A Really Important Post to Me....

Every year Spring comes, followed by Summer, followed by Autumn, followed by a visit from Pastor Ioan Zaharia--a Romanian pastor who has faithfully made the pilgrimage to America each year to visit family in Chicago, then drive the 16 hours here to visit our church and another church near DC.

Every year.

And each time I am blessed beyond belief by the sight of him. By hearing him preach in Romanian, and read the greeting from his church. By hearing him preach from God's word and see his eyes light up with love for Jesus Christ. His has not been an easy life. When Romania was under communism, "Pastor John" would preach on Sunday, be thrown in jail on Monday, released a little later in the week, then start the whole process over again.

To see this man's dedication to come to our church and share his fire and passion and faithfulness is so utterly amazing. On one of his last visits, I felt the love of Christ extending so magnificently through the language and culture barriers. As Pastor John begged us again to come for a visit, I felt God speaking to me:

You could go. You could encourage the Romanian Christians by a visit. You could see the bigger picture I have for this world by getting outside of your own petty troubles. You could get out of your selfish bubble and see My people and how My love levels the playing field for you all...

And suddenly my heart longed with a fierce ache to go to this country to visit this people, and to give back a bit of the blessing Pastor John has given us. He continued to speak with us, and I heard about the orphans...how they cling to visitors in the orphanages and beg them to take them home because all they have ever wanted in their entire life is to have a mommy and daddy.

You could go, the Voice said again. You could hold these children and play with them and pray for them and show them My love.

That night I wrote a letter to Mama,  laying out my strange and sudden desire to go halfway across the world to visit this people. I told her how I feel the need to be awakened to the greater work in the world; to meet the others who are marching under Christ's banner and have a rougher road of it than I. "I know we just don't do things like this," I remember writing, "but I feel like this is something I'm being called to do."

Fast-forward a year or two and you have us here: God has expanded the walls of my desire as we have shared it with the other young people in our church. To cut it to a rather blunt point, there is now a team of ten or twelve of us planning on going to Romania this spring.

The trick?

We need to collect the funds (a sum of about $12,000 all told) before we can go. And our target leaving date is somewhere between March 8 and March 16. After that, the airfare jumps from $700-$800 dollars up to about $1400 per ticket. Obviously, the time is short, the need is immediate, and it's a thing that God will work through if He wants us to go this Spring.

The thing is, everything else has fallen in place. The people in Romania are ready for us. We have a young man whose family lives and works in Romania who would be in the country the same time as us. Even the red-tape at the passport offices has been surprisingly quick and easy.

It seems that the time is, indeed right.

I know that financial times are tough, and many of you might not be able to help us out financially. If you are able to give a little, you can read about the trip, the team, how to help, and the destination on the blog I created for the trip:

The Road to Romania 

Even if the only way you can participate is in prayer, that is really important. Perhaps even more important than the money. (On a spiritual level...) And prayer that the funds will come together would be awesome on the practical side. If you want to shoot us an email letting us know you'll be praying, that'd be great. :) The email address is: scamissionstrip@gmail.com

We will be getting a Paypal button up on the blog very shortly, but for now, if you'd like to make a donation to the effort, you can do so by sending a check to the address on the "How To Help" page. 

Thanks for all your prayers and support, and I will definitely keep everyone updated on how the fundraising goes! We will be having updates on the blog, and if you would be willing to spread the word about the project and blog, I would so greatly appreciate it! :)

Love to you all!

       ~Rachel