Today was a "free day". A chance to see the sights, do some shopping and spend some time with your Romanian National team. Mocanu picked us up after breakfast and our devotional time and took us to the center of Timisoara and dropped us off.
We strolled through the primary square, which rests between the Orthodox Cathedral and the Opera House. We toured the Cathedral and checked out a few shops. We then walked to the mall, where we did some more shopping, had lunch and hung out. After a while longer, Mocanu picked us up and took us back to the hotel, so that we could get showered up prior to the Victory Service at Golgotha Church.
The Victory Service was great. When all of the teams were together, we did some Romanian praise and worship, and listened to Catalin (the Romanian coordinator for the campaign and great "friend of the e3 family") and Sam give a few messages - of praise and encouragement to the Romanians.
Sam reported that over the week, collectively the teams made over 1,500 gospel presentations with 641 professions of faith in Jesus!! WOW. I was really surprised that there were that many but thankful that we were a part of something so massive. We are praying that the Lord will continue to grow those new Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
The Romanian mission point directors/pastors were asked to come down front to be recognized. Then the American team leaders were asked to come forward to pray over our Romanian brothers and commit them to the Lord and commit the work that lay before each of them to Him as well. As we prayed, (I got to pray for Mocanu) I could sense the overwhelming emotion of the moment come over Mocanu as we prayed. It was extremely moving. We cried and hugged one another. I was thankful for my time with Mocanu. He is a wonderful, passionate Christ-follower with an awesome heart for people. Cenei and Sacalaz are in capable, humble hands that are guided by Christ Himself.
When we wrapped up the service, we were ushered back to Mocanu's office to exchange gifts. It was a fun and yet, sad time as well. We would miss these guys a lot. We took massive amounts of pictures and headed out for dinner on the river.
I am not sure if we will get the chance to go back to Romania or not, but I know that Lauren would LOVE to go back. Regardless of whether we do or not, it is comforting to know that we WILL meet again and get to spend eternity with one another.
Looking back over the week, I really am amazed at what the Lord did - in us and through us. And as ususal, I feel like I was WAY more blessed as a result of serving than I feel like I contributed. I am humbled in so many ways. Most of all, I thank God for the opportunity to lead my daughter in this kind of work. Lauren has grown up watching Ellen and me serve in our church in different capacities and have even grown up with a lot of the high schoolers that we used to work with in youth ministry. However, this was the first time that Lauren and I were able to serve as equals - Brother and Sister in Christ - stepping out in faith and coming alongside what God is doing in Romania.
Thanks again to all of you who contributed your finances and your prayers to send us to Romania. We trust that you have a little better understanding of what your "return on investment" is as a result of this report! You truly have made an eternal investment that cannot be measured by the world's standards. We enjoyed being your ambassadors!
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