Two days ago we were hanging out with some of the youth from Filipeni in the afternoon, just getting to know them and find out about thier lives and culture. I asked one of the guys, "so what does your normal day look like?" He answered, " Well...I wake up, smoke a cig, call my friends, we drink some beer all day, go to the disco at night then we call some girls....and so this is life in Filipeni." Sadly, most people are not proud to be a Moldovan. Most are ashamed to say that they are from Moldova. He told us that about every six months he goes to Moscow to work for a while then comes back to Filipeni. He said that I he could, he would just move there and never come back! Most of the youth of Moldova leave when they get the chance becuase life is so hard here and it is very hard to make a decent living. Moldova is also the poorest country in Europe.
About the Culture
We were also able to get to know a little about the local pastor last night as he shared with us about his ministry in a neighbooring town called Leova and Filipeni. The pastor told us that he and his wife work with 3 diffrent orphanages. When he is not pastoring he is repairing shoes as a cobbler. After studing theology in Romania he married and moved to Leova and has been here since 1993. He let us know when he came to Leova the church numbered about 39, but since then some have left the faith, moved, or died. Others left the church after a recent church split that they have expierenced. He has beenHe told us that the district that Filipeni is located in has a total of 39 villages. Out of these 39 villages only 7 have Christians living in them. Now, all the villages have an Orthodox church located in them but this does not mean that the people are Christian and have a relationship with God. He told us a story about a woman in one of the villages that decided that she wanted to have her child babtized. So, she went to the church on Sunday and no one was there! It was empty! She said that the church just serves more as a historical monument than a meeting place for Christians. Out of the 7 villages that have Christians, the number is few...about 100 Christians total out of the 39 villages.The People
He informed us that even though people may be very hospitable, they are not so open to recieve the gospel. They may believe that God exist but they have no interest in going to church, reading the Bible, or doing any of the other things that come with professing to be a Christian. One of the main problems in the area is alcoholism. Many people just drink wine, or beer if they don't have wine, all day...get up the next morning and do the same. Most have a very negative view of Christianity. They believe that when you become a Christian you are basically closing your life. They associate the Christian life with the words boring, tradition, rules and regulations. Why would anyone want to become a Christian? When someone does recieve Christ the surrounding community asks them..."are you crazy? What are you doing?"
Discussion Time
Yesterday was an encouraging day for us. As I shared before, every evening around 5pm we go to the local soccer field and meet a bunch of kids for a type of youth camp. Recently, the teenagers have been closed to discussing Biblical issues, but yesterday after sharing a little teaching on faith, trust and hearing God speak, some of the girls from the group opened up and stared asking alot of questions. This is a good sign because the comunistic culture here teaches kids not to ask questions and not to engauge in discussion when being taught. But we encouraged them to do so. So, they were asking us all kinds of questions and we were able to expain to them what we have learned and give biblical basis for each of our answers. They were asking so many questions that we had to cut the time short or we would have been there all night! We told them to come back today with more questions. Hopefully this time is strengthening thier faith in God.
Prayer Points
-Pray for us as we continue to work with the kids and teenagers, we have two more times with them and then we leave on Saturday.
-Pray for the issues I shared earlier about the culture and the negative view of Christianity.
-That God keeps the Christians strong in the area.
-For more people to rise up in the other districts that don't have Christians to start some type of ministry.
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