One of my favorite things about our time here in Romania is around 6:30
every night, we get together and eat
dinner together as a family. Since there are ten people together this month, we
assigned 2 people to come up with a
recipe and cook dinner for that specific night. Well me and Vinny ended up
drawing Thursday night together…. So we put together our heads and came up with
a special plan for the team.
Since Vincent Joseph Farino is Italian (if you can’t tell by his name
already…) and comes from a family with of plethora of Italian pasta recipes, we
decided to borrow a recipe that has been passed down from generation to
generation called the Sicilian Supper (Thanks Grandma Rose and Vinny’s Mom).
Well while in the kitchen we found a bread-maker, and then it hit us. Italian
pasta, homemade bread, community, supper together… WE ARE GONNA HAVE COMMUNION
TOGETHER AS A FAMILY!
(Family meals every night )
After 2
and a half hours in the kitchen baking bread and preparing the Sicilian supper
(which was DELICIOSA!), we sat down and Vinny and I shared what the Lord has
been placing on our hearts for the past few weeks. Quote from Vinny’s blog…
“This past week the Lord has just been putting it on my heart what His blood
has done for me. Whenever I think about the power that is in His blood it
is just overwhelming to me. The blood of Jesus has the power to
heal, restore, deliver, change, fill up, protect, overcome and most of all
save. The Lord has put this verse on my heart Revelation 12:11 They
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony. This is
so powerful because it is referring to the end times and the spiritual battle
of the Devil and his demons vs. the head angel Michael and other angels. When
the enemy is thrown to the earth it says not that the angels overcame him, but
that we did by the blood of Jesus and the word of our testimony.”
(Me and Vinny cooking the Sicilian Supper)
I feel
that a lot of times, our team has been struggling with loving others the way
God first loved us first. As an ultimate sign of love, He sent Jesus Christ
down to earth to shed his blood for our sins. He loved us so incredibly much
that rather than seeing us get what we deserve, death, he sent his holy and
perfect son to be slaughtered by the hands of the enemy. What a sacrifice! I
know that it is sometimes hard to grasp or fathom how high, wide, and deep his
love is for us… but once it hits you it is overwhelming for sure! We are called
the love others the same way that God loves us. We have been sent to love God
and make his love known… and that is pretty hard to do whenever you are living
in constant community with 5 other strangers 24/7, 7 days a week! Also from
Vinny’s blog…
“The enemy attacks and attacks and sometimes people don’t know how
to fight back when all they have to do is remind the devil that the blood of
the lamb has saved them. By our application of the blood, the devil loses his
opportunity to harass us, lie to us, hurt us and invade our homes. The devil
cannot pass through the blood.”
After Vinny finished
speaking about the blood that Jesus shed for us, I began to talk about what the
body of Christ means for us as a team here on the World Race. In 1 Corinthians
12, Paul speaks about how the body of Christ is made up of many body parts, yet
all equally as important and completely necessary to function at full capacity.
“For just as the body is
one and has many members, and all of the members of the body, though many, are
one body, so it is with Christ…For the body does not consist of one member but
of many. If the foot should say “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to
the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear
should say Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not
make it any less a part of the body…Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it.”
I
explained that each and every person has been created uniquely and has been
given different gifts. Each person is a different body part, which makes up the
body of Christ. It’s not that one part of the body is more significant than the
other, because the body is designed to function at it’s full capacity when all
the intended body parts are there and working properly… just like the body of
Christ. Not a single body part is greater than the other.. they just have
different roles. When we all come together the way that God created us for,
then that’s when the body of Christ begins to work the way God intended it to
work, then we see God’s Kingdom move here on earth! Well I went around the table and the Lord just
revealed to me which body part each person was and why. They were prophetic
words that were spoken over each member of the team, knowing that is what God
created them to be. If they hadn’t already stepped into that role, it was just
truth to encourage them to step into the position that God has called them to
fill. Here is the body parts that Team Rapha and Team Considered Lost are! I’ll
let you use your imagination to figure out the explanation of why each person
is this specific body part!
“After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said,
“take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again
of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took
bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is by
body given for you; do this in
remembrance of me. ” In the same
way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new
covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
Luke
22:17-20
(Sicilian Supper.. with bread and wine for Communion)
