Hugs from Moldova!

The children here are so loving! Everyday they have been flocking to us when we arrive at the camp. Have you ever noticed how a child can become attached to one of their stuffed animals and no matter how dirty or tattered it becomes, they continue to love it and don't want to give it up? Well, I can now relate to those children! Even though these children are dirty and tattered, I have come to love them more each day. Every day has been a humbling experience for me. Each day I have listened to children pray to God and thank him for all their blessings, and I look around and wonder how they do that! Most of them have one set of clothes, shoes with holes in them, parents they hardly ever hear from, (many have no contact with them or their parents are gone) dirty shacks to live in, poor food and water, and bathroom conditions that would equal the concentration camps I visited in Dachau Germany. How humbling! Today during prayer requests one of the little boys that Rhonda's dad sponsors named Ghiorghe, whom I have really bonded with this week, prayed that I would have a safe trip home. For someone with so little, he didn't ask for anything for himself, but for me. Although there have certainly been children who have asked for us to give them things, especially our watches, there have been even more who have only wanted to be loved on and nothing else. Actually, I am surprised that there are not more behavior problems. I have had several boys that always beg for me to sit next to them during our Bible lesson or music time. They want me to hold them and hug them, and I can almost feel their hearts filling up with the attention they crave so badly. Often when one of them is sitting on my lap or I am hugging them and I let my hand relax, they will put my hand back where it was and press it toward them. They want me to continue hugging them very tightly. These children are so beautiful! I see so much potential in so many of them. I also know that without the proper guidance and opportunities, many of them are going to end up just being a statistic. Another boy named Ion, who has not left my side the entire time I have been at camp wrote me a letter today when our team went to lunch. At the end he quoted a Bible verse. John 14:1, which says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. I really need to hear that because my heart is really troubled for these children. Please pray for them! DonMeyer