Children’s Emergency Relief International teams visited more than 60 Moldovan orphanages, foster-care and transitional-care centers recently, serving more than 6,600 children, youth and adults. They also were the recipients of a couple of miracles straight from the hand of God, participants insisted.
CERI—a ministry of Baptist Child & Family Services in San Antonio—raised more than $167,000 to purchase boots valued at about $320,000. During the two-week Winter Kids ’n’ Boots mission, Moldovan television covered the event extensively, and U.S. Ambassador William Moser visited one of the orphanages to witness CERI teams in action.
About 100 volunteers journeyed to Moldova to outfit every child and youth living in an orphanage with a new pair of socks and warm winter boots. The team also visited adult orphanages and provided socks and slippers to adults with disabilities.
The teams returned home with stories not only of their ministry, but also God’s provision.
One team battled heavy snow as they attempted to make their way to a remote orphanage. They began to pray God would clear a path for them, but their driver told them they needed to turn around—the snow was just too deep to drive through. Then—as if from nowhere—a snowplow appeared and cleared the way to the orphanage.
Near the end of the trip, several boot sizes had been depleted from inventory. As the team ministered at Moldova’s only orphanage for youth who are blind or disabled, participants discovered a boy needed a boot size the team had run out of several orphanages before.
The team searched the truck in hopes of finding one more pair but to no avail. Finally, CERI Executive Director Dearing Garner said, “Let’s pray that they boy’s size is on the truck, and look again.” As he finished his statement, a team member returned confirming no pair of boots that size were on the truck.
Garner looked at the volunteer, pointed toward the truck and said, “Go look on the truck again. It’s there.”
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In a few moments, with tears in his eyes, the volunteer returned with the boy’s boots in hand.
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