For six years, Valentin worked and pastored from Italy while his wife, children, and home church remained in Moldova.
“The children grew up and grew up without me,” he says. “And the second thing was the church, and everything I did was done remotely [as the pastor].” He pauses. “It was a very hard time for me.”
Valentin’s situation is a familiar one in Moldova, where many family members face the difficult choice to move abroad for work and send money home to provide for their families. In 2025, these types of payments back home to family members, known as personal remittances, made up 9.4% of Moldova’s GDP—compared to a world average of 0.8% that same year, according to the World Bank.
Coming home to hard ground
After six years away, Valentin finally returned home to his wife and four young children and began farming.
The work was punishing. His harvests barely earned him enough to get by, and his equipment broke down again and again. The weather offered no mercy either: “There was no precipitation in our area,” Valentin explains, and his corn and sunflower crops were severely affected.
At the same time, his family faced serious health challenges, and his wife needed surgery several times. Valentin wanted to provide for his family and grow his business, but the costs were more than he could carry.
Then he heard about Invest Credit.
A business loan and unexpected friendship
Invest Credit, HOPE International’s microfinance partner in Moldova, knows how much the country needs employment opportunities close to home. So it works to equip entrepreneurs like Valentin with loans that help them build their businesses where they are and stay with their families.
With his first loan from Invest Credit, Valentin invested in agricultural development and expanded his farm. He began growing new types of crops and caring for more animals, and he was able to better support his family and make needed repairs to his equipment. As his success grew, he started an oil milling business as well—opening up still more opportunities for other Moldovans to find stable employment at home.
Valentin had hoped his loan from Invest Credit would help him achieve his goals, but the relationship he developed with the Invest Credit team came as a surprise. The staff at Invest Credit cared deeply about him and his family. They told him that if he ever felt he couldn’t make a payment, he should call ahead and they would work something out together.
“They treated me very well. … Being a part of a microfinance institution meant more than just receiving financial support,” Valentin says. “They understood me. … It was an experience that reminded me of God’s goodness and His constant care for our needs.”
Investing back in his community
Now Valentin tries to extend that same kindness to everyone he works with. As committed Christians with a deep desire to serve their community, Valentin and his family looked outward as their profits increased.
They built a church and a children’s center in their community, so children can learn about Christ. And when families began fleeing Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, Valentin and his church paid for two buses to carry Ukrainian refugees to safety within Moldova, opening their own home as well.
“I am grateful to God that I can do a good thing,” Valentin reflects. “I’m glad I was able to help them.”
Dreams of new businesses, generational impact, and faith
Valentin is proud of what he’s accomplished, but he isn’t finished yet. He dreams of opening a bakery—buying a high-performance oven, purchasing wheat from his children as they take up farming, milling it into flour, and baking bread from raw material his own family grew.
He and his family also hope to open a support center to feed vulnerable children and the elderly in their village. He pictures children from the center carrying food packages to older neighbors who can’t get out and have no one to help them. “This is a dream of ours,” he says, “so that we can be of help to the small society.”
Above it all, Valentin has a passion for sharing the love Christ has shown him.
“The experience with [Invest Credit] has shown me that serving God can take many forms,” he says. “Through this partnership, I’ve learned that every good action and every encouragement we offer becomes a part of our spiritual mission. I’ve learned that the simple things we do to help others can bring about profound changes in their lives.”
We give thanks for the ways Invest Credit is nurturing hope in Moldovan communities like Valentin’s. Join us in praying for Valentin’s family, for those still displaced by the war in Ukraine, and for families across the HOPE network by signing up for our monthly prayer update.
