You may be asking- what is PVT, well, PVT stands for Parent Vision Trip. This is where the parents of racers come out to the field for about five days and spend time doing ministry side by side with their son and or daughter. The parents get a glimpse of what we do on the field- evangelism (handing out bibles and trying to communicate with people who don’t speak your language), preaching (getting asked the night before to prepare a word for the church), playing games with kids, also worshipping with the racers.
So, for myself, my parents opted not to come as there isn’t a big tug for them as it was in Romania, and I’d be home in two months. Totally understandable. Also, I really feel as if God has been showing me lately that we are exactly where we are supposed to be in the moment- if we weren’t meant to be there, he would have us somewhere else.
I had three teammates whose parents came to PVT, and all three of them being the men on our team. There was definitely a dynamic shift that us ladies felt once they left. Us ladies on my team are best friends, we love one another dearly, but we definitely could tell that people were missing. We finished up our ministry in Pitesti, and it was odd not having our “full team” to help us wrap up all the ministries. Nonetheless, we moved on and packed up so we could meet them and their parents in… Dragonesti (something like that)…
So here we are! When we came in to town the first person I recognized was my teammate, Nano, and I got really excited!! We jumped out of the van and then there was a wave of happiness, and joy as my eyes saw not only my teammates, and squad mates, but also their parents!!!! I have been praying for their experience for two weeks! (Not trying to be boastful, but to show you where my heart has been). PVT gets to be emotional, overwhelming, and tricky for some racers as they have changed a lot in nine months- what would their parents think. So I’ve just been praying!!! 🙂
I gave the parents and racers big hugs and my heart was full. Full of love, joy, excitement, and adornment.
After the racers did some kids ministry with the parents we had a big family dinner with everyone. I literally stood in awe at everyone with a big, goofy grin on my face for a solid fifteen minutes… I was over joyed. Like, watching it snow for the first time at Christmas. Just the fascination and realness of the situation had me in awe.. for some people I know this level of emotion can be overwhelming for them, so I tried to keep it in my heart, but it spilled out, and MAN was it fruitful! It was contagious and people started to grin and laugh and feel the peaceful and lightness of the situation (or at least that’s what I was told). Which got me even more excited (can you imagine what all of this looks like?! I even started dancing– and I don’t dance!!)
We did corporate worship, and was that ever good for my soul! I was in worship to be a rock for others. To have them know that they are loved, supported, cared for and seen- parents or no parents. God filled me to the brim with words of encouragement, smiles, laughs, and hugs for hours, and the ability to just sing the loudest that I felt my soul crying out for, knowing the God of the universe was right next to me doing the same thing. I knew with me singing that loudly I probably looked like a fool (I’m tone deaf and poor ears that heard my singing…haha), but I didn’t care- I wanted God to know that I could tell what he was doing at PVT and how he was developing us as racers!! It was beautiful !!
After all that was said and done, I talked to some of the parents and was again just filled over flowing with love. They wanted to adopt all of us and really care for each one of us- it was precious! I had to say all of my goodbyes, even though I had only met them five hours previous to that… and then we went back to our “hostel”? area, and I ended the evening by having several laugh attacks! 🙂 it was a good good day!! 🙂
As someone who doesn’t have parents here this past week, I have been blessed by seeing the parents that did come, and really feeling their touch of love and being grateful! I have been blessed in so many different ways! Thanks parents!! 🙂
