The marshruka is coming. Sounds like some aliens being but really they are mini buses that take people everywhere in the city. Unfortunately, they get very crowded and is standing room only. The top ceiling of these mini buses are carpeted. It's a good thing, since when you stand up, one's head is right against that ceiling.
Today, we had a rather serious day of discussion with the team and then prayer. Later, we met with the church leadership. I am simply amaze how God met us and really answered our prayers. I am also really blessed to be on this team. Thank you for your prayers for us. It's hard to tell you all the details, but let just say that God really moves as we seek Him in prayer. I think something really, really big happened tonight in the spiritual realm for this wonderful church here.
Monday, September 28, 2009
God is Moving
Everyone,
thanks for your prayers. They were evident. We really had a powerful prayer ministry teaching session on Saturday, with people from several churches attending. We had somewhere around 60 people come. Our ministry time at the end lasted about 2 hours. We were trying to train and equip the Moldovans while praying for people to be healed from physical and emotional issues. KT talked about unforgiveness and dealing with that was the key to several people being healed of physical problems. Prayer ministry through translation is always interesting. God did some amazing things.
Sunday Paul taught on Luke 4 about the Spirit of the Lord being on Jesus (which was an awesome message by the way) and then we did ministry time with the people who were trained up the previous night. Again, lots of good stuff happened. KT rocked with giving words and called men up to the front to be equipped and empowered to have compassion to care for the poor as well as some specific words for healing. It was cool to see her step out in faith.
It was all very tiring and we really needed the long wonderful lunch at the pastor's house that kt and liz are staying at. Please continue to keep us in prayer as we seek God in what he is doing and how a partnership might be formed that will benefit both our church and the church here in Moldova.
The spiritual sense here is not dark or evil, but brokenness. When Paul talked about Jesus being annointed to lift up the brokenhearted, that really seemed to hit home. Moldovans have been conquored and oppressed by so many physical outsiders for most of their history. I got the sense that the spiritual situation is the same. They need hope and healing. Thankfully, Jesus can give us and them both of those things.
thanks for your prayers. They were evident. We really had a powerful prayer ministry teaching session on Saturday, with people from several churches attending. We had somewhere around 60 people come. Our ministry time at the end lasted about 2 hours. We were trying to train and equip the Moldovans while praying for people to be healed from physical and emotional issues. KT talked about unforgiveness and dealing with that was the key to several people being healed of physical problems. Prayer ministry through translation is always interesting. God did some amazing things.
Sunday Paul taught on Luke 4 about the Spirit of the Lord being on Jesus (which was an awesome message by the way) and then we did ministry time with the people who were trained up the previous night. Again, lots of good stuff happened. KT rocked with giving words and called men up to the front to be equipped and empowered to have compassion to care for the poor as well as some specific words for healing. It was cool to see her step out in faith.
It was all very tiring and we really needed the long wonderful lunch at the pastor's house that kt and liz are staying at. Please continue to keep us in prayer as we seek God in what he is doing and how a partnership might be formed that will benefit both our church and the church here in Moldova.
The spiritual sense here is not dark or evil, but brokenness. When Paul talked about Jesus being annointed to lift up the brokenhearted, that really seemed to hit home. Moldovans have been conquored and oppressed by so many physical outsiders for most of their history. I got the sense that the spiritual situation is the same. They need hope and healing. Thankfully, Jesus can give us and them both of those things.
monday
its a relatively quiet morning here.. we did a fair amount of prayer ministry over the last few days. Interesting to pray with folks we had never met...
We had the chance to attend part of a Yom Kippur jewish service last night. It was quite an experience to be attending synagogue in Moldova. We wandered around afterwards and had our first experience of ordering food on our own in Moldova.Thank God for menu's with pictures. Ironically,pizza here has no sauce..
We are planning to pray today as a team with Paul and Gala and talk about the rest of the week.THis evening we will attend a church leaders meeting.
Overall we are well. Looking forward to more of what God will do this week.
We miss you, but are glad to be here.
We had the chance to attend part of a Yom Kippur jewish service last night. It was quite an experience to be attending synagogue in Moldova. We wandered around afterwards and had our first experience of ordering food on our own in Moldova.Thank God for menu's with pictures. Ironically,pizza here has no sauce..
We are planning to pray today as a team with Paul and Gala and talk about the rest of the week.THis evening we will attend a church leaders meeting.
Overall we are well. Looking forward to more of what God will do this week.
We miss you, but are glad to be here.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
sunday in moldova
from Katie :
The last two days have been a bit of a whirlwind of prayer ministry. a 5 hour prayer ministry class on Saturday (teaching via translation takes a bit of getting used to!) and a great sunday morning in church. Met wonderful Moldovans and saw God move as we prayed. Enjoyed an awesome sunday afternoon lunch, with our hosts, and Paul and Gala,a 3 hour meal! Heading to Jewish celebration and walk in the city tonight (surprisingly high jewish population in Chisinau and our host is part Jewish)
Jet lag hit some today.. but not badly. thanks for prayers , we sense them.
