Friday, July 31 – Last Day of VBS in Pusta Vale
We arrived later today, around 10:00 a.m. because we didn’t want the kids to wait for us in the heat, even though I’m sure they did. They eagerly greeted us at the doors of our bus again, saying “Buna Dimineatsa! (Good Morning!)” We got a late start on worship, but we were louder than ever before. The day was very smooth after that, and the kids hung around for a while after we closed in worship. They continued to sing! It was truly amazing to see how much love those kids have to give. Even a few of the Gypsy children got together and made colorful beaded bracelets for the female teachers. We’re gonna miss it here! VBS in Pusta Vale has been great! I don’t think anyone could have known what to expect, but I think team members and kids alike all had a GREAT time.
After VBS clean up, we got back on the bus for the trek back to the hotel to rest until 5:00 p.m. We had a fun night ahead of us. We had the opportunity to go and see some Roman Ruins still left in the hills of Zalau. It was spectacular!! It was like walking through time, we saw guard towers, a massive amphitheater and much more. To our surprise our tour guide was an archeologist from NY living in Romania for the past couple months. There is still a lot of digging up going on and he and a few other Americans are at the sight uncovering many more ancient ruins. At the end of the tour we got to have a BBQ dinner around the ruins overlooking hills and hills of green trees with rolling fields of flowers. We had traditional Romanian meat, watermelon (called Lubaniza) and tons more fresh fruit and food. It was a remarkable sight and probably the most relaxing part of the trip so far! Jeremy Searcy and a translator got out the guitars and played some worship songs as well. An amazing day to say the least!
Aside from a Vacation Bible School, a Youth Conference was also planned. With the help from a translator from previous years, Bethany Grimes had planned a three day conference to be held in the city of Zalau. She had been working on this conference for MONTHS now, and it showed in the success of the conference. She has a huge passion for the youth of Romania and she did a FANTASTIC job!
Day 1: The first day, we counted 115 youth (not including our own) that attended the event. The focus of the conference was to empower the youth of this generation to make a change in this country and share the love of Jesus Christ.
Jason gave a sermon about abundant life and how it is only found through Jesus. He definitely has a different preaching style than most Romanians are used to. If you haven’t heard him before, Jason is a storyteller. He likes to give examples of what he’s talking about from his own life, and often throws in jokes to lighten the mood. He did a great job captivating his audience, but some of his jokes got lost in translation. His translator, Hanjiel, was AMAZING, but he was having a hard time with some of the “American Slang” that was thrown in there (and American foods. . .like donuts.) At the end of the sermon, he gave a benediction not familiar to most Romanian churches, and had a call to prayer. We went into this with expectations, thinking that there would be some sort of revival or just something great happening, but it wasn’t necessarily the case. The team thought that when Jason gave the call to prayer, people would be rushing up to the front to pray with us. One person came up for prayer.
After Day 1, the team got together to re-strategize for the next day.
DAY 2: We all prayed that tonight would be different. A lot of the team felt that God would rock this church tonight. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but we were excited about it!
Today, Jeremy Searcy was our preacher man, giving his VERY FIRST sermon. Quite a success! The sunny California boy grabbed the attention of everyone in the church. He spoke about how abundant life could be found through community. He reminded us that we, as a church, and as brothers and sisters of Christ, need to band together in our faith.
Afterwards, Jason got back up to close in prayer. He spoke to the youth about what had happened yesterday at the call to prayer. He said he wasn’t sure if he had asked them to come up the wrong way, if it was a cultural thing, or if maybe we had intimidated them. But he said that those putting on the conference strongly felt that the Americans and Romanians should be praying together. And he strongly stressed that point. After that, a big group of kids came up to the front to pray. A minute later, everyone in the church was standing and forming groups, Romanians and Americans mixed with arms around each others shoulders, praying aloud at the same time while the worship band played in the background. God definitely rocked the church in two big ways: 1) Giving Jeremy the platform to speak God’s word; and 2) Bringing the Romanians and the Americans together as brothers and sisters. It was AWESOME! That is what the church is supposed to be and it was an absolutely amazing thing to see.
Day 3: Thursday was the last day of the Youth Conference. Jason did a great job tying it all together by preaching that now we need to move into action. He called every youth in the room to keep from just singing the words, but to put their faith into action. He once again had a call to prayer and once again Romanians and Americans were praying together in the front of the church. It’s very common in Romanian culture to pray aloud altogether and it was an amazing thing to witness. Although there were many different languages being spoken, there was one prayer being said, and it was for a revolution to happen in the church. It was an honor to be able to be a part of the youth conference, and it was an absolute success. All of the glory of those couple of nights goes straight to God, he never ceases to amaze!
