Do you have to go to Romania or Africa to "kick around a little dirt"? Hasn't our church taught us to "kick a little dirt" no matter where we are or what we're doing? Whether we are at home, work, school or out in our community, we have to stir a little dirt before we can begin sowing and planting seeds. It all begins with making contacts and investing in the lives of others. For those of us that went to Romania we are so thankful to have had the support and encouragement of our church family. There were more than 15 people that went on the trip- it was the body from North Side Baptist Church.
Let me introduce to you seven of the most incredible people I have ever had the honor to meet:
Maria, Oana, Adelina, Chip, John, Danny and Alexandra! These are the seven young people that served as our translators while we were in Romania. They took the last week off from school so they could be with us while we were there. They really seemed disappointed about that!
They would meet us in the morning by 8:00 and would often still be with us until midnight. These young people have a fire and zeal for Jesus Christ that most of us only dream about!
They were our right hands, left hands and most importantly our mouths!
They were so amazing that they could have done the work without us!!!
They teamed up with Ken, JC, Zack and Amy and formed our traveling praise team. They performed everywhere we went. The young and old alike loved the music. They sang in English and Romanian. (Get Zack to sing to you in Romanian!)
We all especially loved the interactive songs that had arm gestures and motions with them.
No matter what work was to be done the translators were right beside us all the way. Not only did we work hard together as a team, but we loved them all from the beginning. We wish we could have brought them home with us. While we weren't with them long enough to get life histories from them, we did learn that many have had a difficult life. Some have had their parents work in foreign countries while they stayed home and learned to live without them day by day. One young lady spent 2 years in an orphanage before going to live at House of Hope. More than one of the young people have had parents that were seriously injured and unable to work anymore.
On our last night, Alexandra shared with us how important the work was because it was with a group like ours that she became a Christian!
They would like to continue the work we started by going to the villages and ministering to the people regularly. The only problem is they don't have transportation and it is too far to walk. Join with us to pray they will be able to do what God has laid on their hearts to do. They have such a desire to share Jesus with their people! If we had only had the pleasure of meeting these young people on our trip and not done anything else our trip would have been worth it! We love them all dearly and can't wait to see them again!