The last two days have been a bit of a whirlwind of prayer ministry. a 5 hour prayer ministry class on Saturday (teaching via translation takes a bit of getting used to!) and a great sunday morning in church. Met wonderful Moldovans and saw God move as we prayed. Enjoyed an awesome sunday afternoon lunch, with our hosts, and Paul and Gala,a 3 hour meal! Heading to Jewish celebration and walk in the city tonight (surprisingly high jewish population in Chisinau and our host is part Jewish)
Jet lag hit some today.. but not badly. thanks for prayers , we sense them.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Day 1
from Katie: It looks like we are all posting. There is lots to say.. :) Liz and I slept for 12 hours and the best part of waking up was drinking Peets coffee we brought. Our hosts are awesome, a great pastor and his family. 18 year old daughter is our translator. Jesus presence is obvious in this house, and I am humbled by their hospitality and generosity to us. I have the sense of being welcomed as an alien and stranger, in a wonderful way. Last night, in a wild twist, this family celebrates the Jewish Sabbath and we did that with a feast and ended with communion. I sensed perhaps what Paul meant when he wrote that we were members of one body, realizing we share the love of Jesus, and the forgivness of our sins, no matter what language we pray in.Been a great time.more to write soon. my ankle contiues to be ok. I brought only right shoes, since its been broken I have only needed one,but in faith brought a one left shoe in case I get healed. thanks for praying friends, we feel it!
First morning in Moldova
Our team seemed to have slept well last night. We were all quite tired.
Our friends here kept us up to at least 9pm so that we could battle jetlag better.
We will be doing the healing seminar today in a few hours from 4pm to 9pm or so here.
Please pray for us that God will show up and do awesome things today.
The guys are staying in an apartment that is on the 8th floor and the elevator sometimes works. It feels safer to take the stairs, however. The elevator makes all kind of uncomforting sounds when it moves. Chisnau is filled with towering concrete apartment complexes. It was nice to see that the Soviets hired an architect, it just happens to be one architect, one design and it has been used for the last 50 years!
Our friends here kept us up to at least 9pm so that we could battle jetlag better.
We will be doing the healing seminar today in a few hours from 4pm to 9pm or so here.
Please pray for us that God will show up and do awesome things today.
The guys are staying in an apartment that is on the 8th floor and the elevator sometimes works. It feels safer to take the stairs, however. The elevator makes all kind of uncomforting sounds when it moves. Chisnau is filled with towering concrete apartment complexes. It was nice to see that the Soviets hired an architect, it just happens to be one architect, one design and it has been used for the last 50 years!
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Everyone seemed to sleep well after our very tiring and long trip.
Matthew and I had a bit of an adventure in Frankfurt on the way here. We had a 4 hour layover and we decided to go into the city for a short visit. By the time we figured out how to get out of the Frankfurt airport, we only had 3.5 hours. We managed to get on a train heading to the city. We had only changed enough money for our train fare, because we forgot about lunch. While in Frankfurt we found an outdoor street fair that looked good. Unfortunately none of the booths took credit cards, so we used our return train fair to eat lunch. It was a great lunch, btw, of german rindwurst and fries. Then we went back to the train station and discovered that the train ticket machine only took European credit cards. Not to worry, there were several banks nearby. We went to the first one at 1:02 and discovered that banks close from 1pm to 2pm for lunch! I begged the clerk to just change $20 to Euros for us so we could get back to the airport. She said, no of course not, come back at 2pm. We are closed for it is after 1pm! All the other banks also were closed. Since our plane was leaving at 3pm and we still had to get to the airport and go through customs and security we were in trouble! We decided to hail a taxi. The taxi took us on the Autobahn and was going 180 km.hr (about 110 mph) while we whipped through traffic. When we got to the airport we ended up having to go through 3 separate security screenings because the airport was layed out in a really strange manner. So much for German engineering. We made it back in time for the flight, but realized that was a very expensive hotdog lunch! But, who knows when we will ever be back in Germany, so it was OK. It was an exciting part of our trip. Too exciting probably.
Matthew and I had a bit of an adventure in Frankfurt on the way here. We had a 4 hour layover and we decided to go into the city for a short visit. By the time we figured out how to get out of the Frankfurt airport, we only had 3.5 hours. We managed to get on a train heading to the city. We had only changed enough money for our train fare, because we forgot about lunch. While in Frankfurt we found an outdoor street fair that looked good. Unfortunately none of the booths took credit cards, so we used our return train fair to eat lunch. It was a great lunch, btw, of german rindwurst and fries. Then we went back to the train station and discovered that the train ticket machine only took European credit cards. Not to worry, there were several banks nearby. We went to the first one at 1:02 and discovered that banks close from 1pm to 2pm for lunch! I begged the clerk to just change $20 to Euros for us so we could get back to the airport. She said, no of course not, come back at 2pm. We are closed for it is after 1pm! All the other banks also were closed. Since our plane was leaving at 3pm and we still had to get to the airport and go through customs and security we were in trouble! We decided to hail a taxi. The taxi took us on the Autobahn and was going 180 km.hr (about 110 mph) while we whipped through traffic. When we got to the airport we ended up having to go through 3 separate security screenings because the airport was layed out in a really strange manner. So much for German engineering. We made it back in time for the flight, but realized that was a very expensive hotdog lunch! But, who knows when we will ever be back in Germany, so it was OK. It was an exciting part of our trip. Too exciting probably.
