Day One- Moldova

We made it!! After approximately 26 hours, three countries, three plane rides (including a diversion to Kentucky- fearful we were headed to Frankfurt, KY instead of Germany) and a three hour van ride through the countryside of Moldova (incredible pot holes that I was sure were going to swallow our van whole), we arrived at the IMB house in Falesti at 10:30PM Saturday evening (where did Friday go?). After a wonderful dinner of chicken and rice and a dessert of chocolate banana cake, we all crashed in all the glory that was our travel funk in hopes of recalling where we were when we woke up. We spent most of the morning organizing all of our supplies. Apparently we are the first Moldova team to make it to Moldova with all of our luggage (sans one suitcase that was accidently left at the airport-opps- no worries everyone has underware for the week) and by-pass any questions from customs!! Rock on! We made gifts for our translators and the teachers at the orphanage and organized all of the supplies into their various categories (musica, recreation and arts and crafts) and then all piled into the vans to meet our translators for pizza. We had a great time getting to know our translators and enjoyed what would prove to be the last time during the next few hours of the day that we could communicate fully. Ohh to be able to speak Romanian- I would have so much to say! We were then off to the orphanage camp to meet the kids and their teachers. We steppped off of the van and the kids at the camp looked at us curiously and many of them slowly came up to us. Many of the people in our group knew some of the kids from previous trips or from being a sponser and the kids just ran into their arms so excited to see them. I approached a few of the kids and tried out my first few crude words of Romanian. "Boona Zewah (sp?)" I said and the kids' eyes lit up and I asked their names. As they got more comfortable with us many of them would just come up and grab your hand or just give you a hug. I was overwhelmed by the affection. These children didn't know my name or who I was but they were so glad to see me! I berated myself for not learning more Romanian words and longed to tell the kids everything. That we loved them, that we would be here all week and that we had so many great things planned for them. After a few minutes of introductions, we headed into the cafeteria to have cake and fellowship with the camp teachers. We met Ana and through the help of Daniel, our translator, learned that she was the nurse for the kids and that she was very glad that we were there. We asked her lots of questions (always the curious Americans) about her children and where she lived. We also asked about the kids and what they need and if she had any advice for us for this week. She said to be patient with the children and reminded us that by being here we encourage the children and that she was very thankful for that. Thank you Ana for reminding us of our purpose here. We enjoyed cake with Ana and chatted some more before going out to meet the kids that would be in our Bible study groups all week. As Emily read off the names of the kids that would be in our group they ran over to me and Bekah and we asked all of their names. They seemed so excited to learn our names and just talk with us. Alena, our group translator, helped us explain that we had lots of things planned for them and that we were very glad to meet them. We read a few Bible story books with our group and they had a great time teaching me the Romanian names of the animals pictured in the books. They were very tough teachers and made me say the words over and over again until I got it right. We must have read those books 5 times a piece and they would look at me funny when I just couldn't remember the name for the turtle (actually two words and pretty hard to pronounce with a Southern accent). I will practice, I told them. We did the Hokey Pokey and turned ourselves around and just got to know the kids. They were so happy to be around us, it was amazing. I was sad to say goodbye but we made sure they understood that we would be back tomorrow with lots of games and fun stuff for them to do. I got back on the bus and thought of a million games or books that I wish I had brought, but more importantly I tried to repeat the names of the children I had met in my head. Each little one made by God for a purpose. I had seen lots of pictures of the children on the Sweet Sleep website and in pictures of people who had travelled to Moldova in the past, but until you meet these precious children you can't imagine how it feels to look into their eyes and to tell them your name and to give them a hug or hold their hand. I can't wait until tomorrow when we bring in full force all that we have planned for them- the games, the crafts, the Bible stories, the Bibles of their very own. We have planned so many things to show these kids that they are loved. Not only by us but by their heavenly father who made them. "Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth words may be given me that I may fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel." The mystery to these kids is that they are loved. Although the world may not be the most kind place for them and they may not have mothers and fathers here on earth to love them, they have a most holy God that calls them His own. So that is our first 24 hours in Moldova and I have to say: price of one bottle of water in the Frankfurt airport- $8; price of small bottle of hand lotion in the Frankfurt airport due to my inability to exchange Euros to dollars in my head- $60; cost of smelling the food on the Air Moldova flight- loss of appetite for a good 4 hours; van ride throught the Moldova countryside- loss of approximatley 2 inches in height and one or two vertebre in my spine; cold shower in the morning with only driplets of water- loss of feeling in most of my body and residual shampoo in my hair all day; meeting the children of the orphanage camp in Falesti- PRICELESS! Look for more to come for our group!! God bless!!!!

