FRANTIC CATCH UP

Greetings from Moldova where the days are getting colder and shorter as we read about the record heat waves in Australia!

This blog entry is a desperate attempt to get back on track with our communication

There are many challenges and hardships being appointed in this part of the world, but on the ‘upside’ is the opportunity to have so many wonderful holiday destinations so nearby. With 6 weeks furlough owing to us this year we followed on our time home in Australia with nearly 3 weeks touring Switzerland and Italy. We planned our own itinerary taking advantage of Salvation Army accommodation in various places, and travelling by rail.

WARNING!!!

WARNING!!!

Holiday snapshots to follow.

Perhaps the best way to do this is include a few snaps from each stopover and you can drool.

Minimum commentary - We’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

INTERLAKEN. Switzerland

We flew to Milan where we stayed overnight before heading off to Interlaken the following day.

Here we stayed in an Army accommodation complex and spent our days at high altitude, gob-smacked by the spectacular mountain scenery.

Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps

Nice place for a picnic lunch!!

Us on top (almost) of Jungfrau, the highest peak in Europe

The weather was perfect with just enough snow on the mountain peaks to pretty it up. At times we hung by a cable over deep mountain ravines, at other times took the opportunity to do some walking in the mountains listening to the beautiful gentle clang of the cowbells in the distance. Such a beautiful country! Words and pictures fail to do justice to it all.

LAKE COMO

After 5 amazing days in Switzerland we boarded the train and headed down to Lake Como in the north of Italy.

Having searched the internet for accommodation we found a beautiful little hotel on the shore of the lake.

Mansions owned by the rich and famous abound, but we didn’t spot any celebrities at the take-away pizza shops we frequented!!! Once again, the scenery was spectacular, and the little villages with the narrow cobbled streets just enchanting, and the food – what can we say!!!

Pizza, gelati, pasta EVERY DAY!!!!. Just as well we also did a lot of walking.

Our 'Room with a View'

View from our 50cm wide balcony

View from a hotel where we had tea one night - stunning!

FLORENCE. Tuscany

After lake Como it was on to Florence for 3 or 4 days. We marvelled at beautiful works of art that are found in every street and in every building it seems.

The 'Beheading of John the Baptist'

Ian and Viv (Ian has his pants on!)

While based in Florence we did day trips to the old town of Sienna and the 5 towns of Cinque Terre – these are 5 old fishing / agricultural towns set miraculously into the sides of the cliffs of the Mediterranean Sea. They are now popular tourist resorts, visited by thousands every year- us included!!. It is possible to walk the track passing connecting each of the towns, but time was limited and we only managed the walk between the last 2 towns before heading back to Florence after a long day. Of course there was the obligatory trip to Pisa which we also did on the same day.

One of the five villages at Cinque Terre

NAPLES

We had ‘ummed and aahed’ as to whether or not we should visit Naples at all as this city often does not get a good reports in the tourist guides. Well we went and stayed for a few nights ‘in the back streets of Naples’ and were glad that we did. We decided that this was a city on steroids!! The traffic is crazy, there are almost as many motor scooters as people and the idea seems to be to get as many people on one scooter as possible!!

Typical Neapolitan street

While here, we travelled out to Pompeii for a day. We walked along the streets marvelling at the way in which this town has been preserved, and were intrigued to learn of the way of life back so many years ago.

Whilst in Naples we once again checked out some beautiful works of art – in particular the beautiful sculpture by Giuseppe Sammartino…’The Veiled Christ’'

There is also Via San Gregorio Armeno a street which specialises in nativity scenes – from the sublime to the ridiculous – most to our way of thinking erred on the side of ridiculous!!

AMALFI COAST. Positano

We had promised ourselves a bit of indulgence here and booked into a homely guesthouse perched high on top of a cliff in a little town just out of Positano. The view from our bedroom window was breathtaking, looking out over the Mediterranean Sea and the little town of Positano nestled below. It is a charming town with narrow, cobble-stoned streets, catering very much to tourists, but it was pleasant to wander and browse the shops.

Positano on the Amalfi Coast

One day we caught a boat to the Isle of Capri, lazed on the deck, waked around the towns on the island, then swam in the warm waters of the Mediterranean on the way back – we thought of you all as we did so!!!.

