Last night, we had one of my all-time favorite dinners: sausage, mashed potatoes, and corn with a side of cucumbers and tomatoes. Mmmm, mmm! After almost eight months of being away from Nebraska, it was such a treat to feel a little bit of home again!
It’s so different to be in a village after spending the last seven months in the city! I don’t know how it’s worked out this way, but my team has consistently found ourselves in the thriving metropolis of whatever country we’re in. Although I have enjoyed the city life, it’s such a refreshing feeling to be in the midst of this small community where life is slower.
Ville Tecii, Romania
We are treated as family here. Everyone has welcomed us with loving arms and given us their beds to sleep in. We are loved, and we know it.
Just over four years ago, I was riding in the backseat of a car driving through the countryside of Czech Republic. It was my first trip overseas, and I remember being shocked at how differently people lived. I remember thinking to myself as we drove past run-down shackles of homes and locals trying to sells their goods by the roadside, “Wow; these people are so poor!” It hurt my heart to see such living conditions.
Now my perspective has changed. I still see unfinished homes and children running in the streets with dirt-covered faces and raggy clothes. I see that these people have grown up with so much less than I did. But I also see families. I see love. I see joy in their lives of simplicity. I see what Solomon meant when he said in Ecclesiastes 2:24, “Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.”
This place is evidence of the joy in simple living.
We’ve been sent to Ville Tecii to love the old men and women who have labored for years under the sun. We’ve been sent here to love His precious children. We’ve been sent here to love the rejected people group known as gypsies. And we’ve been sent here to BE loved in return.
Stay tuned for more of their stories, soon to come!
