Our Last Day in Moldova

It's sad but true. Today was our last full day in Moldova. But our trip did not go out with a whimper. We were driven into town this morning by Sergei, a.k.a. Jack Bauer, our superhuman van driver. Today was our day to tour Chisinau and just hang out with some of the God's Design staff. It has only been six days here in country, but I know that I have grown to love these Moldovan brothers and sisters of ours. They are so much fun to be with and it is incredibly encouraging to see their love for each other and for their surrounding community!

We toured the Orthodox Cathedral in the heart of Downtown Moldova and spent some time walking through an outdoor market. The weather has been great, so it was nice to spend a little time walking through the city witnessing the sites and sounds of the streets and courtyards. Here is a clip we took of a gypsy man playing his fiddle on the steps of the national theater. We finished up our tour by walking through a cemetery of "contributing citizens of Moldova" and a monument to fallen WWII Soviet soldiers.

Tonight, the Meteora center (home to all of God's Design church's events) hosted a weekly meeting for young families. Our Atlanta team got to witness first hand some of the so-called fruits of our labors. There were at least 15 families that came for the first time, showing the flyers in their hands that we passed out at the park on Wednesday. The staff was excited about this, to say the least, and the crowd really seemed to connect with Andrei's sermon... though, admittedly, I couldn't understand a word of his Russian. Afterwards, we joined the entire staff for a banquet dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in Chisinau. I can't remember the last time that I laughed so much at the dinner table! The staff and our team have truly become good friends and partners and we hated to say goodbye. No doubt, we will continue to hear about the things that God is doing through God's Design in Moldova!

Eric

'Questioning' Leadership

Today was quite an interesting day! It was the follow up training day from Tuesday. We were 'supposed' to be modeling to Moldovans what an actual group session was to look like. We had some apprehensions after our Tuesday session and some of the difficulties with translation. With that in mind we thought it would be good to have a trial run with the staff at 'Meteora'(God's Design Church).

Whoa!!! We were not expecting what we got. Great questions and some seriously healthy debate. And when I say healthy, I really mean Baseball player on HGH! An hour an a half later we were kind of shell shocked and wondering where to go from there. Andre put our craziness at ease and was super excited. He said we need to replicate this with the other potential leaders coming that night.

So we completly reshuffled our agenda and did just that. We split up into two different groups and went through the chapter 'Brokenness' in the Starting Point Discussion Guide. If earlier in the day was a baseball player on HGH this was the same with a triple shot of adrenaline! It was awesome! When we came together as a large group and had a summary discussion it intensified even more. The Moldovans love their healthy discussion and are very passionate. The one thing they kept saying is why cant we just answer the questions the people ask instead of returning questions with questions. It took a long time but I think everyone was starting to grasp the concept of leading the people to self discovery about sin and our ownership of this and also how this seperates us from God. Andre pointed out to the group how much energy was in the room and how much wonderful discussion was happening and that this is what they wanted to be happening in their groups. With out necesarily knowing what was being said because it was in Russian, you could tell the mood in the room was shifting from antagonistic to excited.



The discussion went on late into the night but how awesome it was to be a part of something special. It felt like we really experienced a turning point for the Meteora leaders and learning to lead Starting Point. In their questioning of leadership it seemed to bring them to a point of owning their own leadership in these conversations. It was a paradigm shift for them and it feels like they are on the brink of something special. How grateful we were to be a small part of tonight and experience bold Moldovans eager to change a city and country to help their countrymen experience an authentic relationship with Jesus.

Ian Chadwick via Eric Davis

A Park and a Conversation

Good morning from Moldova!

After a good night's sleep and a spoonful of Nescafe, we are ready to get to work!

Yesterday, we had a great day at the park! It was national Children's Day and the local mayor makes a point to create events at local parks for families to enjoy. Our friends at God's Design Church were given a plot of land along the main thoroughfare to set up some games and, of course, asked us "Amerikans" to help out. We had an awesomme time getting to interact (more or less) with countless families. It's amazing what a smile can communicate when words in English just don't do the trick. If nothing else, (and aside from handfuls of candy and balloons)the locals walked away knowing that there's an unusual group of Moldovans in Chisinau that cares about their families and isn't trying to make a profit.

