Coming to Romania, a land of a language completely foreign to me, I thought that it would be hard to connect and impact the people. There are some that can speak English here, and many that are in the process of learning as well. Those learning have been such a blessing to those of us and I hope that we can bless them in any way possible in return. This is just one of many accounts of the connections and relationships that have formed with the locals.
On Saturday, I walked around with an energetic, fun-loving, strong woman who spoke a decent amount of English. To break the ice, I started to attempt to learn and perfect my Romanian and seemed to have entertained her immensely. Once the ice was melted we started talking about our families. She poured her heart out to me, revealing the news that her mom was in a coma. Her strong, positive attitude about the whole situation was encouraging to me.
Sunday morning we had driven to a nearby village (about 30 minutes away). The day had been full of traveling and wore me out. That night we had the opportunity to attend Hope Church, our Romanian contact. The pastor made an announcement that her mom had passed away earlier that day.
My heart sank.
I just spoke with her the day before and felt her love and desire for her mom to be saved. As they prayed, during the service, they stood behind her, surrounding her with the love and comfort of her church family. Even after the service, people approached her providing more support. I witnessed a fellowship that blew my mind- willing to mourn and rejoice with each other.
It's crazy to think how the timing worked out- the fact that we talked about it the day before and being able to get the news first hand to a service that I was hesitant on attending for selfish reasons. I realized that I could love on her even though we couldn't communicate that well. I have found out more and more every day that love can cross cultural understanding that you can embrace even if you are in a land of a foreign spoken language.
Stay tuned for a blog (with pictures) about the kids ministry my team and I have been involved in later on this week. It has been such a neat experience thus far, I've seen people on fire for God and authentic love and worship that makes my heart smile.
