After six years serving in the village, I can give a lot of numbers that are results of networking, an incredible work of our local team lead by God and blessed with many prayers and donations from friends from different places in the world. But I would like to describe the work with an experience we had as a family a couple of weeks ago.
A few weeks ago, my mother, Maria wasn’t feeling very well. She often experiences high blood pressure, and she needs help. Here is how everyone from my family was involved.
- Lili, my wife, took care of checking the blood pressure and giving my mother some pills.
- Mia, daughter, for a couple of hours took care of grandma, holding her hands, offering food and water.
- Luca, youngest son, came and put his hands on grandma and prayed for her.
- Mathew, older son, constantly asking how grandma is doing and closing his eyes in prayer.
- Victor, me, communication with the local doctor and bringing her to see my mother.
- All together praying for grandma’s health during our family prayer time.
God is good and my mother is better now but going through this situation, I was able to thank God for blessing me with a wonderful family. To some extent, this is a picture of the work we are doing here in the village. We see needs around, we try to get involved, we ask others to get involved, and we pray and ask God for His blessings.
After six years we still have many challenges. We constantly ask God for his guidance. As a charity and family, we see ourselves at some crossroads: how we continue and what should the priorities be.
Some areas of the ministry need thinking and prayer
- Human resources. Now, we are 5 people on the team but so many areas to be covered. Praise God we found a new teacher for our Children’s Club but next year two of our key people, Mariana, our social worker, and Eduard, our administrator, might leave Moldova going abroad for work.
We consider a lot the ideas of inviting friends/missionaries from abroad to come and work alongside with us. - Financial resources. We have been blessed and had enough finances for most of the projects but this aspect
- of the ministry it’s always a challenge especially now when all the prices go up and we need to think how we can keep the salaries motivational for our employees.
- Priorities. In the context of existing human, and financial recourses, what are the priorities we need to focus on but the most important we want to understand what God sees as priorities for us.
- Sabbatical. I have shared this idea with my friend Mark lately and I am trying to see if this is real for our context. After many years of work I see the need to stop at least for a month or two, to rest, spend time with the Lord, with my wife, with my children and get refreshed. It’s a nice dream and I want to see if it’s possible.
- A new step in taking care of the elderly. We started to think and discuss about the possibility of having houses for elderly people. It’s a big and long-term project and we need God’s perspective on this.
Your prayers and ideas on all of these are most appreciated.
I would like to end with two recent experiences. Together with my friend Mark we visited Nicolae, 75 years old, one of our beneficiaries. When we entered, he was on the floor and couldn’t get up for more than an hour. We helped him and put him in a chair. Nicolae was so grateful, and he called me his best friend. My eyes where in tears and I was blessed by this. Every time I visit Nicolae, he says this is the best part of the day. What a privilege God is giving me, but I keep asking God, “Is it possible to do more for Nicolae and people like him?” That’s why the idea of an elderly house is on my mind.
Iurie is 70 years old and probably in his last weeks of life. He is in bed with deep wounds all over the body. Iurie has lived a life ignoring God and taking advantage of others around him. His ex-wife and some of his children do not want to come and see him. Visiting one day I found him on the floor. I had to put him on bed and offer lunch. I used the chance to tell him about God, His love and forgiveness. I explained Iurie that he can pray and ask God for forgiveness. He said he wants into God’s Kingdom, and he prayed. I know the Lord is merciful and I pray He takes the little seed of Iurie’s faith to take him to the Kingdom.
In Christ, with love,
Victor