My first 24hrs in Falesti

Hello everyone! This is quite an amazing place. We have only been here for 24hrs. and I am really to pack up and move here :) We went to go visit the orphanage today to meet the children we will be working with this week. When we got out of the van and the children ran and jumped in our arms holding us very tightly. There were so starved for affection. I am teaching 7th-9th grade girls and I want to adopt all 10 of them. I hope and pray that God is able to work through us this week to reach these children for him. For more details read my sisters's blog. (Click on Jane Thompson, she types faster) :) The Romanian boys are crowding me and trying to take my picture I must make a mad dash to the van. (by the way we are riding in style in a mercedes-benz and I am driving:) bine!

A whole new world!!!!

so here i am sitting in an internet cafe with a bunch of teenage boys looking over my shoulder trying to figure out what i am writing but cannot read or speak a bit of english. luckily matthew is here to translate and tell them to stay away. so the flight over here was VERY long, not to mention very cramped. Our flight to germany was so long and so uncomfortable, when we reached the germany airport i took a two hour nap on the airport chairs. from there we took a two hour flight to moldova where i sat next to a very nice lady who is from moldova and teaches english. she explained alot about moldova and their culture. after landing in moldova at seven at night (11:00 nashville time) we took a LONG, bumpy, three hour ride to our house in Falesti we had a VERY late dinner and went to bed around 11 (3:00 in the afternoon nashville time) we finally went to bed. i woke up at 6 in the morning (10 @ night in nashville) bc that was when the water was turned back on and took a FREEZING cold shower. from here we had a wonderful breakfast and gathered our supplies for the day. we then had lunch with our translators then went on to camp. here we were greeting with so many smiling faces or little orphans who LOVED to have their pictures taken. A translator named Aileena helped me say hello and speak to the children. Even though i tried to learn a few words in romanian i still had to write how to say hello on my hand, so that was the only thing i could say ALL day to the children. There was this one girl named Christina who is absolutly adorable. We took about 25 pictures of all the children and the attempted to split up into our bible study groups. From here I was put with about 12, 1st-3rd grade boys, and two girls. We went into one of their cabins, which had about 4 beds in. The boys were jumping off the beds and screaming words i had no clue what they were saying. Luckily my wonderful translator, Vesilly, was there to help me out. It seems that I have the wildest children in the whole orphanage in my group. this is where i will need prayer for patient with these boys. We took them in to the cafeteria bc they were too wild in the cabin. From here we played 3 rounds on the hokey pokey, simon says, and sang a song about animals eating, drinking, and running in romanian. It was very interesting might i say. The children all have short hair and wear about 3 layers of any clothes they can find. Their shoes (if they have any) are all torn and are barely there. it's so sad to this these children are living like this. I have yet to see the outhouses at the camp or sinks.. that will be interesting. we said our goodbyes, pulling the children, especially christina, off of us and telling them we would be back tomorrow. In the morning we will go back to camp to start a regular day with the children. It seems that there is rain in the forcast for the next few days (as well as all day today) so we will see what God has planned for the next few days. Being in Moldova is like a whole new world..haha. Our mission house is very nice but other than that there only seems to be very run down, old apartments. I tried to post pictures but it seems the internet cafe does not have a plug :( So stay tuned and hopefully i'll be able to post pictures later. I'm not sure if we will have a chance to come back to the cafe the rest of the week but this is just a peek of my trip so far. Sorry if this seems scatter brained but the romanian boys are surrounding me and martha blair and trying to read my english typing (it's a little distracting having peopel looking over my shoulder speaking in another language about me) But the real journey begins tomorrow.....I miss and love you all and can't wait to return with tons of stories and pictures.

