The Army at work…

Life has started to get into some sort of routine for us, although there have still been some highlights which we are happy to share with you.

We finished off last time mentioning the visit of some people from IHQ to check out our 'Sally Ann' work project. They have been and gone, and together we explored some ideas for helping this fledgling ‘business’ grow. During the few days they were with us, we travelled to Ungheni, a town in the north west of Moldova where the project began in this country. It was good to meet with the ladies who sew the items which are shipped to Norway and Sweden in response to orders received. It was moving to hear their stories of how this work helps them to improve their meagre lifestyle. Similar stories would be told in every village in Moldova as the government provides nothing to help people in these situations. It’s good to be able to say The Salvation Army is making an effort to provide work opportunities like this, and we want this to expand. This is more than band aid treatment for the problems that exist…it is tackling the root issues that cause so much hardship. Unemployment rates in the rural areas are around 80%, but this is a start. The pictures below show the ladies making beautiful linen tablecloths and place mats.

Sunday 20th January we travelled about 20 kms out of Chisinau to a small town called Ialoveni. Here there was a warm congregation to greet us, and special guests from the local government were also there for the service. They spoke appreciatively of the work of the Corps leader and members in the community. Every day, a meal is provided for some of the poorest people in the town, and humanitarian aid is distributed to agencies and individuals by The Salvation Army as it becomes available from neighbouring countries. Even though many of our Corps are ‘smallish’ (35-70 people) they still have a significant impact on their communities.

On Saturday 26th January (Australians all let us rejoice..etc) we set off with the Mobile Medical Team to visit a country village, Dezghingea, to see them in operation (no pun intended!)

We arrived at what used to be the local hospital, and already about 200 people had gathered there in wait for some attention. There are no medical services at all in this village, and the nearest town with any services is about 10 kms away. A long way when you have no transport – and no money, especially for the elderly.

The state of village roads

The hall where the clinic was held

Locals coming to the clinic. Many of these horse drawn carts share the bad roads with fast moving trucks and cars.

The day started with a greeting by the local district health official, who expressed his appreciation for the ministry of the doctors. Dr. Caraman, a Salvationist who heads the team responded, and in his response, pointed out that the greatest healing comes when we encounter God. A singing group of five from the nearest Corps sang a couple of songs and a brief spiritual message was given.

The crowded waiting corridor

The doctors then went to their battle stations and consultations began. There is a gynaecologist, a cardiologist, general practitioner, ENT specialist, paediatrician, dentist, and pharmacy staff. We were taken to each consulting room (except the gyno) to hear about their work. It was interesting to observe two or three patients being consulted at the one time, and to see the primitive conditions in which they operate, with no modern medical technology at their disposal. Mothers of young babies also come to receive formula for their children.

'Two or three at a time...'

This old lady had just received a free hearing aid

Ian was doing OK until we entered the dentist’s room. Because of the state of people’s teeth, and the lack of ability to do fillings etc, all he does is pull teeth. A quick jab with anaesthetic, wait two minutes (if they are lucky) and then yank!!! A ‘two point shot’ is then performed with the offending article being thrown into the adjacent rubbish bin! At this point, Ian had to sit down, (although he was careful not to sit too close to the dentist in case he was mistaken for the next patient.)

'This won't hurt a bit!'


Pharmaceuticals waiting to be distributed

Also during the morning, we presented a wheel chair to a boy about 15 yo, who had cerebral palsy. (We learnt that his father had worked at Chernobyl when the nuclear reactor melted, and both children in the family have difficulties which are attributed to the father's exposure to radiation). Previous to this he had to be carried by his family wherever they went. Now he is mobile, although one wonders how he will go on muddy dirt roads with hundreds of potholes. The look on his face was worth it all. We also took another wheelchair around to a home where the husband, about 60, had suffered a stroke and was paralysed down one side. This will also give him some more ability to get outside and around a bit. The whole experience was great, and highlighted the value that this mission has in 15 villages throughout the country.

