Reaching Out to Romania 2006

October 29, 2007 by Alan McColl

Introduction

In the Summer of 2006, my family and I, along with a group of friends from Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, went to Alba Iulia, Romania on a two week missionary trip. The purpose of this trip was to minister to the children and youth of Alba Iulia and surrounding villages.  Our team divided into two teams.  The children's team ran a vacation bible school program 'Solar Express' which theme was 'Empowered by the Son'.  We (Al & Toni) worked with the Vacation Bible School and had a great time.  Toni along with Camelia Gavrilovici (who interpreted for her) taught the Bible verse memorization class. The children ages 5 thru 16 were challenged to memorize 5 verses that wk.  The verses were taught in both Romanian and English.  The children loved to impress Toni with citing them in English.  Several of the children were able to recite 'The Ultimate Recall', all five verses from memory without error on the final day of the week long program. Not only did they memorize the verses, but were taught the meaning of the verses and why these verses were so important.  The children were very attentive and well behaved. Alan was in charge of the games.  It was great and challenging to come up with Awana style games for kids from 3 yrs to 16 yrs.  Also teaching the kids balloon volleyball was fun, but the kids had a natural impulse to use their feet anytime the balloon came near the ground.  They are born with soccer (Futball) balls at their feet.   But good sportsmanship and teamwork and fun were accomplished.

City Kids

Some of the children were from the area just near the church where there are many high rise apartment buildings. Romanian cities have many apartment buildings that were built during the communist government under Ceausescu. Other children were from two small villages about fifteen kilometers from Alba. These villages are ministered to by Romanian national missionaries from Partners in Evangelism. The missionaries hold church services and act as pastors for the villagers. Each day, we sent a bus to pick up children from the villages of Mihalt and Totoy. There were about twenty children from these two villages ranging in ages from 4 to 16.

Village Kids

We went as a team to the villages to do home visits with the families of these children.  Most of the families are not 'repenters'. That is the term used by the Orthodox and atheists for Believers. However, the families were so receptive to our visits and overwhelmed that Americans would come to their poor little village and sit in their homes just to say hello and pray with them.  Little did they know that they gave us a bigger blessing than we could have ever given them!  The little boy shown above really touched our heart in a special way.  His name is Alexandru and he is being raised by his grandmother.  They are gypsy and of Orthodox religion.  His mother divorced his father and has since remarried and has a new family so she gave him to his grandmother to raise.  She was so grateful that we welcomed her grandson and came to her house.  The Orthodox Church looks down on them because they are gypsy and would never come to a house call.  We answered many questions, including ones about the Davinci Code and gave the gospel.  We gave our testimonies, showing what an Awesome, loving and forgiving God we serve.  Then we prayed with them.  This is a memory that will never fade from our hearts. Please keep Alexandru and his family in your prayers.  His smile is so beautiful despite the hardship dealt him.

Another boy from the village of Totoy also touched us in a special way.  His name is Marius, he is 16 yrs old.  He comes from a Orthodox family and since a little boy loved to sing in church.  A few years ago he started to go to the Baptist church in his village and the Orthodox also.  Then about a year ago decided he could no longer go to the Orthodox Church if he was going to obey God.  He told his parents and naturally they were not very happy but did not stop him.  About a month before we came he decided he was going to be baptized, his parents were not happy again, but felt they could not stop him.  The pastor in that village helped get Marius into a very good private Christian school in Sibiu.   This is a city a little over an hour away.  He boards at a family in Sibiu during the school year.  He works hard to raise money for the housing rent.  We were able to answer some questions the mother had and pray with them.  God has some great plans for this boy.  What a brave and obedient servant he is!  Please also pray for Marius and his family.  I know his greatest desire is for his family to be saved also. 

We experienced many things in Romania that taught us how spoiled and blessed we are here in America.  The first week the temperature was in the 90’s and they do not have air conditioning.  For a couple of spoiled Americans it was very uncomfortable but as you can see we all survived.  God did not fail us even with that, it cooled down enough at night so we were able to sleep.  We also had to learn to drink our drinks slightly cold.  Romanians drink at room temp.  They do not have ice for drinks.  Even when we put our drinks in the refrigerator, it still wasn't that cold.  All the settings were only at 2 on the fridge.  But again we survived.

Driving in Romania is very different than the USA, a bit scary at times.  However, our most memorable moment was the traffic jam we were caught up in; it was not with cars but the cows going home.  Yes we did say COWS.  In the villages almost every family owns at least one milking cow.   The whole village sends their cows out to pasture during the day to a community field.  The children take turns tending the cows, and then about 7:30 the cows come home.  These cows just walk down the road to their home, when they get to their gate they know it is theirs and they turn in.  The family is waiting for them to milk them.  There were over 100 cows going home that evening. 

The host families that we all stayed with were just wonderful.  They catered to us like we were royalty.  We stayed with Ioan (John) and Doina Toma.  We could not have asked for more gracious wonderful people.  It was challenging at times with the language deficit.  Of course our Romanian was very basic, it was a major accomplishment by sometimes putting 2 or 3 words together. Ioan did not speak any English before we came, however he was reading a book trying to teach himself.  He would point to something and we would say it in English, so by the end of the 2 wks his vocabulary increased to about 15/20 English words. Doina spoke a little English.  Doina's daughter who with her husband is a missionary in China taught her some phases.  We even spoke with her thru the Skype (computer video conference).  This made our trip a real international trip. Americans in Romania with an interpreter in China.  We managed to communicate and each side learning more of each others language.  Then we did have an evening with an interpreter and exchanged testimony and each others lives.  Again our Lord knew what He was doing.  Doina's and my (Toni's) lives had many similarities in trials that we went through.  How we bonded was amazing.  They also treated Bekah as though she was their granddaughter.  Bekah also had great 2 wks of terrorizing their cat and 2 kittens. Bekah participated in the VBS program with the children and had a great time meeting new kids. Ioan and Al had many similar interests.  But our main common ground was our love for Christ. We so look forward to seeing them again.  It was very hard saying goodbye.

The women of the Church in Alba Iulia also worked very hard everyday with making great meals for us.  Some of them worked everyday even taking off of their job to serve us.  We were also blessed with a great group of young adults and teens that worked with us with both groups.  They gave up their summer vacation time to serve God.  They all had an obedient heart of obeying God's calling for each of them.  We really developed great relationships with all of them.  We met many more brothers and sisters of our church family, that we will enjoy fellowship for eternity with.

Now on to the other half of our team, that worked with the Youth (teens); they also experienced an amazing week.  They had around 100 kids register and averaged around 75 teens each night. The first 2 nights the kids played the games hard and did not want to stop playing.  They half heartedly listened to the praise music and preaching time.  But Weds changed the whole experience, 30 teens accepted Jesus as their one and only savior.  The leaders met one on one with those who stated they asked Jesus into their hearts to counsel and make sure they understood what it really meant.  Then Thurs a few more were saved.  Thursday and Friday, the teens still played hard, but the worship and preaching time was really alive for them.  The kids sang with real life in their voices and their faces glowed with a new life.  It was amazing to see.

We went into this trip hoping to see at least one child or teen changed.  Not sure how it would come together.  We felt much unprepared and not qualified.  But what a fruitful time God showed us.  And all the Glory can only go to Him.  We were unqualified in so many ways, but He did not fail us and He definitely equipped us with His power.

We thank you all for partnering with us to serve our Awesome and Great Lord.  If you have any questions we would love to talk with you. 

Partners in Evangelism is a great organization and we covert your prayers daily.

Thank you again,
Serving a Great and Awesome God together,

Alan & Toni McColl