A whole new world!!!!

so here i am sitting in an internet cafe with a bunch of teenage boys looking over my shoulder trying to figure out what i am writing but cannot read or speak a bit of english. luckily matthew is here to translate and tell them to stay away. so the flight over here was VERY long, not to mention very cramped. Our flight to germany was so long and so uncomfortable, when we reached the germany airport i took a two hour nap on the airport chairs. from there we took a two hour flight to moldova where i sat next to a very nice lady who is from moldova and teaches english. she explained alot about moldova and their culture. after landing in moldova at seven at night (11:00 nashville time) we took a LONG, bumpy, three hour ride to our house in Falesti we had a VERY late dinner and went to bed around 11 (3:00 in the afternoon nashville time) we finally went to bed. i woke up at 6 in the morning (10 @ night in nashville) bc that was when the water was turned back on and took a FREEZING cold shower. from here we had a wonderful breakfast and gathered our supplies for the day. we then had lunch with our translators then went on to camp. here we were greeting with so many smiling faces or little orphans who LOVED to have their pictures taken. A translator named Aileena helped me say hello and speak to the children. Even though i tried to learn a few words in romanian i still had to write how to say hello on my hand, so that was the only thing i could say ALL day to the children. There was this one girl named Christina who is absolutly adorable. We took about 25 pictures of all the children and the attempted to split up into our bible study groups. From here I was put with about 12, 1st-3rd grade boys, and two girls. We went into one of their cabins, which had about 4 beds in. The boys were jumping off the beds and screaming words i had no clue what they were saying. Luckily my wonderful translator, Vesilly, was there to help me out. It seems that I have the wildest children in the whole orphanage in my group. this is where i will need prayer for patient with these boys. We took them in to the cafeteria bc they were too wild in the cabin. From here we played 3 rounds on the hokey pokey, simon says, and sang a song about animals eating, drinking, and running in romanian. It was very interesting might i say. The children all have short hair and wear about 3 layers of any clothes they can find. Their shoes (if they have any) are all torn and are barely there. it's so sad to this these children are living like this. I have yet to see the outhouses at the camp or sinks.. that will be interesting. we said our goodbyes, pulling the children, especially christina, off of us and telling them we would be back tomorrow. In the morning we will go back to camp to start a regular day with the children. It seems that there is rain in the forcast for the next few days (as well as all day today) so we will see what God has planned for the next few days. Being in Moldova is like a whole new world..haha. Our mission house is very nice but other than that there only seems to be very run down, old apartments. I tried to post pictures but it seems the internet cafe does not have a plug :( So stay tuned and hopefully i'll be able to post pictures later. I'm not sure if we will have a chance to come back to the cafe the rest of the week but this is just a peek of my trip so far. Sorry if this seems scatter brained but the romanian boys are surrounding me and martha blair and trying to read my english typing (it's a little distracting having peopel looking over my shoulder speaking in another language about me) But the real journey begins tomorrow.....I miss and love you all and can't wait to return with tons of stories and pictures.

