As most of you know, I'd been raising support for a missions trip to Romania for the past few months. (For those of you who bought music CDs, we hope to have them delivered before Christmas!) I went and came back this month. Was gone for 10 days. Despite the pain and great suffering I witnessed, God showed Himself to be good and merciful, and at work in Romania.
Our objectives were, through music, words, and love: to share the gospel and grace of Jesus
1. with some impoverished teenage to mid twenties ex-slave/prostitutes staying in a rehabilitation shelter. (The Girls)
2. with amazingly poor gypsies living on the Danube. (The Gypsies)
3. through the continual filming of a documentary on God's Amazing Grace. (The world)
The first half of the trip we stayed at a bible college where we prayed for the girls after breakfast. God seemed to really press us to pray for their faith in Jesus. One woman woke up with the word "expectation" on her heart before breakfast, and we all had expectation for these girls.
1. These girls had been kidnapped by Russian Mafia and forced into prostitution. When the girls would escape, they would be recommended and shuttled to this rehabilitation shelter. When we showed up at the rehabilitation shelter where the 11 girls stayed we found that their sceptic system hadn't worked for weeks - they'd taken sparse showers, and only did so after going outside and bucketing out sewage from the tank. Like I said....sparse showers. Several of us volunteered to fix it over a three day period. This was one of the few times I thanked God for my training in septic tank restoration.
Our goal for the first day was to buy them pizza and soda, and to just get to know them. A couple of them spoke a tiny bit of English. They were constantly laughing and joking. We had several interpreters who would translate questions they had about us, our names, and our families. They knew very little of Jesus, and had even less interest in Him although they were very excited to meet our crew of 16 women and men. They couldn't believe that people would fly from America to meet them - they saw themselves as destroyed nobodies with a past life of pain and no future. We found them in good spirits though. After the pizza came, we were told that the girls hadn't eaten in approx. 4 days. Not unusual apparently. God moved us to take an offering to stock their cupboards for the month. Later we found out that our interpreters (a husband and wife team, and parents of 2 toddler, the husband of which was a full time "employee" of the shelter), hadn't had food in their house for approx. 3 days. We split the offering among them too. The woman who ran the shelter (a believer) was out raising support. Her work is apparently exceptional in it's field. The shelter is considered the most effective of any of it's kind, and she's received several awards, including an award by the UN. It's sad that they are still virtually broke.
The next day we laid out dresses for the girls, and they went in single file while the women fit them with gowns. Each would come out to the rest of us and the girls cheering. They loved it. (Thank you to those who donated gowns and makeup for this event.) The following night we treated the girls to a nice formal dinner at a restaurant we'd rented, they were dressed and made up to the hilt. A couple of alumni girls from the passed year were also invited to the dinner. They'd both come to know Jesus the previous year, and shared a bit of their stories with us. The girls were avoiding any serious thoughts. Laughing, making fun of the alumni, making fun of everything. Two of us played a few songs at the girls' request. Lorenzo my music partner shared his story about losing his brother a couple of weeks earlier in an accidental shooting. This was my first hope of serious listening that night. Then one of the American women on the trip shared her story. How she was selfish, had left a husband, aborted children, and how she was empty of everything but pain and self hatred...she'd attempted suicide, and wore a fake smile most of her life, until she met Jesus who healed her and forgave her, even in the "secret places." One by one the girls began to weep. Some women prayed for them individually, and all of them, one by one prayed to receive Jusus' forgiveness - and with no pressure. It was their desire. Moments later, several of the girls said they no longer had pain in their hearts, even in the "secret places." One girl announced that God showed her that His calling for her was to help other girls who'd been "trafficked" on the streets, and that she was no longer sorry about her past as God would be able to use her former pain to bring other girls to faith in Him. None of us expected that.
