Second mission for AH grad: Moldova

4/5/2011
Joan Mead-Matsui Abington Journal Correspondent

CLARKS SUMMIT – Twenty-six-year old Christina Semon of Clarks Summit is on a mission.

She began her second term as an Orthodox Christian Mission Center Missionary in The Republic of Moldova on April 14. On February 11, she returned from Romania where she served as a missionary since 2009.

During her two-year journey to The Republic of Moldova, a parliamentary republic that lies in the central part of Europe in the northeastern Balkans, Semon will “help to establish a church program to meet the spiritual needs of the youth.”

Her goal is “to engage, connect and reconnect the youth to Christ and his Holy Church, to nurture relations between countries for international youth participation events within the church, and to help to develop a youth church program for parishes that might also be used as a model for other countries,” according to Semon.

Though she only had two months to visit with her parents, Joseph and Helen Semon of Clarks Summit, Semon was still eager to depart for Moldova. “I didn’t come up with that idea. I’m not going to Moldova because I think it’s needed there. The Hierarch invited me to come – I have this blessing to come because they are lacking in the church there. This was an invitation and an outcry for me to come to help.”

While in Moldova, she will stay with a family that includes eight children – five biological and three adopted children. She will remain with that family for six months.

Semon said, “The fourth adopted child (Semon) will arrive on April 14,” she said with a chuckle. “The couple sold their home to pay off the roof of the church.”

As noted on the Orthodox Christian Mission Center website, “The Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) is the official international missions’ agency of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA).”

Their mission is to “recruit, train, send and support Orthodox missionaries to preach, teach, baptize, construct and minister to the spiritual and physical needs of those being served and saved. Romania are Muldova are two of the countries in Europe where missions have been set up.”

Since 1995, the Orthodox Christian Mission Center has established mission programs in more than 31 countries worldwide.

Semon is a 2003 graduate of Abington Heights High School and while at Abington Heights, she studied the Russian language. She said,“…It took patience and perseverance and being able to make mistakes.” She has continued to study the language abroad by “getting out into the streets in much the same way a baby learns a language through listening and time.”

While at Abington Heights, she was active in swimming and softball. But softball soon took over and she was able to get a partial Division One scholarship to Binghamton University.

“To compete at the highest collegiate level was really neat. That was a dream come true. I was recruited to be a pitcher and I got to see what college life and a collegiate sport at that level were all about. That new life got me unbalanced because there are a lot of bad influences… The passion to keep softball as a fun and exciting sport was a job and when it gets there it’s not that much fun anymore. So in my sophomore year I picked a major – Russian studies – and I thought the best way to learn about my major was to study over there but that meant forfeiting the scholarship… so I said to my parents that I was going to forfeit my scholarship and pursue studying abroad. Thank God they supported me.”

She studied abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia during her junior year in college in 2005 and 2006. “This was all leading up to my mission work,” she said.

It was that experience in Russia that set the stage for her trip to Romania and Moldova, according to Semon.

“But I didn’t know how and didn’t know where. I was rebuilding my relationship with Christ there.”
She added, “So I was able to see beyond my fishbowl. I lived with a Russian family in a whole new culture. I came back and graduated. My mom said you have to pay for your car insurance and get a job. At that time I was thinking of the Peace Corps. My father said, ‘Christina, you have no ties – a spouse or a dog to tie you down. Go and do it. I found the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, an organization for Orthodox Christians in America. Our bridge was built to Romania and The Republic of Moldova because the culture and language are similar and it also has a Russian population.
Following her two years in Moldova, Semon “will leave it to God to decide” what plans her future holds.

“God knows that question so I have to pray about it. But I do know that I would like to work for the church in any capacity I can; at large, the Orthodox Church of North America.

“I feel at home there,” said Semon, who loves the adventure of travel. In my life now I have the calling to go abroad and there are many challenges. There are times when home sickness set in and I wanted to be home but I feel that my service right now is to be abroad.”

To learn more about the Orthodox Christian Mission Center , visit www.ocmc.org.

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