All In a Days Work

Salut!(Hello)

The past two days have been a test of my weed pulling abilities, bathroom cleaning skills, and overall maintenance competency. There is so much work to do! I am in awe of how hard the Romanian staff has worked these past few months. The interior of the house has been completely remodeled and now we have started to clean up the outside. You wouldn’t believe how many weeds we have pulled. It’s starting to look like a home! In case I didn’t’ do a good job of explaining our current status I will summarize for you. Until June 25^th (when camp starts) we will mainly be:

·      Renovating and cleaning up Livada’s new housing facility.  This giant house is where teams will stay when they come from the U.S. to volunteer in various Livada ministries (primarily camp). This is also where the 12 interns are living for the summer.

·      Prepping camp supplies-crafts, games, skit materials, bible study materials, etc..

·      Setting up Vetca. Vetca (Vet-skuh) is a small town about an our away from Targue Mures where Livada owns some land. This land is used on the last day of camp. We will be taking the kids there every Friday, which is the last day of each camp session.

·      Prepping for “Youth Group” which the interns will hold every Thursday night specifically for the kids who live in Livada’s private group homes (LOC). This is different than the day camp we will be holding for at-risk gypsy children and other state group homes.

One of the most important things that Livada strives to do is stress the gospel in all things. Something that has been weighing heavily on my heart is this-How do you tell someone that God is good and that he loves them when they have experienced unimaginable things? Not only that, but how do you convince a child that they are loved when they don’t have any picture of what love is? To many, love is either cheap or something they have never truly experienced. I guess my fear is that I won’t adequately communicate the depth of the gospel. I know that I have been called to obedience in proclaiming the gospel but that ultimately it is God's grace that changes lives. All I can do is be faithful in that and not let the fear of being ineffective keep me from being proactive.

This fear has pushed me to recognize the power of prayer and how ineffective ministry is without it.

Several years ago, when Livada was rather young, a boy intern was assigned to work in the abandoned baby hospital. He knew that these babies and toddlers would have no understanding of the gospel so he asked his Livada administrator what he should do. The administrator told him to pray over every child, every day. This is exactly what the intern did. He spent his days at the baby hospital in prayer. He prayed that they would find a family who loved them and who loved Jesus and that they would grow up to be followers of Christ.

Several years later, after this intern had graduated college, he ran into the Livada supervisor who had encouraged him to pray for the Romanian babies. The supervisor and his wife were so excited to see this intern and share with him their good news-they had adopted! Two brothers from one of the orphanages that Livada works with. After they showed the intern the pictures of their two new sons he fell silent and walked into another room. When he returned he had several baby pictures in his hand that he took during his time at the baby hospital. The pictures were of the two adopted sons! He had prayed for them every day. WOW.

I had chills when I heard that story. PRAYER is so important. Please be praying that God is glorified through the lives of the children who I am so humbled to be able to serve this summer.