Have you ever sat through 5 hours of church spoken in a different language? And if so… did you love it?
I did… aaaand I did. Sunday we were able to sit through two church services here in Draganesti-Olt, Romania, and listened to worship, testimonies, and sermons in Romanian. It was A. Mazing. I am going to try my best to convey through my words the passion that I felt from this. Seeing multiple church members go up in front of their community to give their testimony, brought me to tears numerous times. To come together, as a minority, when their friends and family don’t believe the same things they do, when everything in their life is pulling them away from this passion, yet still boldly claiming what is theirs. I have never seen such a group of people be so zealous about the same thing. And what a great thing to be uber zealous about!! Our salvation!
I was trying to compare this to something that I have observed before, or something that I could connect this with in my head.. something that people get really excited about in America. Naturally, the first thing that comes to my mind is football. People obsess over football and for such odd reasons sometimes. For “the love of the game”, for the food that accompanies the game, for the community that gathers to view the game, etc. Regardless of the reason, it is still just football to me. These people are passionate about something that really really matters! I was so refreshed to see these people gathering to sing songs and tell stories about what they are crazy passionate about. It’s what they constantly talk to one another about, and what controls their lives. It is super inspiring to me, and I am thankful for the fervor that they are unknowingly filling me with as I am soaking in all I can in “Month One”.
Some examples of the passion here – moving me in serious ways.
When Raul, the head pastor, bought us ice cream the other night, we thanked him, and he responded with, “It is nothing. This is my business. I am investing in you, so that you can invest in others. I care for you so that you will care for others. This is not about me, but about God.” Beautiful.
We have been handing out invitations for the church’s opening this Sunday to neighboring towns in the last week. We have handed out roughly 5,000 invitations to people, walking miles and miles each day, speaking in broken Romanian phrases like, “Hello – this is for you – invitation to church – thank you – goodbye.” Raul is so thankful for this service. He reminds us of the joy that will be felt when even one person will thank us in Heaven for the invitation we handed out this week, because their salvation was a result of that piece of paper. Beautiful.
I am listening to a missionary’s story about sacrificing the life that he knew in Northern Romania to respond to the calling God was putting on his heart to move to Southern Romania and evangelize. He moved to Draganesti with his wife to spread the gospel in Southern Romania where the percentage of Christians is at a 0.2%. He literally did not have enough money to pay for food for him and his wife to eat once they were here living in an apartment with holes in the walls (this is Romania…), yet food would show up on their doorstep each morning. “God will take care of us, always”, he says. Beautiful.
My prayer is that I will have faith and passion like these missionaries. That you all at home will share this same passion and be encouraged to share that with those around you. Make others wonder what you have that they don’t, and pray that they will start to ask you about it.
Please pray for these people here. Pray for the missionaries (strength, encouragement, alignment with the Holy Spirit), for the people to receive the invitations and seeds that will grow in their hearts, for the opening of this church on Sunday (that it will be a massive Kingdom success!!)
