This is one of those blogs I’ve been antsy to share because it’s filled with praises and glory stories! In the midst of all the struggle and pain that I was personally experiencing, God still wanted me in the game. There is just so much work (and play) to be done here in Romania and it has truly been a gift to labor with my squad to reach children, Casa Shalom and its Director, Becky, young handicapped women and the homeless in Bucharest.
view of some Bucaresti
I’m struggling to find words to describe Becky Walsh. Fireball, energetic, creative, passionate, and driven-that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Becky has so many amazing personal testimonies…it’s hard to keep track of them all. Since day one she has encouraged and pushed us to look deeper into the Romanians’ eyes…to see their need, their cry for hope and peace.
Our second scheduled kids camp was cancelled, but instead we took the camp to the kids in the closes village. Our squad divided up into 2 teams/trips and we piled in with a bunch of hoola hoops. When Becky told us she was taking us to the park I thought of green grass, lots of space to run around in, something nice and pretty to look at. The “park” in the village was rather a medium-sized lot small enough for a house to fit. As soon as we drove in, we recognized several of the kids from the camp we held! We encouraged them to tell all their friends we arrived and were waiting to play with them. Thanks to Warren’s creative mind, he concocted a hoola-hoop obstacle course to keep the kiddos engaged. They LOVED it! We spent several hours playing with the kids and taught them songs about Jesus’ love for them. The next time picked up where we left off. (Side note: Warren and Kaleb played soccer with some older guys during this time and were able to share the gospel. Check out Warren’s blog about a new brother in Christ!!)
improv kids camp in the village
One afternoon, I did an ATL (Ask the Lord) with my squadmates, Dan & Becky Haverkos. We had a wonderful time at this beautiful park nearby. We walked by an area where a lot of older men were playing chess under covered tables. The three of us simultaneously saw a man sitting by himself writing something. We all felt the Spirit nudging us to go and talk to him. Earlier we had prayed together and asked God to use us despite not having Romanian translators. (Imi vutz romaneste. Volbesc un pic romaneste.) When we saw this man, I felt that Becky was supposed to do the talking. She hesitated and needed some pushin’, but she is a courageous woman of God! When we tried to introduce ourselves, we learned that this man could speak French. Neither Dan nor I knew any French, BUT Becky did! She was able to carry on a conversation with Virgil and we learned that he is a physics professor. I just loved his inviting spirit. He let us pray with him and I could be wrong, but for a second I thought I saw a tear in his eye. The rest of our time we spent prayer walking and having conversations in various languages with strangers. We prayed over a woman who suffered a stroke and had trouble keeping balance as she walked. She and her husband left us in joy and thanks. God is touching lives!
Yesterday, the squad partnered with Becky’s church as they passed out carnations and witnessed to the people in the downtown Bucharest. As soon as we started gathering around outside a McDonald’s, two young girls came to get our flowers. At first we offered them each one, but later they grabbed them out of people’s hands and ripped them up or stole them and ran off. We didn’t know what was going on and we thought they were such a nuisance. Just after they left, I watched as the church youth group, all wearing the same shirts, turned their turned to them. Immediately I thought to myself, “how ugly is the church to them! How dare we turn our backs to the very ones Jesus seeks out!” When Bamboo Brigade prayed for direction of our time there, several of us were convicted of our attitudes and we had a desire to go to the girls and pray with them-bless them somehow. It turns out this older girl they were with sold flowers at a stand not far from us. We were hurting their business by giving away flowers for free. So the girls were stealing from us to sell them for her profit.
Kelly and I walked up to them and offered them more flowers. Anna Maria (8) accepted them with a stunned look on her face. We offered to buy them a meal at McDonald’s and she jumped up ready to go. Two other homeless women joined us. Kel was literally dragged away by Anna Maria’s older sister, Danisa (10), who was desperate to get diapers. We didn’t understand it at first, but when we saw these same girls later that night…Danisa had a baby in her hands. She was caring for her youngest sister as well! Kelly and I told Anna Maria that the food and the flowers we gave her were from Jesus, because He loves her very much. As soon as she understood this, she in turn gave away 2 of her flowers to the homeless women. It was like I could see a hard shell come off of her! Her whole attitude and face were changed. She received LOVE! When we were unexpectedly reunited that night, it was as if we were greeting kids in our own families. We got so many strange looks from passersby. They were neglected mostly because they were Gypsy children. But Jesus does love them and so do we.
