Beautiful Andreea

Andreea and I, HIDA village, Romania

On my mission trip to Romania, I was most changed by beautiful Andreea, a little two year old girl. This blessed encounter occurred on the eighth day of our trip. Our plan was to go to HIDA village, which is outside of the big city of Cluj, and play with grade-school students. We were in a soccer field, surrounded by children, who didn't know English. We did have our Romanian teens (kids from our partner church) with us, so they did some translating, but the bulk of our interactions were laughter and smiles. I had hung back to help some kids cross the road, and as I looked at the large crowd of kids, I got nervous.
    You see, I am not a big crowd, get-involved ministry person. As a student, I would play the games and such... but I struggle playing the games in ministry, and I was struggling building a relationship with the kids as they were all clustered and I did not know the language. In a situation like this, I would much rather be in charge, or have a job, just to be able to DO something. To have a purpose... because I was struggling to find one. While I know this is an area I should work on and explore, I believe God had other plans for me this day.
  I looked around, and realized that there were quite a few younger kids. Kids old enough to run around, but too little to play the games with the big kids.  I was the first American many of these little kids had seen. They were fascinated as I talked and made silly noises and faces (I may get that a little from my father :) ), and it was fun to see them trying to copy what I was doing. Eventually, many of them got sleepy or shy, and went back to their mothers. I ended up sitting next to a little girl, who I eventually learned was named Andreea. She was shy at first, but eventually loved my simple clapping game, playing with my sunglasses, making faces with me, and throwing grass at each other. She saw one of the rubber band bracelets I wore, and had fun just taking it off and putting it back on!
   To some, these few hours may not have meant much. Even now, Andreea may not remember that day, or who I am, or why she has a green and yellow rubber band bracelet on her wrist. For me though, it has meant everything. My soul was refreshed as I knew God had given this day with Andreea to me. I can't put to words why this simple thing meant to much... but I knew it was God telling me exactly where he wanted me. This was the point in the trip that I knew all the stress, lack of sleep, and frustrations were worth it. This moment... God gave me peace in the chaos. He showed me that I didn't have to think ahead.. I only had to think about this one little girl. Give her the attention that she may not always get at home, or school, or later in life. In the moment of complete peace... I knew what it was God wanted me to do. He has called me to do something more about the children in the world. Not just the orphans, or the neglected, or the street children... but every child I come across. I know I will not find a family for every orphan, or a home for every street child... but I will have found a family for one child, and that will mean the world to them. That one child makes it all worth it... to make a child, Beautiful Andreea, happy for a moment, makes it all worth it.

 

You have called me higher

You have called me deeper

And I'll go where You lead me, Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer requests:

- Vehicle struggles. Our rendezvous has been out of commission for awhile, and recently dad was in an accident with the truck. The truck is still drivable, but does need the bumper fixed. Meanwhile, Lex and I are trying to run errands and get to our babysitting jobs using just the truck, if dad doesn't have it for work. A second vehicle would make life much less stressful for us, especially since the truck isn't exactly trustworthy for long distances, and we can't have it gone for long because the others in the family need it. An example would be visiting mom, or visiting churches that might support me.

- Health. Ever since being back from Romania, American food has not been agreeing with me. I would appreciate prayer that my systems will get back to normal!

-That I will remain content in this transition period, knowing that God has me where He wants me at this moment.

 

Finances:

YWAM still needs $2945. I have some of that pledged, so I am in need of about $1700 still for tuition. I will check on my outreach funding soon.

 

Thank you for your support!!