God Brought Me Donna (Part 1)
(This is a blog from Romania, the beginning of last month, but I simply didn’t have the internet or time to post it)
As a warning, this is a wild story. I wouldn’t believe it if I wasn’t a part of it. This is a story of God’s promises and plans for all of us. This is a story of how I got to meet Donna. My team was at a Church in Bulgaria called the Christian Center. A middle-aged man named Stefan was playing guitar in the back. He wasn’t very noticeable.
In between services he approached me. He started talking to me in broken English, but the English he did speak was perfect. No accent, clear and it seemed to form into place the more he talked. I remember thinking this was odd, but pushing it to the back of my mind. As we made small talk, he said he was told by God to tell me his life story, so he did: Stefan was 33 when he died. He was very sick and in his gypsy village with no doctors, no bed and neglected. As a Christian, he was transported into heaven into unfathomable glory. There was the tree of life, and Jesus. A great stream flowed from the tree of life, and Jesus invited Stefan to play in the water with him. Around them, angels played guitars, harps and cellos with no strings, but when played, the beauty of their souls made music. “It was the richest beauty I’ve ever experienced.”
After what seemed to be an eternity, Jesus turned to him and said, “This is not your time. What gift can I give you?” Stefan fell to his knees as he already had everything beyond he could have imagined, and could not possibly take anything more from God. He did not want to accept anything more. Jesus waited, and eventually Stefan said he would like to speak English (On Earth he was a gypsy with no education, bound to poverty and in a community of only gypsy speaking people). Stefan came back to life and was healed within a matter of days. He walked out of his gypsy village, and tried to speak English. It didn’t work, but he quickly realized he was blessed with the gift of understanding many languages, and with listening to simple conversations he could learn the language within a day.
A few years later, he is now fluent in 6 languages (Bulgarian, Greek, German, Spanish, Hebrew and his native Gypsy). He was not taught the languages and has never been to school. When he was talking to me in English, I could physically and spiritually see he was learning English from me. He would ask me meanings of words, and built the words in correct contexts and sentences flawlessly. He thanked me for being the blessing he has been waiting for, the gift of “teaching” him English. I did no such thing. Today I thank Stefan for adding to my wonder and awe of God and what he does. Stefan was only the beginning of bringing me to my favorite week of ministry yet.