Nostalgiac picture in one of the clinic rooms from Soviet times - Lenin keeping watch!

Just before we left the clinic, we wandered across to the adjacent Orthodox Church for a look. The priest, Father Dimitri, was delighted that we wanted to come in, went and got the keys, robed up for us and spoke about the 200 year old church and his ministry. We have heard stories of the Orthodox Church’s opposition to the protestant church, including the Army included, but as we talked together for about 30 minutes, it was good to share about the things that unite us rather than divide us. It was a special time.

Ian, Father Dimitri and Captain Lev Friedkin, DHQ

The beautiful, very ornate Orthodox Church

The roof of the Church

The next day, we visited Criuleni, a small village about 35 kms from home, and were privileged to meet with the members of this Corps in worship. Their building is a house which has had two rooms made into one for their meeting area, about 3m by 10m. There were 30 people in attendance. The building has no heating, and it was very, very, very cold. At the end of the service, hot tea and biscuits were served. Many of the people in this country meet in cold conditions, although the Territory is endeavouring to address this problem. Requests often come to DHQ asking for extra finance because they can’t afford their heating bills.

Criuleni Salvation Army Hall. Like many builidngs of this vintage,
the roof is made of asbestos!

Inside the hall.

Children participating in worship

Strong, sweet, hot black tea and biccies!!
Most welcome in this cold hall.

We had our own Australia Day celebrations on Monday by hanging our flag in the lunch room, then introducing the staff to vegemite on bread. There were mixed reactions, but some have become converts.

Today we visited a Corps in the far north (Edinets) which has a small meeting room and weekday administration facilities in a basement provided free of charge by the local government. As we sat and shared with the officers, two buckets caught the drops of water coming from the ceiling. It felt and smelt damp, and the small blower heater in the corner did little to warm us up. We had been given some money from friends in Australia to use at our discretion, so we had great pleasure in telling them to go and buy a decent electric heater, and sent us the bill.

Corps Officers of Edinets - Captains Ivan and Svetlana German and family!

We conclude with a few photos from our installation meeting which was held on 13th January.

Traditional Moldovan welcome: partaking of bread, salt and juice.

Some of the congregation

Commissioners Wim and Netty van der Harst conducting the Installation

Tag Team preaching - English/Russian style!

That’s it for now. Until next time…..

Ian and Viv xox

MIXED BLESSINGS....

Quite a lot has happened since our last post. Life has been pretty 'full on' and we haven't had much chance to update our blog, but here goes....

When we closed off last time, we were anticipating the visit of our Territorial leaders on the weekend to conduct our Installation meeting. Well, they have been and gone, and a few things happened either side of their visit that we would like to fill you in on.

Friday the 11th, we visited the women’s prison at a tiny village called Rusca, 30+ kms from Chisinau. There are about 350 women in this prison, and we have an employee who does several classes during the week, ranging from computer education, language classes, and Bible studies. These are well attended, and help equip the women with skills that will give them a better chance of getting employment when they are released. Because of this, the Army’s work is greatly appreciated in the prison. We went to distribute Christmas gifts to the prisoners, and held an event similar to the one at Basarabeasca we described in our last post. A music group presented a short concert attended by about 120 of the women in a rather small hall. The Christmas story was shared, and the challenge was given about responding to the good news about Jesus.

There was a special celebration lunch for those involved in the various classes that are taught. It was a very moving experience to see a dramatic presentation of the Christmas story by the women after the lunch, and then to hear many of them eager to share the story of how their lives have been greatly impacted by the classes and the general support the Army has given them.
When lunch had finished, gifts were distributed to all the prisoners who had lined up outside in sub zero temperatures! We arrived home around 6-30 pm. It had been a rather long, but extremely fulfilling day.

