120 Children and two scissors: Moldova, Republic of

Country Profile

120 Children and two scissors

Moldova, Republic of | OM International

Although we contact local churches before the Bus4Life arrives in a village, we have learnt to come prepared, as things could turn out quite different!

In one of the villages, the pastor welcomed us with news that the kindergarten would visit us within half an hour! While some of our team helped Juho, the driver, get electricity and water, the others quickly put together a little programme for the children soon to arrive! And then we waited. We made tea, cleaned the bus and practiced Poi (tennis ball on a string) tricks, but still no children from the kindergarten came.

During the afternoon, we presented a youth programme for school children, and some boys played football with the teenagers. While praying and going over the day's activities the following day, we suddenly realised that the kindergarten had never made it to the bus as promised. And so we decided to bring the bus to the kindergarten...

With almost 30 little children in the bus, there was no space for our whole team. Some of the team participated in the programme in the bus, while others practiced with the Poi and talked outside. Suddenly they were surrounded by many children from the school next to the kindergarten. The children were having a break and were curious to know what was going on in this big white bus. After the kindergarten programme, we quickly gathered together and decided to prepare a Christian drama for the school children during their next break. We would then invite the children to join in our afternoon programme. A great idea! Around 80 children and teenagers watched the drama, and many good conversations were held with the teenagers.

That afternoon we had no idea how many children to expect. Someone joked that it could be somewhere between 10 and 100 children. At three o‘clock, it became apparent that God had sent us over 120 children! Our leader, who has organised many soccer camps, divided the children into 5 groups. The groups rotated every 15 minutes so that every child had the opportunity to play a ball game, do handcraft, participate in a drama and learn how special God has made them, do relay games and get a tour in the bus by the bus driver. "The day was 'tare ghine' (really good)," a boy told his aunt that evening.

And so it had been! Our plans hadn't really worked out, but God's plans were even better! Although only three team members could speak Romanian and we had only two scissors between us and space for a maximum of 40 children in the bus, He had given us the wisdom to prepare a programme for so many children within a few hours.

If you would like to know more about the Bus4Life ministry, or find out what it takes to be a Children's/ Youth Worker in Moldova, we would love to hear from you!