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