Bus4Life spent the months of April and May in Moldova where different teams joined the ministry. Eleven team members came from OM’s Challenge into Missions programme. Together with their three leaders they made up two smaller teams of seven people each. The two teams visited a total of 13 villages during the two months.
In one of the villages, one of the teams stayed with Daria* who is the only known believer in her village. Together with her, the team put together a children’s outreach and played Christian music. They also visited local homes, sharing the gospel with people. This prompted some protesting, and a group of approximately 40 people came to the bus shouting at the team. “Go away!” they said, “We don’t need your religion.”
When the bus left the village, its tail lights were broken by rocks that were being thrown at it. “I’ve never seen people that angry,” Bus4Life driver Teemu says. “And the angriest of them all was a little boy about nine years old. He had fire in his eyes.”
Bus4Life driver Teemu doesn’t mind the challenges. “It’s good that there’s opposition,” he says. “It means you are preaching the right gospel.”
The team returned to the village the following evening to meet with the local youth. A handful of them had visited the bus the previous day, watching a film about Jesus’ life. Whether it was because of the film or because of all the commotion around the outreach, they were curious and wanted to learn more. Almost 40 of them showed up for the youth meeting that night – in a village with only one believer!
Seeing what God does around the world
In addition to the Challenge into Missions teams, a group of American college students joined the ministry for two weeks in May. One of the students was 20-year-old Veronica, a Math major from Azusa Pacific University, who joined the university’s ‘Action Team’ (the school’s programme that brought the team to Moldova) because she wanted to see what God is doing around the world.
“Sometimes we put God in a bubble, and it’s very hard to see him outside of where we put him,” Veronica explained. “It’s good to step outside and see where he works. Meeting the kids in the villages was eye opening for me.”
Veronica enjoyed most of all seeing the children’s joy and hearing their laughter – which she describes as ‘universal’. She played with the kids despite not having a common language and learned to count to ten in the local language.
“I wanted to grow in my faith,” Veronica says when asked why she joined the team. “My faith had been challenged this year, and it was starting to feel like God is absent in my life. Being in Moldova forced me to seek a personal relationship with Him, and I’m beginning to understand that there is a bigger plan, and I’m a tool [in His hand] in all of it.”
*Daria’s name has been changed.