Abigail woke up not feeling well, and we decided to stay back at the hotel to let her rest and meet back with the team in the afternoon. It was a good decision although she felt very guilty that we weren't with the group. We had a restful day as she got some sleep, I starting packing up in between lovely visits with Isabel and stringing jingle bells to hand out after the service (do you know how many Americans it takes to UNTANGLE 100 jingle bell necklaces... twice!lol!?). I loved my time talking with Isabel and hearing her heart. She loves the Lord so much and has gone through extraordinary things with her health and ministry- very inspiring!
Tonight was our final event with Hope Church. Many of the people the teams visited throughout the week attended the church service! It was standing room only and was live streaming through several social media accounts! Rakinah sang, one of the youth, Isabel and I shared testimonies, Lanny preached, we sang beautiful songs in Romanian (Abigail and I couldn't even remember the English words it was so great to hear it in another language!), Raul (the Romanian pastor) led in congregation taking in the Lord's Supper while children's church was going on. We passed out gifts (and the tangled jingle bells!) to each attendee and hugged the sweet people we'd encountered this week.
There were 10 who expressed they wanted to be baptized-which is huge! We learned that some will say they want to follow Jesus but aren't ready to be baptized because they know it will cost them something- persecution from family, school and community. One of the team members said, baptism here is a very big step of faith. In America it's not as big of a deal. That made me sad because it SHOULD me a huge dea...anywhere! Do we really consider the cost of not just believing in Jesus but following Him and allowing Him to infiltrate every thought, action and breath we take? Do we consider when we as believers make public testimony of baptism that it may very well we are cast out of our family or killed for our faith?
There's only about 3-5% in the country and about 2% in the area we were in who are believers in Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful for this missionary team who have been called to their assignment in this country (and any missionary anywhere!). They're passionate. I was refreshed by them as their life's work is to make sure as many people know the loving and sacrificial gift of Jesus Christ wants to give them. Am I that passionate? Are you that passionate? If you have no idea what I'm speaking of, please message me, and I will try to help you understand.
We ended our day having dinner with the lead pastor and his family along with one more missionary couple- all simply lovely people. Off to see Castle Bran tomorrow!
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