Perhaps the best way to start is at the
beginning. In the dawn of June 2012, a small group of people packed up
their very separate lives and moved under one roof just outside a small
city in Romania. Throughout the past eight months of life and ministry
together we have grown not only as a missionary team, but as a family.
Of course, we still have rough spots, being human it is only natural.
In the morning, we all drink from the same coffee pot and then spend a
bulk of the day together. Whether that means in and about town or at
Săbolciu [a gypsy village only a twenty minute drive from town] we
desire to share God's love and grace with everyone we can. Here we
intend to share God's movement in the spiritual aspects of the mission
field and in the daily mundane tasks that come naturally with living,
i.e. grocery shopping or washing clothes.
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| Koinonia in Centru of Oradea |
Perhaps
Christian culture has, in it's own way, glorified the term missionary
to mean something similar to how the term saint is looked upon. As
something a select few can attain and only by the deepest measures of
commitment and faith; so extreme that all luxuries are thought as
something wrong. It has taken each of us a while to warm up to the label
of missionary; but we have come to experience that even in our
shortcomings as humans, God can and does use everyone willing to be an
accomplice in His work. Soon after arriving in Romania, we were able to
jump in and assist hosting church service in Săbolciu every week. As
time passed, we began regularly heading out to the village during the
week as well. First it was just to play with the copious amounts of
children that seemed to be running about in the summer heat. As our
bodies grew sore, we began to switch our focus to a more relational
level with the adults. We know that consistency has spoken loudest to
the hearts of the people there because our tongues have been slowly able
to communicate. As we take the twenty-minute drive out, we often remind
each other to have expectations for God to move and to not be
disappointed if our personal plans for the day are changed. Just as we
cannot plan out and know the future of a single afternoon, two years ago
we could not have planned to leave the lives we had known for our
present situation, living together in an under-the-radar Eastern
European country. God has ultimately planned our paths and we can only
ask Him to guide us to the next step. We are now blessed to be living
very near the heart of Oradea and have been studying Romanian enough to
make our way here and there without too much grief. God has brought us
to a small church that meets in a coffee shop and there we have begun to
sprout roots in good soil for Christian community. Our prayers have been to see through all the clutter of societal differences and gain true perspective in the lives of the people God has surrounded us with.
