Week one, done.
Going through 3 different countires and timezones in 2 days, check.
Traveling for 65+ hours, check.
Eating a buttersandwhich with ham, check.
Throwing toielt paper in the trashcan, check.
Almost hitting on-coming traffic due to a crazy Romanian taxi driver, check.
Sleeping on tile floors, check.
Going to church where everything is spoken in Romanian, check.
God shattering my expectations and ideas of what I "thought" this was going to look like, priceless.
At the start of this journey when I was at training camp in July I was presented with the question "will you lay down your rights, your expectations and your ideas of what you think this is supposed to look like?" I was quick to agree. I even made a public declaration by putting my thumbprint on a documentt that my whole squad made.
Part of our ministry this month has been hanging out with the children of Caminuel Felix Villages. The kids are so full of life and energy. They're little faces shine and light up when we show up at the village. Yesterday we got to play with them for hours in the sunshine running around, jumping on the trampoline, playing games, swinging, jumping rope and climbing forts. Just being around them made me happy.
On the walk back from our time with the kids, Jesus began to wreck me. He lovingly confronted me about some things that I was holding onto.
Coming into this adventure I'll confess I really thought that I had the whole idea of living in community down. I really didn't think that it would be that difficult. I figured I had plenty of experience with roomates and friendship circles that prepared me for community living on The World Race.
Boy was I wrong!
Living life with 11 other people is different than I "expected." Daddy God is teaching me so much about myself and community. He is completely redefining and changing my view of what it looks like. On the walk I began to ask him "How do I do this?" "What is this supposed to look like?" He responded so gently. "Look around you my love. I've placed you right in the middle of a village in Romania where children know how to do community so well. They are pefect examples. They have learned how to share life together. They exhibit the reality of what a relationship is supposed to look like."
Wow! Jesus has surrounded me with the very thing I'm strugglng with so that we can walk it out together. Papa, you are so good. You are really shattering my ideas and aligning me to Your reality. The same children that I came to serve are actually rendering service to me! You see, the host homes here in the Felix village have at least 10-16 kids living in each home so with the parents there could be 18-20 people living under one roof!
This isn't an orphanage, but an actual home built around community.
Thank you to the precious little children of Caminuel Felix who teach me what it means to live in community.
O how I long to be more childlike…
"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you
have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and
revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your
good pleasure."
– Jesus
