It has been a while since my series of fundraising discussions took over my blog, but I am back and very happy to announce that I have made it to Europe and I am loving every minute of it!
We arrived here in Romania Sunday, April 9th after 4 solid days of traveling. It took a bus, 4 airplanes and 1 train to get here, so we were absolutely exhausted when we got here. We spent the next two days sleeping in actual beds!! My back rejoiced as I tucked myself into the crisp, white sheets and sunk into the soft mattress. I didn’t wake up for 14 hours haha. I did spend our first week here with the Romanian Flu, but I am about to post another blog explaining all of this and what God taught me through it.
The ministry we are partnering with this month is Caminul Felix (caminulfelix.com) which translates “Happy Home” and is an organization that builds large houses for Romanian orphans to be adopted into. A Romanian, Christian couple would become parents to as many as 19 children, like our contacts Mircea and Lidia. The parents come with their own biological children if they have any and welcome many more who are in need of a stable, loving family:
“Millions of children of all ages have been left abandoned by unfortunate circumstances. In this
abandoned state they live their lives in despair and loneliness. The suffering among the rejected children is our calling. We believe that their only hope for full life is to be given a new, real
family, with a mother and a father, and with the security and caring love a family can provide. The environment they can be given at the Felix Family Village is this. And it transforms their lives.” –http://www.caminulfelix.com/who-we-are
In partnering with the Caminul Felix family villages, we also partner with Habitat for Humanity in building the houses. So, from Monday to Friday we spend a typical workday (9-4pm) doing construction, which can be quite interesting when you throw together a group of 25 people who have never done construction before. Thankfully our supervisor and “go-to-guy” Benjamin, is a great teacher! We have been learning how to fit in drywall, filling in the cracks with plaster, sanding the walls down to be ready for paint, and some of us have built an attic, complete with fiberglass insulation.
Every day is pretty much the same, which can get boring but I have realized that each day I have a choice. I can choose to be joyful as I work and make the most of this opportunity or I can choose to complain and believe that repetitive sanding motions are worth nothing. So I have been choosing joy, and the days that I choose joy the Lord speaks life in to me and He shares visions of how a building, a house can become a loving home.
One day I listened to my iPod while I sanded the walls up high on a ladder and the song Freedom Reigns by Jesus Culture came on and I prayed over those walls and over that house. I declared FREEDOM over the family that would live there and the Lord began to flash pictures from this home’s future family photo album in my mind. I saw green walls with white trim; I saw a mom with a rooster patterned apron making apple pies; I saw little boys running through the halls with dinosaur figurines; I saw little girls carting around crafts dripping in glue and glitter; I saw a Christmas tree in the corner with random, mismatched decorations collected over the years; I saw the family gathered in the living room praying when troubles came and rejoicing in battles won; I saw more children being brought home for the first time and feeling welcomed and loved. And then I imagined what the home would smell like when fresh laundry was brought in from the clotheslines; what it would sound like when the parents sing to their toddler after waking from a bad dream; what it would feel like to curl up in a handmade quilt after coming in from a snowy, winter’s night; and what it would taste like to eat watermelon on the front porch on a hot summer’s day. It was so beautiful and I thanked the Lord for helping me see these walls come to life and showing me what could become of our repetitive sanding motions: this house would become a home.
These past 3 months have been manual labor and service and we are starting to wonder where the “good stuff” is. We want to see the crippled walk and the sick child to be well again. We want to see the gospel preached and people coming in to the kingdom. We want to see addictions being broken, and prostitutes finding freedom and redemption. We want to see bread and fish multiplied and we want the prison cells to shake because of our worship….but all we continue to see is buckets of paint, wheelbarrows full of mud and walls to be sanded over and over again. And then the Lord reminded me of Luke 16:10—If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities.
We still have 7 months left on this race and the “greater things” have yet to come. Right now God is asking me: Aisha, will you find joy and promise in whatever I ask of you? Do you trust that my plan is what’s best? Are you willing to be faithful in what seems like a mundane task, so that I can prepare you for what’s yet to come?
While these 4 months haven’t been filled with the “this is what I was born for” moments, I know that I am in the will of the Lord and He is asking for my faith and trust in Him. I am convinced that greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done, but also that what I am doing now matters because…I am not just building houses; I am building homes.
