About six months ago, I stood in the back of a chapel service listening to a young man who is giving his life to serve God in missions. He was challenging the high schoolers I work with (I am a Christian school teacher) to think about God's love propelling them to tell others. At least I think that is what he was talking about. It was hard to focus on him when God was having His own conversation with me. I heard Him clearly that morning speak to my heart: "It's time to go." I had been waiting for those words for several years. As a missionary kid, my heart has long been to be a full time missionary. Every year since graduating from college I have asked if it's time to go. For six years the answer has been, "Not now, not for a while."
I was shocked when I heard His summons to go that morning. He was gracious enough to follow up the call with some specifics. I was to go on a short trip this summer, to the Roma gypsies. When I asked Him what I was to do, He answered that it wasn't about doing anything; "Just be," He told me. I was so excited about this news. My senior year of college I had written a paper about the Roma people and had been praying for them ever since. So now it was time to go. I went to the best source of quick information, Google. First on the list was OM's website advertising their short term trips for 2011. They had a trip going to Romania to work with the Roma people. When I read the tag line for it, I almost fell out of my seat: "Our goal is to just BE for the Roma people." It was the exact words God had given me about the trip.
This particular trip was attached to a missions conference in Rome. Transform 2011 was not just an opportunity to see a city I've always wanted to visit, but it was some of the best teaching I have ever been under. The teachers at this conference were missionaries with a zeal for God's word, a passion for His kingdom, and delight in sharing both with us and with people all over the world who are dying without a Savior. They spoke about Jesus, the King, who is extending His kingdom through the church, a kingdom of peace and joy amid suffering. One of these teachers sat with me at breakfast. Someone at the table commented about how he had given up everything to share the Gospel in a different country. He simply responded, "I have not lost anything that God has not given back 100 times over."
As it was a missions conference, I was expecting God to "call" me once again to full time missions. I was expecting emotional pleading for more workers and an equally emotional response from myself and those around me. It wasn't quite like that. Instead it was a beautiful presentation of God's Word, allowing it to do the emotional pulling not the zealous speakers. To me personally, God did call, not to full time missions or an emotional commitment, instead it was a quiet reminder to "Be a woman of prayer."
God fulfilled that calling during my proceeding week in Romania. I went flexible, for the gypsies have no schedule. When I arrived, several teams were already there. One group of teenagers was doing kids games for the children in this gypsy village. Another team was doing a free dental clinic. Yet another team was doing English classes. I joined a rag tag group of guys: Joel from the Uk, Steve from Chicago, Michael from Kenya, and Michael from Germany. Our role was two-fold, to pray and to tell people about Jesus. In the mornings we prayer walked through the village, in the afternoons (after recovering from the intense heat) we went door to door with members from the church sharing the Gospel. In the evenings we went to neighboring villages and showed the Jesus film.
During one of our prayer walks, every time we opened our eyes, someone from the village had joined our circle. The first was a group of three: Constantino, Damnea, and Florinica. The week before all three had made a profession of faith. When they saw us praying outside their gate, they came with stools in hand and joined us. They didn't understand us as we were praying in Swahili, English, and German. When we opened our eyes they were all smiles as the joy of the Lord was exuding out of them. We walked a little further where we met Michaela. She had just returned from the hospital with a diagnosis of Schizophrenic Paranoia, and was worried because she couldn't afford medicine. We laid hands on her and prayed for her healing and powerfully sensed the Lord's presence.
Our next job was door-to-door evangelism. Pastor Marian, the Roma pastor of a large congregation of 40 or so (this is large for a Roma church), made sure that he or someone from his congregation was with us so that there was a contact for follow up once the foreigners left. I was amazed at how well respected he is and what access he has into people's homes and lives. Many times he just walked through the gate in search of a listening ear. We talked to many people, each time presenting the Gospel. They all showed such great hospitality going to great lengths to provide us with comfortable seating. Many listened but with faces of stone. Just as many, though, listened intently with a receptivity I have rarely seen. I was struck by one old man whose son had tried to commit suicide a few weeks earlier. His rapt attention, tears, and prayers were a clear sign of his openness to the Gospel.
Our final role was to show the Jesus film in two neighboring villages. The people in these villages were much poorer than the ones we had been talking to. I was told later on that the reason for this, is because the people we had been interacting with were musicians who could earn some money through that trade. The people in other villages had no such luxury. The first night we showed the film around 50 people came out, most children. We waited till the sun went down and projected the film on the side of a house. Many prayed that night to receive Jesus. They were told of a small congregation that meets weekly at that same spot. The following showing brought also around 50 people. My new Romanian friend, Emma, noticed a woman who prayed at the invitation and was quietly weeping. Emma prayed with her and found out that her 12 year old son had Down Syndrome and was completely non-verbal and her 3 month old was really sick and needed to go to the hospital, which she could not afford. My heart broke as I heard this woman's story. Emma assured her that God knows her suffering and cares deeply for her. This suffering seemed to be typical of these people. Sickness and death are constant, and their poverty allows them no refuge from it.
I walked away from this trip changed. There were no grand revelations, but an overwhelming sense of peace and joy. I walked away with a renewed calling to be a woman of prayer. In all the roles my team took part in, my main job was to stand in the background and pray. I believe prayer is powerful for it calls on the God who is All-powerful. I walked away also with a love for this people. The Roma are warm and hospitable, incredibly musically talented, poor and outcasts, sick and broken, and in desperate need of Jesus. They are also a people among whom God is working, among whom He has a remnant that He wants in His kingdom. I walked away with a new prayer that God would reap a great harvest among these people He so greatly loves.
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