Every night we dined in a little restaurant not far from our guesthouse that must have one of the best views in the world!!

Evening view from our balcony

This was a relaxing few days before our final stop in Rome.

ROME

Once again we stayed in Salvation Army accommodation just a short distance from the centre of Rome. It was the final 4 days of our holiday and we jammed in as much as we could. There were all the usuals like the Coliseum and Trevi Fountain,but highlights of Rome for us were the St Peter’s Basilica, the visit to the catacombs and the Appian way, and of course the Vatican Museums.

Once again words and pictures fail dismally to portray all that one sees in these places. The works of art in the Vatican are truly awesome and inspiring; The Sistene Chapel did not fail to impress, and the stories of the catacombs were intriguing.

Trevi fountain from the side showing the assembled crowd

Ian walking on the ancient 'Appian Way' - the location of several catacomb sites

Catacombs near the Appian Way. Burial places for early Christians - not hiding places as some have thought in the past

St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

'La Pieta' in St Peter's Basilica

The Map Room in the Vatican. About 150 metres long, every wall has a painting of an ancient area of Italy.

The Swiss Guard (and a nun!) at the Vatican

Our audience with the Pope (along with about10,000 others)

If you squint you can see him in white in centre stage.

The history, architecture, scenery and culture of Italy are rich, and of course the links with the early church are evident everywhere.

All in all – a wonderful holiday. We returned with suntans, a little fitter because of all the walking and ready again to put our heads down as we returned to Moldova.

So often we have to pinch ourselves as we visit all these wonderful places. We could never have imagined how the world has literally opened up to us. But it truly is our work in Moldova that brings us greatest satisfaction as we continue to work with the Salvationists of that division, endeavouring to make a difference for the sake of God’s kingdom here on earth.

Until next time….

Ian and Viv xoxo

It's been how long ?????????

What can we say??? Well, we are still alive and kicking.

Life has been busy and of course there have been important things like holidays to fit in to our schedule. We’ll try to fill you in on our activities since our past post.

It was good cause for celebration on May 10^th when we held the opening ceremony of a new building at Cahul in the south of Moldova. This had been a long, challenging building project (as it always seems to be in Moldova), but the building came up magnificently on the day. Salvationists from neighbouring corps joined in the celebrations and Commissioners Wim and Netty van der Harst were the guests. Before the official opening Salvationists gathered in the town square to advertise the special event and then enthusiastically marched to the hall. In true Moldovan style they were able to miraculously feed all those present before the long trip home over those horrible roads in a vehicle with no suspension. (Thank God for Voltaren!)

Making our presence known in Cahul Town Square

Marching up the street to the Hall

Checani Band playing outside before the official opening

Feeding the troops after the service

In early June Moldova hosted the Commissioning events of 14 cadets. TheEastern Europe Territory consists of 5 countries and because of political tensions it has not always been possible for the cadets to be together during their training. In fact the 3 cadets from Georgia have had to do the majority of their training in isolation, because of the tensions between Russia and Georgia.

It was great to have them all together in Moldova for the final weeks of training and then to share together for their Commissioning.

14 Cadets - 10 were from Moldova

Just a week after that… at last!!!…we were heading home to Australia for nearly 4 weeks furlough.

How sweet it was to walk through those doors at Tullamarine airport and hear little Joel call out ‘Nanna!! And, of course meeting and cuddling our dear little Sadie for the first time. As you can imagine the tears were flowing as we all met up again.

We stayed with Beth while we were in Melbourne, with Megan and Andrew not being too far away. Matt and Clare had travelled over from Adelaide to be with us, so we were able to spend lots of time together. Fish and chips was one of the meals we were looking forward to! One meal was enough!

We celebrated 3 significant birthdays while we were home. On our first Saturday it was Sadie’s 1^st birthday. Many family and friends gathered together for a BBQ lunch (another thing we have missed!) and then there was the gift giving.

Sadie's new handbag

The following Saturday it was ‘fairy bread’ again as we celebrated Joel’s 2^nd birthday with a ‘Thomas, The Tank Engine’ theme going. The night before, Viv helped Megan and Beth decorate the cake while the fellas headed off to an AFL game. It was lovely to be a ‘hands on Nanna’.

