With God’s and Dorin’s help the potatoes will grow

Last Saturday I helped with delivering bags of seed potatoes to poor families in the South of Moldova. Many of the families we visited were very surprised that they received a bag full of potatoes for free. We invited the families we visited to come to church the next day and we were happy to see that many of them came. Below the story of one of the families we visited:

After shouting several times “hello, hello” at entrance of the garden and waiting for some minutes, finally the door of the house opens and a lady called Valentina comes out. Her hands are wet and she tries to dry them while apologizing that she didn't show up earlier. She was just washing some clothes. We tell her that it is no problem and then we explain that we have come to deliver some seed potatoes for her. She looks at the bag and we can see how her face starts to light up. Meanwhile also her son Dorin come outside. Being only 9 years old, he already has seen and experienced that life is not easy or fair.

About two years ago his father died of drinking too much alcohol. Before his father died, his addiction ruled the whole family. Valentina and her mother, who in that time also lived with them, would get daily beaten when Dorins father would get home drunk. Nearly every day he would go in the morning to catch 2 or 3 kg of fish in the river nearby. After that he would give the fish to his wife and send her in the village to sell the fish and with the money from the sale, he would get his daily portion of alcohol. After coming home totally drunk, he would beat his wife and his mother in law and then he would end up sleeping somewhere. This would mean finally some rest in the family.

Dorin witnessed since he was young, how his father terrorized the family and thinking only about himself. Now his father is death and his mother tries to continue life in the best way she can. But all the beating affected her health and she cannot find a stable job. Now and then she will be hired by somebody to go and work on the field and this is all the income she has. Her mother moved away to live with another son and this means Valentina is just by herself with Dorin. Proudly his mother shares that Dorin is doing very well in school and this year he will finish the 3rd class with very good grades. Maybe one day Dorin will be able to support and provide for his mother but until that day Valentina is working hard. The seed potatoes she received with much joy cause she knows that with the help of God and Dorin, she will be able to grow these potatoes and for next winter they won’t need to be hungry.