Short night! Lauren & I woke up about 6AM to get ready for breakfast and the day that lay ahead.
As we were driving to the hotel last night, Sam told me that I would head up the team in our mission point. There would be three other American's from Firewheel Church (Bill DeFord, Amanda Ramirez & Kandace Tappen) on the team, none of whom had been on an e3 Partners campaign before. Should be awesome to see what the Lord has in store for each of them too!
I prayed, "Lord Jesus, this is Your territory and currently being occupied by the enemy in a number of spots. Give us eyes to see the battle waging around us and show us the critical part that is ours to play here. Thank you for the opportunity to lead this team - not by my will, but Your will be done. Show Lauren & me new things this week - reveal Yourself to us in exciting ways. We need You!"
After breakfast, Sam lead the entire American team (there were a total of 50 Americans, from about 10 different churches around the country...representatives from Texas, New Jersey, Missouri and South Carolina to name a few) in a devotional. He spoke from Matthew 20 where Jesus gives the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. In it, the landowner has a short window of time to take in the harvest and he needs help getting everything done. He hires men throughout the day - at the start of the day, the 3rd hour, the 6th hour, the 9th hour and finally at the 11th hour. The heart and the generosity of the landowner is what this story is about, as the landowner chooses to give each worker the same wage, no matter how long he worked. Sam cautioned us on questioning God's generosity and pointed out that we are "11th hour workers" here in Romania! Many before us have spent years and years working in really tough conditions - especially during the years under Communist rule. We are now coming in, during the "easy times" and working. God's economy is truly different and as He says in Isaiah 55:8, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,"...I am very thankful for that.
We met Pastor Mocanu, who would be leading us in the two mission points during the week - Cenei (pronounced Chenay) and Sacalaz. We would spend Monday and Tuesday in Cenei, which was about 40 minutes outside Timisoara. Our goal was to break up into smaller teams of 3 to 4 individuals with an American on each team and a Romanian translator, along with other Romanian nationals to come along, to pray and interact as well.
When we got to Cenei, we spent time getting to know each other - there were about 10 or so Romanians who had gathered to help (Diana, Danielle, Dana, Able, Danny, Marinel, Marius, Gabriel, Svetlana, Andre). Some spoke English and some didn't, but all were coming to pitch in. Once we all had met, we talked about how we would divide up the village to canvas it. We then broke up into smaller teams. Lauren and I were on the same team along with our translator Danielle and Danny, Pastor Mocanu's son. Danielle is about 17 or 18 and speaks English well, while Danny doesn't speak any English.
By a show of hands, I asked how many in the entire group had ever done door to door evangelism. Not many raised their hands. Next I asked who was nervous about doing it...almost everyone raised their hands! I reassured everyone that the people that we would encounter today on the street were "Divine Appointments" and that the Lord would take care of all the details. I gave them a quick run through of the Evangecube to show everyone the flow of the message/story. We all got in a circle and prayed - in Romanian! Not sure what was said, but I knew it was good. Then we set out.
Lauren & I visited with a total of 7 people, none of whom were interested in accepting Jesus as Savior. I was bummed on one hand, but on the other, we were planting seeds...from there, it was God's job to grow them. Most of who we talked to were pretty closed to new spiritual ideas. Personally, I underestimated the hold that Orthodoxy still has on this village.
The rest of the team had some success however - Amanda, one of our first timers, got to lead 3 people to Christ!
Lauren & I were extremely exhausted. I was very proud of how Lauren did!
We slept hard!
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