My favorite part about the Race is getting to know people. I love getting to build relationships, and have a peek into the lives of people all over the world. I have often thought that if, while out here as a racer, your not sad to leave then your probably not loving these people hard enough, and pouring the time into them to really get to know them and understand them. When you do this though, really pour in, you have to be careful, because then a piece of your heart gets left with those you loved! But that is okay, we will all be together again soon.
While in Romania, we got to work with two families. We spent the first half of the month with Mark and Florina and their two cute little boys. Florina is a gentle spirit and I enjoyed so much getting to know her. She has been a Romanian missionary for most of her adult life and she met mark, an English chap while they were doing missionary work together. Their primary area is a small village called Comani. The first time I did a prayer walk around it with Veronica I fell in love with it. Oh yeah, and then the second half of the month we spent a lot of time with a Romanian couple, Alexe and Veronica. I loved getting to know Veronica as well. She just carries joy with her, and she shines because of it. I don’t think I have ever seen a woman work so hard in my life. She gardens, cooks, cleans, shovels the trash, cares for four children, and so much more! She was truly inspiring to me this month, and I loved getting to spend time with her. She has such a heart of compassion for the people in her village.
Anyways, some of my favorite memories this month were doing prayer walks around the village, kids clubs on Saturday and getting to see all their beautiful smiles, and telling them how Jesus loves them. I loved having picnics with Mark and Florina, and laughing at the things their boys would do or say(they were 6 and 4, you know, kids say funny things at that age). We even got to make goodie bags and distribute them to 25 needy families in the community.
Veronica and Alexe had some chickens and two little goats that I would frequently chase down and pick up to hold and cuddle. They started getting smart though, and would make a quick getaway when they saw me coming, saying things like, “I just want to hug you!” At the end of the month, they treated us really special by letting the boys, Hagen and Harris pick two young roosters, catch them, cut their heads off, gut them and cook them! It was pretty neat, all except plucking the feathers, which was nasty. However, eating them was delicious!!
I had a few unfortunate events occur while in Romania. Like the time two little kids were chasing us down the street and I accidentally got to excited while running and fell on top of one of them. Haha, actually that was really funny. No children were hurt, but they didn’t chase us anymore (they would chase you and try to take your accessories off, or pull on your clothes and refuse to let go). There was just a lot of darkness and oppression there, and it was hard not to feel that. However that is what we are out here to do, bring the light to dark places, and come along side the existing believers and help them out, fight along side them, and encourage them.
One of my favorite memories was one day while the parents were doing ministry with us. I was paired with Ali and her parents, and we got invited to go in an older woman’s home. As we talked I felt God urging me to share my testimony with her. She had a vision problem and felt that God had forgotten her because of her blindness causing so much difficulty in her life. She wept as I told her that he certainly hadn’t, that he loved her and she is a precious daughter to him. I told her about all the things he’d done in my life, and the hope that he’d given me, the same hope that she could have. We prayed for her and her neighbor and as we left, he smile seemed different.
These are the special moments you live for.
Romania was a difficult month. There were lots of ups and downs. However, the best part was getting to know people like Florina and Veronica; those are the things and people that make it worth it. They are like dear sisters to me now, and I admire them so much for the work they are doing in the place they are at. I’m so thankful to have formed these special friendships this month, because its these kinds of relationships that I came on the race to make: To meet people, see their lives, try to understand them, encourage, and love them as best I can.
