I shared this testimony at church on Sunday and would love to share it with all of you. It’s from our time in Romania…
One evening a group of us were helping in the church kitchen for a big event. Our task was to help this cute, little grandma prepare dessert. I watched her a day earlier in the kitchen when she spent the entire afternoon making mini cakes. I saw her carefully mixing the batter and shaping the treats before she baked them in the oven. She must have made at least a hundred of these special desserts. When she finished baking she placed them into boxes, ready to go for the big event.
Now it was time for us to help her prep and decorate the treats. As we opened the box to start decorating we discovered the cakes were covered with spots of mold.
Her face fell when she realized her desserts were ruined. Even though she made them the day before they did not have time to cool, so the mold quickly spread. We scrambled to look through the rest of the box.
There were a few moments of silence when we realized the majority of cakes had mold on them. Her demeanor was broken. She started to mutter in Romanian and wiped some tears falling from her eyes. She then stopped what she was doing, bowed her head, and started to pray.
God really broke our hearts for her. It was so sad to see this sweet lady in such distress when she planned ahead and was simply trying to bless other people. I asked our translator what she was praying. She translated the woman asked, “God if you have something to teach me through this situation please show me”.
We tried to comfort her and tell her it was going to be ok. We grabbed some knives from the kitchen and started to intensely inspect each cake, slowly cutting away at every spec of mold. We ate some of them to show her just how delicious they were. Her tears slowly turned into smiles and laughter and she thanked us for helping her out.
It was great to see that our team had God’s love and encouragement in our hearts so we could be by her side and bless her during this mishap.
But that’s not the greatest part of this story.
This strong woman of God blessed us with her action. When an unexpected and challenging situation arose, she instantly turned to the Lord. Without hesitation, she asked God to show her the good in a yucky situation. She wanted to see value amidst the sudden hardship.
This adorable, Godly woman showed me exactly how I needed to live.
Honestly, Romania was a very hard month of ministry. There was a lot of spiritual warfare in the town we lived in. We lived in a very desolate, poor area where the streets felt eerily cold.
At night, strangers would come bang on our bedroom window trying to scare us. We decided to put a blanket over the window because intruders would come by so frequently. And it didn’t help that nighttime just felt so creepy. There were also many instances throughout the month where squadmates would be grabbed and harassed by local children and teenagers as we walked to the church.
Our ministry was discouraging at times too. For the majority of the month I served with my team in a social work program. We spent our afternoons at the church, teaching at an after-school program for Gypsy children. While I loved the children, it was overwhelming because none of them spoke English (even though it was our job was to teach them English). At times, it would be a madhouse with the number of students and the lack of communication.
Most days in Romania felt defeating and pointless. There were many moments I was unsure if we were even making a difference.
But this woman taught me so much. In her worry, her setback, she went straight to the Lord. She asked for clarity, for enlightenment, and she sought a heavenly perspective.
For the rest of the month I looked to this tasty lesson of surrender. I turned to God each day asking for revelation and His purpose. I looked to my teammates and squadmates to help me cut out the crummy and disappointing perspectives that were trying to overpower my joy. Together, we could slowly chip away our fear, frustration, and worries. I did not have to walk this alone because I had my brothers and sisters around me to sever away the bad and to restore my hope.
So my encouragement, my challenge to all of us this week is to go directly to our Father during our hardships. To pause for a moment and ask the Lord, “what do you have to teach me here”. To be reminded that in this journey, we are not alone. We have our brothers and sisters by our side ready and willing to restore us.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. -Romans 15:13
