letter from Moldova
Горячий христианский привет каждому читателю! Translated from Russian, this reads: Warm Christian greetings to every reader!
It is now just over 20 years since I made my first mission trip to Moldova writes Donald J. Morrison. One afternoon at the London Theological Seminary (LTS) compound in London, a Moldovan friend – with whom I was studying – asked if I would do him a ‘very big favour’. Sometimes we discover that swiftly saying ‘yes’ without any rational thought can have far reaching and widespread consequences! What was this ‘very big favour’? Would I drive a 15-seater bus, gifted by a London church, to his home town, Cahul in Moldova! Always open to a new challenge, I volunteered to go! The six-day epic journey was memorable – in more ways than one! After travelling through seven countries, and encountering mega ‘border problems’ we finally reached our destination, having covered 1,840 miles! Since then, we have been back many times. Before providing a report about my very latest trip, let me give you a brief overview of the country.
Forgotten country
Moldova is a beautiful landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered only by Ukraine on the north, east, and south, and Romania on the west. The main part of the country lies between two rivers: the Prut in the west, which forms the border to Romania, and the Nistru (Dniestr) in the east. On the eastern bank of the Nistru lies the breakaway region of Transnistria, a narrow strip of land that is legally part of Moldova but de facto functions as an independent state, with border controls, its own government, constitution, currency, etc. Due to poverty, low level of life and poor education, people are forced to leave the country looking for a better life for themselves and their families. Currently it is estimated that out of a population of 3.5 million citizens, well over a million people are working abroad.
