We were not “supposed” to be here this month. We were “supposed” to be in another part of the country and another team was “supposed” to be here, but we had translation problems or logistical mix up or something and got here instead and it is really cool because we are in a rockin house with beds for all of us. We have an amazing view of the mountains and a cool steeple. It is an awesome house, but we had to pay a lot of this month’s budget for the house and so barely have enough money for food. By that I mean that we are feeding 14 people 3 times a day with 21 Lei. 21 lei is roughly equivalent to $7. Literally I saw a meal at KFC in the mall for 16 Lei, and that would only be for one person, we are feeding 14! It is a challenge but Lauren and Ashley did a great job of finding foods that stretch and are cheap.
The second day we were here we went into some Hungarian villages and visited with a woman who was struggling with depression and prayed for her. Then we went to visit with a woman who the June team had visited and prayed for when they were here a few weeks ago. They prayed for her because she was pregnant and her baby was not turning around to come out head first and so she was going to have to have a c-section. They prayed and the baby turned around and beautiful, healthy Sunshine was born. At her house we led some worship songs and prayed while the family worked on cleaning some vegetables. As we left that afternoon, apparently she told Pastor to come back that night.
So we went and played with some gypsy kids and did our play and had a good time and about 8 we left and went back to the home of Sunshine’s family. When we stopped Pastor asked a guy to get out helping him carry “some vegetables.” So Paul got out and we were blown away at this point at how much they had already given us, but then here comes Paul and Pastor with a trash bag size bag full of vegetable and right behind them comes the father with yet another crate full of vegetables. There was not one person on the van who had words to say. Literally, we had had the conversation of if you want more food than we are getting with the money we have you will have to do that out of your personal money, it was that serious, there was not enough for everyone to be satisfied. So we were all kind of worried about food, to make things worse it was 8 and we had not eaten since 11, anything. So we were just floored. Several people crying, finally someone got their jaw off the floor and was able to muster up a mulsumesk (thank you). After the father saw our reaction he explained to Pastor that this was their tithe. They had met us that day and decided to tithe their crop to us. How amazing is that? It met our needs, we ate off of those vegetable for most of the time that we were in Stejeris. We were just blown away by God’s faithfulness.
So you know how dire our money situation was/is because we still don’t have just a ton, (we were told coming into this thing that on the race you don’t have the luxury of feeling full every day) but we have enough. The team that was supposed to be here got put on the other bus because of the logistical mix up and is about 8 hours in the other direction, but if they had come here they would have also had to hire translators for their ministry and that would have had to come out of their budget as well, however, because on our team we have a Romanian who speaks Romanian and can translate we don’t have to hire one which means we don’t have to spend money on that, which means we have more money for food. It is craziness how faithful God has proved himself to be.
