Monday, August 30, 2010

Coming to an end









This might possibly be my last blog entry as a missionary in Moldova. Tomorrow is my last official day as a member of this mission team. It's been an amazing five years! Last week I travelled with my team to Romania for our annual team retreat in the mountains of Transylvania. We had a wonderful time together and an opportunity to see some beautiful sights.




We travelled to the village of Sinaia and went up a cable car to the top of the mountain there. We took a team photo on the mountain top. Many of my team members walked back down the mountain - and the next day almost all of them were very sore. I had the good fortune of accompanying our guest speaker back down the mountain in a cable car and then doing a bit of shopping in the town. (Picked up some very cute Romanian things for my grand-daughters!) I also had the opportunity to go and see the nearby Castle Peles - one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen! I took the regular tour which was just the ground floor - and that was well worth seeing. Someday I would love to go back and see the whole thing!










Besides sight-seeing we spent time in Bible study with our guest speaker, Dave. Dave is an old-timer with our mission and he has a lot of wisdom. His presentation of Scripture is always provocative and challenging and we were blessed by a look at Jonah with him. On the last evening he told us some stories from the "old days" when he was involved with smuggling Bibles into the Soviet Union. Arrested many times, Dave is full of fascinating stories of the adventures of earlier missionaries who took great risks to provide Bibles for the underground church.










Our last evening was not only Dave's stories but some hilarious skits about those of us who are leaving the team. I was in stitches over Matthew's portrayal of me (with his British accent!), with enough truth to make it embarassing but enough exaggeration to make it hilarious. After the laughs there was prayer for those of us leaving.

Can it really be true that the time has come to say farewell? Over the next weeks I will be doing some travelling and visiting in Europe before I leave for Canada early in October. It will be good to get home and see my mother and my darling children and beautiful grandchildren, but I will so much miss my friends here. I'm glad for this in-between time to be able to process some of my experiences and debrief a bit with my travelling companion. But I will always hold in my heart those who have journeyed with me these past years.
Five years ago, Dana and Claudia and I arrived in Moldova together.



















A sad note to add: my friend Corinne left her dog Silas with a friend rather than bringing him with us to Romania. Silas ran away in the middle of the week and there has been no sign of him since. Please pray that he will find his way either back to the friend's place, or home to Corinne.









Come back, Silas!!!

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:04 p.m.

    Barb I think you should keep writing till at least you are settled again, or just forever! Misionary life doesn't ever stop! And it is good to know what is going on, how God keeps leading you!
    A big hug, Corinne and Silutu (who by the way is back!!!)

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