Dear Friends and Family,
I write this letter as I am traveling to Omaha, Nebraska for our US Staff Gathering (July 12-22) where we will be spending intentional time together discussing and dreaming and sharing about our respective lives and work with WMF. I look forward to updating you all about this time next month!
The past six weeks in Moldova have been incredibly full as we volunteered each day at the camp where the kids from the boarding school where we worked all spring spend the summer. While we did organize many activities for these children, the best part of the summer has been just spending time with them and building considerably deeper relationships with them. My favorite days at camp have been spent sitting on the grass under an apple tree, making bracelets out of colored string and sharing stories. I’ve been able to see so much more deeply into the lives of these kids and have many, many things to process. I’ve learned much and feel like this time has been invaluable in helping direct us to our long-term work in Moldova.
During the first week of July, we organized a day camp for the kids who come to the Youth For Christ Day Center in a village just outside of Chişinău. This was the biggest quantity of time we’ve been able to spend with these kids until now (we usually have just a few hours per week), and it was wonderful to be able to get to know them better. The lives and stories of these children living in a village, a context very different from an orphanage, are also speaking deeply into the direction in which WMF Moldova is headed in the future.
As we look ahead to August, we will be spending a week in the woods with The Ark Foundation, our partner organization, helping to organize a camp for children from villages near Chişinău. We then plan to spend the last couple weeks of August back at the camp with the kids from the boarding school as we prepare to transition back into the school year on September 1.
Please continue to keep these children in your prayers this summer. They are so incredibly vulnerable. Many of the stories I’ve heard recently have shocked and moved me profoundly, and I struggle to know what to do with the suffering I know that is present among these dear friends. Pray for mercy, for justice, for love.
Continue to also pray for our staff as we are seeking to take some very concrete steps this fall toward officially registering Word Made Flesh in Moldova. Having learned so much this summer from our experience with these children, we are feeling called to a common vision and really need clear direction as we take these next steps. Thank you for accompanying us on this journey.
With love,
John Koon