Closer to his heart with Welcome Home Team to Romania

A trip to never forget. After 3 nights of preparation, we couldn't wait to go! The unity we experienced in the preparations remained throughout the trip. Serving each other and the tremendously fine, spontaneous worship times set the tone for a fantastic week. God spoke in the morning already what He wanted to do that day and evening, so each time we ourselves were amazed at what God was doing through us.

Practical
Together we were able to distribute around 300 food packages. For more than 100 we did the shopping ourselves. What an experience to arrive at the checkout with 17 full shopping carts!! Thanks to the enormous generous donations from you as our supporters, we were able to buy this and distribute it with love.

Spiritual
Such a bag of groceries is really a survival kit for the Roma families, the widows and singles. But it was striking that the people in the mountain villages knew we had more to offer! Many came for prayer themselves. They don't have money for the doctor/dentist but they know of the God who can heal! We have seen toothaches disappear, a man who was partially paralyzed from a brain hemorrhage was able to walk upright again, from several people we were told that they felt a "very warm flow" in the place where the pain was before. There was faith, expectation and hunger for the gospel. Many people and children wanted to receive that God in their lives. We were allowed to pray with them and many gave their lives to Jesus. A pastor, who is the spiritual leader of these mountain villages, is going to follow that up and further teach the people about it. Besides the shock of poverty, there was also so much love and joy, both with us and with the Roma people. By the way, these were some of the mountain villages around the idyllic town of Sighisoara, where we stayed this week with David and Rodica McGregor and their daughter Sabrina.

Also in the Roma communities in Bachnea, Coroï and Laslau we were able to speak, share testimonies (each team member), lead a piece of worship and pray for people and children. What an honor to be in their midst and how deeply touched our hearts were not only by God, but also by the beautiful people and the passion with which they sing, truly Roma style... nothing compares, so beautiful...

Comments from Team Members:
“What respect for the people working there on the ground. Everyone should take this kind of trip once in their life, it changes you and supports another.“

“I pretty much knew what I was going to find and yet it is every time again intense to smell, see and feel the poverty. It seems like fragments from a movie but still you are in the middle of reality.“

“Romania was a really big adventure for me, together with this team and with God. I will never forget this experience.“

“The outreach to Romania did a lot to us. You know before you go that there is poverty, but when you see it with your own eyes... the 'houses' in which the Roma live, sometimes cobbled together with some wood and pieces of tarpaulin... it did a lot to us. We gave love, but also received so much.“

“What a wonderful week! This was my first outreach. I have seen a lot of poverty, brokenness, pain and sadness among the population. It touched me deeplyn. But we've also seen miracles of God and the joy of the children as we came! We had a really nice team, we started worshipping God together every day, praying for each other and for what we were going to do that day.“

“This journey has changed our lives. We went there to give love, but our view of the church has also been refined again. Another piece of God's puzzle. We have changed forever. This was our first trip, but not our last! It was a privilege to come along!“

“God has given this journey a lot of breakthroughs in my personal life. So special, when you go into obedience and actually think what do I have to give, that God says: oh, but this time I have something to give YOU! God has given deep restoration to team members, given direction, sparked desires, adjusted vision.... “

In short: Thank You Lord for this special week! We brought our "5 rolls and 2 fish"... (John 6:9)
It is up to God to multiply this to more than enough for everyone we have met!

David & Rodica, our host and hostess