Christmas in Romania by Vanessa

Christmas in Romania

For over a year, our family prayed, planned, and packed. Then we prayed some more, changed our plans, and re-packed. We knew we’d be spending a week somewhere (later we found out it was Romania) helping people and sharing God’s love. But we really didn’t know what to expect.

Just like that, it’s all over. What a great experience it was! So many awesome and new things happened. I feel like if we had stayed there longer we could have gotten closer to more of the people there.

My definition of a “mission’s trip” has certainly changed. I left home with the idea that I was going to do big things to really impact the people there. At first when we got there, I didn’t feel like I was doing big things. But it turns out that sometimes it’s the small things that make the biggest difference in people’s lives. What did we do, you might ask. Our week in Romania consisted mostly of travelling from village to village, praying for people, delivering food hampers, attending church services, and playing with the kids. I even got to take out my clarinet a few times!

I also learned that people in Romania are no different than the people at home in Canada. People everywhere struggle with health problems, grief, family separation, debt, abortion, depression—and the list goes on. People everywhere need the hope of Jesus—God’s Love. That means, as Christians, we need to be on a mission’s trip all the time, wherever we are. Right now for me, that could be Kindersley, Brandon, or Romania.

I think I left a piece of my heart in Romania. The amounts of blessings we have poured out on the people don’t amount to the expanse of blessings we have received from them. The Outstretched Hands of Romania team is a wonderful group of people. I’m looking forward to going back at some point in the future.

It’s hard to find words to describe this whole experience. I feel a lot like the lady who was so happy to receive a food hamper from us. She said she didn’t have the words to tell us how happy she was, yet she wouldn’t stop talking!

Coming all this way to see God work gives me a bigger picture of who He is. His love is bigger than I could ever imagine.

One day at a prayer meeting in Romania, Janelle brought this verse up. It has become a new favourite of mine:

Joshua 3:5 – Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”