Pumpkin celebration in Lozova

Many different kind of pumpkins. The winning pumpkin was 125 kg.

Last Sunday there was a BIG celebration in Lozova. It was all about the pumpkins and other local products.

Many people came to the celebration and local products were for sale as home made wine, apples, grapes, honey, etc. There was traditional music and we found out that Micleuseni has also a local ensemble with Mr. Major as the leading guy!

Team picture

 Below a video of the traditional music:

Washing machine replaced in time!

Receiving the new washing machine

Cristina is 27 years old. She grew up in the village Cioresti. She got married to Ion and at the moment they live in an old, small and broken house. They have two sons. The oldest boy Maxim, 7 years old, can't hear or speak and so he lives not at home but he is living in a kind of boarding school for children with a disability. Only during the holidays he comes home. The second son Vadim is 5 years old. He is going to the kindergarten in the village. The village Cioresti is a big village but despite that, there is not much work. At the moment the only way to earn some money is to work on the fields surrounding the village. Cristina and Ion work as day workers as often as they can. With the money they make per day (150 lei/ 8 euro per day per person) they try to make a living but it is not easy. As the winter is coming, wood will need to be bought but with their income they can't afford to purchase food, clothing, repair the house and also prepare for the winter. 

Old washing machine

Cristina is an optimistic young lady and she prays that God will help her family. She went to the Evangelical church several times and there she received a Bible. She told us that now and than she reads the Bible but she wishes that she would understand more about what she is reading. We encouraged her to keep coming to church and ask questions. Knowing the material situation of Cristina's family, the local church decided to bless Cristina with a washing machine. 
As we arrived at her house with the washing machine, Cristina just came out of the garden. After we greeted each other, we explained the reason why we came and Cristina was pleasantly surprised. After she explained what had happened we all understood that it was Gods timing and plan. Cristina told us that the day before she had tried to wash some clothes with her old washing machine but it broke down and so she washed by hands. She was very thankful and surprised to see how exactly in time her old machine got replaced. Gods timing is perfect!

Grapes

As the fall arrived, also the grapes are ready to be harvested. So yesterday we went to help Spiridons family and we collected many different kind of grapes: blue, pinkish, green, and white grapes.

When we got home from the vineyard, we started to prework the grapes so that the final result will be tasty grape juice!

Collecting the grapes

Lunch break

Hard workers

Home made juice

Celebrations over during the weekend

This weekend we were partying!;-) On Saturday evening a good friend of us, Olea got married and we enjoyed to be present as she got married to Sergei.

A short Russian preaching (I guess it was about marriage...;-)

Ready to give each other the rings

Praying for Gods blessings upon their marriage

Picture together

On Sunday morning we celebrated the harvest celebration in the church in Micleuseni. We brought also the people from the villages Lozova and Huzum to the church and together with some visitors from Chisinau, we thanked God for His blessings in our lives. We have many reasons to thank God every day! I forgot to take a picture of the fruitful and vegetable decoration in the church yesterday so will just post 2 pictures of our harvest from our garden:

tasty watermelon

And many healthy (and also tasty) vegetables

Ready for school!

The start of a new school year brings different emotions: joy, excitement, fear and stress....
For many children there is a sense of excitement and joy. Especially for those who start in the first class, they are often excited to get started (after about 2 weeks this feeling is gone normally...) But many of the smaller children are also a bit afraid because everything is new. But on the other hand to start the year with a new schoolbag, new school supplies and to enter finally the school and start a new phase in life, is something many waited impatiently for that day to come...

But.....for many poor families we know here in the different villages the start of a new school year brings stress for the parents (at least to those who try to take care of their children in the best way), the problem how they will pay for all the supplies needed, is a burden. The children that do not have the right supplies often are not listened at and are not allowed to participate in the lessons. They just will end up in the back of the class and have to sit still until the lessons are finished. So it is very important to have a schoolbag filled with notebooks etc to be able to have a good start at school. A big pressure for the parent to prepare their children and make sure it has the best start possible....

The local church in Micleuseni was able to bless around 70 poor children with school supplies in the villages Huzum, Micleuseni and Dolna. We praise God for those who made it possible to reach out to these children. Let's pray that God will give the children and teachers wisdom to have a good and fruitful school year!

The school supplies are ready to get in the school bags 

With help from Dana and Irina all the school bags for the children in Huzum got filled

The children are invited in the church to receive their bag

Every child signs the official papers in order to receive supplies

After receiving a bag, you have to show the others what is inside your bag

Ready for school!

Vitalic, Luminita and Lilia with their new schoolbags

Also the twin brothers Danu and Cristi are ready to start in class 1!

A small visitor

This weekend we enjoyed the company of our nephew, Danu. And in the eyes of a 4 year old the world is very interesting. There are many questions to ask and many comments to give....

Unfortunately for us, it is impossible to win card games while playing with Danu, He is the winner always!

Danu's opinion: a day not played, a day not lived!

Also in the garden, Danu is very helpful if you want to take down trees.

But playing with cars remains the nr 1 toy to play with.

We have some good news about Spiridons father. Thanks for praying for him. Instead of having cancer, he had some stones and on Wednesday he had a surgery in which the stones were taken out. He feels much better now and tomorrow he will be released from the hospital probably.

2 weeks passed

Yesterday we came back from 2 weeks of being outside Moldova. First we spend a small week with the OM MD team near Brasov in Romania. A new team picture was taken:

When the team retreat ended we traveled to Italy by bus (not recommending a 28 hour bustrip to anybody with long legs!!). We spend a week visiting different towns in Italy: Venice, Bologna, Florence and finally Rome! We look back upon a great week! Thank God!

While we were away we heard that Spiridons father is probably very ill and actually today he is having some tests to see why he is in constant pain. Your prayers are appreciated!

Also we received news that Lizzy, our 4th niece, was born! Praise God for new life!

So now we are back in Micleuseni and will start a new working-year this week. We pray to God that He will guide us as we start to plan our activities. May He work through us!