Humbled and Blessed

Christina (who I met last summer) and her dog Beam

Nicedia playing cards

Hellen sharing the gospel

Prayer

Hellen and Tanya sharing the gospel with the evangecubes

Showing Nadia a map of the states and where Texas is!

A group of us on the 2nd day

beautiful Nadia

Vanya!!! Love this kid

The Moldovans playing baseball

Volleyball

Basketball

Food deliveries to the elderly

Lidia Claudette and I

Artiom packing the food bags

So my time here in Moldova in general has been full of humblings moments and blessings, but I really felt that this was the theme for last week. Last week was our first project of the summer. We didn't have a team come in for this one except for Ashley's (the new intern) father. So it was up to us Moldovans! (and yes I do consider myself a Moldovan now)

We delivered food in the mornings to families that Claudette and the elderly ministry had visited before and then in the afternoons we had a sports camp at one of the nearby schools.

One of the most humbling and biggest blessings about it for me was watching Hellen. You all have heard me speak about Hellen before. Last summer she accepted Christ at the youth camp and since then I have formed a special relationship with her, as well as she has with the church and others. She helped us out for the week and was so eager and excited to do whatever she could. On Wednesday afternoon at the sports I was playing basketball with some kids when Serghei called me over and said "I need you to take pictures now, Tanya and Hellen are sharing the gospel to those kids." I was a little caught of guard, but looked over and sure enough they had a group of about 10 kids around them and were sharing the gospel using an evangecube. I immediately just got this feeling of the Holy Spirit and how it was moving through these 2 sisters. Hellen was translating Tanya's words into Romanian, but then the next day Hellen used the same cube and did it herself to another group of people! This is a girl who is the same age as me and a year ago she didn't even have a relationship with God and here she is sharing the gospel to kids and teens. Amazing and definitely one of the highlights of the week.

I could probably go on and on of all the things that happened last week, but I figured I would share some pictures. You know because they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

We have this week next week and then on the 11th we have our kids camp 2 hours away near a city called Orhei. Please pray that preparations for that go smoothly and as planned, and that God would bless that time with the kids.

God Bless to all,

Bethany

Well I made it!

It has officially been 1 year since I arrived in Moldova last summer! This past year has flown by, and the Lord has done so many things through this country and it's people in my life and in my heart. There were times when I didn't think I would make it through the year and that I wanted to go home. And then there were other times that I felt time was going too fast and I never wanted to leave.

The Lord has shown me more things about myself and other people and most importantly HIM than I could have ever imagined.

This year has truly been amazing and I will never regret it and wouldn't trade it for anything. I may be a bit behind in college, but the lessons I have learned here in Moldova aren't even comparable.

I made this video that starts with the present, pictures from just a few days ago, all the way back to a year ago when I first arrived. I hope you enjoy taking a look at this journey that God has had me on all year.

To you who are reading this and to those who are not, Thank You. The prayers, encouragement, kind words, advice, and support has been amazing and more than I could ever ask for.

God Bless to you all.

I pray that God blesses these last couple of months that I have in Moldova as much as he has blessed the last 12.

Much love,

Bethany

Changes

I have been thinking about changes a lot lately. And obviously in the past year I have encountered many changes in my life. I'm coming up on a year in Moldova and have been thinking about the big "1 year blog post" that I promised my mom, but while thinking about it and what I will write I decided that this one had to be written first.

Nearing the end of my journey here in Moldova I've been trying to sum of my time here in my head. A lot of it doesn't make sense and I know I will be processing these last months for a while. But I look back to a year ago and it becomes difficult to remember who I was then. Yes of course I was an 18 year old with a severe case of senioritis who was ready to have high school in the past and move on to something new. But I feel like I was a completely different person compared to who I am now. And I feel like a major reason for that is because I have discovered who in am through God. I am not my own person, I am God's. More than anything this year I have learned that I have to stop being my own person and start being God's. He created me as His child, for His glory. I mean just the fact that I have been in Moldova for almost a year is because of Him. Not because of myself, my church in Midland, the church here, the seminary here, no it all is because of Him. He is the root of it all.

I have learned more about my weaknesses and strengths. Discovering things that I appreciate about myself and things that I do not. I cannot not say that I have changed all for the better, because I know that it's just not the truth. There always seems to be a good and bad side of things.

But really I wouldn't change this experience for anything because I know that without it I wouldn't of been able to discover what it means to be God's person and live the life that HE has given me.

I know this time is not up yet and I am looking forward to the last few months here in Moldova to see what else God will reveal to me and use me in.

So that is all for now, now I can start working on the 1 year post which will be up on the 7th, since that is 1 year since I arrived here in Moldova.

So until then,

Blessings to all

Bets

O and just to update and what has been going on here in Moldova. Seminary is over for the semester and we are gearing up for all the summer projects now. We have gone to the camp (2 hours away) 3 times already to do some painting and get things ready for when the kids come.

Also we have a new intern here named Ashley. She arrived last Saturday, and it has been really cool to be able to show Moldova to her. I remember back to when I was seeing Moldova for the first time, and it has been cool to see another person experience that, especially someone who is on fire for the Lord and ready to help with what He is doing here in Moldova.

So pray for us and the church as we prepare for the summer and such.

More next time, B.