I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve actually written a blog about our ministry. To some degree, it has. We’re in Romania for a few more days and then we’ll leave for our final country. It took us 3 days of traveling by train to get here from the Ukraine. This month has passed by quickly. A few more weeks and then we’ll be home…
We begin each morning with about 4 hours of construction; which by the way, our team has gotten used to by now. We’ve mixed, leveled, and poured concrete. We’ve shoveled wheel barrel after wheel barrel of rocks. We’ve plastered walls, ripped our shoes, and popped plenty of blisters. Team SE7EN has been blessed to have a role in the building of a few homes. We’ve laid the foundation of a home, and added porches and walkways around the others.
While shoveling piles and piles and piles of rocks I constantly think of how this year has gone by. I think of the ministries of which we have been a part. Some of the ministries are like this month, simply laying a foundation. Other months, like in the Philippines, we were able to reap the benefits of someone else’s labor. After we painted a few walls we watched as a woman and her family moved in to their new home. And still other months, we didn’t lay the foundation or see the project reach completion. We were only there to keep the process going.
The same is said spiritually. We have shared the Gospel with some people who heard it for the first time that day. We’ve also preached to those who are already believers. And then there are those days in which we are blessed to witness people come to Christ after years of having Godly men and women continually pouring into their lives. We saw a similar case in Malaysia…A woman who converted to Christianity from Islam wanted to be baptized. We only met with her a few times; however, she asked that our team be there for that special day.
Now, back to our ministry here. We’re living in an orphanage this month so every afternoon is spent with the children and teenagers playing soccer, watching movies, making crafts, and anything else they can think of. We have all built relationships with the kids and this will certainly be another difficult country to leave.
There is a group from England staying with us this month as well. We went with them one day and visited a gypsy village to deliver food. It was heart breaking. The gypsy village is basically outside of the city. They live in homes made of scraps of whatever they can find. Honestly, it looks like a trash dump. These people are neglected from society and are often homeless and jobless. I wish we could’ve spent more time in that area. It’s unbelievable.
We have done a lot this month. But it never feels like enough. It seems like as soon as your heart breaks it’s time to move to the next country.
