I asked my mom to write a guest blog about her experience and perspective in missions. God taught her a lot in just a short time frame and she carries a perspective that at any age God still speaks. Across oceans and countries God still connects and is at work.
As I am reading what a fellow brother calls the greatest love story of all times (Bible), my eyes catch sight of spring in progress. It reminds me of following our daughter Aubrey through the 11n11 and Gap year races, in that it has been like watching a flower bloom. When we intently take the time to experience an event or moment in time there we find God doing His best work. Such as it is with the two journey’s He has taken Aubrey on.
We have witnessed real joy, challenges, struggles, tears (joy & heartache), intimacy, living in community, laughter, fondness, and most noticeably growth with the Lord. Aubrey may disagree with this, from my perspective God has given her the “time” to appreciate the things the rest of the world takes for granted. She has provided the window to this magical world of time….time with God’s creation, God the creator, King of Kings, Jesus as savior.
Its funny how in writing this God has transported me back in time. Though I have only traveled out of the country once as recently as 2 years ago, that opportunity profoundly opened and changed me. I was at a time in my life where I had been given tremendous responsibility professionally, to say it wasn’t overwhelming would be an understatement. I carried that responsibility like a yoke, weighted down, wondering how long it would continue. Our invitation to travel to Romania to hang out with Aubrey and her team for a week was exciting, curious and alittle apprehensive. I will be honest it wasn’t my first choice of travel, however God had other plans as He always does. Accepting those plans was the best decision to trust Him and align with His will. Otherwise all this would be pointless.
We traveled about 10 hours (time was irrelevant) landing in Paris then Bucharest, passed out in our hotel sleeping well past our normal time. We met up with Aubrey and her team in Dragane?ti-Olt, a small community 3 hours from Bucherest. It felt like a time warp, traveling thru country sides full of sunflower plants in various stages of growth (main economic staple), towns hugging the roadsides lined with home after home with unique fence facades separating them. I soon learned the fences were not as a means of separation, more of providing property lines housing gardens with vegetables and fruit, domestic and undomestic animals, bee hives. Romas (Gypses) also lived among these towns. Pulling up to Biserica Speranta (Hope Church), we were greeted by all the PVT racers with signs welcoming us. Our hearts leaped! Our hosts were amazing, an endless resource of nourishment, rest, support and encouragement.
We worked and played hard, each day planned with visiting locals at different stages of Christian or non-Christian walks. Participated in church services, where my behind the scenes persona came out – God rocked!. David was amazing singing with another mom who happens to share the same wedding date as us and they were paired up with us at our host families residence (another God thing). Traveled an hour to a Craiova, a city where a newly created ministry “9000 Souls“ was supported by our host church. We walked around the college campus (25 of us) praying as we walked for the campus community and the city, the vision and staff of 9000 Souls.
One of our visits to a community within Draganesti-Olt, we met families that their children had left the area in order to support their families, work is scarce. The retirement age is 61-65, after that they are not allowed to work. We met a woman my age who worked in a post office, she loved her job, but it came with tremendous responsibility (learning new things), she was also concerned about what would happen when she had to retire and how she would take care of her family. She grew her own vegetables, had chickens for eggs and meat, she knew Jesus, but had to be careful about her beliefs. Another group of women we met, were bitter that their children had to go out of the country to find work and be separated for months, even years, their tears were real as the pain written on their faces. Heartwrenching. The work our host church is doing to bring the community together despite their situations has been life changing in the stories they shared. God’s persistence living within them to stand firm wearing His armor established their church in Draganesti-Olt. The local authority at the time was not too keen on Hope church being established. God provided a new authority shortly after.
Psalm 34:18-20 & 22 says the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. The Lord will rescue his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned… I found this resonating in the spirit of this community.
As I close this trip down memory lane with Aubrey’s cat Eve nestled beside me, I think of the woman I met who is my age, we shared a number of common threads (maybe you caught them), even though we couldn’t speak each others language we spoke God’s, even though I was the foreigner in a foreign country I felt at home as Jesus felt at home walking with his disciples sharing the good news! We can all feel at home wherever we are on our Kingdom journey’s.
Ps…God walked me out of that yoke and it started with this journey, you see God has every moment, every day accounted for, why should we carry any yokes but His?
