Moldova Noua

 

It was the summer of 1992 and I had a group of twenty Americans with me to distribute John & Romans in the small town of Moldova Noua.  Moldova Noua is right on the Danube river just across from Serbia.  We were staying in the only hotel in town, which is another interesting story.  We ate breakfast in the hotel and stamped invitations for the nightly meetings after breakfast.  Then we loaded up the vans and went to a neighboring village each day and distributed the John/Romans and held an evangelistic meeting that evening.  We traveled to the pastor’s home village one Saturday, which was way up on top of a mountain nearby.  It took us an hour to get to the top of the mountain and our little vehicles never got out of first gear the entire time!  We had a wonderful meeting and a sumptuous lunch afterwards at the Pastor’s sister’s home.  Pastor Adolphie Copriva’s brother-in-law was a gracious host and his family had set a wonderful table for all of us.  And there was indeed a bunch of us!  There were twenty of us Americans, our three translators and other people who were our guides – probably over 40 people for lunch.  Pastor Adolphie’s sister was out back cooking for all of us.  I wandered outside to visit her and saw her cooking for all of us on a little wood cook stove.  It was a hot day, and she was sweating over the hot stove.  But what I noticed was the smile on her face.  She was not frustrated with the large crowd nor the heat of the day, she was happy to be a blessing to all of us!  She was doing what she could to help!  What a blessed testimony!  David said in Psalm 100:2, “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”  Are you happy to serve the Lord?  Think about it.