“I love you” were the only words she spoke in English. Wow I thought, she could have just said thank you after the prayer but instead she said “I love you?” I literally just met her. Can I do that? Can I just love people regardless of language, ethnicity, background or social status? What would it look like if we recklessly loved people like Jesus does no matter what?
This past Wednesday, my squad and I went out and did local evangelism with Hope Church in Romania. I was honestly so excited to get out and meet the people of Craiova, Romania but on the same token I had no idea what to expect.
Together we walked the streets of Craiova distributing over 500 New Testament Bibles filled with testimonies of people coming to Jesus and an invitation to the church. We met people at their homes and on the streets. There were many people that I got the chance to speak with and the stories from this day I will never forget.
The woman at the gate:
Broken and in distress she cried. She was begging for relief from the problems that were weighing on her shoulders. As I stood there listening to her Romanian language, I asked the translator what she had said. Her father was very ill, and her child was on the verge of death. My heart just hurt, “Can I pray for you and your family?” I asked. She agreed to pray and afterwards looked at me with tears welling up in her eyes and spoke back in English “I love you.” I was thrilled to hear these words but after explaining the gospel to her, she didn’t want it. My heart just hurt for her.
When God said turn around:
There was a man that was sitting on a bench. As we walked past I wanted to stop and share with Him about Jesus, but we kept walking. It burned on my heart so much to turn around. I said to our translator, “Daniel, can I have a Bible? I need to turn around” We went over and shared the gospel with him. He stated this was the first time he heard about Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. He was interested in Jesus and wanted to know more but all of a sudden, he got up and dashed into the bus he was boarding. As the bus quickly moved away, we were left disheartened.
The two teenage boys:
After passing out all of the Bibles, we went around to talk to people. There was a teenage boy sitting down and my translator said, “Go up to him.” Okay cool, I thought, what’s this dude going to think when I start explaining the gospel to him? To my surprise he was super interested…until his friend came over. His friend started saying how Jesus was his conscious and didn’t want anything to do with a personal relationship with Him. The both left and again I thought wow God, this is hard.
The man that didn’t sin:
There was a man sitting on a bench and a teammate of mine and I went over to talk to him. We were just in conversation and then I asked “Do you know Jesus?” He said yes but didn’t know the gospel. After explaining, he said “but I don’t sin.” Cool, I thought ministry is harder than I ever expected. How do I respond to this?
At the end of the day, our squad walked around Craiova University three times and prayed the Joshua prayer over the campus and the city to intentionally see lives changed by the gospel. I had so many mixed emotions and thoughts from the day as a whole.
Many people were willing to listen and never heard of the gospel before but did not want a personal relationship with Jesus. It was disheartening but the most unique thing the Lord taught me was to trust Him. To trust the work He is doing here and to recklessly love people. The Lord taught me to not hold back but all the more continue to share the good news of Jesus and love people the way He does. Seeds were planted, prayers were uplifted and ultimately it is not my work but the work of the Lord to call them to Himself.
