Romania, Day 2

OK. This setup is awesome! Of all the mission trips we have taken, this place is hooked up! We just finished organizing medicines and gift bags (soap, creams, gloves, tooth brushes, etc) for the medical outreach that begins tomorrow. The mission clinic here in Braila has its own pharmacy space that is pristine, well organized, and has an automatic pill counter! Since I normally serve as pharmacist on these trips, this was a particular bonus for me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning of the day.

We began this morning with breakfast on the 4th floor dining room. Breakfast was a choice of cereals, fruit, breads, juices, and coffee. We also had our daily group devotion. Dr. Kerfoot Walker led us this morning on the Matthew 25 passage about when we serve the least of people we are serving Christ himself. He pointed out the obvious that this may be why we are here this week but challenged us that this should be a regular action we should be doing at home as well. Very nice.

Right after breakfast, we had some time so we took a stroll down to "the beautiful blue Danube". Here's a shot of the river here in Braila:

Then it was time for church. We walked the 1 block over to the church, which is beautiful. It's quite a large Baptists church here - the building that is. The congregation was maybe 100 this morning. Romania is 95% Eastern Orthodox in religion, so there are very few evangelical churches. This church is one of 2 baptist churches in Braila, a city of 300,000. I was nominated to introduce the team to the congregation, which I did. I described our team of 16. Here's a paraphrase we're made up of 3 doctors, 2 nurses, a respiratory thearapist, medical assistants, pharmacy workers, ministers, but most importantly servants of Christ. There are 2 things we are not, unfortunately.
1. We are unfortunately not able to speak Romanian so we are excited to partner with the missionaries and church leadership as they interpret for us and as they are able to minister to the people who come to the clinic in ways we'd never be able to because these are their country men - their neighbors.
2. When this week of ministry is over, we are not able to stay and live here amongst you. We are trusting God for a harvest of souls this week. But we are also trusting you to to reap and care for this harvest after we are gone. We trust you to reach out to those who are new in Christ. No matter who they are or what they've done they are now brothers and sisters in Christ, so we are trusting you to welcome them into your house of worship, to love them, to care for their needs, and most importantly to disciple them because they are part of this family of God. Will you partner with us?

Some nodded. I answered "yes" for them and thanked them.

Then Larry gave the sermon. He spoke on Jesus becoming like man. In Mark, it tells that just after he is baptized and even though the people are there in expectation: some perhaps of a zealot leader, some of miracles, some of preaching and teaching, he leaves to the wilderness to face Satan. In Hebrews 2:14-18 we see that he did this to "share in our humanity" and face death so that he could destroy it so that we may be free. It was a good sermon.

After church, the team split up to eat with different families of the church. Sunni, Pepper, Alisa, and I went to Carmen's home. She is a single woman and a great cook. Gabby also came with us to help translate. She's 17 and lives at the orphanage. We think the story is that her parents are house parents at the orphanage because we know here dad is also a minister in a nearby village. Anyway, the food was great and so were these two women. We talked about christianity, the orthodox church, communism (which just ended here in 1989) and even Transylvania and Dracula. It was fun.

In the afternoon we were supposed to have some free time to relax before another team meeting and then church tonight. However, Leslie and Stephanie asked that Sunni go with them to make a house call on an 85 year old woman who had a bad eye infection that was not going away. I went with them. Well, remember "the least of these" up at the top of this entry? In almost every way this woman would be considered one of the least of these in this world. But I tell you we spent the next 45 minutes in the presence of Christ in that small 2 room home. Angela sang hyms to us. She prayed with us. She quoted scripture to us. She laughed with us. And when we were leaving, she proclaimed a blessing on us and on our children. Oh, and her eye was fine. The infection seemed to be all but gone. She does have glaucoma in one eye, but she's doing pretty well considering. That short time spent with her was such an unexpected blessing this afternoon.

When we got back, we had our meeting and then some of us decided to stay and sort medicines and gift bags so that we weren't staying up all night while the others went and heard Larry preach again at the church. Apparently his sermon tonight was on the faith of the 4 men that lowered their paralyzed friend down through a roof in a house for Jesus to heal him. It was because of their faith that their friend was healed.

And with that, we are expecting with faith that we will see great things the rest of this week.