the road less traveled...

Today, I rode the bus. And then I rode the bus some more. And just when it was starting to get to the point when I felt like I have never done anything in my life but ride the bus, I rode the bus some more.

At this very moment, I am in Oradea, Romania. Buna Ziua! That means good day! This is pretty much the only thing I know how to say in Romanian and truthfully, I don’t pronounce it all that well. It is very, very cold in Romania. Shake in your big puffy jacket, stomp your feet to make sure your toes haven’t fallen off, and huddle up to someone else even if you are invading their personal space and are not exactly best friends with them cold.

This is the very first trip I have ever taken to a cold country for work. While I’ve been to Japan in November when a jacket is a necessity to feel comfortable and to Kenya where the cool nights make you glad you thought to bring a wool shawl along, this is the first time I have longed for a permanent I.V. of hot chocolate inserted into my arm.

In spite of the cold weather, I am coming to discover that Romania is a beautiful country with valleys of farmland so green that it makes you want to burst out with “the hills are alive” and mountains and forests that make your feet itch to run outside and play explorer.

But I am here to work. So I did not jump off the bus to explore (or sing), instead I sat there counting down the minutes to Cluj, one of the major cities in Romania. I am traveling with two other people, one a missionary who will be leading the team coming soon and the second, the ministry coordinator for Romania. We are visiting Cluj today for 2 reasons. First, a short-term missions team is will be coming to Romania soon and we need to make sure they have a place to stay and that they have places to share the gospel. Second, I’m hoping to get some school administrators to allow us to talk to their students about the ways they think and feel about their lives. So far, I’ve been to two countries where I have tried to get these projects off the ground and in both countries, nothing went quite the way I was hoping it would. Suffice it to say, my expectations for Romania weren’t very high.

Our first stop was to get permission from a school to let us minister there with the team and (my big responsibility) talk to the kids before and after the team does their thing. Here is what happened:

School Administrator Man: something something something else in Romanian
Ministry Coordinator: something something something else in Romanian
School Administrator Man: More something in Romanian?
Ministry Coordinator: nods her head
Me: Please let us talk to your kids
School Administrator: more Romanian
Ministry Coordinator: even more Romanian
School Administrator: Sure!

I know that Lenny, after her luggage debacle, posted about how God is able to far exceed our expectations. And while I didn’t see any zebras or giraffes, I too have had a first-hand experience of how mighty God is and how infinite his power. I don’t know why I constantly underestimate what God can do and how He can move in the most stubborn of hearts. I went into that school expecting a flat-out rejection and it turned out the only person whose heart was hardened to the doors God can open was mine.

Over the past year, after practically spending ½ a year in India, and then jumping between Mexico, the Philippines, and now, Romania, I realized that I was starting to think that the work I have will only get accomplished if I do it. I forgot about God. I work in ministry and I forgot that God is the one who ministers through his children. Not his children through Him.

I don’t know whether it was the easy acquiescence from the school administrator to our project or seeing all the prayer and hard work that our Romanian coordinator is doing to get ready for the team, but there is such a sense of freedom and relief in knowing that I just have to try by best and that God will do what he wills.

It’s God’s ministry. I just get to live it.

Pack lightly (because you can’t trust that everyone else will do the same and you’ll wind up carrying more bags than you want to- a whole other story)!
Mary