December Newsletter

Merry Christmas!

The month of December will be a different time for me in Moldova. The Raatz family is in the states for a month so I am not teaching during this time. Instead I will be helping at the Home of Hope. I, along with my roommate, will continue teaching life skills and English. Beyond that we will be spending time just hanging out with the women and their children.

International Service

The International Service is full of people from all over the world. We have one family from England, another family is from Holland, and another is from Australia. Some are here with the Embassy and others are involved in ministry in Moldova. We also have quite a few Moldovans who come to enjoy the service as well.

On Sunday we said goodbye to a family with 3 children: Jon, Rebekah, and Sara. Their Dad was here on a Fulbright Scholarship and so the time has come for them to head home. This is something one gets used to in Moldova, people coming and going.

On December 6^th, we had a kids and youth event. In the morning we took the kids to pizza and bowling, and in the evening we watched a movie and played games with the youth.

Thanksgiving in Moldova

While Moldovans do not celebrate Thanksgiving, we got together with about 25 Americans and had a wonderful time. When we arrived at the Raatz home, to help out, we learned that they had no power. Their stove uses gas so they were still able to cook most of the food. Then half way through dinner, the power came back on!

These next few months will continue to be busy as we work together in reaching Moldova. Thank you for all of your support, Merry Christmas!

Misc. Photos

A guy at the Central Market, I bought hot sauce from him.


The market near our house.


The night before Andy and Nancy left to go back to America for one month. The girls decided to jump on me and then the dogs were added.


Bowling with the kids from the International Service.

Blog Post from Nancy Raatz

Blog post from Nancy Raatz, concerning the Home of Hope:

"One of the hardest parts of the issue of trafficking is the rejection that the girls get from their families, if they have them, when they return.

Ira wanted so badly to see her family. She misses them terribly and hasn't seen them in so long. We finally worked out that today she would be taken to see her family. Some of our staff accompanied her to her village. It is in a part of Moldova that is very difficult for Americans to go, so I did not go.

When she got there she was told that her dad was at work. This was hard to believe because she'd called ahead and she knew he would be home. Her mother wasn't at her home and when they finally found her mom and step dad, her step dad began yelling at her, condemning what she'd been.

She hadn't eaten breakfast at the Home this morning, thinking her family would have a big meal prepared when she got home. Not only was there not a big meal, but she wasn't even welcomed. She came back this evening so incredibly sad.

Please pray for Ira tonight. Pray that she finds and accepts the Love that is greater than all. Pray that she'd see the care in the home as God's love for her. Pray that she understands He is a father unlike any she has ever known. Pray for peace.

Pray also for Tanya, one of the workers in the home. For several months now she has had a problem with her neck. Would you join me in praying that God would bring healing and relief to her neck?"

Saturday, oh Saturday

So for several weeks now our neighbor below us has been doing some type of "construction, " and we have been having power issues because of it. All of this peeked on Saturday, November 24th. The lights flashed around 11am and the tv turned off. About an hour later I realized that my laptop was using the battery instead of the power cord. I played around with it but it still wasn't charging so I shut it down. After a few more minutes Sara and I realized we had no heat. We go to look at the heater/hot water heater and there are no lights on. About this time the neighbor comes up and tells us that something "went wrong" downstairs and so the power company will be coming on Monday. So Sara and I decide to go to the new mall, Malldova, instead of sitting in our cold apartment.

The mall is pretty nice. It has some interesting stores. We go into Forchette to pick up a few grocery items. Then we go to the bookstore and find the Romanian visual dictionaries that we have been looking for! We walked around the mall for a little bit and ended up going to the food court to get something to eat. While we are eating there is a man walking through the court acting very suspicious. He stops and watches a family at a table. He waits for them to leave and then he takes their receipt. He does this a second time and then walks away. Five minutes later he's back. This time he asks a guy if he can have his receipt, and he gives it to him. Then he disappears and does not return. After that we returned home, still with no heat or hot water.

At this point both of us just want a hot shower so we go over to the Darrins house. When I turn on the water, they have no hot water. We stayed there for almost an hour but still no hot water so we go back home and go to bed. Sunday morning rolls around and we go back to their house to take our showers. Thankfully, they have hot water! After taking a shower we head back home and take naps. Then the power company guy shows up and he does a few things in our building but our heater and computers still aren't working.

After all of this....our heater/hot water heater is fried. Our laptop power cords are fried as well. The heater was fixed yesterday but we are still waiting on our power cords. Fortunately, we didn't have to sleep in our cold apartment. Andy and Nancy let me crash at their place, and the Darrins let Sara sleep at their house.

It has been almost 2 weeks since this happened and I just got my computer power cord back!!! Since having my computer back I've realized that utilizing technology isolates us from those around us. During the time that I didn't have my power cord, my roommate, Sara, and I spent a lot of time together. We played card games, went out to grab a bite to eat, and just spent time actually speaking to one another. It's amazing how our computers separated us from one another.