Here am I. Send Me

This is part 4 in a series of blog posts reflecting on my time in Romania.

Many of you who have heard the way I talk about Romania know that my heart did not return to America.  I fell in love with a country I knew nothing about a year ago.  Longing to be back in Romania made it difficult to find motivation to do anything here in Michigan.  God picked me up out of my sorrow and told me he still had a job for me here in Michigan, which I have regained my excitement for.  Yet he also told me that Romania will, one day, be my home. 

About 4 weeks ago I was speaking with my friend Simeon in a coffee shop.  We were discussing the possibility of me moving to Romania for long-term missions.  I said that the main roadblock is my debt.  I have to be debt free in order to go.  While I was still having this conversation, I got an email from my realtor saying that we had an offer on my house.   The offer was for the amount that I needed to pay off all my debt.  I do not believe in coincidence.  I believe that it was a crystal clear sign from God that this was his will for me.  He knew that I would need such clarity.  The past month has been difficult and discouraging as it starts to sink in that I will be leaving behind those who are very dear to me.  The thought of being on the other side of the world from my best friend and my family has been wearing on me.  He knew that I would need such clarity, or maybe I would be tempted to settle for the comfortable.  He has called me out into the unknown and I am as excited as I am freaked out.  I don't know what the future timeline will be for this.  I am tentatively planning to spend most of the summer next year in Romania and investigate the possibility of moving there long-term.  I would appreciate your prayers as I continue to seek the Lord's will and as I will begin to raise support soon for this.  

"Here am I. Send me!"  -Isaiah 6:8b

Preaching in Romania

This is installment 3 in a series of blog posts that reflect on my time in Romania. 

When we were preparing  to leave for Europe, Jim Morgan told me that they will ask me to preach while I'm over there.  I was a little freaked out by the thought, but also very excited.  Preaching with a translator sounded very intimidating.  It was one of those experiences where half of me didn't want to do it because it was uncomfortable, and half of me knew I shouldn't pass on an opportunity like that.  Part of the goal of a short term missions trip is to throw ourselves from comfort to experience our faith outside of the familiar.  I spoke 4 times and experienced services at 3 different churches.  I loved it. 

In the region we were in, the only two denominations within evangelical Christianity were Baptists and Pentecostals.  Certainly none is better than one when it comes to divisions in the Church, but it was so refreshing to only have one.  There are so many denominations in America that I couldn't even find an accurate estimated number;  it's somewhere in the thousands.  We have the mindset that we cannot get along with other Christians with minor theological differences.  This leaves us with a broken family that is beyond dysfunctional.  Yet, in Romania, there are 2.  I even saw Baptists and Pentecostals working together for Christ.  What a novel idea. 

After I gave my first message we were invited to have lunch with the pastor and his family.  This man was an inspiration to me.  I would like to be more like him.  He is the pastor in 2 villages that are 15 minutes apart, but he has no car, so he hitchhikes between the two.  When we ate together he told me that he was nervous having an American pastor give a message because American pastors water down the Gospel; but he was very pleased with what I said.  From the state of Christianity in America I can see that his critique is accurate, but I'm encouraged that he exempted me from that critique.  

“In Darkness God's Truth Shines Most Clear.”

As promised, this is part 2 in a series of blog posts about my time in Romania and various other places in Europe.

On our way to Romania we visited the Dachau Concentration Camp outside of Munich, Germany.  I'm still processing that experience.  I'll never be able to fully wrap my mind around it.  I've learned about what happened there, and many places like it, my whole life.  In the last decade I've been especially fascinated by WWII.  Yet, standing there, in the very location that at least 100,000 Jews and enemies of the Nazi's died, was different.  They played a half hour movie with real footage from the liberation and stories of atrocity.  There was video and pictures of the stacks of emaciated corpses laying there with their eyes open looking back at you.  I'll never forget those eyes for the rest of my life.  I knew that going there would be difficult.  It affected me in a deep way that will take me much longer to process. 

At the far end of the camp there were several religious memorials representing different religions that had prisoners there.  The most interesting of which was the protestant memorial, which was actually a church.  Not just a church building, but a church body.  The sign said that they meet there every Sunday for worship.  Can you imagine going to church in the very place where one of the worst atrocities of the world took place?  Incredible. 

I brought along the book The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  It was my intention to read it before we went to Dachau, but I didn't start it until the day after.  In it she tells the incredible and true story of how she was a Christian in Holland and hid Jews during the war.  Eventually she was imprisoned and sent to a concentration camp.  The pages came to life because I had walked around a camp and could visualize what she described.  Her story is one of forgiveness that could only have come from Christ.  Her and her sister would lead Bible studies and pray for the very people that were torturing them.  If you've never read The Hiding Place, go on Amazon, pay the $4, and read it.  It will affect you. 

“....And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.” -Corrie Ten Boom

Not coincidentally, I am writing about this on September 11th.  A day in which we remember a different atrocity.  Both of these were born of hate, and both of them left deep scars of hatred in the victims.  The context of this quote from Corrie is difficult.  She is standing in front of the man who tortured her.  Having accepted Christ's forgiveness, he is asking for hers.  No one is too far from Christ's love.  Not a terrorist and not a Nazi.  We must pray for those who persecute us, that they would experience the love of Christ. Only then will we be free of the hatred that binds us.  

“In darkness God's truth shines most clear.” - Corrie Ten Boom

Stay tuned for part 3