Gypsy life
I can’t believe how fast this month is flying by! Its crazy to me that I have already been I have been in Romania for 14 days and I’m just now getting to blog about it all. Praise God that after this blog I will finally be caught up on blogging and you all will be caught up on what I am doing.
This month my team (Fearless) and team Last Place are blessed beyond anything we could have imagined! When I first found out I would be coming to Romania I pictured farms and living in the country working with gypsys. Instead, God gave me the complete opposite (other than the gypsies). Right now I am living in Bucharest, Romania. For those of you who don’t know, its a really big city and we are being blessed to stay in what was built to be an orphanage that is now used for missionary hostel/homes for world racers. It is soo nice! Because the world race works here so often, they allow us to stay here for less. (I’ll attach videos in another blog)
Our contact, Becky, is such a courageous woman of God! She used to run an orphanage but the Romanian laws changed so drastically that she couldn’t afford to keep it running. On top of the heartbreak in that, she had also just built this nice orphanage that the children never got to move into. About the time the orphanage was complete, the laws changed and said she had to have nearly 100 people on staff to take care of around 25 children! When that happened she had to lay it down and give it to God, but she never gave up. She is now working with around 300 children. Because of the laws she couldn’t afford to have the children with her but she now goes out into the villages and blesses the people there and this month we are blessed to work along side her in that.
This is the perfect time for me to explain how courageous Becky really is. Yesterday we all went out into a gypsy village to do ministry with her, a lot of the same ministry she would usually do alone. When we got there people were literally chasing our vans down the street and telling us to give them things. It was a little scary but Becky just giggles a little and keeps on moving. She knows she is working for the Lord and she is protected. When we got to the fenced in lawn we were going to we hid all our things in the car, locked it up, and kept people by the doors at all times. We then started worship. Singing, guitar playing, and Becky played her accordion. It was good!
As we were worshipping some people would come up to us and tell us (in Romanian) to give them our jackets. It was sad to me that they had been raised in the culture that if you don’t have you beg people to give you their things or you steal. Don’t get me wrong, I believe as Christians we should give and give freely, but I also know that we when come as world racers, most of the time we come to give a greater gift because its all we have. We come with the gift of Christ and we come with the Holy Spirit inside of us to share HIS love and what HE is doing. Giving the people hope and knowledge about the love of Christ is so much more than they could beg for. HE is with them always. The clothes, they will out grow, and money would be blown so fast. I wish it was possible for people to just give and everything get better but in reality if you don’t teach people, your gifts are pointless. You have to develop relationships and teach people how to manage their blessings. I feel like this is a lot like the verse that says you don’t throw out pearls to swine. I don’t think gypsy people are swine at all, I view them as children of God but if they don’t learn what that means or at least develop an attitude of gratitude, their attitude reflects the swine in the way that they can’t appreciate what they are given.
I have hope for Romania. I believe gypsy people will learn. Our loving these people will slowly breakdown the walls they’ve built up to avoid loving others. Once they are able to love others, the stealing and such will slow down drastically. God changes hearts. HE has changed mine and I know HE will change hearts here in Romania.
We had to leave before handing out all the clothing we had brought to give because the people had become hostile and demanding. Becky, has invested so much time in these people and is determined for them to learn. I am amazed by her love. She doesn’t want to just give them and walk away. She puts so much time into these people that she won’t allow them to act the way they were and if they do, she won’t continue it with rewarding them. As we loaded up the vans and drove away people were chasing after us again and this time trying to open the back of the van doors to steal clothing. One little boy got it open and stole a bag from the van in the front. When Becky saw it she wouldn’t allow it so she pulled up and told him to give it back. Then I opened my door to get the bag and I saw it was a little boy I had been hanging out with earlier. When I looked into his eyes I saw his heart. He knew it was wrong and he could see the sadness and disappointment on my face. He knew I wasn’t angry at all.
Those are the kind of moments I pray for. The moments when my instinct would be anger but God works in me in HIS perfect timing and gives me HIS heart. I thank God soo much for making my heart (and Becky’s and the other racers) like HIS in that moment. I also thank God for the remorse I saw in that boy’s eyes. I thank God that even in an environment that teaches only to steal, HIS laws and decrees are still written on their hearts. It gives me such hope that even though it may not look like the gypsy people have that moral compass of God in them, I saw it and I know it is there.
Please pray that God allows HIS children to receive more of HIM and to live lives of thankfulness. I love you all! Thanks for your prayers:)
-Rachel
