Winding Down

Team 3B left for the airport a few hours ago. They are traveling to Rome. Some are staying for two days and the Treadways are staying for a week. I feel like time is standing still, here. We said goodbye to the children Saturday night, and it seems like it was 5 minutes ago. Sunday was good. We all went to church on Sunday morning at Jesus the Savior Baptist Church. There were several other American mission teams at the church, including a large team from their sister church just outside Boston. Bill Lovell was asked to speak and he talked about Choices which was the theme for our week at camp. He started by reading from Deuteronomy 30:19 "Today I have given you the choice between life and death...oh, that you would choose life..." The pastor later preached on the passage Matthew 6:13-14 The Narrow Gate "...its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way... It was definitely the working of the holy spirit that these passages complemented each other so well in the Worship service. After that, those that sponsor children got to take them to downtown Chisinau, while others went to a large canyon in the country and a monastery for some site seeing. There were more tearful goodbyes for the sponsored children and then we headed back to the team house.
Today, I spent some time with some of our translators Dima, Eugen, and Stas in downtown Chisinau, while the four girls I am traveling with went back to the camp. They are so much stronger than I. It was very hard for me to say goodbye Saturday, that I couldn't go through that pain again. Some others from San Antonio also went downtown on their own. They are here until Friday due to some Air Moldova issues and plan to visit the camp on Wednesday. We have moved to another team house to make room for another team coming in today, and will be flying out at 6:30 AM on Tuesday. This trip has taught me much; the power of laughter, the power of presence, the fact that Americans have so much that they don't appreciate, and many other things that I will save for another blog.