Some rules are meant to be broken.
That’s what Romania has taught me.
As I sit in our apartment in Lezhe, Albania, enjoying a sunny day of rest, I’m thinking back on my time in Draganesti, Romania, and the rule that me and a friend broke.
To give you a better picture, I’ll explain that Romania(like most places in Eastern Europe) is filled with stray dogs. They’re everywhere. Early on we were warned not to touch the dogs. They could have diseases. They could give you ringworm. They could bite you.
It was hard, but for the first few weeks, I obeyed the rules. I looked away when I saw a dog with mange. I made limited eye contact with ones that were clearly mothers and also starving. I only talked to a few that followed us and gave names to even less.
It wasn’t until one very rainy afternoon that all of it changed.
I was sitting in our mission house, trying to find solitude in a community of 38 other people(which is very hard to do), when I heard one of our teams come through the door, talking of a puppy.
One of my squamates had spotted him, sitting alone in the cold, and could do nothing about it. That team had followed the rules and, as hard as it was, kept walking, leaving the dog behind.
After hearing the story, I asked my friend, Jason for details. His was the team that had seen the puppy. As soon as we both noticed the same look of justified defiance in each other, we set off for a “walk” that happened to be in the same direction as the abandoned puppy.
Along the way, we wrestled with reason. We were only going to see what state he was in. Maybe the puppy would be fine. Or maybe he’d be gone. But we were just going to check.
When we arrived at the store, there he was, tiny, black and shivering. We stooped down to his level and began talking to him.
Suddenly, the store owner came out and began gesturing to the puppy and speaking generous amounts of Romanian. It was clear that she wanted us to take him. She didn’t speak English, and before we knew it, we were walking away with a puppy in a box, saying hesitated “thank you”s in Romanian.
As we walked home, we strategized on what to do about this puppy. Our leaders wouldn’t be too happy and we’d been warned not to bring any dogs into the place we were staying.
The rain was drizzling as we planned out what to do. First we’d call this lady from church to see if she’d like to take him in and if that didn’t work, we’d ask the man in charge of our mission house if he could stay.
After an unsuccessful phone call, we found ourselves knocking on the man in charge’s house. Our breaths were cloudy as we showed him the puppy and asked if we could keep the dog on the property. The man was hesitant, but after a moment of thought, he agreed.
We gave our new puppy a bath and must not have been quite as ninja-like as we’d hoped because people began to discover us.
It didn’t take long for leadership to be okay with having a new little friend around. There were no consequences and we didn’t get into trouble. We said we’d take care of him and feed him. And we did.
Before long, he was flee and worm free. He got a home-made collar and bandana. He was probably the most favored puppy in all of Draganesti.
Drum roll, please…..
Introducing…..
Charles Xavier!!!!!
Charles soon became our squad puppy. I can’t count the amount of nights we spent outside with Charles. He loved to sleep in laps. He came on a prayer walks and even learned to walk on a leash(somewhat). We showed him X-men and pointed out when his name-sake appeared on the screen.
I looked forward to holding Charles. Taking care of him was never a hardship.
At the end of the month, and after lots and lots of prayer, Charles found a new home.
This little old widow who lived on a farm took him in. She was so sweet and after being shown a photo of him, she smiled and said, “I will take good care of him”.
Charles now lives with another dog, kitten, chickens and pigs. As we walked away from dropping him off, all we could do was praise God for answering our prayer and giving Charles a new home.
What gets me each time I think of Charles, is that he could have still been living on the streets. If everyone had just obeyed the rules and looked away, nothing would have changed.
When we dropped off Charles with the widow, one of our leaders was there and she told us how she counseled one of my squamates to just keep walking and not look back at Charles. It wasn’t because my leader didn’t have a heart or didn’t care. It was because, in her words, “we couldn’t do anything to help him”.
But the truth is, we could do something…and we did. All that was needed were people who refused to sit back and do nothing.
Because we broke a rule, Charles now has a better chance at life. He got to experience love and a new name and a new life.
I think about this world and how easy it is to accept the brutality we experience daily by coexisting with it. We choose to look away and keep our heads down, believing that we can’t do anything about poverty or trafficking or any of the other terrible injustices that happen daily.
Or…
We can stoop down, look a problem in the face and see what God can do through us. Change is possible.
All it takes is willingness.
The change we saw in Charles was incredible. By the time we dropped him off at the widow’s home, he was a confident, adorable, stud of a puppy and it was as though he knew it. He’d experienced adoption. He knew he belonged.
In Charles’ story, I can repeatedly see a reflexion of the Father’s love for us. God could have wiped creation clean and started again. He could have looked away and erased the problem.
But he didn’t.
He chose to come to earth and walk among the broken. He chose to save humanity. He was willing to rescue me and my life is forever changed because of Him.
In the same way I looked forward to getting home to Charles and cuddling him in my lap, God longs to be with us. He wants to hold us and talk with us. He wants us to tell Him of our crazy, impossible dreams. He wants us to live life confidently, knowing that we’ve been adopted by Him. He has carved eternity into our hearts. Just like Charles, we become bold because we know where we belong and we know that we are loved no matter what.
I’d like to leave you with a few more photos of Charles. He’s just too darn cute! To this day, he is the best rule I have ever broke.
As always, thank you for your continued prayers and support!!
