Oh Romania, how refreshingly beautiful you are! Everywhere I look I see green pastures and trees. The air is clean and crisp and the surrounding forests are quiet and mysterious. I have enjoyed the slow pace of life and am finding more than I ever thought I would here.
For example… I have found simple living to not be as simple as I had thought.
This month my team along with another all girl team has partnered together to serve at a retreat/camp center in Radna, Romania. The camp is in its off season and we are assisting with random projects around the grounds to get it ready for the summer season.
The only glitch is that most of the projects they wanted us to finish involved being outside in dry weather (painting or planting). The day we arrived we were welcomed by rainy weather, which continued strong for the next 6 days. We soon realized that our projects for ministry would be changing a bit.
One morning our contact said he needed 4 volunteers to help a neighbor with some yard work. I volunteered along with 3 others. We walked away from the property and into the local village. We came to the front gate where we were greeted by an elderly man (likely in his eighties) wearing a large coat and a traditional Romanian hat. He didn’t speak any English but was very excited to see us. He walked us to his backyard where we met his sweet wife Sophia. She also did not speak any English but communicated all she needed to with her kind eyes and hugs.
They continued to direct us to huge pile of dirt and straw. With a hoe in hand she pulled away at the pile to reveal 1,000s of potatoes they had harvested last August to protect through the winter frost.
One by one we grabbed potatoes, removed their roots and placed them into baskets for storage in the barn. What seemed like an easy task was actually quite exhausting and took 6 of us about 3 hours to finish.
The next day we returned to Sophia’s house and helped her sow garlic and onions in her garden. We had to have planted 300 of each vegetable in perfectly symmetrical rows.
As simple as these tasks were it was definitely some hard, laborious work. I was in awe of Sophia’s ability to work as she did in her old age. She kept us 20-somethings on our toes and taught us quite a few things about efficiency in harvesting.
I will never forget the afternoons we spent with her in her garden. It’s funny to think of how many times I have used the phrase or scripture, “Reap what you sow….” but I had never actually sowed anything in real life to fully understand the expression. The whole time we were preparing the ground or dropping the seed I was realizing how God was speaking to me about the simple diligent acts of sowing even when I wont necessarily see the harvest. I can only trust that after He provides the rain and the sunshine will it come.
I love how God is always speaking, even through a situation of harvesting potatoes with an old Romanian couple. If I am learning anything this month it would be the importance of slowing down, living simple and recognizing the voice of God where I wouldn't normally be listening.
