After 96 hours of travel from Honduras to Romania we finally made it! Talk about culture shock…the complete opposite of Central America no question asked. From sleeping on the floor, cold showers, no furniture, smiling people who instantly count you as family and embrace you with hugs and kisses, hot weather and beautiful mountainous views to comfy beds, hot showers, couches, straight faced people who seem to keep to themselves, cold weather and beautiful flat farm lands. Romania is a beautiful country and we are beyond blessed with our living conditions. Our contacts and the people of Caminul Felix are really nice and I have enjoyed working with them. But with all that being said, I’m not going to lie, Central America has officially stolen my heart and being here in Romania is difficult for me.
Caminul Felix is an amazing ministry to say the least! The heart behind it is to take away the ordinary “orphanage” living and instead replace it with family living. They have two villages, one with six houses and one with 10 houses (where we are staying). In each home there is a Dad, Mom, and 12-15 orphans. Each set of parents raise the children in a family like setting and love on them as if they were their own. We are spending the month here building houses. The house we are working on will be the home for a family who is downsizing. The older children have all grown up; they have gone from 19 children to 6 thus needing a smaller home.
I’m not going to lie, a big portion of our work days I’ve had a really rotten attitude. We are on the plastering step of building the house and I’m frustrated. It started of good and I actually enjoyed it…the first few days. But instead of moving forward and seeing progress like I assumed we would see while house building, the steps just kept getting repeated over and over again I just became more and more frustrated. As I try fixing the plaster mess that was done before me, I say to myself “I’m a relationship builder! Not a house builder!” It’s not that I don’t like manual labor because I do, when I can see progress, and when I’m building relationships at the same time. Like last month in Honduras we did manual labor and seeing the finishing product excited me! The relationships built last month are awesome and will last a lifetime. This month, just building, no progress, no relationships. Or maybe I’ve been looking at this wrong….
I was talking to a good friend of mine on facebook one day and was sharing with him my frustrations. He reminded that God has called me to this, whether I enjoy it or not I’m doing it for Him and it’s with purpose. I CAN do it because God says I can. So, on the verge of breakdown from frustration I brought it before God. God showed me…yet again…that I may not always see the fruit of my labor. I may not always like what I am doing but I need to always choose joy. Then it dawned on me. I’m not just building houses, I AM building relationships! I don’t see it now but after I’m gone, after the paint is on the walls, the pluming and electric is done, after a few more teams work on their portion of the house, a family will move in. I am building a home so they can build their relalationship. Laughter over dinner, game nights in the living room, dad and mom tucking in their kids at night, husband and wife kissing each other goodnight. Family. It’s not about the plaster, the nails, the sanding or hammering now. It’s about the family, the love, the joy later. And I feel honored to be a part of that!
