We went back to the church last night for another celebration, but instead of a grand event, this time it was a family party. The church members came together to celebrate their eight years in Draganesti and it was the best part of Romania yet. A slideshow of pictures streamed onto the wall, flashing candid shots of the people who we’ve come to know over the past three weeks. Talk about a perspective shift.
It is so easy to drop into a city or a village as a team of Americans who are brand new friends and think that we have insight into ministry and loving each other. We pray blessings into homes, light into dark places, Jesus into broken countries. Nobody would consciously say so, but we start to think that we are a really important, pivotal part of this story — the hinge on which things swing, the team that everyone will cry over and talk about when we leave.
And maybe they will, but the slideshow last night showed us a family that existed far before we showed up and flourished before any of us had Romania in our hearts. We saw the pictures from baptisms, weddings, and births, from the mission trips, the Christmas dinners, the game nights. We saw the awkward puberty years of some of the younger members, the engagement of two of the missionaries, the groundbreaking of the church in which we sat. We saw a life unfolding, a community of people dedicated to walking through these seasons as a family.
Before I left for the Race, everyone told me that the best and most challenging part would be the community aspect of it. I would nod my head at this, thinking about my team and my squad and picturing the potential conflicts and then the inevitable restorations and the cool stories that would come from that….how near-sighted of me. The best part of Romania has definitely been the community, but it is the community that we have dropped in on that has been better than anything else. It’s a New Testament church, a family that covers each other’s needs and celebrates together. It has also been the most challenging part, because of the high standards it has set for us. Nobody pretends like life is easy here — there are obviously hard times and personality conflicts and broken hearts. But the people of Hope Baptist Church are committed to each other in a way that serves as a challenge to anyone who will take it. Will you war in prayer for the people in your life? Will you go through the good times and the bad times together? Will you value and prefer and love and serve together for as long as you are given?
Maybe this is a little bit of an excessive revelation based on one ultra basic slideshow, but as I sat there and the people in the sanctuary cheered and clapped at different pictures, everything kind of clicked into perspective. We are not traveling around the world to impress missionaries with our brand-new, barely-tested, baby community — we are traveling around the world to encourage them and learn from their example. We are not traveling to the nations to bring Jesus to a foreign land He’s never been to — we’re showing up to introduce people to our Father, who has had these individuals in His heart since before time began. I hope we change the world this year, freeing the captives and preaching the Good News to the poor and building up the people who need it most — I really do. But more than that, I hope that I don’t lose sight of this bigger picture…that I am the one who still has everything to learn and very little to lose, and that these missionaries are the ones who have sacrificed and invested their lives into a community.
I guess what I’m trying to say is thank God that Draganesti-Olt was my first stop on this Race. Even though my team is moving on in a little bit over a week, I don’t think we’ll ever actually leave this community behind us.
