Medgedia, Romania

Four years ago, my best friend went to Romania on a missions trip. When she came home and told me about it, I immediately wanted to join her the following year. Unfortunately, I was stuck in a management position the 2 following years and couldn't spend a month away from my job. Every year, I went through an internal struggle as well, debating whether I could raise the money, feeling right about accepting financial help and whether I was just doing this to look like a "good Christian" but had selfish motives. I convinced myself every year that I didn't have what it took to be a missionary but once my chance came this year, I jumped on-board without even thinking. Despite everything I had going on this year, I knew I had to make time for this. I pushed away every doubt-filled thought that entered my mind and concentrated on creating the best program I could for these children. I worked closely with my teammates every week, planning and fundraising, even praying for the people we would come into contact with this summer. And now that it's all over, I can't believe I ever had any doubts. God truly opened my eyes to what He wants from me and looking back, I'm sure that's what the evil one was trying to keep me away from all this time. The Lord simply wants me to draw close to Him and to love everyone, no matter how difficult, the way he loves us all. For God truly is love.

Romania was truly amazing. I wish I could share every single detail but words wouldn't do the experience justice. But I will share some of the most moving moments of the trip as best I can.

Medgedia, Romania is not like any place I've ever been but somehow I felt at home there. Cindy Getchman, owner of Stepping Stones Missions and my new favorite person, invites missionary teams from all over the world to stay and work in the community center she created. This center is a school for the local gypsy children who are not allowed in Romanian schools. Gypsy families are not able to work either so they live without electricity, running water and essentially live off of what they grow or other people throw out. The kids in this program get breakfast and lunch every day as well as a shower, clean clothes and anything else they may need but the children's parents cannot provide for them. They are also learning about structure, a major thing missing in gypsy homes. Many of the children wander the streets from an early age, doing as they please. Getting them to listen to authority is a constant struggle but even my teammembers that have been more than once have noticed huge changes in these children since being a part of the program. Cindy is hoping to effect this generation of gypsies by teaching them to read and write, breaking them into the work field and to be a part of Romanian society. She is also, and ultimately, teaching them to live their lives for Jesus and to value themselves as His children.

Photo by Heather Stevens

My returning teammates warned me that camping would be the best part of the trip and this year was no exception. Last year camping was at the end of the trip but this year, we had one day to rest after our travels and we were off to the hills of Pestera. We set up camp in an open field between hills and a small forest. There were 2 wells within walking distance and no one but shepherds for miles around. Just a lot of sheep, a family of horses and some stray dogs that became our guardians after a few scraps. There were about 40 kids that came camping with us this year, about half of them from gypsy families and many others living in extreme poverty with terrible family situations. This is a reward to the children involved in Cindy's school program for coming everyday.

Anyway, we set up tents in a giant circle where we spent 3 days and 2 nights getting to know these kids. They are honestly the most loving and affectionate children I have ever met. I suppose it's because they give out what they hope to receive but I've never experienced anything like it. I always had someone holding my hand, braiding my hair, picking me flowers or giving me hugs, for no particular reason at all. They are just bursting with joy just to be around us and it's extremely overwhelming. One of the gypsy girls, Sara, never left my side. I learned that she and her twin sister Denisa lost their mother last year to cancer and are now being taken care of by their older siblings, some of which have children of their own now. I knew this probably meant they didn't get the attention and affection every child longs for from their parents or guardians. On our last night camping, she had a translator ask me if I could sleep in the tent with her and Denisa. I hesitated at first because, honestly, I needed a break. These kids are exhausting! But I eventually agreed to stay with her and she was overjoyed. I tucked her in and held her hand until we both fell asleep. The next morning at breakfast, the leaders asked all the kids to come up and talk about their favorite part about camp. Most of the kids said the bonfire, the games, singing songs, etc. but when Sara went up, she said her favorite part was sharing a tent with me and that I was her best friend. I lost it. I was completely overwhelmed by this 10-year-old girl, who I can hardly communicate with, loving me for simply being there for her. I knew right then and there that I was meant to be here, in Medgedia, on this trip, serving our Lord and that everything it took for me to get here was all worth it.

