preparations

Well, it is about three weeks until Team 2 will depart for Moldova. I will admit, I am very nervous about the trip. This will be my first mission trip as well as my first time out of the country. It will also be very hard for me to be away from my family for so long. Last night at our meeting, Stuart had us go around and tell a fear each of had about the trip. Whether a person is afraid of flying, losing luggage, or even getting arrested, it was comforting to know that I was not the only one with fears. It was comforting to know I had a strong team to help me.

To introduce myself to the readers, my name is Meghann Searcy and I will be a sophomore at Brentwood High School. I was saved when I was young, and I have always wanted to be part of a mission trip. As I said, this will be my first. My friend had been on a trip to Moldova before, and I heard amazing things about how it was incredibly life-changing for her. I began to look into it more and went to a meeting about it. My family and I prayed for a long time, and then one day it all became clear to me. I had a vision in my head about me sitting next to a little child in Moldova and leading them to Christ. This was a moment I will never forget. This was the moment I knew I was going to Moldova.

So, in all of the preparations for the trip, I have had nervous feelings, but I am comforted by knowing that I have people here to help me. I have a wonderful team and most of all I have God on my side and I am so excited to see what He has in store for me.

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But God does!

Front: Emily Borders, Casi Bryant, Marilyn Wilson, Jane Thompson

Back: Amy Helms, Rusty & Stephanie Fish, Lesia Goddard, Natalie Wier, Aileen Wark

Not pictured: Jennifer Bausman, Bekah & Jessica Beasley, Kim Cox, Jen Gash, Darlene Wier

Two weeks from today, 15 women and 1 man (I know - pray for him!) will be headed to Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, to share Hope and Love to some of God's precious children. For the past few months, we have been planning away in hopes of making this a memorable week for the kids. This particular trip is unique in so many ways.

First, we are going to a new orphanage where we've never been and where no other team will go this summer. It's an orphanage for the mentally handicapped in a town called Marulesti. Now, "mentally handicapped" can mean a lot of things in Moldova. For example, if someone has Dyslexia, they're considered mentally retarded. We don't really know what to expect when we get there...but God does!

Second, we have been invited to stay AT the orphanage for the first time ever. We will literally have the opportunity to walk a mile in their shoes. This is an experience that I think will challenge us as a team and as individuals, but I think it will challenge us in a very positive way. Honestly, it's one of the things I'm most excited about for this trip! We don't really know what to expect when we get there...but God does!

This trip has two main parts to it. Most of the team will be running a VBS-like camp for the kids at the orphanage. In fact, the kids at this orphanage will have already gone "home" for the summer (I say that in quotes, because many don't have a place to go and, therefore, live with another family in the village. That family gets paid $1/day for keeping the child), so we are having to literally bus them back to the orphanage, where they will be allowed to stay for the whole week. This is a great thing, because many if not most of them will be coming from places where they've had little food and no shower for the summer. We'll be able to provide three meals and a snack/day, a good shower, and not to mention lots and lots of LOVE. We don't really know what to expect when we get there...but God does!

The other part of the team will be working with some of the older orphans to build all 130 new Sweet Sleep beds for the orphanage. What an awesome privilege it will be to put comfy sheets and pillows on their new, clean beds with 7-inch foam mattresses...and then to tuck them in and pray with them. We will be able to leave a tangible evidence of God's love - a place where they can literally feel God's arms around them.

Finally, we are going to be working with two local, Baptist churches and a Moldovan missionary couple to help build relationships between them and the Marculesti orphanage. The hope is to engage them in ministry with us and light a fire in their hearts to continue pouring into the children long after we leave. It is our goal for continued discipleship to take place. We have no idea how this partnership is going to look or how the church will help us the week we're there. We don't really know what to expect when we get there...but God does!

So yes, there are a lot of floating pieces to this trip. But we've prayed and asked God to direct our steps. We've planned as best as we know how. We don't really know what to expect when we get there...but God does! And that's really all that matters.

3 weeks and counting!

With only three weeks to go, I really cannot explain how excited and overjoyed I am to be a part of this experience! Though I leave for Spain on Monday for a trip with my friend's family, honestly I'm way more excited about coming home and getting ready to go. Everything has been a little crazy for me lately since I'm trying to get ready for two major trips at the same time! However, even though I feel a little anxious, I know God is totally in control and I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Worry and trying to do things on my own is something I struggle with, and I know this is God's way of teaching me how to just give all my worries and stress to him. This particularly applies in the area of my passport, which has still not arrived! But it's all good, I know it's taken care of and it's coming. The team has also been awesome in supporting me and helping me organize everything in such a short amount of time. I can't wait to come back and head to Moldova! Bekah, we are praying for you girl and can't wait to see you!

