6 months after going there, I can finally say, “I’m happy to have been in Romania.” Going into this month, I knew the Lord was going to do some redemption work. I felt like He was going to redeem our prior month in Kenya and make this the best month yet! While it has been an amazing month, it’s been far from what I expected. I expected the Lord to redeem Kenya. He chose to redeem Romania.
Wait, what? Romania? But that was like, 6 countries ago…
It’s funny the way God works sometimes. Romania has been on my mind more than ever this month and well, let’s just say it wasn’t my favorite month on the Race. While in Romania, I experienced more growth than in any other country, but with that came dealing with a whole lot of crap. Usually when I think of Romania, I am flooded with memories of the pain I felt, the tears I shed, and wish I could just undo that whole month. Little by little though, God has been redeeming that month and erasing the pain.
The redemption process started through a song, a song that got me through most days in Romania. While there, it was not uncommon to see me sitting on the balcony or walking through the cornfield blaring Cory Asbury’s “So Good to Me” on my iPod. It was my way of convincing myself that God was indeed still good and that, despite everything, life did not suck. Well, I hadn’t really listened to that song since Romania when Dez pulls it out at debrief in January. Since then, it’s become a fairly regular song in the rotation of songs played and I’ve even started to learn it. Every time I hear it though, I can’t help but smile and praise my God for getting me through. I don’t think of the hard days I needed it anymore; I simply think of how good God is.
So anyway, one song-big deal. No, that’s not it. All month long God has flooded my mind with memories of Romania. From the times we hitchhiked to when half my team went to the hospital to the time Dez sang with a Hungarian band-it just seems like stories, and the memories associated, keep coming up. It’s so random. But God is like that.
Perhaps the biggest thing that has redeemed Romania for me was God reminding me of one specific night. While there, I had the privilege of praying over one of my sisters all night. That night has come up in my mind many times throughout this month but it wasn’t until the other day as I sat there, writing a note to this sister of mine, that the Lord reminded me of the importance of that night-the importance of walking in freedom, the importance of standing in truth, the importance of being His.
So there you have it. 6 months after a month I had essentially deemed hell, I can say I’m happy to have been there. I’m happy to have been with the people I was with. I’m happy to have gone through the crap I went through. Most of all, I’m happy that I no longer have any regrets about that country, about the things I did or didn’t do, and that the Lord is only going to grow me more from here.