WE MADE IT

We are finally here! Things didn't start out so good when we first started our journey, but God led us through it. On our first flight out, which was only supposed to be 45 min, it ended up lastng about 2 hours. There was a thunderstorm over Cincinatti so no planes were not allowed to land. We had to go back to Louisville to get more fuel then go back to Cincinatti. At first I thought, "Man O Man this is just going to be a wonderful trip." We got onto the long 8 hour stretch and just crashed. After our long lay over in Frankfut's boring airplane, we were finally almost to Moldova. I sat beside my sister, Jessica, and a man that I kept hitting with all of my stuff. I could tell he was starting to get annoyed with me. Our dinner was out and I realized this was my opportunity to butter this man up by being extra nice and offering him some of my "wonderful" Moldovan dinner. I started having this conversation with him and then noticed he didn't speak English. A little while later I tried again to be nice to this man, so I offered him a mint. He accepted with a huge smile on his face. We ended up having a long conversation by acting out what we were trying to tell eachother. He turned out to be a nice man. Today we got to go out to lunch with all of our translators. When I got off I saw Dima! A translator that I had befriended last summer. I immediantly run to him and gave him a huge hug. I was shaking from being so excited. We then finally got to go to the orphanage to meet the children we would be sharing God's love with. Within minutes I had warmed up to the kids. When then met up with the teachers; which was fun just to get to know them. We then splitted up into our bible study groups just to get to know the orphans and to get a feel of how they worked. Sunny, my bible study partner, had all the children crowded around her while she was reading them David and the Lions Den. I looked over and saw this little girl crying. I went over to her trying to get her to smile. It was raining outside so it was absolutly freezing. I saw that she was shaking because she had her summer clothes on. I picked her up, put her on my lap, and just wrapped my arms around her to get her warm. She then became happy! Her name is Ana. The other kids saw us over there, so they started coming up to me. It was amazing. I had a photo album to show them that they looked at over and over. The rest of the time we were there, Ana held my hand tight and wouldn't let go of me. I think I might have found my little girl! I got my prayer partner letters; speaking of which, HI MOM, HI TOM, AND HI CRYSTAL, I LOVE YOU ALL! But for some reason when I got my prayer letter from Bill Bedi I started to tear up. His letter meant so much to me. I felt like he had jumped into my mind. He knew exactly how I felt. Not that my other letters weren't wonderful, but I enjoyed reading Mr. Bill's. Everything is going well, I just hope the ran stops. Pray for all us women and our 3 men! Mom- I have seen about...20 sunflower fields and think of how much you would love it everytime we drive by one. Before the end of the trip I will take a picture for you. I was wrong, we aren't going out to dinner with the guys and eugen until friday night! BUT guess what, FRIDAY IS EUGEN'S BIRTHDAY. so it works out good. David-I miss you very much and hope you got home ok from Florida. Bill- I saw Tim and told him hello. He looks good! PRAY FOR US! WE NEED IT! God bless, Bekah Beasley

All the Little Blessing....