Salut

I send you greetings from Moldova! It is 8:30 am here so that means it is 12:30 am in America. How weird is that? Today is rainy and cold,which is a bit different than last week. Last week was so hot and sunny. So I must admit I was quite happy when it started to rain. Well, the North Carolina and the other two from Texas left yesterday morning. I have been a little bit lonely. When the team got up yesterday morning, Mark, the family that I am staying with son, was very sick. He was vomiting everywhere. He could not stop. Later on that morning Victor and Valentina took him the the hospital. I have been very worried about him. Mark and I have grown to be very close so I was sad when I had no one to entertain me yesterday. Last night Victor and I went to visit him in the hospital. I could not believe how run down the hospital was. Being there reminded me of some kind of horror film. Even the nurses seemed a bit scary. Mark is having a rough way to go with all the shots and IVs they are giving him. Please pray for him! Tonight a team from San Antonio are coming in town. They are going a camp for a week. Starting tomorrow morning I will go to the orphanage with them. I am excited because I already miss all of the kids. Well, I guess that about says it all for what is going on for me right now. I will put up another blog soon to let everyone know how the camp is going.

WHAT A WEEK

This week has been wonderful. I have seen God plant his seeds everywhere this week. I flew over with a team from North Carolina and one more team member from Texas. I really don't even know where to start because so much happened this week. First off, my luggage was lost until Sunday night. I had to wear the same clothes from Thursday morning to Sunday night. I hugged my luggage when I went to pick it up. People were looking at me funny. I wish the only knew how happy I was to see them. Our first day to get to see the kids was on Saturday night. We gave them a huge pizza party. I can't describe the feeling I got to see my little boy, Eugen. I decided not to tell him I was coming to Moldova for the whole summer because I thought it would be amazing to surprise him. He ran up to me and immediately began to cry. He was so quiet. I think it was because he was so shocked. He asked, "Why are you here, I thought you weren't coming this summer?" I told him I wanted it to be a surprise and I was going to be there for two months this summer. He just could not stop hugging me. I also got to see some kids that I met in January so of course it was fun to see them. Sunday we went to church and a translator, Anna, got married right in the middle of the service. It is really common to do that in Moldova. Then while the rest of the team went back to the house, Connie took me to Anna's wedding reception. WOW that was an adventure. I just kind of sat there because I was so in shock of how they celebrated the weddings. I also got to try a lot of new food. Some I did like and some I didn't. This week I taught a 10-12 year old girl's bible study. My girls were awesome. I had so much fun with them. They listened to me! I was pretty shocked that they wanted to know what I had to say. Just picture me with 13 girls hanging off of me everyday. On Tuesday night Mary and I got to lead the evening worship. The theme for the day was forgiveness. We got 6 bottles of whipped cream; 3 for me and 3 for her. We told the kids that the whipped creme represented sin. You know it's bad for you but you want it anyways. We then had two buckets of water with two volunteers. Then we got 3 volunteers each to get one bottle each and spray the ENTIRE can of whipped cream all over us. Then we had the other two boys to dump the whole bucket of water on us to represent that when we accept Christ He washes all our sins away. THE KIDS LOVED IT! I have only been here for one week and I have grown so close to the kids. I love every single one of them! I will have to write another blog to tell about the rest later.

My sister is leaving on Thursday...believe it or not I will miss her...

My sister, Bekah, is leaving on Thursday to spend a bulk of her summer in Moldova, and I must say that I am extremely jealous...I would love to spend a summer over there and get to see the children every day, but that won't happen for me. I'm planning on joining her for her last two weeks over there, God willing. For the past 5-6 months I have been sick, REALLY sick and my doctors are having an extremely difficult time figuring out what is wrong with me. This past semester at school was hard on me. I had surgery back in January with my doctors thinking I would get better, but I only got worse, I could barely make it to class or do anything for that matter. I had to come home just about every week to have tests done to see if they could help me, but nothing has worked or given us any light to what is wrong with me. Still, I did not hesitate one moment to sign up to go to Moldova, after all, it is a place that I love because the children give me a joy that cannot be expressed in words.

To make a VERY LONG story short, I still have not gotten any better and now am facing the possibility of not being able to go to Moldova after all. With each passing day and absolutely zero good news from my doctors, the possibility of me not going is slighty getting greater. This breaks my heart. I know my doctors are working frantically on my case and that there are so many people praying for me to get better, but right now it's a toss up...I know God works in mysterious ways and that I still have a chance to go, but I don't know if I can physically do it. I know God already knows if I am going to be able to go or not, but I don't and it is frustrating. I can barely get through the day, let alone be able to go to another country...

If I am not able to go, I will be truly devastated. My sister is going to be baptized the last week she is there and I would miss that. I would miss all the children I have known and grown to love plus all the children that I look forward to meeting and growing close to. I would miss all the laughter at meals and the stories from each day. Most importantly, I would miss the incredible work that God is doing over there for the children and the country itself. I'm still praying and keeping my fingers crossed that I am able to go, and I know that whatever happens that is what God intended for me to do...it is still hard though.

So, I'm excited for my little sister and a little scared for her too, but I know this is what she wants to do more than anything in the world. She is going to do amazing things during her summer there, I just pray that I am able to go too...