Enter Florin Pindic-Blaj, a native of Romania, whose heart was burdened by the plight of the “least of these” suffering children. Like many before him, he looked to the USA as a source of help. He relocated his family to the States, eventually joining a community of Romanians/Moldovians in Hickory, NC. He began a pipeline of support to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, where he had founded the first privately-operated orphanage in the region. So began “Little Samaritan Mission” (LSM) which has done so much on a shoe-string budget over the years. Support for the orphanage overflowed to assist the impoverished state-run counterparts. Soup kitchens, a novel concept in this area, were begun to feed the poor and elderly. Florin wanted to minister to the spiritual as well as the physical hunger in his native land and soon his vision of a chain of radio stations was birthed to broadcast the gospel 24/7 across the land where a Christian witness had for so long been silenced.
Boonville Baptist Church has been supportive of Little Samaritan Mission. Pastor Ken Boaz, Jack and Linda Crissman, Sue Payne and Harvey Isom are church members who have been on mission teams to Vascauti, one of the many town of Moldova housing an orphanage. Annual “Face of a Child” projects have been well sponsored, as individual orphan have been “adopted” and sent vital needs of clothing, school supplies, etc. Various drives have furnished funds for coal, potatoes, shoes and the like. One delightful push was for milk cows! For $300 each, we were able to supply orphanages with one or more cows. This gave the children a much-needed source of milk, but also nurtured responsibility in caring for the animals. The donor even got the privilege of naming “their” cow! My favorite was “Dotty”, named for the pastor’s wife of Deep Creek Baptist Church??!! I’m sure she is the prettiest bovine in all Moldova……..