Today we visited a village called Martinesti. This is a small village not far from the village where Matt and Denise Elliott lived. We split into two teams – one team was going to do a program for the village children and the other team was going to go from house to house doing evangelism. Each team had American and Romanian members.
I was with the team doing the children’s program. Even as we were driving into the village, children were starting to gather. More and more children began arriving and we all walked up a hill into a field to begin the program. We started with some games. It was fun seeing 50 or more children trying to pass a lifesaver using only toothpicks stuck in their mouths – and yes a few lifesavers did not make it the whole way down the line. The children on our American team joined in with all of the games too. It was a blessing to see them playing alongside the Romanian villagers so naturally.
After games, Denise did a lesson with the children about how much God loves us and that we know someone loves us by how they treat us. God showed His love by sending His only Son to pay for our sin on the cross. The children all listened to the teaching and seemed to understand. We then did a craft project with the children. We all made bead and cross necklaces. The materials had been generously provided by some of our RUMC family and they were a big hit. We were able to share with the children that the different colored beads each had a meaning that would help them remember about God’s love and Jesus sacrifice.
The other team went house to house sharing about God, visiting with the people in the village, and delivering bags of food and supplies – Denise calls them “Helps Bags.” Many of the people in this village are gypsies. It would be too hard to explain just how difficult it is for the gypsy people in the Romanian culture, but they are a group that is not welcomed in many places. There is prejudice and they are very much the outcasts of this society. The group that went house to house never acted as though the people they were meeting were less than them. Everyone was shown that we were truly interested in them and that they were loved by God as much as anyone else.
The two groups came together to eat lunch and share about our efforts so far in the village. We then all went to meet one of the ladies of the village who has been hosting a Pentecostal church in her home. She shared with us and we prayed with her, asking God to bless her, her family, her home, and their church. We then met her grandmother who was blind and very hard of hearing. Her grandmother shared with us that she wanted to be baptized, but as we talked with her she decided that maybe today was not the day. We also prayed with her that God would continue working in her heart and that she would be baptized when the time was right.
As a whole group we visited a few more homes and delivered a few more Helps Bags. We left the village not long after and headed back to Micesti to prepare for our next day. Today was a long day – but a very fruitful one.
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