Dear Family and Friends,
October has ushered in autumn, and leaves are falling in yellows, reds, and golds all over the city. I am enjoying the last weeks of walking outside without snow boots and a heavy coat (or, I might be in denial. No snow means it is still fall, right?).
October proved to be WMF Moldova visitor month. I hope it continues! A team of Americans and a few Moldovans from church joined us on different days for a one-day visit with the kids at the internat. We are expecting visitors again at the end of this month. It is exciting to involve new people, even if it is only to introduce them to the ministry.
Rachel Simons and I journeyed to Galati, Romania for a few days to visit the WMF community. Aside from the 7 modes of transportation we used to arrive, it was a great visit with the kids and the staff with whom I spent four months last year. I also dropped in on my host mom for a visit and my former language teacher. I loved chatting with the kids, especially the friends I’d met last year. Our kids in Chisinau created a paper mosaic of the Moldovan countryside for the kids in Galati, and the kids in Galati made a painting of La Casa Vale for our kids in return. Please keep the WMF Galati community in your prayers. Like our community, they need God’s strength and wisdom to continue to do this work well.
Although each afternoon we seem to have a different mix of kids, a few come regularly to our “circle” or cerc (not circ, as I have been known to say…that means circus in Romanian). I, a 2nd grader with a huge need for attention and an ample amount of energy, stopped in on Thursday. After failing in an attempt to persuade one of his classmates to go outside to play, he decided to stay and hang out with us. He can be a bit rowdy, so I expected to have to help him keep focused on the coloring page instead of constantly trying to get the attention of everyone else at the table. Instead, he took the page, stood at the table, and colored calmly and quietly. His elephant was not your standard grey, either. He colored it different reds and blues, adding polka dots, dotted lines down the trunk, and illustrating the empty page surrounding the elephant with grass, a tree, clouds, and even a bird. Most of the children seem to want to draw or color things exactly as they are in reality, but this blond little boy with lots of angst hidden behind his big blue eyes, felt free to create. He felt safe.
I may not be able to provide all the physical needs for the children who choose to walk into our wallpapered room at 2:30pm on a given weekday, but I can listen to them, hold their hand, or play a game of UNO with them. These simple actions can communicate that we care, we want to know them, and that there does exist a God in the midst of all of this chaos and uncertainty that knows them and loves them.
Thank you for praying.
Love,
Annie