Daily Devotional with Shosh<3

"Yeah I think it'll hold us bo-"

Nope

Worship with Jake S. - always amazing

Obstacle course the boys came up with

Worship with the "tiny guitar"

My girl Sara and me

Photo by Payten Purdy

Waking up to this<3

Another amazing experience I had in Romania was visiting a church in Silistia with 3 other teammates and a translator. The church has been years in the making but they finally got approval from the city to turn the building into a church. Although it is still just an empty room, it has such potential to brighten up that small town. We were expecting to go to a regular church service and share our testimonies to it's members. Come to find out, it was just the pastor, Anca (the churches' one member), her children and us. The children made it easy for everyone to get comfortable right away. We sang some worship songs, a few in Romanian and a couple in English. Once people started sharing their testimonies, some crazy connections became clear, the most profound being that Emily, the pastor and Anca's father all suffer from seizures. The pastor and the woman also related to Ben's testimony. Everyone could sense that the teammates, though chosen at random, were the ones whom God knew needed to be there. The pastor shared how he came to know Christ and that story blew us all away. He lost his first wife to cancer, after months of praying for God to save her life. When He didn't, the pastor got very angry with God and vowed to never pray for the sick again. Months later, he was doing construction on the home of a family with 2 sick children who could not get out of bed or even eat. While working on their roof, he felt like God wanted him to pray for them so he obeyed. Just a few minutes later, he heard cheering from inside the house. He saw that the children were out of bed asking their mom for food! Ever since then, he could not deny the power of God and eventually felt called to be a pastor. Such an amazing story. Maria, Anca's eldest daughter, decided to write a song for us during the pastor's story. She's only about 11 or so and she was very interested in learning the guitar. So she came out of the back room and had written out lyrics! She strummed along to them for a few minutes and then our friend Catalin translated the lyrics "Jesus, you're my light. You're my star..." That choked us up all over again.

Another moment I will never forget was going on a home visit to see a 13-year-old gypsy girl named Layla. I have seen Emily's photos of her from every summer. She has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk. They live a few streets away from where we were staying but it hardly looks like a home. The fence is hidden behind weeds and piles of trash, and inside is much worse. There were filthy mattresses all around the front yard area with tons of dirty clothes piled on top of them. There were 3 tiny houses all connected and in a row. As we went into Layla's, all the neighbor kids followed us in. The room was smaller than my bedroom - and that was their entire house. They had a stove, a broken dresser with some photos on it, a few rugs on the ground, a pile of clothes (that the kids used as a seat) and a mattress for Layla, her mother and her younger brother to all sleep in. I'll never forget the smell. It was a mixture of body odor, dirt and garbage. You see the photos of places like this but you don't think about the dirty details and the people who have to live in these conditions day in and day out. We had our friend Alina, a Romanian missionary and a nurse, checked out some of the kids who were sick. One of the girls had scabs all over her cheeks from having such a high fever and no means to bring it down. (She was able to take one of the medicines Cindy brought for Layla's brother, who was also sick). Cindy sat down next to Layla on the grungy mattress and held her close. She was sitting up but it took her a while to react to us being there. Her smile is so beautiful and I couldn't help but smile when I saw how much joy she had just to have company. Cindy knows she loves music and asked us to sing "Jesus Loves Me" for her. We all broke down crying after that. It was such a beautiful moment. Even though she didn't understand the words, it's like she knew what we were singing. Her smile was bigger than ever and she squeezed onto Emily's hand as if she would never let go. Luckily, that wasn't the last time we saw her on our trip. They came into the community center the next morning and got breakfast, a shower, some new clothes and the kids were able to stay for the VBS program. It was really amazing to see how much this program does for them, seeing what little they have to go home to.

Photo courtesy of Ashlie Israel

Layla, her brother and mom at the community center.

Of course not every moment was this incredible; every one of us had emotional, spiritual and physical problems throughout our time there. But looking back, I only think of the good things and how much of an impact this journey has had on my life. I heard the beautiful stories from my teammates of previous years but hearing thousands of stories would not compare to experiencing just one for yourself.

I am so thankful to everyone who prayed for and financially supported me in order for this trip to be made possible. It's a very warm feeling to have so many people in my life that care for me and wanted to see me go through with this. I am forever grateful.

To donate to this remarkable program, visit Stepping Stone Missions HERE

Every single thing we did on this trip was an act of serving. It really helped put my heart in the right place and be in the right state of mind to think of everything, even doing my friends laundry, as an act for God. I was able to look past my own emotions and instead focus on transforming my mind, therefore transforming myself to His likeness. Here are a few ways we had the privilege of serving:

We brightened up the hallway in the community center:

Mine is the third from the left :)

Photo by Payten Purdy

VBS (Vacation Bible School) programs at lots of local churches. We did a skit/lesson, memorized a Bible verse, did a craft and played a game. It was pretty great.

Elvis<3

Photo by Ashlie Israel

Football outreach where we performed a skit to share the gospel, Autumn, Heather and I sang a worship song and all the boys from the mission teams (2 other teams were there towards the end of our trip from Norway and the UK) played football (soccer) with about 30 non-believers.