Moldova Mission Trip

This summer I was had a great opportunity to join our church in a mission trip to the country of Moldova.  CrossRoads has been working with two specific areas of the country by providing building supplies for their church building and funds to purchase land.

The journey begins... headed out of Dallas on a 777... getting it loaded up to hop over the pond.  Flew to London to sightsee for a couple of days before heading to Moldova.  

Dallas direct to London... first stop, Stonehenge.  Took a four hour bus ride because traffic was so bad and it was pouring down rain the whole time.  Took three pictures and left. 

Stopped at St. Paul's cathedral... no photography allowed inside the cathedral :)

London Bridge has indeed not fallen down. 

Fun street in London. 

Stopped in Vienna, Austria on the way to Moldova - fields were all so pretty and in all directions.  

Chisinau is the capital city of Moldova and founded in 1436.  Formerly part of the Soviet Union there remains heavy Russian influence.  

The predominant religion in the country is Russian Orthodox.  The churches are beautifully constructed and plentiful throughout.   

A new Russian Orthodox church being constructed.  The inside of these churches have no seating, no place for a service, no opportunity for fellowship and no Bibles.  They have priests, icons, pictures, saint cards and lots of boxes to pay your penance.  

The priests refer to Christians as repenters (as a derogatory term) which is ironic because Scripture clearly states we are to repent.  

Dean is the missionary we have partnered with.  On the map behind are the areas they have national missionaries doing work.  The green triangle at the top of the map is an area there has been no evangelical witness for over 500 year.  

A large way to open doors in the villages is with food packages.  

Here is the church in Panasesti we were able to work with for the week.  The pastor, Petru, is in the blue shirt behind me.  

Pastor Petru's garden filled with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions.  

Doing foundation work around the perimeter of the church.  Kenny is supervising over on the left.  

The guys working on the roof were at the very edge and not tied off to anything.  No OSHA regulations in this country.  

Petru is a pastor and a plumber.  

Large piles of dirt had been piled up in the foreground when we arrived and this shot was taken before we left.  

Larissa prepared lunch for us each day - she is Petru's wife.  

Ice cream is sold in a chub... and tastes good.  

Lozova is another village CrossRoads has been able to support.  

Restaurant and Museum we ate at our last night that serves traditional Moldovan food.  

Gig'em Bears!

Moldova produces large amounts of wine and there are many vineyards throughout.  

They also love their mayo!  Each shelf has different flavors and varieties.    

Group shot in the Munich, Germany airport on our way back to London.  

The Golden Cross pub was our last meal in London.  Went with Fish and Chips to end it like the locals would.  

Dance Party

Baby sister was slightly hesitant to join the dance party...

But she figured it out pretty quickly!

Snoopy Snow Cone Maker

We had some fun times today with our wonderful Grinstead friends.  First stop was meeting them for breakfast at their hotel.  Because Evie-girl loves her some hotel breakfast food.  She's a mess!

We gave them the grand tour and drove them by our "slab" and then showed them the church.  The girls played on the train while we visited.  It was nice to let them run around!

We just love these guys!

Maves getting in some snuggle time with Bruce and watching his favorite, the Swan Princess.

Thanks to these guys, we are now the proud owners of a genuine Snoopy Snow Cone Maker.

I always wanted one of these as a kid.  Little did I know exactly HOW much work it was to crank out one tiny little snow cone.  Whew!  What a blast!

So glad they made the 5 hour trip out to see us.  What a blessing!

Arts and crafts and Visitors

We hung around the house most of today.  This morning I had the bright idea to take the girls to the craft store and get them a fun activity.  I told them we were getting Perler Beads.  I told them that this was the only item we would be getting and they were not allowed to touch anything else on the shelf.  I think that because we went at exactly 9:00am and I prepared them of our mission, the trip to the store went relatively well.  There was no fussing or fighting...a miracle these days.  We returned home and proceeded to clean up the house for guests later.  While Olivia napped, the girls and I made little designs for Bruce and Cindy, who arrived later.  It turned out to be a really good activity for Evie and mostly for Mavery.  (I had to finish Mavery's because she lost interest toward the end.) 