Friday, September 25, 2009
The eagle has landed (w/o a crash)
Katie, Liz, Jon and Matthew all have arrived safely - with our bags. We survived each others jokes on the 10 hr. flight to Frankfurt. Jon and Matthew are having a light dinner with Paul & Gala tonight, and Liz and Katie are having a dinner at Pastor Igor's. Chisinau looks little bit like cities Albania according to Jon, and to me looks a little bit like TJ. I am a little brain dead right now so I sign off. We thank you for praying for us!
In Frankfurt airport...
...finally . Jon and Matthew running around the city for a few hours having fun while we faithfully update the blog.... Good flight over and now waiting 3 hours for connection to Chisnau, Moldova. Please pray for a good seat for Katie and her ankle, which is achey now... Frankfurt airport is very clean and full of German things :)
Coffee tastes great thoug and we are trying hard to stay awake. Bless you, we miss you
Coffee tastes great thoug and we are trying hard to stay awake. Bless you, we miss you
Thursday, September 24, 2009
here we are
In the airport. Had a great time getting thru security.remind us to tell you what matthew had in his carryon and when jons passport got taken. Flight delay, god willing we are all sitting together
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
one more thing.
We are hoping to update this blog as often as we can on our trip. Its a way for us to share what God is doing in us and through us in Moldova. We leave on 19/24 and return on 10/4. We will be doing some prayer ministry training, and participating in ministries that already exist in Paul's church in Moldova (outreach ministries and home groups) as well as lots of other cool stuff. We would love prayer, there are lots of things that should be pretty interesting about the the trip. Biggest prayer needs for the moment are: Traveling mercies. I've still got a broken bone in my ankle and Liz is still coughing. Planes, broken bones, and coughing are not the best combination. Pray too for good communication between us as a team and for quick recovery from any jet lag.
How did we get here?
Over the last year, a few of us have been talking to Paul Lindstedt , a former VCFP member, living and serving in Moldva (near Romanian, which I didn't know till a few months ago :) In the course of those conversations, we started to feel like it would be a great thing to go on a scouting trip to Moldova and see if there was any way our two churches could connect and partner in ministry. After a year of prep, four of us are going! Its hard to believe its actually happen.. and there certainly have been a lot of bumps along the way. But the team (Katie Fantin, Liz Milner, Jon White and Matthew Young) are ready!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Houston, we have lift off... I think
We're going this Thursday morning. I think. As you know, KT is on the mend from a broken ankle. Yea! Liz is hoping to be well from her flu. Go God! Jon and Matthew, we are planning to staying well and not break a leg in the process. Do pray for all of us as we finish up the last minute details. Please pray for travel mercies especially for KT. Her doctor recommend her to have her leg elevated during the flight. We are hoping to find a good spot for her to do so. My vote is in the cockpit. Doesn't the pilot's cushy seat recline way back where you could stick your foot out that window?
BTW a shameless plug for Paul's prayer meeting, we were reminded of 2 Cor. 1:8-11.
BTW a shameless plug for Paul's prayer meeting, we were reminded of 2 Cor. 1:8-11.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Welcome to Team Moldova. We are in training with God.
Our power healing teachings are completed. Yea! Right now Gala (Paul's wife) is translating the teaching to Russian. Do they speak Russian? Yes, but also Romanian and Moldovan. Moldovan is a local dialect which apparently is very similar to Romanian. During the Soviet rule, Romanian and Moldovan were surpressed. Russian became the state language after 1924 when Stalin ruled with an iron fist. Learning Russian became mandatory as well as adopting the Russian culture. After Stalin's death in 1953, the Romanian language was allowed again. Then in the mid-1960's, an anti-Romanian campaign started. The emphasis was independence from Romania. This is rather strange to me. Moldova was a state within the Soviet Union while Romania always existed as a separate country. It was until glasnost (1985) that the Moldovan language was allowed to be used again. Then in 1989 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova became a country again in it's own right. They declared that the Cyrillic script be officially used rather than the Roman script be used. However, what I am told, practically speaking Russian is used in the capital, Chisinau - that's where we are going. Say kitch-i-now.
Elsewhere, generally speaking, they speak Romanian. So a trivia for you. Name the five romance languages in use today.
Elsewhere, generally speaking, they speak Romanian. So a trivia for you. Name the five romance languages in use today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)