Romania was an interesting month. There were a few months on
the Race when ministry looked more like loving each other and being God’s
mouthpiece to our fellow teammates in addition to the people of the country we
were in. Romania was one of these months. We had three teams living in Casa
Shalom, where we worked to organize a garage sale, reached out to gypsies and
their children, and did general cleaning. Our contact wanted us to worship 3x a
week, with each team leading one night. My team had Friday night, traditionally
thought of as a “fun, weekend night.” In light of this, we sought to do
untraditional worship. One night was iPod worship night, another night was the
Christmas party (which you can read about on my blog here).
The Christmas party was mainly my idea. I wanted to
celebrate Christmas and the Christmas story with songs traditionally reserved
for the Christmas season. My team came behind me in full support, and together
we put on an amazing night, where we had fun, worshipped and celebrated Jesus’
birth (in September!). It was an opportunity for me to shine as an “event
planner” if you will, and I felt so supported by my team.
Ten days later, we left to go to Budapest. I had told the
team we should go to Budapest when we first found out we could go to Hungary as
an ATL country. That ended up being the door God opened with a place to stay
and an e-mail address. I started the month out sick, with a terrible cold that
then turned into some kind of stomach bug. I spent the first three days of
ministry in bed. When it was time to go to homeless ministry the following
Monday, I went, a little reluctantly, but ready to do something outside the
hostel room.
That day they needed people to sing. When we did homeless
ministry, we either helped serve the food or we worshipped while the food was
served. That day, I sang. A homeless man came up to me and asked for Celine
Dion. I sang my heart will go on (you can watch it here).
The rest of the month, I continued to sing during homeless
feeding. Not every day, but more often than not, I stood with a microphone in
my hand, my voice a little shaky as a cappella, we proclaimed the praises of
God in the agnostic/atheistic stronghold of Budapest’s metro stations. Towards
the end of the month, an Hungarian young women, probably about our age,
approached us and complimented our singing. In her slightly broken English, she
communicated that she sang and played the piano too. We invited her to sing a
worship song, and also asked her to come to the feeding on Friday. We sang a song
together, and then she left to catch her train.
That month, God gave me an opportunity to use my voice.
Throughout the race, He was helping me find it and giving me opportunities to
use it. He was giving me a chance to shine-to use the gifts He had given me,
had put into me while knitting me together in my mother’s womb. He was
redeeming the hurt and rejection I had felt associated with using these gifts,
and showing me how they could be used to further His kingdom and give Him
glory.
God woke me up. He gave me a turn to shine.
