Moldova Has Officially Stolen My Heart

Phew. I don't know what else to say except...PHEW.

The last couple of weeks have been crazy, confusing, tiring, sweaty, crazy...did I say crazy? But 

I wouldn't trade places with anyone right now.

Before I tell you all what's going on, I wanted to say a big thank you to all the people who have been involved in supporting me these last few months, and who are continuing to support me over the next year. You'll be glad to know it's all been 100% worth it!

So where do I start?

For a few days before I left, although I was excited, I was also nervous. All of these questions kept popping up like, 'What if I don't fit in there?' or 'What if it turns out I'm completely useless to Stella's Voice and just spend a year eating their food and being a pain in the bum?', or even, 'What if I puke on somebody on the plane? What if someone pukes on me?!'

And they were all stupid, stupid questions, as it turns out. You'll be happy to know I didn't hurl on anyone, and these are the first things I saw when I got to my room on the first night:

And when I saw these something inside me just clicked. I knew that this was the right place for me to be. I stopped worrying, and started getting excited about spending time with these funny, crazy girls. It's tough, I won't lie, because my Romanian is still terrible and some of the new girls speak almost no English. But we're getting there!

My girls!

A few days after I arrived, we set off for Providence. I could have gone with the lovely Liuda in the van, but no, the girls decided I needed the real Moldovan experience: TAKING THE BUS.

When I say bus, I use that term loosely. They're actually mini-buses, and most of them don't have windows that open. They're more like small, stuffy metal boxes, and the roads here are mostly potholes...and smaller potholes. I think they were actually hoping that I'd freak out or sweat into a puddle, but I survived.

There are no words to accurately describe what came after that. Every year the girls and guys at Stella's Voice host a summer camp for the local children in Cupcui. It's a great chance for them to laugh, play, eat, to just be children, and not worry about anything else. When we visited last year the camp was on, and I was impressed with how much energy the older guys had. It seemed like they never really stopped to rest.

I think someone has a fan-club...

This year I got to see what it was like from their perspective, and I was even more blown away by the sheer amount of energy they devoted to the children. Every day they'd be up early, playing with the kids until breakfast. After that they'd put on a sketch, and teach them songs about Jesus. Then there would be games outside, lunch, more games, maybe a movie, dinner, MORE GAMES, and the boys would somehow still find time to play a football match with the locals. Then in the evening they'd put on MORE drama, play videos, games, you name it. And this was all in stifling heat. By the end of the first day I was ready to drop. But that's the crazy thing about the Stella's Voice girls and boys: they just keep going!

I won't lie - when three clowns burst in through the door I did almost poop my pants. The kids loved it though!

I asked one of the older guys why he loves working at the kids' camp so much, and his answer was pretty simple: 'I do it for God.'

And I thank God for every single one of them. I don't even want to think about where they'd be if it weren't for this ministry. But there are so many others like them, without hope, without friends or a family. That's why I love these kids, why I love this ministry. Because they will not stop, no matter what, until every orphan is saved, until every scared, lonely teenager is offered the hope of Stella and Simon's House, and told about this Jesus person that loved them when it seemed like no one else in the world did.

I really don't know if a year will be enough! We'll just have to wait and see...