around the world with Jesus

Not sure how to process that kind of poverty, but I know that God smiles on a young lady going out of her way to help. I know he really smiles on a young couple in the church that have commited to keeping in touch with the kids and doing whatever they can possibly do to help. Igor said, “I didn’t know that poverty like this exists in my village.”

Here are the kids devouring the food…

Is there poverty like that where you live? What can be done? I realize some soup, chicken and toys won’t change their lives…but in combination with a caring couple from a caring church who walks with those kids as they get older…I think it could.

Proud of Zach, Mikellah, Karen, Claire and the team. Here are Zach’s thoughts about the day… http://zachfornerministries.blogspot.com/.

Thanks for keeping Lena and Dani in prayer.

I've been a lot of places, but few of them are like the home of Andre, Lena and Dani. These three siblings don't know where their father is and their mother has gone to another country for work. She left some money at the local market for her kids to have food. That was last summer and she hasn't returned.

There are older siblings who help watch them but they're in the fields all day. The kids stay home…when it's hot and when it's cold.

We got their information from the mayor. He said they were in desperate need.

Igor is a local pastor's son. He and his wife went with us to their home yesterday and today. Igor said he didn't know poverty like this existed in his village. They were moved.

More photos and video later…

This team works hard, we might as well play hard. Our flights to Moldova took us through Vienna, where we had 5 1/2 hours to either purchase expensive gifts/food and sit on hard chairs at an airport, or to take a train to the heart of the historic city. We did the latter.

Here we are at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

We enjoyed the catacombs under the cathedral, and I enjoyed some good Vienna coffee.

Then, we left for Moldova. In all, for me it took 30 hours from my driveway (about 24 for the team, I had an earlier 1st leg) to the Pentecostal Union where we’re staying tonight. Though the trip was long, I got good sleep, everything was on time, we have all of our luggage, all are healthy and it’s a comfortable bed.

We met up with the missionaries with whom we’ll work, had a nice dinner and are excited about tomorrow. We’ll head north and work in the village of Mihailena. Likely won’t have internet access for a while…

Thanks for the prayers. All are well, and most are sleeping. Will blog again if I can get on line again. Until then, twitter updates via text are about all I’ll be able to do.

Still sitting in the O’Hare airport with time to share some thoughts…

You can also read more about Moldova here.

So I got up way too early today to catch a flight out of Springfield (the 5:50 a.m.) to Chicago and then (through various connections) to Chisnau, Moldova. The team will rendeavous with me here in O’Hare as they get the second flight out. We’ll fly the rest of the way together. Tired.

While walking aimlessly in Terminal C with very little sleep I encountered “The Architect.” Karl Rove was a Bush advisor and…well if you care about politics, you know Karl Rove.

Should I talk to him I wondered? I twittered the fact that he was near. My friend Will Kousma texted back and encouraged me to get a photo with him in my Burger King shirt. The Burger King shirt is a long story…I’ll tell that another time. But in honor of my friend Will (and Travis and others), here’s the photo (I carry the shirt with me in carry-on on all international trips):

We actually had a fun conversation…about 5 minutes or so. I pay attention to politics and loved engaging with the man who by all accounts is amongst the greatest political strategists in U.S. history.

At the end, we took the BK photo and he said he was going to go write a column for the Wall Street Journal. I told him to tell me hello in his column. He said he would…I suggested he use the word “Obama” to actually mean, “Hello Matt Wilkie.” He thought that was a great idea.

Watch for it in the upcoming column.

Ever make a fun memory like that?

They’re a wonderful and hard working team. Our fall ‘08 interns will serve in the areas affected by Ike, Moldova and Armenia.

As part of our training, we stopped by Project Rescue, an organization that helps those affected by human trafficking. Here we are with David and Beth Grant. The team will plant a garden and do more to help a Home of Hope (through Project Rescue) in Moldova.

We had dinner Thursday night with a young lady from Armenia…perhaps the only one in Springfield. Fun conversation.

I look forward to sharing more about this great team of 13.

Our interns are in the midst of changing plans…instead of training, the team is heading to Texas to assist with Hurricane Ike response. Pray as we make this change.

Here we are with our Disaster Response director, Kary Kingsland.