2016 Elevate Moldova Mission Trip

Well...here goes my first blog.

Where to start... In that moment I thought to myself  there is no way i am dying like this trapped in this box, especially with another man inside. I panicked. Would there be a fight to the death between mark and myself. Days of slowly dying, rotting inside until finally desperatioin kicks in and shear survival mode takes over. Would mark be the one drinking my blood to survive or would it be me drinking his?. Then the lights came back on.  I looked at mark in the face as we were going down in the rickety 1 and a half person elevator and said "I did not like that." I thoroughly meant it. And from the look on marks face, he felt the same.  The momentary pitch blackness decent into the creaky balti (belts) hotel was enough for at least myself to decide on the stairs as my new default option for now on thank you very much.  The m. Night shamylan movie about the elevator felt all to close to real in that moment. At least we all had a good laugh about it later that night. (Maybe that was a bit graphic but if I were in person telling the story Id say it just like that.)  Its the moments like that and the laughs that stick around with ya long after the trip ends.
Its funny how good it feels to be back in Moldova. Like finally finishing a book you started long ago. You remember things from the beginning of the book you forgot and the story now feels more complete. My first trip here now makes sense and I can see the purpose of it, being here again. How basically the last two years of my life were the direct result of going on my first mission trip to Moldova. Valerie, my wife agrees and was shocked when I shared this, because she said the exact same thing to others before she or I even mentioned it to each other. But I guess that's enough for tonight. I'll end this bizarre and graphic blog with this: its amazing what can come from simply saying yes to god. And its amazing what can happen and how you can grow when you step ( in faith) out of your comfort zone.