| Every week there seems to be a story on the news or in the newspapers about immigration. These stories concentrate on the effect here in the UK of the new arrivals to our shores. But what of those left behind? What is the impact on the communities and the families that stay where they are? In December I visited Gotesti in Moldova, and took Humanitarian Aid to people living in some of the worst conditions I have ever seen. As we made these visits, our partner Mark McCormick (pictured right) pointed out a common thread between many of the families we called on.
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We visited several women caring for large families on their own because their husband had gone to work elsewhere in Europe. This woman we visited (pictured left) was caring not only for her own children, but also her nephews and nieces - her husband, sister and brother-in-law have all left the country. She receives a small allowance sent back by her sister to care for the additions to her family. In other cases we have heard of both parents leaving their children with friends or neighbours.
In order to get the fare to go, families sell possessions and livestock and then borrow the rest with an interest rate of 15% per month from the local loan sharks. It can take up to two years to repay the loan before they can earn anything that benefits their family. Every month a truck from Spain or Italy arrives in Gotesti and other villages across Moldova, carrying goods for the families left behind. The driver also carries cash (for a small fee) to repay the loans for the various migrant workers. The truck then carries the next few workers waiting to leave, back to Spain or Italy to start work.
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However not all workers send anything back. We visited several families where the husband had left and they have heard nothing since. There is a whole generation of economic orphans growing up in Moldova who will never see their fathers again. The initial good intentions of earning money to help their children is replaced by a chance to escape the grinding poverty and responsibilities of parenthood and start a new life in the West.
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For example this family (pictured right) only get occasional news about their father. He has been gone 13 months and they have sold their last sheep as they struggle to make the loan repayments. Failure to make these payments could lead to repossession of all they own.
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This is just one village in one area of Moldova but the same thing is happening all over the country and across the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. There is a lot of speculation about what the impact will be on a whole generation growing up without their fathers. We will be dealing with the effects of this for decades to come, but what should we be doing now? In Psalm 68 we read:
"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families and leads forth the prisoners with singing."
There are potentially hundreds of thousands of children growing up in this new Europe who desperately need to hear that God is a father to the fatherless. The challenge is whether His church is ready, willing and able to proclaim this truth to these families and to rediscover what it means to be a community wanting to accept and care for the lonely, the widow and the fatherless.
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Our partner Mark and the Gotesti Baptist church he leads are already taking action. They are trying to support and help some of these single parents with food, livestock, wood - anything they can manage to do to help.
But what of all the other villages in Moldova and across Europe? Who will help these families and fatherless children? Who will tell them about our Father in Heaven who longs to welcome them into His family? Who will provide a loving community to accept and care for them?
At the beginning of this new year at Eurovangelism we are committing ourselves to seeing more churches planted across Europe. We believe that whilst the families in these villages need material help, a food parcel or bundle of wood, they also need the love and support a church community can bring.
Whilst in Moldova I met two church planters that we are starting to support. Both men have a vision to build a community of believers that are growing in their knowledge and love of God that can be a real blessing to the people in their village. There are many other villages and, praise God, there are men and women willing to serve them. What they need is financial help - £100 a month is all that is needed to release someone to work in a village and build a community of believers there.
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In some cases a church has already been planted but there are no funds for the pastor. Misa (pictured right) is a pastor of a church plant in Pelinei. He has a young family and when I asked him what we could pray for his family, he broke down and struggled to explain how difficult they were finding it. He feels clearly called by God to be a pastor in this place yet the pressure of no income with a young family was beating him down. He has an old tractor that he uses to earn a little bit of cash ploughing people's fields, but he can only do that during a short period each year. He can also spray crops with herbicide but he has to stop when he gets too sick from the fumes.
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Thanks to our church planting fund we have been able to step in and provide him with support.
By making a gift marked 'church planting' or by using our prayer diary to pray for these men, you too could play a part in changing these villages and showing the families there that in the family of God, no one gets left behind.
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| How you can help |
Please help us as we work to see more churches planted and supported across Moldova and Eastern Europe by clicking below and designating your gift to 'Church Planting'.
If your church or homegroup would like to link with and support a church planter please call David Roderick on 0117 961 5161.
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