everything. I was afraid to fly, a very picky eater, and don't no any Romanian. God has blessed us with safe travel, really good food, and awesome translators. I have been extremely humbled by this whole experience. I have built beds, taught recreation at VBS, and built relationships that will last forever. I have been BLESSED.
Through teaching recreation we (myself, Paul King,and Sheila Richardson) have been able to teach the kids through games about Jesus. We have taught them how to focus on Christ and how Christ focuses on them by hearing their prayers. we also taught them how we are all uniquely created to be a part of the body of Christ. in the next few days we will present them the Resurrection story and how to accept Christ. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to do his work.

Psalm 47:2
Shad

A Day at the orphanage..

OK, Jon asked me to blog but then we noticed that several people had already blogged on Sweet Sleep's blog (www.sweetsleep.blogspot.com) so I thought that I would picture blog tonight since it is now 6:15 a.m. (Moldova time) and I spent most of last night downloading pictures.. Let's just say our day at the orphanage was awesome. If the kids had as much fun with us as we did with them then this trip has already been a success. Who would have thought that the Chicken Dance would have been such a success at snack time. Hope you enjoy these pictures..

















Gotta run, they need to table for breakfast...

Keep up the prayers,

Dan

unu, doi, trei, patru

and left, right, left, kick......that was the sound of some of our team including me...yes me...teaching Texas line dancing to a group of Moldovan children today...YeeHaw!! What a great time we had today...building beds....interacting with the kids...just having fun with them and through that process hopefully showing them a God of love. We all feel very encouraged by the positive reception we received today. The kids were sponges, soaking up everything we threw at them...in fact I thinking soaking was part of the day...something about water guns in the sala de sport (that's Romanian for gym). Seriously....(not a word that really fits this team)....we're having a remarkable time...We're tired, but refreshed in spirit. The music team is especially excited about teaching the kids an American song tomorrow translated into Romanian....we are sure we're going to get some laughs out of this one...that is the kids laughing at us and our terrible effort at speaking Romanian. Stay with us...there's plenty more to come.

What Do We Do After Snack Time??? Have A Concert, Of Course!

The snack time crew plus Debra, minus Dan (although he will argue that he participated, do not believe him) made a deal with the kids that we would sing for them if they would sing for us...here's their side of the bargain! Enjoy: "The School Song"

Dance Party: Orphan Style

The sugar high resulting from an awesome snack time including vanilla icing, sour patch kids, graham crackers, Nemo fruit snacks and blue kool-aid led to many rounds of the Chicken Dance! Enjoy! :)

Moldova First Day VBS

We had a GREAT Day today. First day of VBS and we all had a GREAT TIME. I can see GOD working thru us to the kids. My group wanted to make sure we asked every child if they had been saved and tried to make sure they understood what that meant. Our lessions througout the week focus in salvation and the kids being saved. We all know that the Lord is at work and we are just delivering the message as many times as possible over the next few days. I look forward to the rest of the week and spending time with the kiddos and learning more about them. Most all of them were very open today and we hope to get to know them even better as the week goes by. What an awesome time we are having sharing God message with all of the kids.


We do serve a wonderful God.

Moldova

We have had a long trip so far but we can tell that God is with us. I am looking forward to what he has planned for us this week. I know that I have finally put down all of my barriers and I am ready for his will. We have a great week planned and look forward to see what happens when we use God's this week. I can't wait to see it fulfilled. I know amazing things are going to happens with the group of talented people we has seeking God's will and purpose for these kids.

God just use us as a tool for you and let us put what we want to do aside and make you the focus for the kids and let us be careful to make sure we give God all the Glory.

Traveling to Moldova

This is Sheila, I am using Jon's blogging address because I cannot seem to sign on for myself.  It is now 10:30 on Monday night.  This is how our travels went:  We met at First Baptist Church Whitehouse at 9:30 Sunday morning.  We packed the bus ant trailer and Pastor Ray led a prayer of protection and God's will be done before we loaded up.  We rode the bus to the DFW airport where we ate at TGI Fridays.  We joked about how there is always one who gets stopped in security, well guess who it was first.  Me of course!  I had forgotten to empty my water bottle and they had to search my luggage   From there we flew to Dulles airport in Washington D.C.  there we met up with Jon and Kelsey from Tennessee and Carolyn from Canada.   Then we headed for Frankfurt Germany where they got me again.  My flashlight caused them to search my bag again.  However this time I was not alone,  Kelsey's converter caused her to be taken to a separate room while they checked it out.  We continued on to the German McDonalds where we received a chinese fortune cookie which was an advertisement for a duty free store.  Rae did a wonderful devotion before we left there and we continued on to Chisinau airport in Moldova.  From there an interesting ride to the house where we are staying.  The people we have met so far are wonderful and dinner was great.  I did my turn giving the devotional and we have been organizing supplies and making goodie bags all in preparation for going to Ivancea tomorrow.  We will build beds and start the Bible school tomorrow.  Please pray for the weather to hold out so we can play outside.  Moldova has had more rain this year and while everything is lush and green we do not want to get rained out on our games.  We are getting to know each other and am sure when we get home there will be many interesting stories.  (Ask about Tony's headwear!)  God Bless!

We are here!

We made it! We had an incredibly boring trip... LOL No real issues except for a poor lady worried about her laptop bag, but Tony straightened her out. She quieted down after that. Tony's school principal skills have already paid off. I didn't sleep much until the last plane ride because we had room to stretch out. I skipped that meal, but the sleep was worth it. We decided the van ride from the airport was more scary than any of the plane rides. CJ did a great job, it's just the traffic and kids running out into the street! Once we got to Victor and Valentina's home, we were blessed with a wonderful home cooked meal of chicken and potato soup, bread, and cookies. Drinking my coke without ice is a MAJOR adjustment for me, but I did it and survived. The weather is beautiful tonight with cool winds, which I think is a good thing because there is no central air. Tomorrow morning we will start building beds and then start the VBS in the afternoon. We are all very excited to meet the kids and share God's Word with them. This trip has obviously been blessed so far with easy travel and no security issues. Thanks for all of your prayers. Keep it up! Someone will be updating every night. It's about 10:30pm now and we need to practice some line dancing steps. Much love, Tracye :O)

The Journey Begins....

Clothing....check....Toothbrush....check....iPod....check....Oh hey, I've been asked to kind of kick things off with some talky talk about getting ready for our First Baptist, Whitehouse, Texas effort to Moldova...It's hard to really describe the state of mind I'm in right now...things are kind of crazy at work with it being the end of school year so I don't know if everything has really sunk in yet (about the eminent approach of our departure to Moldova)...my son graduates tomorrow...my best friend from high school gets married (finally) on Saturday...and our team heads to Moldova on Sunday....Needless to say, my thoughts are a bit scattered....Where did I put my toothpaste?? The one thing I can say at this point however is how amazed I've been at God's provision and direction for this undertaking. He has been faithful through this entire process of preparation and I am soooo excited about the potential of this team and this opportunity. I read earlier this week in my Experiencing God workbook how "...our world is not seeing God because we are not attempting anything that only God can do." It is my prayer that each of us on this journey believes with God-sized faith that He can accomplish whatever it is He desires. If we trust and believe He can do anything, God-sized results will be seen during our time with these precious kids. I'm sitting on my suitcase now....found the toothpaste.......ughhhhhh...there....Now to weigh it....65lbs??? I guess I'm not taking the DISH TV after all....I'll blog again once we are in Moldova!! God Bless!