Here’s 3 of our team reports on how God worked during this mission trip to Romania!
Denise DeGeare:
Tired, swollen, achy feet – but beautiful?
Long flights do a number on my feet and the return travel from Romania was no exception. Upon arrival in San Antonio my feet were tired, achy and very, very swollen. Beautiful would not be the word I’d use to describe them.
Paul, however, might have viewed them differently. Paul quotes Isaiah (in his letter to the Romans) when he refers to “the beautiful feet of those who bring good news.” It’s no surprise to me (though I’m amazed time and time again at God’s revelation through His word, people and circumstances) that the Re:Verse for this week had to do with witnessing and this verse specifically.
When the opportunity was presented to our family to participate in the mission trip to Romania I was excited. As the departure time came closer I became apprehensive…will what we’ve planned be received well, how can we have an impact on these kids when we don’t speak the language, will our efforts prove fruitful. Doubt crept in and remained somewhat throughout our time there. I finally put the pieces together when Wallis mentioned something on the return leg of our journey. To paraphrase, God uses the efforts of his people to witness to others and that role can be fulfilled in several ways. Ours was to serve…to prepare the children to receive the fullness of God’s word. We prepared, we crafted, we played, and we loved – and received the incredible gift of being loved in return.
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to pour into the lives of these children. I am forever changed and cannot wait for the opportunity to serve again (tired, achy, swollen feet and all).
Joe DeGeare:
When the opportunity presented itself for our family to go on the Romanian Mission trip, I must say my level of excitement was pretty low. My reasons for feeling this way are two-fold. One, in my job I travel almost every week and my time at home, for the most part, is limited to weekends, and I must say I enjoy my down time on weekends. Two, because I travel so much, I was not looking forward to 22 hours +/- of airplanes and airports traveling to and from Romania. Although, Denise (my wife) and Gage (my stepson) were very excited about this opportunity, any enthusiasm I had stemmed from my desire to support them in this journey.
Although my initial thoughts were selfish, I did desire and hope that in some manner we would make a positive impact on the children we were going to be working with through our Lord Jesus Christ. I, however, ended up learning more about myself, and the things I need to work on, in order to serve Him. We all have our favorite scriptures and one of mine is Colossians 1:17.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
I need to remember if I keep Him before “all things” and continue to run the race, the prize at the end is worth far more than my selfish desires.
Whether we had a positive impact on these children or not, I guess time will tell. I do know that God will keep his promises to us and through prayer and seeking Him first above all things, His glory will come to pass.
Gage Bierschwale:
There were so many great times in Romania but the best thing to me was all the kids laughing and excited for the lessons and the skits.
We had five lessons and three skits. The first lesson was the day everybody arrived at camp. Wallis taught it and it was kind of like an intro to all the other lessons for the week.
On Tuesday we had a lesson and a skit. The lesson was taught by my mom, Denise, and was about one of the many names of God. The name is El Elyon – God Most High and it was about how powerful he is. The skit was all about the ten plagues that God sent to Pharaoh when he didn’t let the Israelites go free.
On Wednesday Joe taught about another name of God, the God of truth.
It was about how the Bible was the truth and that everything that God says is true. The skit was about a boy that fell down and lost his memory and two of his friends lied to him about his name and his family, but one of his friends told him the truth about where he lived.
On Thursday Chris taught about how the Lord is our shepherd and how he will always protect us and never lead us astray. The skit that night was about a sheep that wandered away from the herd and everything the shepherd went through to get him back.
On Friday we reviewed everything that was that week. Wallis taught it but there wasn’t a skit. Instead there was a campfire and we made smores.
Throughout the week I felt the kids furthered their relationship with the Lord in a fun way. It impacted me because I realized how something so simple as a five-minute skit or a short lesson could impact kids in such a huge way.