As anyone who has traveled any distance at all can imagine, there is never a perfect course from start to finish (especially when 17 women and 3 men are involved! :) ) However, if the trials we have faced to this point are as bad as it gets, I'll gladly take them!! Upon leaving Nashville, we all boarded our flight to Cincinnati full of hopes, fears and joyful expectations. The flight itself was perfect until we got close to Cincinnati. As luck would have it, Cincinnati was being barraged by terrible storms and no planes were allowed to land. So we were put into a holding pattern in the hopes that the storms would lift. However, after circling for some time we were informed by the pilot that we were getting low on fuel and were going to have to head back as far as Louisville, KY to refuel. After refueling we sat in our sardine can/airplane for about another 1/2 hour before the storms cleared and we were able to finish our journey to Cincinniti. Finally after 3 hours in our sardine can we landed in Cincinnati safe and sound where we met 2 additional team members who had left Nashville 2 hours after we did and arrived in Cincinnati only 20 minutes after us! Gotta love God's sense of humor! :) We finally arrived in Moldova at 6:30 pm, a full 10 minutes AHEAD (yes, I said ahead!) of schedule. Our Moldova friends and staff were amazed!! Then we all loaded onto the vans and headed off on our 2 hour journey to the city of Balti (but not before a quick stop at the Chisinau McDonald's for a bathroom break). I know my youngest daughter will be thrilled to learn that I could find a McDonald's and even more excited that is had a PlayPlace! When we arrived at the team house where we are staying we were greeted by the smiling face of the amazing Olesea and a delicious home-cooked meal! (No Kati, Mc Donald's is not a home cooked meal! :) ) This was much better. Really!! :) After a much enjoyed night of rest stretched out instead of sitting up right as on the plane, we woke to race for the showers. In the team house, the water is turned off at mid-night and not turned back on until 6am. Since we didn't arrive until 10:30 and then ate dinner, only a select few of crafty individuals made it into the showers before mid-night. So the rest of us set our alarms for 5:50am and as soon as they went off set off in a mad dash to be the first ones to get a much needed shower. Unfortunately us early risers found out that even though the water is turned on at 6am apparently the water heater is not!! Nonetheless the shower was wet and refreshing which is all one really needs. After breakfast we started organizing all of our camp supplies like a finely tuned engine before taking off for a local pizza place to meet the people who will be translating for us this week. We had a great time getting to know each other and then it was off to the camp. As soon as we arrived the children began to appear out of EVERYWHERE! Tons of smiling faces wanting to talk with us and get to know us. Lexi, my oldest daughter, was standing in the crowd of faces when on little girl latched on to her and decided that Lexi belonged to her. When we finally asked this little girl her name we were amazed to find out that her name was also Alexandra! How cool is that! We were also able to meet one of the girls Lexi writes back and forth with named Carolina. Then it was off to spend some time with the teachers. We brought pizza and a layered chocolate cake (mouthwatering doesn't begin to describe it) and spent time talking with the teachers about their families, their work and sharing our pictures and stories of our family. It was really a great time. Then it was back to the kids to divide them into the various Bible study groups. Completely by chance, Lexi's e-pal Carolina is in my group! She is a beautiful, shy, loving girl who took great pride when I was sharing my pictures from home, to show all of her group mates which one was Lexi and tell them about her sister and our dog! It was nice to see this shy little girl shine while she told everyone else about her friend. As will happen, is had started to rain while we were meeting with the teachers so we had our get acquainted time in the children's cabins. Each cabin has 4-6 beds in them, are no larger than many master bathrooms in the US and anywhere from 10-15 children sleep in one cabin. The cabin we were talking to our group in belonged to the girls of our group and their camp kitten. When it was time to go we said our goodbyes to our new friends and promised them that we would be back tomorrow which made them very happy. As you can tell, we have had a few small bumps in our road to spending time with these children but I hope you can also see the far greater number of "little" blessings we have experienced along the way. We all arrived safely, we have loved ones and friends praying for us back home and have been given the amazing opportunity to meet, get to know and give some love to a lot of wonderful people. Thank you all who have supported Lexi and me either financial or spiritually in pursuit of this opportunity. There are not words to relay our thanks to you but when we return to the States, hopefully our stories and pictures will provide the words we can not find. Until next time, Laurie (p.s. we are using the Internet Cafe "Next" to blog/e-mail and the enter key on my computer doesn't work so please forgive the huge run-on paragraph!! :) )

Moldova bound!!

Well, the day is finally here - July 14th - and we're headed to Moldova. 20 team members are going to Falesti, Moldova to minister to over 100 orphans and teachers. Stay tunes for tales of our adventures. Please pray today for safe travels, all of our bags to arrive, and that we make it through customs with all of our supplies. Thank you in advance for your prayers. We know God has big plans in store for us these next 8 days. La revedere!

Pictured above: (first row) Susan Sharpe, Jane Thompson, Martha Blair Thompson, Sam Sharpe, Willa Sharpe, Rhonda Walsh, Bekah Beasley. (back row) Laurie Toft, Sandy Lyons, Will Turnipseed, Sunny Smith, Don Meyer, Lexi Toft, Shelly Willis, Emily Borders, Gloria Jones, Nancy Weatherspoon, Laura McAlister, Jen Gash. Not pictured: Jessica Beasley.