Tonight we will resume our Starting Point training. It looks like we will have about 15-20 potential leaders come, which is truly a blessing. If you are reading this on Thursday morning, please remember us around noon today in prayer. We will be resuming the training around 7 p.m. Moldova time. Our goal tonight is to "model" a typical Starting Point conversation in order to show them what this just may look like on their own turf-- tough questions and all. Please pray that God would use us to clearly demonstrate this experience and that God will overcome any language barriers.

I'm looking forward to see how God will continue to move here in the next few days!

Eric

Here Safely!

We made it here safe and sound!  It's about 8:45 here and I've been awake for 3 hours.  Ready to get the day rolling!  We'll try to post some pix and news about our first event later today!

Thank you all for your prayers and support of the team!

In His Mighty Grip,
Tracy Anne

Final Countdown - Hours

So it's about 90 degrees here in the ATL and I'm not 100% packed because I can't decide what to wear in Chisinau and Germany.  I've been following the weather and it's been much like ours though a few degrees cooler in Chisinau.  I also noticed they're expecting thunderstorms on Wednesday and Thursday so I'll bring the rainbow umbrella that I got in Rome when coming home from Capljina, BiH one year.

Our team is excited to get over there and dig in to what the Lord has planned for us.  The team in Moldova is excited for us to get there too.  Please pray that we will have open hearts and minds to serve exactly as God will have us serve.

Short post since I better finish packing!

In His Mighty Grip
Tracy Anne

Final Countdown - Days

Yesterday we had our final team meeting; we depart next Sunday afternoon and all of us are excited to get to Moldova and dive in!  I'm sure that we'll be contacting each other throughout the remainder of this week with one thing or another we've forgotten or something we need clarification on.  This past weekend was our last full weekend to prepare and I don't know about the others but I didn't accomplish all I had planned to before we depart.  I'll get it done and if I don't then that's okay!

We went over our events and the order of our presentation and what and how we will explain Starting Point.  Did I mention that we are training Starting Point Leaders in Moldova?  This is the main purpose of the trip and what a purpose!  I am very passionate about the Starting Point Ministry and it's so exciting that we get to do this! 

Our Trip Leader, Samuel has had a chance to Skype with different members of the leadership team in Moldova and discovered that Olga, Pastor Andre's wife would like for the women to have a "Bake Day" of sorts to bake goodies for our event evenings.  Katie's bringing brownie mix since Olga specifically asked for that and I am bringing everything to make Toll House Cookies!  It will be nice to be able to gather with the women of the church and connect with them a bit.

Did I mention that we're excited?!  Well, we are very excited!  Promise to post again before we leave on Sunday.  Hopefully One of the other team members will also chime in with a post!

Please pray for traveling mercy and that God flows through us as we do that which He has tasked us to do!

In His Mighty Grip
Tracy Anne

About "God's Design Church"

On Sunday the Team gathered at "The Diner at Northpoint" for lunch.  Andre and his wife Olga and one other Moldovan team member Uli were able to join us and it was wonderful to meet the three of them and ask lots of questions.  Ian, one of our Global X team members already knew Andre & Olga quite well.  It was great to see their interaction with each other!  We all were pretty laid back and relaxed with one another and this makes me even more excited about the trip.

About God's Design Church: Andre told us that the "church" is not really known as a church locally and their main events and gatherings are not usually on Sundays and are not considered "Church Services".  Locally, the gathering place is known as a Community Center and the gatherings are usually concerts or guest speaker events or fun events for young people where Andre may speak some words sort of like a sermon.  They also have some regular gatherings for "insiders" to fellowship and grow their faith and community with one another.

Apparently there are quite a few people who are asking "God Questions" so Andre and his team desire to get some of the insiders trained on the Starting Point materials so they can get some Starting Point Groups going.  Starting Point is such an excellent environment to ask questions and learn more about where we fit in God's Story.  I am very excited that we're bringing this to them!

We found out that Chisinau is actually pronounced with a hard K sound instead of the ch sound in our language.  We also found out that Moldovan food is mostly meat and vegetables which suits all of us just fine!  Andre said the pizza is good but different from here because they put mayonaise on their pizza!  Sounds icky to me but I've never tried it so I guess I can't knock it until I've tried it...

I'm really hoping that the other team members will begin posting soon so you can meet them.  Some have been really involved with the Drive Conference for church leaders that's been going on over the past few days.  Drive ends today so perhaps they'll have more time now.