There is no place like home… It has been an entire week since we landed in our new home. The surreal is becoming real.

Last night I woke up, wondering if I was just dreaming that I was in Moldova. After a year of traveling through a myriad of motels and houses, I have often woke up wondering where I was! But this time, it was different. It wasn’t just another motel door across the room. The sounds I heard weren’t just another freeway outside our door.

Moldova, with all its sounds, smells, sights, and taste, is surrounding us. As we walk the city, I am still confused whether it is Russian or Romanian I am hearing.

The food has been fine…especially if you like bread, cucumbers, and tomatoes. And we live in the city, so all the city “stuff” is there. Everything is concrete, dirty, and covered with strange letters.

We are loving our time here, with all its challenges and detours. We can’t wait until we have learned some of the language, so we can quit pointing and grunting. And we are ready to do all we can to come alongside the church to help it grow.

We just want to say thanks… To the churches and individuals that have helped us get here… To the hundreds of prayer partners that continue to cover us in prayer… To the family that hauled our luggage to the airport… To the new friends that helped us haul it all to our new home…!

Next to the apartment where we are living, there is a half-built apartment. When the USSR collapsed, scores of building were stopped mid-construction. They sit empty, just concrete skeletons, dotting the landscape of Moldova.

In a strange fashion, they stand as a monument to the spiritual condition of this world…half-finished. The physical skeleton is there, but the spiritual void is evident.

May God grant the Moldovan church its prayer…that the lives of our people will become full of the Spirit of God!

Just a Builder in His Kingdom,

Andy Raatz