Over the last two days we have certainly hit the ground
running in Romania. Everyone woke up
Tuesday morning glad for a good nights sleep and ready to start the day. I think most of us still were dragging a
little, but the jet lag has gone away by now.
We started our morning with breakfast that the Wepplers prepare for us
each day and then went to Hope Church where Pastor Raul hosted an orientation. We were able to hear about all the work their
ministry is doing and learn about those we would be working with during the
week.
After lunch we were able to go
visit a great family in a village about an hour away. There we saw their home, heard about their
call to move to this new city, how they are sharing Christ with their community
and what their vision is for the coming years.
We then got to go visit another believer who lives close by to encourage
him and pray for him, because he is the only believer in his family.
That evening we made our way back to Draganesti to have
dinner with the Wepplers. I had to
quickly eat to go with Kevin to the church for a men’s study. It was a really encouraging evening where I
was asked to lead a discussion and workshop for men in the church on how to
prepare sermons. That evening we worked
together on how to preach Christ from the Old Testament. These men loved the Lord and desire to correctly
teach his Word. Their knowledge and love
of the Scriptures was very evident. One
interesting note, I have often heard about translating books that are popular in
the US into other languages, but it was great to see those works being
used. As we talked throughout the night,
I learned that Raul and myself have many of the same favorite authors. While I was at the church, the rest of our
team began preparations for the men’s and women’s event we will be hosting
later in the week.
Wednesday started out very similar to Tuesday. We got ready and ventured out to a new city
where we meet a few more families living their lives as missionaries in their
own city. We heard about how the Lord
had changed their lives and how they now desire to use their life for him. These people were such an encouragement to us
in how they love the Lord deeply and totally devote themselves to seeing others
come to Christ. After we spent time with
these three families, we went to have lunch in a Romanian restaurant, and
finally ventured into a store to buy supplies for our events. It was probably a very interesting sight for
the Romanians watching all of us walk through the store together trying to find
out what we needed. Luckily we had Kevin
with us who was very helpful.
Once we were done, we headed home for another great dinner,
while three of our team were hosted by another family in the church. While they were away, the other five of us
went to another grocery store to meet Mariana.
She helped us buy groceries for five families in the area and then took
us to their homes. There we had the opportunity to meet them, pray for them and
provide for their physical needs. Many
of us had been to impoverished places before, but were still surprised to see
the conditions in which these people lived.
The last few days have left us encouraged and challenged by
the way these friends live their lives for the Lord. Pray with us for their work. It is hard with very few believers in each
community. And pray for new avenues of
ministry to open for them. Mostly pray
that more would come to Christ and then would be sent back out to reach those
around them.
35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and
villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the
kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed
and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then
he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are
few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord
of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
-Matthew 9:35-38
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