Our goal for the first day was to buy them pizza and soda, and to just get to know them. A couple of them spoke a tiny bit of English. They were constantly laughing and joking. We had several interpreters who would translate questions they had about us, our names, and our families. They knew very little of Jesus, and had even less interest in Him although they were very excited to meet our crew of 16 women and men. They couldn't believe that people would fly from America to meet them - they saw themselves as destroyed nobodies with a past life of pain and no future. We found them in good spirits though. After the pizza came, we were told that the girls hadn't eaten in approx. 4 days. Not unusual apparently. God moved us to take an offering to stock their cupboards for the month. Later we found out that our interpreters (a husband and wife team, and parents of 2 toddler, the husband of which was a full time "employee" of the shelter), hadn't had food in their house for approx. 3 days. We split the offering among them too. The woman who ran the shelter (a believer) was out raising support. Her work is apparently exceptional in it's field. The shelter is considered the most effective of any of it's kind, and she's received several awards, including an award by the UN. It's sad that they are still virtually broke.
2. We were told that other than orphans, (like many of the girls who'd been trafficked) the Gypsies were despised among Romanians. Even many Romanian pastors seemed to despise Gypsies. Said they were dangerous and thieving. That wasn't our experience. We stayed in tiny straw/mud brick huts and houses. The river had flooded the previous year destroying many houses, devastating many. Rare plumbing, limited electricity. Outhouses were just sheet metal "walls" constructed around a cement slab with a hole in the ground. Sometimes rats congregated around the smelly holes. We were told to bring our anti-bacterial lotions. "Don't drink the water if you want to walk out of here." That was easy. I'm still not sure where they got water. The family I stayed with didn't have plumbing, or showers.
The Gypsies are very hospitable, generous, affectionate, and kind. Average wage was about 100 bucks a month. Poor conditions kept cost of living down some I'm sure, although a 2 liter of Coke was about 2 bucks. I know because our host families would buy Coke for their American guests regularly. I would often eat fried potatoes and Coke for breakfast. We weren't allowed to eat anything uncooked in the village. We were holding a marriage conference there at the time, so their church building (a cold cement shell) was packed, many weren't believers. Some became believers through the conference.
A man there had a swollen face due to a tooth infection of some sort. One of the guys on the team got a group of folks to go pray for him. After a second prayer session he was totally healed. He had 11 kids and his family had eaten only potatoes for 4 months. Several of her sons had worked for several months doing construction, but their boss sent them away with no pay - common treatment of Gypsies. His wife laid around with flies on her, depressed. She had no hope. We prayed for her and counseled her regarding hope (she was a believer). She finally came to the marriage conference with renewed hope that God would take care of her family, and in fact that He always had been. I was reminded how filthy rich I was, in Christ and financially as well. Having things like heat, food, refrigerators, kitchens, carpets, lights, toilets, jobs, cars, and civil rights are so often taken for granted.
3. The main band for the documentary that I've been friends with for several years are the biggest thing in Hawaii right now due to my manager's work. Called "7SP / Seven Simple Pieces." Huge distribution deal, signed to a secular label, highlighted in 12 major newspapers, front cover story on the 10th most read paper in the world. Tons of radio play. During their trip the main leaders of the band were exposed as controlling abusive people, and unwilling to repent. Something that was hidden (I believe by The Lord) until this trip where their hearts were exposed. The others in the band flourished for the first time, as my manager disallowed the leaders to come to Romania. They'd been working and filming in Rwanda, Kenya, and Bombay, until their chaos reached unacceptable levels. A third member hurt his knee and had to fly back to Hawaii. The remaining 2 band members found rest, hope, and God's true grace in Romania, as they found Him using them to minister to the girls and to the gypsies. The documentary set out to show how we can administer grace as a picture of God's grace. Instead, I believe that God will use it to show the world that despite hypocrisy in the church, God will still use imperfect and lowly people to show HIS grace to the world. Please pray for the editing of the documentary, that The Lord will be glorified in it as much as he was on these trips.
Thank you to everyone who supported this trip, and for your gifts to the girls and the gypsies.