Ugly American Good Samaritan

Day 4 is now in the books. It was a very rewarding day as have been all of the others. It seems as though I’ve been all over this country and others today. In truth, part of me has been to other countries today, specifically 5 t-shirts, a digital camera charger, 3 bags of balloons, a pair of hiking boots and a couple of drills for bed building (by the way, the beds are all finished- but those drills are ready for action should they be called upon.) It seems that my luggage made an extra stop in Instabul, Turkey before finally arriving at the Moldova airport earlier today. After a quick trip to the airport, and 4 days in between, my things and I were reunited. So, yippee.

As for today, we started out with our usual worship and a skit about the Good Samaritan. Our good friend, Color Wonder, tripped over her cape and had to be helped back to her special hideout- to escape her nemesis, Captain Whiteout, I’m guessing. The kids really seem to enjoy our mini-plays and have really begun to take an interest in the worship portion of our day. What began as only the leaders singing has turned into a regular choir with the kids leading the way- which is very helpful seeing as how we’re singing in Romanian.

From there we went to our class where we reviewed with the kids the importance of God’s love and God’s promises and how those come into play when we start talking about being part of God’s family. It was nice to see them understanding the concept that belief brings membership into God’s family and how there are sure to be troubles that follow, but that with Christ, those troubles will not be our undoing.

Our usual day of camp was followed by a tri p to the orphanage to present the children with their new beds. It was quite an experience to see where they live. Despite the conditions of the beds they currently sleep on, they were enormously proud to show them to us when we came in. They couldn’t wait to show us their personal space.

Our trip to the orphanage was followed by another trip to the soccer field in a nearby village. We’d been there 2 times all ready this week and had given the children our schedules, so when we arrived today there were all ready about 20 kids waiting for us. It was quite an experience to see all these small children waving at us as we drove up.

When we arrived, we saw that one of the boys had a rather severe injury on his arm and forehead. It was bloodied and dirty and in need of some attention, so I, with my complete lack of first aid knowledge went about the task, along with Debbie, of trying to patch him up as best we could. It was sort of a reemphasizing our point from earlier in the day about how anyone can help out and be a Good Samaritan. To be honest, there were a few times when I got distracted by the turkeys. Yes, there were real turkeys strolling about the playground- not to be confused with the lady with the ducks who was across the street.

We spent the next hour or so playing soccer, frisbee or just about anything else we could come up with until it was time for us to go. Leaving was bittersweet because we had to tell the kids that today was our last day to be there. Many of the same faces had been there each day, so we were able to form a small bond with them in a short amount of time.

We arrived home to find that the airport had called, so off we went to retrieve my things.

Today is my last official day to blog, but I hope to get on again before leave. In the meantime, if you’ve been reading these, you know that my wife is 7.5 weeks pregnant, and that’s very exciting for us. She emailed me today to say the doctor has put her on bed rest due to a small amount of spotting. They told her not to worry, that they think they know for sure that it’s only a fibroid side-effect, but still- we would appreciate any and all prayers in regard to the matter. So, if you read this, please make a note to self when it comes to prayer time.

Thanks,

Mark

p.s. just for the record, we've yet to be called anything even resembling ugly. Of course we don't speak Romanian, so in theory they could be calling us all kinds of things- but they smile when they say it, so everything's great!