This is part 1 in a 3 part series. I hope you continue on to the end.
This past month we have been in a small village outside Targu Mures, Romania. Each day we have been doing different types of ministries both in the small village as well as surrounding villages and in the big city of Targu Mures. We have conducted kids ministries, including a Vacation Bible School, with the gypsy children as well as the Hungarian children that live in our village. We have helped lead services at several different churches with singing, drama, testimonies, and sermons. We helped lead a women’s bible study, and youth group activities as well. We have also gone on prayer walks in the big city as well as just meeting people in parks and telling them our stories and listening to theirs. We have been able to make real connections with numerous teenagers and young adults in our village as well as in the city. All of these ministries have been very rewarding for the team I am working with, as well as my own team.
It has been very interesting being here since most of what we are doing day to day is on our own. We have to take the initiative to come up with ways to meet people and tell them about Jesus and get them connected to a local church. Which, to be honest, has been quite frustrating at times for those of us, who like myself, like more structured activities. I like having a plan and working through that plan to share God’s love. Instead this month has been all about letting go of our control and having the faith to let God lead us where we need to go each day and to who we need to talk to. It has not always been easy, but in the end it has been the best thing for me.
This month I hit a wall. About 10 days ago I was at my wits end, I was exhausted and frustrated. I was tired of fighting through the seemingly endless battles with my team and with other teams. I looked around myself and all I could see were people who looked like they had stopped caring about what it is we are doing this year. They had wanted to stop talking to certain people, switch teams, or even go home. I found myself giving in to some of those same exact thoughts. Out of the 15 people I am living with this month about 10 of us had negative comments to say about almost anything and everything. We didn’t like certain things about the ministry we were doing, we didn’t like the food we were eating, we didn’t like that next month we are staying in Romania instead of moving to Ukraine. The list could go on and on about the ridiculous things we were complaining about.
One day we were on the way home from ministry in the city and were getting on the city bus for the 45 minute trek home. I gave the bus driver a 10 note (A bill worth 10 Lei, the local currency) and waited for my change back of 7 Lei, since the bus ride would cost 3 Lei. (This would be equal to 1 dollar in the USA). The man gave me back my change and I walked to the back of the bus where my other teammates were and looked down to count my change. I realized that he hadn’t given me back enough money, he had shorted me 1 Lei. Of course this comes up to only about 33 cents in America, which I would never have cared about back home. This is something that we have become accustomed to on this trip, everyone seems to be ok with ripping off the American tourists. However this had been a particularly frustrating afternoon for some stupid reason and I got so angry that the man had ripped me off my 1 Lei. I looked at my teammates and was made some remark at the bus drivers expense quite loudly, and then said “I just want to go home, and when I say home I mean Memphis, TN.”
