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TESTIMONIALS
Each team member comes home with something different. Though we go and work as a team, there are always many unique experiences that can be found. Many of our past team members have received totally different blessings from the same event. It's amazing how the Lord will work in your heart and show you things that you've never even imagined. Your eyes become opened to the world around you and it's various cultures and people groups that you may have known about but never experienced. Don't be suprised if you come home with a passion and flame in your heart for the missions field.
We have compiled testimonies from some of the past team members to help you better understand what can be expected while part of a team. They are shown in random order and you can reload the page to view more (if available).
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 Karen Ferguson
Moldova 2003
Moldova is the trip of a life time. The people are so gracious and loving, the countryside is lush and green, the food is fantastic. But God has been invisible and distorted to so many. You get a chance to show them the God of love and comfort and to see Him work and change lives that have experienced nothing but hardship. The trip is not easy. It is exhausting and stretches you farther than you think you can go. But when it is all over, you come away seeing God with new eyes and hoping God was able to minister through you as much as they ministered to you.
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 Heather Johnston
Moldova 2003
I’ve had the privilege to go on a few mission trips over the past couple of years. One thing that has always been true is that the trip will never go exactly as you plan. I think this is God’s way of saying “Hey I’m in control here!”. “Always be flexible and willing to do what ever comes up” is something that is very important when going on short term mission trips. Just because they don’t do things the way we do doesn’t mean it’s wrong, just different. Keep a learning spirit and you will have a wonderful time and go with no expectations of the people. This will give you a chance to see them for who they really are and not for who you hope they will be. You’ll be able to really see the beauty and sometimes the hard things of the people that you will be serving. They’re real people too, who live real lives and go through real struggles and joys! I enjoy going on short term missions because it shows me just how much I really have to learn about myself, my God, and the world around me! I always come home feeling like I’ve been given more than I gave.
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 Paul Ferguson
Moldova 2003
As I look back on our trip, I look at it from two perspectives. First as a participant and then as a team leader. As a participant, I am always impressed by how God is pleased to work through me to reach people of a different culture and language. I am also taken back as my faith is challenged and grown by the response and faith of our Moldovan brethren in Christ. God has revealed to me how small my faith is in comparison to many of these believers who have been through the fire of communist oppression.
As a team leader and pastor, the impact is much different. It is exciting to see God work in the hearts and lives of people from my congregation in the months leading up to the trip as well as on the trip itself. Although they cannot completely understand what a missionary does, they certainly gain a greater appreciation for them. The experience also forces them to lean more and more heavily on God and that translates to a closer walk with Him by the time they go and an attitude of learning which brings a quantum leap in their growth by the end of the trip.
It is definitely more than worth the time, effort and cost.
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 Stephanie Buss
Moldova 2003
Mission Moldova 2003 was an adventure I will never forget. I went with intentions of doing great things, but I was humbled when I saw that God was doing the great things through the team. We went to be His hands--and that's what we did. God blessed the 12 of us with the opportunity to work with awesome people there in Moldova. The trip was most humbling and at the same time an amazing blessing.
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 Nicki Ferguson
Moldova 2003
Moldova was amazing. I absolutely loved my time over there. My heart was changed as well as my whole mind set towards life.
When we got to Moldova I had my mission and it was going to be accomplished. I was not going to let that mission fail! Well, the mission didn’t fail, it just got rearranged. My priorities were different. Instead of being mission-minded I was people-minded. Instead of counting the number of new Christians, I was praising God for the one I had just heard about. Instead of being satisfied for what was done, I found myself looking at all the other students and thinking how much more needed to be done. My heart broke for those that were still not saved. On the way back from Moldova, in the luxurious plane (or not!) of Moldova Air, I couldn’t help but think of all my students. I started to cry and then words started to flow out of my mind onto paper. I was crying about the students I left behind. I didn’t want my students to be separated from God forever. It was just too much for me. Instead of being “missions-minded” my heart is now what tells me to go on a missions trip. I am driven now by my heart for the people, not the thought that the missions trip is what I should do. This is what the one trip to Moldova did for me.
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 Nathan Filion
Moldova 2003
The trip to Moldova was an amazing experience for me. It challenged me both spiritually and physically and taught me to rely completely on the Lord. Though we went to tell others about God, I feel that I learned even more than them. The entire experience has brought me into a deeper and more personal relationship with the Lord.
When I was first asked to be a part of the team, I was both excited and nervous. Two and a half weeks is a long time to take off from work and I didn’t know how I would do it. The money that I needed to raise seemed near impossible, and I didn’t think I was mature enough spiritually to do what was asked of me. However, it was God’s plan for me to go and He made it happen.
I was gladly given the time off that I needed from work and they also generously supplied me with a large First-Aid/Trauma bag and all the supplies to go in it. I also had overwhelming prayer and financial support from my family and friends so that all of the needed money was raised. God took care of me and, as I saw everything falling into place, I had more and more confidence that I could do what He asked of me. Watching the Lord working in the lives of my other teammates was also a huge encouragement.
The entire trip itself from start to finish was an awesome learning experience. We had quite a few "bumps" during the trip, but God helped us over all of them. It was amazing. The team became family during the trip including many of the Moldovans. We helped each other, encouraged each other, and prayed for each other. I now have many friendships that I know will last a lifetime.
I highly encourage everyone to be a part of at least one short-term missions trip no matter what you think your capabilities may be. God will use you in amazing ways to reach out to the world. It will be an experience you will never forget and I am positive you will gain a passion to go on another trip and maybe even long-term missions.
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 Becky Bauer
Moldova 2003
I need to start by saying how incredible my trip was to Moldova. I actually didn’t want to leave. It was the most tiring, frustrating, and life changing ten days of my life. That trip has led me to the career that I want to follow for the rest of my life.
One of the things that I found would have helped with our attempts at getting to know the students is just to dive in. Steven Curtis Chapman sings a line that states: “I’m divin’ in, goin’ deep, in over my head I want to be…”. That’s what needs to happen on this type of cross-cultural mission trip where you are in a country where few know English and you don’t speak their language. You just have to step out of your comfort zone and try. There are amazing blessings from God when you do.
For me it was a young boy named Vadim (pronounced Vah-deem). Unfortunately it took until Wednesday for me to do it, but Vadim broke into my box and showed how accepting people are when you show that you’re trying. The rest of the week was a blast! (Not that the first half wasn’t, I was just more willing to try the second half.) Our students tried so hard in their studies to learn, and they rewarded us with patience and excitement when we tried to learn Romanian. When they joked about our accents or pronunciation, it was without malice or cruelty. It was with acceptance and humor.
Moldova shattered the box I had built around myself. Sometimes it is hard and scary to let God expand our comfort zones, but I have received some of the sweetest rewards from it.
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 Zack Veselik
Moldova 2003
Moldova is a field ripe for the harvest. The students that we had the opportunity to work with were open to spiritual issues and are hungry for a deep, personal relationship with God. It was both a blessing and a challenge to be on the first Team of this kind. However the difficulties were few and taught all of us on the team what it meant to trust in God. (I remember the huge issue that simply getting the meals to camp became. Yet we were never hungry and God provided in amazing ways.) On the other hand, the blessings were too numerous to count and the people of Moldova will always be close to my heart.
The Moldovan leadership team were great to work with. There are some amazing things happening in Moldova and he is using the nationals to accomplish his work. What a blessing to work along side these brothers and sisters in assisting them in God's work.
Finally, It is God who is at work in Moldova. It is a tendency for us humans to over-emphasize our role in kingdom issues. Yet this is God's work and amazingly He calls us to get on board with his agenda. I always want to be where God wants me and where God is working.
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