Commissioners Wim and Netty van der Harst, the Territorial Commanders for Eastern Europe Territory, flew in on Saturday morning from Moscow for the weekend. After picking them up from the airport, we drove to a small village where one of the Corps in Chisinau conducts a weekly children’s program each Saturday. We were welcomed enthusiastically by about 100 kids as we entered a small classroom. They sang carols for us and shared what they had learnt in their Bible class. Then we in turn were asked to sing an Australian carol. I think it was the first time ‘The Three Drovers’ had ever got an airing in that part of the world. It didn’t matter too much that we forgot half the words, because no-one understood what we were singing anyway. It was challenging for us to see the delight on the faces of the children as they received their Christmas gifts of a packet of three buns, and two Chupa Chups each.

Sunday morning 13th January, about 200+ people gathered at Chisinau Central Corps for our Installation meeting. It went well. We were welcomed in traditional Moldovan fashion by being offered bread, salt and a drink of grapejuice (wine is the go for non Salvos!!) We were invited to take some bread, dip it in the salt, and eat it. The drink helped wash it down. We felt the warmth of the welcome of our people, and sensed a real ‘Army spirit’ in the meeting.

In the afternoon, officers from DHQ shared lunch with the van der Harst’s. (You'll be interested to know that the Commissioner ordered 'carp' for lunch...it is his favourite!!) We then drove about 30kms to Capriana where there is a beautiful Orthodox monastery. The setting and the buildings are rather awe inspiring, and as it happened, we were there in time for afternoon prayers. We stayed in the church for about half an hour, taking in the solemnity and ancient ritual of the worship, as well as enjoying some magnificent harmonic singing by a male choir. It was a special experience.

Monday 14th January, we celebrated 30 years of marriage! We were presented with a gift at morning prayers, and then another Moldovan tradition was carried out in our office, as they wrapped us in a linen cloth symbolising the desire that we continue to be bound together into the future. After a day of discussions together, the van der Harst’s took us out for dinner that night to a local restaurant. These will be treasured memories of a special day.

The last few days it has been ‘down to business’. With a national holiday period of ten days, special events happening in the division, and our luggage finally arriving, the last few weeks have been rather ‘messy’. Hopefully now we can get into some regular pattern of operation. Another busy weekend lies before us as we share with a team who have come today from International Headquarters to see the operation of 'Sally Ann' in Moldova. Poverty and unemployment are huge issues in Moldova, and this is a 'Fair Trade' project aimed at providing work for women to make linen tablecloths, runners and napkins for sale in Norway and Sweden. It is a fledgling project, and they will hopefully give assistance to help us develop it further into the future. A bit more about it next week.

That’s it for now…. Until next time!

Ian and Viv xo

A CHILLY BLAST

The Moldovans are presently enjoying 10 days of holiday which give opportunity to celebrate the New year and 'Old Christmas' . In fact today is Christmas Day (AGAIN!!). As we sit here at 10.30am and look out of our lounge room window it is snowing quite heavily ... ‘A WHITE CHRISTMAS!’ A few folk have ventured out and are trudging through the snow.

In the last week Moldova has been experiencing sub zero temperatures – in fact Saturday reached -16°C.

In answer to the question ‘Does -16° feel any different than -5°C?’, the answer is 'YES' – it is a painful difference with fingers aching with cold and exposed areas of the face burning with cold! But we are keeping well covered so as to avoid frostbite.

We have been giving our 'thermals' and cold weather

gear from Kathmandu a real hammering!!!

On most days last week, we took the opportunity to do a bit of walking around the town…still negotiating the icy footpaths, but we’re getting better. The shops still hold a lot of interest…department stores are really multi-storey indoor markets…with a multitude of stalls clumped together in different departments (e.g. 15 independent stalls in the shoe department).

The few supermarkets that exist are also most interesting. Most times we hope that the picture on the packet is a true representation of what is inside. Sometimes it is pretty obvious what you are buying e.g. fresh fish…..

