One More Month: Email Update

Here is my most recent email update:

Dear Friends and Family,

Today is exactly one month before my departure from the U.S. to Moldova! I will be moving out of my apartment in Nashville on Wednesday and will spend the next few weeks with my family in Columbus as well as visiting a few friends around the Midwest and Southeast before I leave. I also plan on making a few trips back to Nashville for Moldova meetings as well as some final Romanian lessons. This is certainly a major life transition right now as I turned in my last paper for grad school at Vanderbilt last week (!), I worked my last day at the Nashville Symphony Friday, and my last youth group at Rolling Hills was last Wednesday. As I reflect on this transition, it is strange for me to say goodbye to the city I have lived in for five years. My time here has been full, I have made the best friends anyone could ask for, and I will leave a different person than I was when I entered Vanderbilt as a nervous freshman five years ago. I am not sure what to expect from this next season of life in a new country, but I do know that the Lord has gone ahead of me.

My preparation for next year is going quite well. I have been meeting weekly with Brent Hutchinson, one of the pastors at Rolling Hills, for mentoring and logistical preparation. Brent and I just finished reading The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning together, a book I would highly recommend. I am thankful for the spiritual, emotional, and mental help and advice he has given me over the past months. I have also been taking Romanian lessons from a Moldovan lady who lives here in Nashville. I am so thankful for her as the learning is going so much better than when I was trying to stubbornly teach myself with a book and audio CD!

Logistically, things are falling into place. I have applied for a three-month visa which should arrive shortly, I have been talking to Jamey and Matthew--two guys from Rolling Hills who have been in Moldova for a year already--about ideas and plans for this year, and I am in a good, but not ideal, place financially. My plane tickets have been purchased, I am in the middle of downsizing all of my belongings into two duffel bags, and all of my final medical check-ups are scheduled for the next month. So, all in all, I'm ready to go.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1) Pray that I would be sensitive to how God is speaking over the next few weeks. Honestly, leaving Nashville is not easy for me. I want to know what He is doing in and around me during this time as well as how He is preparing me for this upcoming year.

2) Pray that my time with friends and family over the next few weeks would be meaningful and memorable. This is so important for me as I will be very far away for a long time and will not have the type of support in Moldova that I have here. Also pray, however, that God would prepare people in Moldova who will become that type of support for me.

3) Pray that God would continue to prepare the children and youth in Moldova for what He will be doing this year. From English and music classes to Bible studies and youth group meetings, there are many opportunities for these kids to experience the love of God. Also pray specifically for a handful of guys that I will be investing much of my time in through discipleship. Pray that I would know who these young men are soon after arriving in Moldova.

4) One of the biggest things I learned while I was in Moldova in July is that people are hungry for tangible expressions of the character of God. The youth in Moldova are tired of Christians who continually preach at them but have hearts that are calloused, unfeeling, and judgmental, especially in a place where a filling meal or a heated home is a luxury. Pray that the youth would experience God, that His justice, love, mercy, and goodness would be made real to them. And pray that God would show me and other believers in the country how to practically live out our faith among the Moldovan people. Pray that there would be unity in our vision and heart for ministry. These verses from James challenge me to put my faith into action: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world....What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 1:27, 2:14-17).

5) Pray that I would learn as much as possible over the next month (and into next year) about Moldovan culture, music education, the Eastern Orthodox church, and other pertinent topics for my ministry there. (Now that I am done with grad school, I can finally spend time reading things not assigned to me for class!) In all seriousness, though, entering a culture with humility and respect is incredibly important for me, so pray that I might absorb as much background knowledge ahead of time as possible.

6) My only logistical concern, so far, is that I will not be bringing my cello with me to Moldova. My intention is to purchase an inexpensive, student instrument there. However, it is possible that this will turn into a very challenging task, so pray that God would provide an instrument without too much hassle. This is not only important to me personally, but also to my teaching in the orphanage.

Thank you for being a part of this team of ministers. Know that I could not do this without each and every one of you.

Next time in Moldova!