Final Moldovan Blog '06

Today was the perfect last day of my very first and so far favorite Moldovan adventure. We woke up to eat our sugar based breakfast and departed in our beloved van driven by BORIS ,the best driver in Chisinau, to visit the transition houses and the boarding school. We also went to the Orhei monastery/Canyon which was one of the most beautiful and breathtaking sights abroad I have encountered. It was a ten min. hike up to this place where monks still live,sleep, and pray and there was a cross at the top and cows and horses and a river and rocks and sunshine and green for as far as you can see. I liked it a lot. McDonald's for lunch. Again. Then we went to the market and local mall to shop around and it was great because my mom got to bring along Antonina, her sponsored child, and let her pick out some things she needed plus a few extra fun things :) Alex, our cute Moldovan interpreter came with. We also took a walk through this forest-park-amazingness in the middle of the city which was right next to this cathedral/church where we could hear the choir and there were old ladies feeding pigeons. It was very Moldovan and very good. The best part of the day though was everyone dining together at the Irish pub giving final speeches,goodbyes, and thank-yous. it was great. Basically Jesus is so faithful to continue to exceed one's expectations for life and its many moments and experiences and no amount of words can even begin to express my gratitude for his provision and wisdom and protection for the success of this time here. I felt His presence so close each and everyday-in the cabins in small group delivering His story and truth, worship with the kids, in all the hugs, all the smiles and even to the very last moments with the orphans Friday where he even blessed us with a rainbow over camp. GOD IS LOVE. I LOVE MOLDVOVA. goodnite. goodbye till next year...

Don't you cry.......

Don't you cry, that was a familar saying yesterday as we left the camp for the final time.
My two boys that I connected with, both named Sergiu , watched a beautiful rainbow as we said our final "see you later"....not goodbye. Strange how quickly we went from "You lie" (on Monday) to "I'll never forget you" (on Friday). It appeared God was reaffirming his promise to us with the rainbow as we parted.

If there were ever a doubt I was called for this trip it vanished Friday afternoon with the goodbyes. Sergiu T. told me "Before you came, we fight alot. You brought me peace, and this was the greatest week of my life". How can you NOT cry at those words???

It was tough working with the older guys , the ones a year ot two away from being forced into the real world on their owns. One of my guys has no sponsor, at least for the moment ;-)

It'll be a few days before I can really write my take on this trip.
The laughs, tears, music, dancing, memories, and more will forever be with us. I will NOT miss the "WC at all.....for all you Americans that is the water closet, A.K.A. the restroom. You don't want to know the details of the unique experience those can bring LOL

Tonight we parted with the translators after a day of sightseeing and shopping. More hugs and tears. Video and digital cameras are a gift from God :-)
ALl our translators are like family now, some I work with last year, many I'll see next trip. Did I say next trip???

See everyone in a few days.

Roger

Leavin' on a prop plane...

Wow. What can I say? It's so hard to believe that this week has flown by and we are heading out tomorrow. I'm ready to get home to hug my family but I'm not ready to leave the wonderful friends I have made this week and the beautiful kids I have grown to care for and love.

Yesterday we had our "goodbyes" with the kids, and it was so tough. One of the older girls I have been with for the past several days couldn't stop hugging me. I told her that she and I were sisters, and her eyes widened as she grabbed me and just started crying. It really broke my heart. She has no one and I've felt called to be her "big sis" and help mentor her. She's 14 and at that age where it would be great to have someone to talk to about life, so I'm excited to be that for her. I bought her an English/Romanian dictionary today at the market because she wanted to start learning English. I'm really excited for her. I also had a young boy named Veirgel who kept showering me with gifts before I left. He gave me a picture of him with a note on the back that read "Veirgel loves you. Jesus is with you. I am always with you." He was one of those boys at the beginning of the week who would help out where needed but kept his distance love-wise from you, but as he and Sanda were walking me to the bus, he grabbed me and sobbed. Those moments break your heart, but God showed his presence, love and comfort through a double rainbow in the sky. It was such an awesome moment.

Tonight, we said our goodbyes to the translators. This was such a difficult moment too because these wonderful individuals have become great, great friends to me...friends that will never be forgotten. So needless to say, there was a lot of crying the past two days, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. This was my first mission trip and first time outside of the States, and I can honestly say that I wouldn't have chosen any other trip. I witnessed God's presence throughout the whole week in the kids, the team members and myself. It has allowed me to grow stronger in my walk and I'm so excited to get back home to show pictures and share stories. Beware those of you who will see those! I have hundreds!! :)



-- Jaclyn