Îmi place!

Spencer McDonald feeding a boy at Orhei's Casa de Copii today.

Debra Thedford feeding a boy breakfast (yogurt) in bed.

Our Sweet Sleep beds, Moldova style, made neatly with their teddy bears at Casa de Copii.

There are lots of things "I like" in Moldova. (Îmi place is "i like" in romanian/moldovan) :) All day I've been looking at this team, this place, the children - thinking... I really like to see ________. Tonight I'd like to share some of the things Îmi place.

Today I liked...

• pancakes for breakfast
• stopping at Metro (Moldovan Sam's Club) for the 3rd time in 3 days
• bringing bananas and yogurt to our special friends at Casa de Copii orphanage in Orhei
• seeing the smiles on the faces of the boys there when we hugged them, spent time with them, fed them - loved them
• watching one of our team members, lannette, in her element -- comforting, feeding and being so sweet with the little ones confined to their beds
• hearing martin and victor sing songs about Jesus to us in the "art gallery" at Casa de Copii
• seeing my friend Vasile again - walking up to me on his knees and telling me how much he missed me and how he had waited so long for this day of celebration when we would visit again
• seeing our Sweet Sleep beds - all 350 of them - neatly made with the teddy bears our Texas friends brought last year on top
• seeing my little buddy, Lilian, smiling and getting closer and closer to getting out of that stroller and walking - hopefully in time for his 7th birthday this August
• branching out to the "atomica" pizza at Pizza Forte after a 16-month love affair with "the diablo"
• seeing kids run faster than our van today to be in their seats in the "salla festiva" (festival hall/auditorium) so they wouldn't miss a minute of our VBS program 
• seeing kids glued to Arlene and making fun sounds as each character stepped forward as she told them the story of Esther and how "God is in Control"
• having discussions with a young man who refused to say God is in control, but that the universe was in control - and watching him listen with such great intent as Arlene shared about losing a child and how God was still in control in the midst of difficult circumstances 
• sharing with 50 sweet children how they can have a relationship with Jesus in their Bible study groups and watching their little gears turn in their heads as they process all they've heard this week

There will no doubt be another list of things Îmi place tomorrow as we have VBS in the morning, throw a big party for the kids after lunch and spend some relaxed time with them before we say our good-byes and head back to Chisinau. I am thankful for this week - a time to refresh, to serve the Lord and to serve the "least of these." 

Thank you for praying for us - for our team - and for these children. Please join us in praying that the children, who are back in their rooms in their Sweet Sleep beds tonight, would spend good time with the Lord, would make decisions to follow Him and that their sleep would be sweet.


Noapte Buna! (Good night...)


jon

Another exciting time with the orphans...

Here we go again... I am blogging first thing in the morning because it took so long to down load everyone's pictures to my computer. Believe it or not, I am feeling less about talking and more about sharing thru pictures. I guess that may be due to the fact that I am continuing to run on 4 1/2 - 5 hours of sleep. Don't get me wrong, I awake refreshed every morning. God is blessing us as much as I believe that he is blessing the kids.. Yesterday after completing the beds, it seemed that there were no kids to be found (could be because they were studying for a final exam) so Jon (our Sweet Sleep staff member) decided that we could do a little local site seeing before lunch. Ahhh, the beauty of Moldova. Afterwards we had lunch at Pizza Forte (can't beat it, feeding 24 people for about $100).. Only problem was that we forgot to plan our afternoon schedule around a 2 1/2 hour lunch (takes a while to fix pizza for all of us). Our afternoon with the orphans was another awesome time. After a our acting out David and Goliath it was off to more recreation, crafts, music, small group time and snack time (my favorite and not because it deals with food. I am part of the snack crew and let's just say that we chicken dance daily.. We ended our day at the orphanage with us the Americans singing "This is the Day" in Romanian along with the kids. We ended the day with a nice dinner, team devotional and then it was prep time.

















Ok, gotta go.. Will blog again later...

Dan

Debra blogging on Tony's account

Dear Family and Friends,
    Well after more than 26 hrs. of fly time we landed in Moldova. Everyone has been great! We have some funny tales to tell you all. In going through the airport security we had two pulled aside but God was there taking care of us.  We have all laughed and grown closer as a team. We worked on Bible School supplies, crafts and every thing these kids would need to know about God and His love for them. Our 1st lesson was God is with us! Moses was chosen as our example. Moses tried not to do what God wanted him to do at first but like us as a people finding any excuse we can to not do God's will. May we all find what God has for each of us to do to bring honor and glory to Him. The boys and girls in the orphanage came and helped build their beds with us. They were so eager and thankful. Tuesday we were able to get 38 beds built and set up in their rooms. Even though we have a difference in language smiles and hugs are universal. In the afternoon we went into Bible School mode. A Western theme was chosen. Imagine that. The kids loved it. We will be working on the beds again on Wednesday morning with more  Bible School in the afternoon. We're planning a big party for them on our last day to finish with a BANG!
There is a young boy that has been so sweet by giving me flowers everyday. He goes and picks flowers from anywhere he can find them. In English his name is Author. He is one of the children that will have to leave when his test is finished within the next week. Please pray for him and us in all we do here to share God with these children. Thank you for all your cards and prayers.

                                         The Lord is my Rock
The God who can  always be counted on. His purposes and plans remain firm through out history. Ps.114-12; 7-10

To my husband and family I love you.
                                                                God Bless,
                                                                         Debra

We're in Moldova, Eh?

I've survived Day 2 of being the lone Canadian on our Moldova team! We are just having a blast here in Moldova, and I think by their smiles and giggles the kids may be having a teeny bit of fun too.
The sight of the old beds in the hallways is both heartbreaking and exciting. Heartbreaking to realize that these kids have been sleeping on mattresses with stains, exposed stuffing and springs, and some only 2" thick. Exciting because now they don't have to! 15 people plus translators and kids makes for quick work putting beds together, so we finished the rest of the beds this morning, for a grand total of 50.
This afternoon was our second day of VBS, and we in the cafeteria had set the bar pretty high yesterday with the candy rendition of Moses crossing the Red Sea at snack time. Moses and the Israelites were played by Sour Patch kids. One of the many memorable events of that afternoon was when one of the kids declared, "I'm eating Moses!" The only thing about snack time is that it doesn't take very long. Even when you turn snack into pseudo craft time (as in, Moses, Red Sea, fish...). And when you have 25 minutes to fill, you get a little creative. Or crazy. Depends on your point of view. We discovered that the "Chicken Dance" is a universal language. And today we found out what quick learners these kids are when we taught them the Macarena. Moldova will never be the same! I'm not sure if they have more fun dancing or laughing at us, but I think we've secured the title of "Best Snack Time Ever". Oh, and we made slingshots out of fruit roll-ups and skittles. And they requested the Chicken Dance again. And we had so much fun dancing, eating, and slinging Skittles and are looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow!

This post brought to you by the Chicken Dance Team. Otherwise known as the absolutely awesome snack team: Dan, Kelsey, and Carolyn.

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.