A Touch of Texas (Justin)

Last week, Larry Martin, the IMB Strategy Coordinator for Moldovans, invited us to come meet with a team coming from Texas to work in Chisinau for a week.
The team was The Singing Men of South Texas, a group of Baptist music ministers who have formed a choir. There were about 30 in their group, including a few wives. While in the states they learned a few songs in Russian and Romanian, and sang them in churches and orphanages here in Chisinau, as well as did EV and construction! The normally conservative churches gave them hearty applause; people appreciate attempts to learn their languages. They've posted some pictures on their website.

I met and hung out with them for a couple hours on Friday as they were prayerwalking a neighborhood in our part of the city. While I didn't end up doing much myself, I enjoyed the fellowship and seeing how they brightened the day of many people they met. If I walk up to an old woman and hand her a Gospel tract I get a stern look. But, if you have a group of gray-haired Americans with their big smiles walking around, the people they hand tracts to just look tickled to accept whatever they give.
The Singing Men did a great job of canvassing the area. I was with Larry when he ran into some Jehovah's Witnesses and that, naturally, turned into a 20-minute conversation. There are a lot of JW's here, but that's another post.

Anyway, one of the people I met knew both Gary Rhodes (Joni's choir and praise team leader) and Chris Wommack (Joni's boss) pretty well, and it was fun to make the connection. There were several Baylor alum who wanted to talk to me about Waco and Bears Football and such.

It was just real nice to see a bit of Texas in Moldova. It's also very good to hear a Southern accent every now and again, as most of the English we hear here is with a Slavic accent. I quickly moved back into my "yes ma'am"s and "y'all"s when talking with the team.