Last month I had the incredible privilege of ministering alongside my mom in Romania. It was an amazing week to say the least. I was going to write a blog about it but my mom has an even more beautiful story to tell from that week and she’s a great writer so here is her story from a week in Romania and how God worked.
Imagine finding out once you get to college that you wouldn’t be able to do what you had envisioned growing up and had planned for years. I had wanted to be a missionary for as long as I could remember but my Christian college only trained pastors, teachers, doctors and nurses. I wanted to be none of those.
My dream went up in smoke.
Fast forward a few years to a young women who had found an ideal job in the medical world but still felt called to missions. On hearing a presentation about Brother Andrew’s Open Door ministry, smuggling Bibles in Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain, I thought, “Perfect!”
I had been praying for a husband for years, with none in sight, had always wanted to do something adventuresome and had always wanted to be a missionary. Everyone around me thought I had lost my mind but I don’t think anyone dared broach the subject just in case God really HAD called me to this. The truth would come out in the application process.
I had no problem filling out the application until I encountered the comment to consider if I would still be able to do this knowing I could be thrown in prison or executed. I was instructed to consider this, pray about it and write an essay explaining my thoughts coming to an appropriate conclusion. I prayed and prayed and agonized over this. Could I be silent and not betray innocent people? Could I be obedient even being tortured? Could I be obedient even to death?
It took weeks for me to pray through this and come to realize I would be obedient to death if needed. The peace that flooded me was overwhelming and I was convinced then that God would have me go. I was accepted into the ministry. The interesting thing about the timing of this was that while waiting for the acceptance letter, God brought a wonderful man into my life who would become my husband 8 months later! Needless to say I didn’t go to Eastern Europe.
Fast forward 30 years when my husband and 2 sons participated in a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Fast forward about 4 more years when son Brian spent 2 months ministering in Jamaica then going on the World Race.
God has allowed me the privilege to raise up a family who would minister in missions while I myself was unable to go. It saddened me not to be called to go but it just seemed like God didn’t have that for me. I felt I would need to be content knowing I had raised children who went into missionary service.
Not surprisingly, the Parent Trip where I was allowed to join Brian on the World Race, was to Romania, in Eastern Europe, behind the former Iron Curtain. How exciting to be able to minister in a country where I would have gone 35 years earlier!
My first assignment in ministry in Romania with my son was to deliver Bibles to people in apartment complexes. Really? My very first foreign ministry was delivering Bibles? That’s what I would have done 35 years earlier! Through the pouring rain, Brian, our translator, and I went up and down stairs, down long, dingy hallways putting Bibles on doorsteps. All the while I was praying we could talk to someone.
We saw some people and tried but no one was interested. That puzzled me because I felt that God would want me to share Christ with people in Romania and not just give them a Bible. Brian put it into perspective for me. “Mom, God has brought you full circle, bringing you to the place where you would have ministered. But, you would have been a courier, delivering the Bibles but then leaving, and that’s exactly what He had you do today.” Full circle. I’m thankful the Lord brought closure to the desire He placed in a young child’s heart.
