School in Visoca

Visoca School Northern Moldova
In one of the most northern villages of Moldova is the Visoca School for Handicapped Children without Parents. Visoca is some 200 kilometers north of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. This little village is truly in the middle of nowhere. You must travel on an unpaved road about 6 kms to find this little community of about 2000 people. The school is run by Visalii Bicu and an assistant. This school is home for 80 children who are in school by day and live in the adjoining dormitory. This school is the only school we know of that takes in handicapped children left on the street without parents to contact. This wonderful man has run and provided this facility since 1973. He and his assistant are angels. Mr. Bicu has been formally educated in Math and Physics, but has devoted his life to these children. This schoold teaches them to be self-sufficient. They plandt and harvest much of their vegetables used by the school. They learn wood working and shoe making and repair. This facility is from the Soviet (late 60's)era and is in poor condition. But, the staff here keeps it very neat and clean. Rodna and I are trying to get a project approved to provide an irrigation system to improve their garden production and to install about 50 Sq. Meters of pavestone for their play area. We hope to have this completed by the end of the summer, 2009. On a personal note, while Rodna was visiting with some of the children in their class room, she had an opportunity to speak with one of the children. She was then approached by this boy's twin brother who asked her not to separate him and his brother. He apparently thought Rodna might become interested in him and take him and not his brother. This was one of those unspeakable moments that touch your heart and you are never quite the same again.

Soroca-Gypsy Town

While we were traveling to one of our projects, we took a detour (sightseeing) trip into Soroca. This town is the home of the king of the Gypsy's. He rules over all the Gypsy's and they pay him to keep them safe etc. In one of the pictures you will see cars that originally belonged to Brezhnev. The Gypsy king bought them from Brezhnev. The Gypsy's usually don't work for a living, but beg on the streets (women & children) for their income. The Gypsy's are not well thought of here in Europe, and are usually avoided. It was an interesting drive.

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Driving in a Taxi with 5 people

We have been learning how to navigate around Chisinau using Trolleys, maxi taxi, and taxi's. We had 5 people with us one night as we were looking at the beautiful Christmas lights here in Chisinau. Brother and Sister Telford, Fred and I, and our interpreter Argentine. We needed to get home fast because of a scheduled appointment, so our only option was to take a taxi. You can see how well we all fit! Life is good, and its fun to figure out how to do things just a little different than we are use to doing them at home. Love to all.

Chisinau Branch Christmas Party

Saturday Dec. 27 was our Branch Christmas Party. You are probably wondering why it was after Dec. 25, our traditional celebration of Christmas. The answer is because they don't celebrate Christmas here until January 7. It was a nice evening, and the whole branch participated. Each auxiliary either presented a skit, sang, or danced. The young single adults did a traditional Russian song and dance, and the missionaries were asked to sing an American Christmas song. After all the missionaries had performed, the branch gave each of us a gift of cookies and candies, and a Christmas hat. I am including pictures so you can see the hats we had to wear! Pretty funny.

Christmas Eve-Christmas Day, Dec. 24-25 2008

Christmas Eve was a busy day for us. Fred and Argentine went to set up a contract for wheelchair seat cushions. Our partner is a company called Benetate. This company is run by a disabled Russian woman. Her name is Liubovi. She has a wonderful attitude about being of service to those who are disabled. She employs many of them in the manufacturing of the seat cushions for the wheelchairs. She also provides all of the uniforms for the local police and military. I needed to buy food so I could help with the Christmas Eve party at the Telford's home. We could not get all of it done together, so I told Fred that I could find my way to Downtown Chisinau taking the trolley, and that I could get home again by myself. I did just that!! I took the #7 trolley to Stephen Chel mare ST. and walked to the piaza. There I bought some of the items that I needed. Then I walked to #1 ( a grocery store) and bought the remaining items that I needed. The problem is that I bought to much to carry home by myself, but I was able to get home anyway. I won't buy that much by myself again!!!!!! Where is the car when you need it. I don't think I will ever take the car for granted again. I also thought it would be easy to find the food that I needed, will its not. Its not even packaged the same. It's either written in Romanian or Russian and I can't read either one. I do allot of laughing at myself for feeling like I am about 2 years old, and trying to learn everything all over again. We had a fun evening at the Telford's with all the missionaries, and young single adults. Many of these young people had no other place to go for Christmas. We ate lots of good food, sang Christmas songs, and watched the Nativity Story. Christmas morning we went back to the Telford's to exchange gifts with the missionaries and eat breakfast. All the missionaries then made their calls to family,us included and it was good to skype family and see children and grandchildren. We love this time of year when we have time to reflect on those things that are most important to us all. How grateful we are to a loving Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ for the gift of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ on the Earth. We are grateful for the birth of Christ, and his atoning sacrifice that he made for each of us. We are thankful that families can be together forever!!! We are grateful that we can serve in this beautiful country, and bring the love of Christ to those in need. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.