Waiting patiently for 'Pass the Parcel'

Making the 'Thomas the Tank Engine' cake

The magnificent finished article

By the 3^rd Saturday we were in Adelaide and mixed with the extended Callander clan as we celebrated Mum’s 95^th birthday. All a bit overwhelming I think, but she enjoyed having the family around. She is keeping remarkably well and still as sharp as a pin!!

Mum's 95th Birthday - she's looking good!!

Before arriving in Adelaide after leaving Melbourne, we spent 3 days at a holiday house in Daylesford with our immediate family. It was just lovely to cook meals together, play table games, enjoy the spa tub, browse the antique markets and the Lake Bookshop, and of course, the coffee shops and walk around the lake. It really was a memorable time together….and what a joy to have our 2 grandchildren jump into bed with us of a morning!!

Yahtzee and breakfast together - good times

The Spinks Clan in the Daylesford park

Some serious 'cousin chemistry' taking place

Then it was on to Adelaide where we stayed with Matt and Clare. Being Viv’s hometown it was also possible to catch up with her sister, Judy and her girls. We took the opportunity to ‘do coffee’ on the Norwood Parade on several occasions and did a family trip to Gumeracha where we fed the animals together at the ‘zoo’ at ‘the Big Rocking Horse’. Simple outings were so enjoyable!!!

Great grandma is how old..????

The 'men' feeding a 'roo at Gumeracha in the Adelaide hills.

It was refreshing to do business in a ‘no hassle’ manner, where the service was efficient and courteous and no stamps required. Travelling on smooth highways was another enjoyable experience, without the absence of blaring horns.

But of course, all good things must come to end, and long-anticipated holiday was over. It was 30 hours between boarding the plane in Adelaide before we set down in Chisinau!!!! There were 2 long airport stop-overs in Singapore and Istanbul. As tired as we were, we returned to our apartment where 7 young Americans had taken up residence. They were members of a Mission team from U.S. Central Territory. I definitely wasn’t cooking a meal for them first up, so it was a matter of a quick shower then all out for a pizza. Don’t remember much about that meal at all!!

Anyway it was back to work the next day, facing the 100s of e-mails that awaited us and of course the catch up boards.

The Mission team spent 5 weeks in the division. (They had already spent 3 weeks there when we arrived back). They spent a week each at 2 corps conducting children’s day camps and involving themselves with general corps programs. Other activities included accompanying the Mobile Clinic to the villages and conducting children’s programs while the medical team conducted their clinic. A couple of days were spent in manual work at DHQ and then the final week spent as part of the leadership team at our Children’s Camp where about 100 under-privileged children had a wonderful time with good friends, good nutritious food, games, stories, swimming and of course Bible teaching. A team from the UK also helped in the leadership of the camp. Of course tears were shed as they left and as always there was the sense of mutual blessing for those who were the visitors and the visited.

Ministry at Ungheni Corps

Street ministry at Dubossari

They did get tired at times.

The night before leaving to go home - memories of last years team!!!!

With our visitors 'out of the way' we seriously started to search for a new apartment to rent. We had been paying too much rent for too long, and the finance is just not available for us to purchase a new property at this time. Sadly, the world financial crisis has meant that sponsorship money has dried up and we find ourselves having to make difficult decisions as we go through the budget process.

Anyway we found a 3 room apartment and are paying just over half the rent we were previously paying. It is actually a little better décor than our previous apartment and the owner kindly did some renovations before we moved in which have really made it a pleasant place to live, even though we have one bedroom less than in our previous apartment. Still room for visitors, so you are still all welcome.

We signed a contract and moved in within 2 weeks, spent a week there settling in and then it was off on some more holidays as there was overdue long-service leave we needed to take. We headed off for 3 weeks in Switzerland and Italy (one of the benefits of living in this part of the world means travelling a distance equal to that between Melbourne and Adelaide means that we are in a totally different country!)

Will fill you in on our next blog!

Until next time… (which will be a lot sooner than this one!!!)

Ian and Viv xoxo