....but careful reading of the price tag can give further insight.....

(This the correct Moldovan spelling!) As tempting as it was..we bought frozen Fish Fingers instead!

On Saturday morning we left early to travel to a town called Basarabeasca about 1½ hours drive south of Chisinau. We drove along icy roads with snow covering the fields. (it was -16°C as we set out). It was a beautiful drive as we passed through fascinating little villages that we would love to come back and explore at our leisure at a later stage. We saw wells scattered throughout the villages and we are told they are still used by the villagers who don’t have running water connected.

We travelled in a mini bus with a number of folk from Botanika corps who formed a music group for the occasion. The Salvation Army had never visited this village before. Basarabeasca is a very poor village with a strong Turkish and gypsy influence. We had humanitarian aid packages to deliver to children who had been identified by town authorities as the most needy in the town. We set up in the ‘cultural hall’ and by the time we started over 300 people had gathered. It was quite amazing! The group sang Christmas songs and presented the story of Christmas and the good news of God’s love for them. After this, the aid parcels were distributed to the children. Lack of a good system saw a number of children ‘double dipping’ and it seems word had got around town that there were ‘freebies’ for everyone, so there were chaotic scenes at times.

Contents of the gift parcels.

We then made a brief visit to the children’s ward at the hospital before making our way home. Conditions here were very basic to say the least – again like walking back in time to the 1940’s or 50’s!

Corner of the Dining Room at the Children's Hospital

On Sunday we set out again in freezing conditions and walked about 25mins to ‘Rainbow of Hope’ corps. A mix-up in arrangements meant that we didn’t have a translator but with sign language and a few people having a few words of English we managed. We weren’t preaching but shared a brief spot in the meeting telling a bit about ourselves and singing the English version of a couple of the songs that had already been sung in the meeting. It was a good meeting. We saw a dramatic representation of the Christmas story and enjoyed a number of musical contributions.

Entrance to Rainbow of Hope Corps. They rent a classroom
in the University..

Captains Ana and Valerii Tkach - Corps Officers

Dramatisation of the Christmas story.

Vadim - an intelligent and very gifted 11 y.o. but like many children in Moldova, he has been abandoned by his parents and is being brought up by his grandmother. It is a struggle for them to make ends meet, and one wonders whether he will reach his full potential because of his circumstances.

Corps Officer preaching

..even William and Catherine Booth were brought in on the celebrations !!!

'Rainbow of Hope’ corps is blessed with a very good pianist, Natasha, who can play well by ear. She sits at the piano throughout the service, which is located right next to where the officer preaches. We noticed during the meeting that Natasha had a tendency to nod off…but there were enough musical items scattered throughout the service to bring her back to the real world. However, the sermon took a little longer (about 30mins) and as the officer was concluding the meeting with prayer, in those quiet, tender moments, the sound of heavy snoring began to be heard right through the hall. At this point the officer, while still praying, reached out his hand and shook her on the shoulder. This prompted her to go into ‘automatic pilot’ mode(or should this be automatic pianist!) and she immediately started playing!!! There was a little titter around the hall and then everyone acted as if nothing had happened.
We were blessed to be a part of this simple, but very sincere service.

As we walked home, it was great to see people skating on the lake near our apartment… another indication of how cold it has been.

They must be confident that the ice is thick enough to do this. We do our skating on the footpaths!

We look forward to getting back to work on Wednesday. Our Territorial Commanders, Commissioners Wim and Netty van der Harst, arrive next Saturday to conduct our Installation next Sunday morning at the Central corps. This will be a combined meeting. (We have just checked the weather forecast, and Sunday morning will be minus 12. THERE IS NO HEATING IN CENTRAL CORPS!!! Aaaarrgghh!!!!)

The TC's will be staying with us for 3 nights. Viv hopes she has mastered the oven and the food by then…but then there is always chow mein!!!

Until next time…LOL Viv and Ian xoxoxo