I’ve shared with you all about how God is working in my personal life, but finally here’s an actual update about what I’ve done ministry wise in Romania this month squeezed in 24 hours before I leave for Ireland.
My team along with 2 others has stayed at Casa Shalom (henceforth referred to as the Casa) this month. The Casa originated as an orphanage, but is mainly a temporary missionary home for people such as ourselves. It’s run by an absolutely incredible woman named Becky who is from America but has been in Romania for nearly 20 years and Europe since the 1980s. She’s got her hands in only God knows how many ministries and is an incredible example of a servant of Christ. Some of the orphans still live here and work around the Casa, and they are an absolute blessing to be around. They’re loads of fun and always up for some crazy games including underhand, weak hand knockout. The girls have spent most of their days serving at Jubilee, a home for
mentally and emotionally handicapped women, just loving on the women and
telling them about the Lord. (Here’s a couple of great blogs about the
work they’re doing there: http://tinyurl.com/343evtm
and http://tinyurl.com/39ttybo.) Everyone not going to Jubilee has been able to serve in several different ways including helping around the casa whether that be cleaning, mowing grass, unloading a tractor trailer filled with clothes and furniture, organizing a storage container, or sorting approximately 3,402,530 articles of clothing.
Also, we’ve been able to work with gypsy children once again. There’s a small village a few miles away that Becky has been ministering to for years. We’ve gone to their village and played games with them including soccer in a small alley filled with trash and glass. Our goals are formed from an old mattress, a wheelbarrow top and a beaten up briefcase, but the kids don’t care. They’re just so excited to play with us and be showered with affection. This was an incredible example of loving the unloved. They also got to come to the Casa for a couple of days and play. Their unbridled joy was unbelievable. They played on the playground for hours, we fed them lunch and then were able to share some Bible stories with them. (I got to play the role of the guy in Daniel who tattles on Daniel and eventually gets fed to the lions. It was an inspired performance for sure.) I pushed kids on swings for half an hour, let a baby sleep on my lap, and pushed kids on tricycles far enough to complete the Indy 500.
224.
Finally, one day we went to their village and brought food and clothes. The only way to describe this experience was surreal. I was one of the lucky few that got to run van security and prevent children and adults from getting into the van with the clothes and try our best to evenly disperse the goods. It was a small mob scene. It got so intense we finally left early and I got everyone back from the van and jumped in and closed the door as we were already moving. We got to the end of their village road and simply dumped the remainder of the food and clothes for them to handle themselves. I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life and definitely made me grateful for the things I have.
One last experience stands out to me as my favorite from this month. One day we took a day off from organized ministry to Ask the Lord and head into Bucharest to do some street ministry and evangelizing. I felt the desire to continue riding buses and talking to the riders as I felt this was the way I was supposed to reach people and my teammate Mary agreed to come with me. Well, due to a lack of English from the riders and boldness from me it didn’t exactly go so hot. We got off the bus and still had 30 minutes left to meet the rest of our team and began to hunt for a bathroom. We failed at finding a bathroom, and after bumping into some other team members sat down to wait until time to meet the others. We hadn’t been there 2 minutes when a woman approaches us speaking some English. We determine she wants some food and water and Mary and I walk with her to a store to get her some food. We then sit with the woman as she talks about her life in pretty decent English. She talks about physical issues and emotional issues with her heart as well. She goes on for a while and finally we ask her if we can pray for her. I think it took her a while to figure out what we were saying, but she finally agreed. I prayed over this woman and asked for phsyical healing and inner healing as well. I reminded her she was a child of Jesus and loved by the Lord, and thanked God for being able to meet this woman. As we stood up to leave, the woman stopped Mary and I and proceeded to kiss our hands and cheeks multiple times with tears in her eyes. This was one of my favorite experiences from my trip so far and a perfect example of loving the unloved. Who knows how often that woman is overlooked every day, but today she was showered with love and we were all blessed by the encounter. I pray for more encounters like this in each and every country I visit.
So that’s my month in Romania cliff notes version. I’ll definitely miss it, but I know that Ireland is going to be incredible. My big prayer request for this next month is for boldness for myself and my team to step out and speak the Word to whomever God calls us to speak to. I’d greatly appreciate your help in that department.
Thanks again to you all for following me and my next update will come sometime from the land of Guinness and leprechauns. We’ll be camping the entire month, so no promises as to the frequency of Internet, but I’ll try my best because you’re great.
