Sunday I expected to go to the baserica (church) to hear Romanian style worship and preaching, but instead, John, our missionary contact, had an idea to have all the World Racers (about a total of 60 racers who come from the H squad, J squad, and K squad) walk around the village while singing worship and praise songs as we invited people to Sunday evening church. The “worship parade” brought out a lot of people from their houses and many of them came to Sunday evening church, some who may never come to church. This parade reminded me of how it was worship that tore down the walls of Jericho when the Israelites marched around the fortified city with the blowing of trumpets for six days and shouts of praise. There is great power in worship. Walled up hearts are broken down and submit to nothing more than to respond in worship: “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow– of those who are in heaven and on earth and under earth–and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
This week we helped feed a widow in the village who was providing for two young grandchildren. She lives off a small monthly stipend the Romanian government gives her (kinda like Social Security), but it is barely enough to provide for her and her two grandkids monthly. She lives off the vegetables of her garden and draws water from her neighbor’s well at least twice a day. She walks to the magazin (village corner store) almost everyday to get fresh meat and bread. She boils her water for laundry and uses the same pot for boiling soup. Please keep Rosa in your prayers. Pray that her grandchildren and any other family member in the village will listen to what God desires and help her. I know Rosa isn’t the only widow in the village, so I ask that you pray for all the widows of the village too, according to what God says for the good of a community where widows live: “Support widows who are genuinely widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, they should learn to practice their religion toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God” (1 Timothy 5:3-4).
As planned from last week, Matt and Adam helped pour out a foundation for the new house of the farmer we helped last week. They spent two days on the foundation and did a good job laying the foundation. They now have some experience with cement mixing and laying cement for the shower we want to build for our host family. Yay guys!
Matt, Adi, Adam, and I did the groundbreaking work for the shower on Wednesday. We installed the drainage pipe in the house. Matt and Adam had to cart about four loads of gravel and sand to the house while a few of the girls on the team helped with carting a load of gravel and bucketing cement to Matt for spreading out the shower foundation. We worked on the shower project from Wednesday to the end of this week. We will finish digging the drainage ditch next week.
Wednesday started our 3-day Kids Club at the biserica. Jodi brought together the curriculum for the kids and my team along with a team from the H squad and K squad helped play out skits, teach music and games and crafts. Wednesday the kids learned about God’s strength through the story of David and Goliath. Thursday, they learned about God’s provision through the two loaves of bread and five fishes for the feeding of 5,000 people. Friday, the kids learned about the wee little man named Zacheus, about God’s love for people no matter where they are in life and how God transform lives for the better through His Son Jesus Christ. Often times, the kids would run up to us when they see us walking on the street and give us a hug because they knew us already from kids club. It was encouraging to see how the kids club was used to draw kids closer to knowing God’s love for them.
September 10th was a special day for our host family. We celebrated David’s 2nd year birthday. Sanda made a delicious 3-layered birthday cake and somalies (I call them Romanian Spring Rolls because they look like spring rolls, but are cabbage rolls filled with rice and pieces of pork). We blew up balloons and hung them up for David. He calls them ‘bufas’ (that’s Romanian for ‘ball’) and ‘bufas’ are his favorite toys.
Following the birthday party, that night, the ladies of the World Race teams (from the H squad, J squad, and K squad) held a worship and testimony night for the young ladies and woman of the village at the baserica.
It was a good productive week. The Harvest is ready!
I am looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us to do next week for His kingdom.
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
