Our good old Fiat Scudo van has reached an incredible milestone: 401,000 km on the clock, and 20 years of exemplary service, mostly on the almost impenetrable streets of Romania-Moldova, which as you know is where we work. But Nicu, our farm manager as well as mechanic when necessary, has had to do a lot of work on it recently to allow him to carry on with daily life, and play his invaluable role of ferrying children from the village of Rebricea to the Chedes Agape farm for the weekly “happy hour”. Another key use of the van is in buying and distributing food packages in Padureni, a village 35 km from the farm.
Just getting there is almost impossible for most vehicles, as the roads are basically non-existent and become incredibly muddy and almost impassable during the winter. The continuous trips have contributed to the Scudo’s ever-worsening condition, and have forced Nicu to make almost daily repairs. Mechanics, tyres, bodywork, the list goes on. Everything that can break, has broken and has been repaired up to now. However, the countless maintenance needs and advancing age of the Scudo mean that we no longer feel comfortable with it when it comes to safety. We don’t think we should be taking the risk of transporting children and food in a vehicle that’s unfortunately become unsafe. So we decided to bring this important new need to your attention. Sadly, without the van, much of what we do in the area wouldn’t be possible.
We’re setting up a fund specifically for this need. We’re asking God to allow us to use the old Scudo until we can buy a replacement, and asking you to pray that God will put this need on the hearts of our supporters, friends, collaborators and brothers so that with their help we’ll be able to buy it. We’re looking for a used diesel minibus/van, which doesn’t have too many kilometres on the clock and which above all can be used for transporting people 
(maximum of 9 seats). Any information or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, we thank you because we know you’ll pray for this specific need and help us in the search. Thank you.