Today I experienced one of my favorite church services of the race, and quite possibly, my entire life!
Quite honestly, I think I'm still processing the day.
I am still a little high on the Spirit as I write these words – I encountered the Spirit in a way I haven't in a very long time – we worshiped the Lord in a way many American churches simply don't worship.
The church was located 25 kilometers outside of Draganesti. The Pastor is a first-generation Christian who was in a gang during his "B.C" days!!
For many years, the church met outside! During the summer, they took shelter in the shade of the forest, and during the winter, they were very cold!!! During this time, Christian (the Pastor's eldest son) was trying to teach the people that the church is NOT a building; the church is a group of people. A church is a church whether there is a physical building or not! These people certainly proved their committed to the Lord!
In recent years, the Lord has truly blessed this group of people with an amazing facility to call their own! The church had been praying and believing in the Lord's provision and even received a vision where a building should be constructed. A group from America came with the same vision and offered to construct the building for them – covering the entire bill themselves!
Our contact, Raul, asked for four people to attend this church today, to share a few testimonies and a word of encouragement with the congregation. Christian picked up myself, Monica, Jessica and Alex up in Draganesti at 10am. During the 30 minute drive to the church, we talked about many things from the history of the church, how he and his family came to know the Lord (all on the same day!) and he asked us to share stories from our travels. Before we knew it, we had arrived at the church.
We walked inside and were warmly greeted! It was obvious that the people of this church were different from so many expression-less people we've seen since being in Romania! There was life flowing through them – they were soft and filled with the light of Christ. Their faces were warm and loving.
We were quickly ushered to the front row; shortly after sitting down, the service was underway.
As soon as the worship began, the Spirit fell; His presence was thick and tangible! People were rasing their voices and arms unto the Lord; people were shaking and genuinely worshiping God. They were desperate for more of the Holy Spirit!
During the worship time, I truly experienced the Holy Spirit in a new way. I can't explain what or how I felt, I only know it was God. Before we left this morning, we decided that I would share a testimony and Alex would share an encouraging word. During worship, however, everything I planned on saying was thrown out of the window when God spoke something to me – I knew what he was saying to me was meant to be shared with the church.
When worshiped ended, I got up to share.
"For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:24
These were the first words out of my mouth. From there I said what an honor it was to worship with them because they worship Him the way he calls us to worship. Their worship is honoring to Him and becuase of that, He has blessed them. I shared how earlier this morning, during the drive to church, we had talked about how
America is physically wealthy, but spiritually poor.
I see the opposite here –
This church is spiritually rich!
I can see how each person has chosen to seek first His kingdom and righteousness, which results in God providing everything they need. The building we were meeting in is a testiment to that! I ended by saying that the way they worshiped our Lord was encouraging, more encouraging than any words I could share with them!
From there, Alex, Monica AND Jessica eached shared a testmony! One testimony was not enough for them – they wanted to hear from each of us! Then, Christian asked us each to share a story from the Race because they are a church that LOVES stories!
Following our stories, the Pastor spoke for a few minutes about how we encouraged him to be missions-minded. He has decided to speak with the youth concerning missions this coming Saturday and invited us to come back, not only to share with the youth, but also to the Sunday service next weekend!
During the closing prayer time, the congregation prayed specifically for RAIN – the land and their crops are in need of rain. They will go hungry without the rain to nourish the dry ground; without prayer, the rain, and God's provision the harvest will not produce 30, 60 or 100 times what was planted!
After the service concluded, we talked with the pastor and his wife, and Christian for over 3 hours! We shared stories and experiences from before and during the race, we talked specifically about our experience in Haiti with anointing the earth for Jesus, and spirital warfare.
They related to EVERYTHING we shared. They completely understand the war we're fighting because they are on the front-lines.
They live in a country where witchcraft is real, they regularly free people from the control of demons, and they truly know what it means to trust in the Lord for EVERTHING – many within the church are desperate –
Without God's provision, they have absolutely NOTHING.
During our story time, the Pastor shared a story about a modern-day miracle. I had just finished sharing a story about how I've seen food multipied and then he shared one! The church had a 2-day youth conference, but the youth refused to go home after the second day! Over 60 youth stayed around for a third day – which meant there were 60 young men and women who needed to be fed; they were hungry!
Unfortuntately, the only food was
1 kg of rice and a few sausages!
The pastor and his wife prayed over the food, cooked it, and served it until everyone was content! All 60 young adults ate! Each time the spoon was put into the pot to serve rice or meat, there was some to be dished out! There was so much that there were seconds, thirds, and finally leftover!
We serve an amazing, powerful, all-knowing God. He takes pleasure in providing for our needs and likes to show off by blessing us beyond what we could ever think or imagine!
Each time I meet "family" around the world, I'm blown away how comfortable I am with people I know nothing about, with people I'm so different from, with people who speak a difference language and are from a difference culture and background. But one thing ALWAYS united us – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! It doesn't matter what our differences are because we find common ground in Him. He is what allows us to become family.
