Dear Friends and Family,
Our staff in Moldova are working hard as we anticipate the celebration of Christmas with our children at the boarding school. One special event for us this month was a time in which a group from a private high school in Chisinau came to our after-school group and shared in singing, eating and a movie with our children. It was a time in which kids from two very different economic and social groups were able to interact and to share gifts with each other. “…for the old order of things has passed away…” (Revelation 21:4, NIV). Pray that they might hold on to what they learned from this experience.
In personal news, Rachel’s and my wedding is quickly approaching. As I have explained in previous letters, WMF has allowed us to take three months (January 15 to April 15) in Columbus after our honeymoon to focus on laying a healthy foundation for our marriage and to prepare for the cross-cultural transition to life together in Moldova. We will be traveling to Michigan in late January to meet with a counselor who specializes in cross-cultural living and will then meet with him on skype on a regular basis from Columbus. Please pray that we might gain much-needed wisdom as we seek to start our marriage in the best way possible.
Additionally, during these three months, we would love to meet with as many of you as possible so that we can personally share stories of the children we’ve met in Moldova as well as to share about our dreams and hopes for our future life there. Please contact me by email at john.koon@wordmadeflesh.org if you would like to set up a time for lunch or coffee. Also, please contact me if you have a church or small group setting where Rachel and I could share about our work with Word Made Flesh. We are willing to travel and already have plans to visit family and friends in Denver, Nashville and Washington, D.C. but are not limited to just those cities.
This month, I’d like to formally introduce all of you to Adriana Ciobanu, our first WMF staff member from Moldova. She was my Romanian language tutor four years ago when I first moved to Moldova and has since left her job with the US Peace Corps to work for WMF’s local organization in Moldova, La Via. You can see her newly posted biography at https://wordmadeflesh.org/author/adrianaciobanu/.
I would love for all of you to get to know both Adriana and Magdalena Clopotel, our staff member in Moldova who came from Romania. Please contact me by email if you’d like to be added to their update letter lists. They are both vital parts of our life and work and would love to be able to share with more people their thoughts, experiences and perspective. Additionally, if you would be interested in joining either of their financial support teams, let me know, and I can send you more information on their yearly budget and needs. All of our staff are responsible for raising 100% of their salary, taxes, living permit expenses, travel expenses, etc., and this is not always an easy job, especially for our local staff in Eastern Europe!
And although it will be January by the time you read this, I’d like to leave you with a Christmas reflection written by Adriana:
Christmas Thoughts, Children’s Thoughts, His Thoughts…
Here, in Moldova, at the boarding school where 319 children live, Christmas comes earlier….I saw it a few weeks ago in the thoughts and dreams of the children that they shared with me with much sincerity…
…so a few children’s thoughts and dreams, thoughts and dreams of Christmas…
A boy, M., orphaned along with his three brothers, in addition to his life in the real world, has an unlimited imaginary world that he shares with much generosity and credibility….
Coming back from a trip that we had set out on by trolleybus with all of the children, M. pointed to a tall building saying that there, on the third floor, is where his family lives and that from there his father goes to work each day. But only M. knows where he puts the key and doesn’t tell anyone. He will only tell us…. It is under the doormat…. Then, taking a pause, he said that he would go to live there, but that he can’t leave his brothers behind at the boarding school….
…Then, another day, he talked to me about his mother, saying that he knows that his mom is watching him now from up there and that she even holds him in her hands. Yes, he really feels this, but he also knows that first and foremost, God holds us all in God’s hands.
…After this we walked together, I holding his hand, he holding mine….
L. is a delicate and dainty little girl…. One day she told me that up there, where God lives, we will all eat together from gold dishes and we will all sit at the same table together surrounded by angels.
Thursday, we usually all watch a film together…. Last time we watched a cartoon about the little donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem. The film began with some images of nature, and in that moment one of the children exclaimed, Look! God made all of these things!
And in this period of time the verses of a carol sound in my head:
Heaven and earth resound in song
Angels and people sing together
Christ is born, the Lord comes down
The angels sing, the Magi adore him…!
Christmas is in the heart of each child; it’s there, all the time, because they are not abandoned. There is the hope and the faith of a pure child’s heart that beyond all of the pain, misunderstanding and confusion in their life they still dream and keep going. Among the tears and small joys that they have, Christmas leaves room and memories of euphoria, light and songs.
Angels and people sing together…. Angels and people eat together, with everyone at a gold table….
All of the children teach me each day how precious love is, what desperate need for love and understanding we have and how much a sincere glance through which we say that you are accepted, you are loved, you are waited for can encourage and can bring about a change.
We want to learn to love! And Christmas is a lesson in love!
We want to be accepted! And Christmas is a lesson in waiting!
We’re waiting for a change! And Christmas is change!
The angels sing….the Lord comes down!
Thank you, Lord, that you came down in order to raise us up!
We thank all of you with all of our heart for your prayers!
May you have a blessed and bright Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
With love,
John Koon