Evie offered to play with Olivia in her bedroom while I vacuumed.  She set up the room and did really well with her.  

I think Olivia actually had fun too!

The Grinsteads arrived at about 4pm.  We enjoyed a lovely afternoon visit and then dinner at Rosas.  The girls suckered Cindy into some arts and crafts after dinner.  Those girls could string beads all day long.  They were busy making "church necklaces" and "church bracelets" to wear with their dresses on Sunday.  Too funny.

McPost

I took the McKids to McDonalds today for some McLunch. I loathe McDonald's, but, like most American kiddos, Evie and Mavery love it.  So, against my better judgement, we went to there for lunch today.  Just about the only positive of going there is that the the dine-in playroom is large and it's much less crowded than Chick-fil-A.  We ordered our food and despite my attempts to enforce the "you must eat your lunch before you play" rule, they sucked down their juice/milk, ate two french fries and bolted for the playground.  Unfortunately, there were some big kids present that were making me (and the mom at the table next to us) quite nervous.  I'm not THAT mom at playground that scold kids that don't belong to me, but I did tell the girls in a rather loud voice, "stay away from the big kids!"  Thankfully, we had the playground almost to ourself after about 10 minutes.  But then another kiddo kept wanting to come up and touch Olivia in the face.  I did scold him...but not in a mean way...since his grandmother was not paying attention.  So, I gave the 5 minute warning and we were able to make a  McEscape with the bribe of McCookies on the way out the door.  And now I will have the McBurps for a week.

McSmiles

This afternoon we made some bead necklaces and rented some movies.  We discovered that Olivia likes Jello!  Sadly, I have no pictures of those activities.

Olivia- Nine Months Old

Well, Olivia is 9 months old.  And she is quite the character.  She is officially mobile and crawls everywhere.  She really wants to stand up and walk, but she is a few months away from that.  She knows where her toys are and how to get the off the shelf.  She also knows how to drive her older sisters crazy...already.  Evie and Mavery love playing with Olivia, and she loves watching them.  Olivia is right along the same size that her older sisters were at this age.  She is 18lbs of baby love weight that is doing a number on my hip and shoulder.  I would like to say that Olivia sleeps all night.  But she does not.  She does really well with her naps during the day and she does well at Mother's Day Out two days a week.  But alas, she does not sleep all night.  I'm hoping that this will change by her 10 month birthday.

July

We have been enjoying a relaxing and hot summer the past few weeks.  Olivia has enjoyed the attention of her older sisters being home.  They fed her some breakfast on the patio one morning when it was cooler than average.  

 We have also been visiting different city parks in the area.  

Olivia wanting to go up the slide.

 Enjoying the merry-go-round

It's hard to see this picture, but Olivia fell asleep in a sitting position leaning over her blanket one afternoon.  I thought it was really funny. 

 Mavery showing off her fabric necklace we made one afternoon.

 Evie helping Mavery learn to play Wii

 At the moving watching Inside Out.  We only had to leave the theater ONE time for a potty break.  That's a record for us.

 Playing with Natalie and Brock at the Crossroads family fun night. 

 We visited the little art museum in Odessa one afternoon.  

The girls enjoyed the kids art room and the book "tent".

 They also have a Free Little Library where you take a book and leave a book.  

The girls thought that was fun.

 Olivia having fun at the water wall feature in the sensory garden.

 Never be without your floatation device.

 Relaxing on Daddy.

 Cottontail!

 Mavery's face cracks me up in the photo.  And Olivia just wants some ice cream!

 Sun-bathing beauties.  We have been doing lots of swimming this summer.  The girls are getting the hang of it and the LOVE being in the water.