Written for Romania~ April 2012
Romania.
How do I put you into words…
Family.
That describes my month quite well.
It was a month of serving alongside people who were like one big family. They lived together. They served together. They loved together. It was such a beautiful picture of what the body of Christ should look like. And they didn’t make it look difficult. They loved each other well and taught me a lot about the importance of that as an example of Christ living inside of them.
Romanian Family + Our Teams
One thing that I learned this month was the crazy amount of faith that it needs when walking your life with God. Its trusting God that he will provide in the most trying times, the times when you think your problem seems to big or to foolish. I want to learn to live in this way. Live in such a way that I am walking so much in the fullness of Christ that he is revealing the greatness of his grace and mercy in me daily. I want to have the amount of faith to know that in the midst of the scariest times of my life, that my God will show up and glorify his name through my life. This church family taught me that this is not a weak faith, but one of the strongest and most humble people. They truly inspired me.
The Pastor of the church, Cristi, was a man of noble character who works his butt off. He serves those around him, but first and foremost he makes sure his family is served and cared for. He is a man that dreams big and trusts God at his word. Cristi has some of the most stylish children and a beautiful wife. In our conversations I got to see just how much over the years he has walked by the way of the Lord, when his church broke apart he humbled himself before God willing to step down, but God had bigger plans for him. He is a visionary who walks into the big plans of seeing God in every neighborhood in Pitesti.
Cristi and his youngest Son
The major project that we got to work on was with a neighborhood called Razboieni. This is a community that is largely filled with a gypsy population. We were told that they are a people that don’t like working and spend all there days drinking and partying. The kids grow up in homes where there is abuse and neglect, they have no sense of wanting to learn or do work because they never learn those values. We worked in this community and taught English lessons, dance, music and just hung out with the kids. These kids desire affection, loved receiving praise for a job well done, and loved the opportunity to hang out with a group of 13 Americans.
What stood out most to me is the fact that this church lives and loves these children and families in Razboieni day in and day out. Its so easy for me to come in for a month and love them (well sometimes it gets hard), but it’s the people that are living it every single day and have committed there lives to it that I truly respect. They are the ones left behind when we leave and continue the fight. I feel truly blessed that they let us come into their lives, loved us well, then let us go. That’s not easy, they had to go through fighting for the kids who were upset that all their new friends left, they had to pick up the pieces. But they let us come in anyway, I don’t understand love like that.
Romania taught me so much about love. The love of Christ that it takes to keep community working. Beautiful, selfless and humble love. I miss my Romanian Family!
I still need about $750 before July 1st in order to stay on the race. This is my last deadline, and after this deadline I will be fully funded. So any little bit you can give would really help! Thanks so much! 🙂
