"Tie your shoes and pray for the Hughes" |
Dear Friends,
In our last
letter we mentioned the first two Bible schools of the summer. We repeated the program one more time in
Soroca in the store front where we hold services. While the child to helper ratio was in our
favor (we averaged 8 kids a day with 3 workers), half of the kids knew Russian
and very little Romanian while most of the Romanian speaking kids didn’t know
Russian. You should have seen us- trying
to translate throughout the program, getting confused and addressing kids in
the language they didn’t know, and losing a child on the way to game time. (Our intern was not really at fault, but it
was an amusing story once the boy was located!)
It was a privilege to spend time with the kids, teach them about our
Savior, and try to show them His care for them.
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| VBS in Soroca |
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| VBS in Soroca |
The last
week of July we helped missionary friends run VBS at their church in southern
Moldova. We get to visit with the Ford
family periodically, but due to their ministry schedule and ours, we very
rarely have gotten to minister together.
We enjoyed working alongside them during the day then spending time
together in the evenings. Our week there
also allowed our intern to see another ministry on the foreign field. I got my exercise that week, as the kids
coaxed me into chasing them around the property by calling out the overused
English phrase “six seven.” Kids are
work, but they are also often just plain fun!
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| VBS in Hincesti |
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| VBS in Hincesti |
Rachel
finished her internship and headed back home the first week of August. She really evidenced a heart to serve and
willingly tried anything we asked of her.
She helped us a lot, showed interest in the people in our ministries and
even was sweet to our pets. She is now
back at college for her senior year and is seeking the Lord’s direction for
after graduation.
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| Rachel with Sunday School kids in Bulboci |
Finally,
we’d like to share a bit about miscellaneous things. The conflict is not yet resolved between “V”
and “G.” The problem is rooted not in one
recent event, but in many failures and hurts over decades. The council given has not yet been received,
but soon there will be other voices here to speak into their lives. Please pray that they will humble themselves
and seek restoration. The owner of the
building we used for VBS in Bulboci is willing to sell it to the church at a
reasonable price. The believers out
there seem interested and we are seeking the Lord’s direction concerning the
purchase. Once David, my coworker, is
back from furlough we will look into things more seriously. Our freezer doesn’t have much available space
as the Lord has blessed us with fruit and vegetables from the garden this
year. Yesterday Viola picked up her
renewed residency card. We have
permission to live and minister here as we continue to wait for an answer to
our citizenship application. After
finishing summer ministries, we have been catching up on ministry tasks and
work around the house. In the next few
weeks we will need to make decisions regarding fall schedule and
ministries. We have some ideas to
consider, but want to know the Lord’s mind in each of these matters. Thank you for your continued prayers and
support!
In His
service,
Jacob and
Viola Hughes
For Prayer:
1.
Forgiveness and restoration between “V” and “G”
2. Direction
regarding “M,” who has caused problems in Soroca
3. Building
for sale for the church in Bulboci
For Praise:
1. VBS in
Soroca and Hincesti
2. A few
kids coming to services in Soroca
3. Viola able to renew her residency card
