Romania was my first trip over seas, and without doubt, forgin missions is where my heart is. I plunged myself as much as possible into the language and the culture of Romania (Hungary was just a nice tourist stop). It's impossible to give you all a true feeling of that trip. There was much dancing, much laughing, much prayer, and much spiritual growth. And that was before we met the orphans.
The first full day was shopping and going to the baby orphanage. Our job there was to touch, to hold, and to sing to babies who don't get that. I opted to go to Quarantine because that's just where God wanted me. New arrivals and very sick babies. I saw babies with hydro-siphulis, water on the brain. Their heads were about 3 feet by 2 feet big, and they were just laying around, waiting to die.
Once at camp, without "normal" bathrooms, camp food (yuck!), or showers (most days), God taught me how to love. Language barriers disappeared day by day, the kids just craved love, and we were able to show them a little about God. Their perfect heavenly Father who wants to adopt them.
One of my two favorite moments was sitting with one of my kids, Alin, as he just rocked himself- a symptom of not having been touched as a child. Suddenly he stopped, and just looked at me with this just angelic face. He smiled, and study my eyes, and it was if he was saying thank you, thank you for loving me. It made the whole trip worth it. It was like he was seeing me for the first time, and yet had always known I specifically would come to be his I dunno. Friend?
My other favorite moment was when the Romanians and I performed the story of The Three Trees all in Romanian (Copaci 3). With kids who can't even sit still for candy, I worried if they would be able to follow an 8 minute play on the last day of camp. But they did, they cheered when Jesus rose from the grave, and they just ate it up. Next year, they want more skits for the kids. To take something that was so beautiful in English in an American church, to take that, change the language, put it on a muddy ground with a bunch of muddy kids as the audience, and to have the spirit of God fall with even more power, it's an experience as an actress, as a believer, and as a missionary that I will never forget.
If you want to hear more about what God did, or would like to know how you can bring God to the orphans of Romania (a country that struggles to support itself, much less the "least of these"), please contact me or check out www.buckner.org. That's the organization working all over the world to help children, youth, and adults. They need your support, but more importantly, those kids need love and a hug. Plus shoes, shirts, and toothbrushes. If you can't, please pray for them and for their country.
Traveste duamne Romania! Everyone do the Misi, everyone do the Ionci! Salle de Mese!
Thank you for your prayers and for those of you who supported financially. Thank you, and thank God. He touched the hearts of these kids, and the hearts of these "grown ups".
