Romania and The Unbelievable Gospel

Romanian ministry life is exciting and busy. We are serving with a local church plant called Hope Church and our ministry hosts are beautifully open to creatively doing whatever it takes to reach every person in Craiova with the love of God. Currently, the majority of Craiova’s population of over 230,000 people identify with the Eastern Orthodox Church, technically a “Christian” denomination, however only about 0.3% claim to be born-again Christians with a personal relationship with Christ.

Most of our days start out at the church with an hour of prayer. This prayer often includes interceding for the city, for believers and nonbelievers we are building relationships with, for upcoming events and needs, and sometimes just good ol’ praise and worship. We serve in a lot of different ways which keeps life exciting as we follow wherever the Spirit and our ministry hosts lead us!

We gather donations and distribute food from a local food bank to those who are hungry, teach ESL classes for adults, host children’s classes, lead youth group for teens, and have been delivering shoebox Christmas gifts throughout underprivileged communities.

About a week ago, we sang carols and shared the gospel with sweet girls from a local prison. We have also been Christmas caroling regularly and practicing/performing a flash mob carol performance (Not so easy in a foreign language!) at local malls and the Christmas market. Someone recorded us and here’s a link to that video:

https://www.facebook.com/670350240/videos/725189922582521/

We do a ton of street ministry and relationship-building daily. Sometimes we hand out free gifts or flyers for upcoming church events, other times we just head out empty-handed on prayer walks but fully equipped with the love of Jesus to make friends and share the good news.

One day, while we were out, a teammate and I ended up helping a guy whose car broke down and pushed his car about half a mile around the mall. While we were pushing, the oncoming traffic kept honking at us so we had to push with one hand and direct traffic with the other hand which felt and looked pretty hilarious!

Another time, an elderly man asked my teammate and I to help carry his food bank food all the way back to his home several blocks away. After we arrived, he allowed us to pray for him and though he did not know very much English, he did know how to say “thank you and I love you” repeatedly and gave us forehead kisses.

It’s been so cool to see God use some of the gifts He gave me in being comfortable talking to strangers, spreading joy, serving others, not being easily embarrassed, and loving people well to reveal a bit more of Christ’s kindness to them. I haven’t been journaling or blogging nearly as much as I’d like to due to the busyness and exhaustion of all day ministry, but the Lord is showing up daily. God’s growing His kingdom and showing us more of His grace and heart for Romania.

A few teammates and I have been waking up at 5:00 am each morning to get time with God in the Bible and the gym in before ministry. I’ve been reading through the gospels and am now about halfway through reading Acts. To be honest, I have been wrecked by Christ’s love and kindness. At times in my life, I have begged the Lord to use me more and subsequently felt unloved, when by my perception, he hadn’t used me to serve Him in the ways or timing I expected him to. Thankfully, the Lord’s given opportunities to share the gospel and understand it more deeply since then. God didn’t save us and doesn’t love me or you just for what we can do for Him. He simply loves, delights, and wants us as we are.

While growing in sharing the gospel with others these past few months, I am over and over again reminded of how unbelievable God’s grace is. Sharing the gospel with a Muslim man, he couldn’t believe that God would not require good works to be saved – how could it be by Christ’s sacrifice and grace alone? Good works motivated by love rather than fear and requirement seemed stupid and unbelievable to him. My teammate, who was raised Muslim before becoming a Christian, was able to share her testimony with him. We both encouraged him to continue to seek truth, the one true God, and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to him. We pray and believe that God will reveal Himself to our friend if he continues searching.

A few days later, we were getting to know some sweet girls from a local prison who could not believe that God would really forgive them for their sin. These girls had been through so much pain; abandonment by their parents as children, people who were supposed to take care of them that instead beat, molested and even attempted to kill them. Instantly, it made sense—how could they trust that God would really forgive, love and stay with them forever without expecting anything in return? My heart breaks for these women and their stories that are not uncommon in this broken, hurting world full of broken, hurtful people.

My teammate, translator, and I shared parts of our personal testimonies with these girls. I shared about the salvation of the thief/criminal on the cross in Luke 23:39-43. The criminals on either side of Jesus deserved to be on their crosses, yet when one of them recognized Jesus as Lord and asked Him to remember him when Jesus entered into His kingdom, Jesus told the criminal he would join Him in paradise that day. The thief had nothing to offer Jesus – only to receive the free gift of salvation, grace and forgiveness Jesus offered. My friend and translator, Ana, demonstrated this concept further with the McDonald’s burgers that we were handing out. As she described, the McDonald’s burger was freely given into the girl’s hands, already paid for, and it was simply her choice to receive it or knowingly reject it/put it back on the table. That day, she chose to receive not only the McDonald’s burger, but most importantly, salvation and an unconditionally loving relationship with God for eternity. We prayed with her. We rejoiced. God’s family grows bigger and deeper daily. What a joy it is to meet new brothers and sisters all over the world and be His kid!

Thank you all for your consistent prayers and support. It is all so necessary to be able to accomplish the work the Lord has set before us!

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! – Fran🎄♥️💚

Following are some extra miscellaneous photos showing more of me and my team and our shenanigans and the beauty of the Christmas Market in Craiova.