From July 19th to July 29th, I traveled to Romania and Moldova to meet and work with the FCA coaches from both countries. Michael is the Romanian FCA guy; he is American but grew up in Romania as a missionary kid. Eugene is from Moldova and coaches in his hometown of Cahul. Both are basketball coaches.
I flew into and out of Romania, so Michael picked me up, and we drove to Moldova, crossing the border. On the way, we dropped by Camp Eli, a summer camp that his parents run that is used as a Christian camp for Romanian children. It can house 180 people at a time and has space to run sports camps, including an indoor basketball gym.
When we got to Moldova, I ran four days of basketball camp for roughly 40 kids. The camp was held in a gym from 9:00-1:00 pm each day, and the kids were mostly boys ages 10-14. Each day, the kids were fed, and they heard testimonial devotions from me. Michael speaks Romanian so he could lead half of the kids while Eugene would be my interpreter on the other side. Eugene also had lots of prizes for the kids, and they had many chances to win NBA jerseys and shorts which they loved. At the end of the week, some of the kids thanked me for having the camp as there are no organized basketball-specific camps in their town.
In the evenings, we often went to Face 2 Face camp, where Eugene accepted Christ growing up. This camp is for Moldovan kids but has Americans come to participate and lead ministry. It can house about 150 people and has many spaces for sports camps as well, including an outdoor basketball court. One night, Eugene shared with the campers about the problem of sin and how Jesus has offered us a way to reconnect with God. We also saw 2 men be baptized from his church at this camp.
After the camp, I traveled with Eugene and his wife back to Romania, and we spent the time visiting some sites and nature while getting to know each other better.
This was the first time Sports Reach has visited both of these countries. I hope that this was a chance for these missionaries to grow closer and work together on more projects, and hopefully, Sports Reach can continue to help with camps in the future.
