Romania! ~Gypsy Village~

       Romania! I've always thought Romania is one of the most beautiful countries I've every been too. Going there a second time proved that I still think that. :o) We left early in the morning from  Budapest to Romania, where our first destination was a gypsy village called Copsa Mara. My throat was starting to feel pretty awful and I wasn't sure if I had fully recovered from having a fever in Budapest. Still, I was rejoicing with the others that we had our own personal guide, Atty, with us to help us navigate the trains to Romania. Without Atty we would have been totally lost, as our trains got delayed and switched and communication was hard. The awesome thing to this is that Leif, a member of our team, had met Atty only two days before during street evangelism in the metro. Atty had a sad story of being left by his friends who were supposed to come and give him back money he lent them. He had been walking around one day and night without food when Leif met him. Atty's reply to all of this though was, "I don't need food when I have Jesus. He really is all I need. He will provide." Through Leif befriending Atty and inviting him to the YWAM cafe in Budapest the next night, our leaders decided to give Atty  money for a ticket home. Atty's home? Targu Mures-the very place we were staying in Romania after the gypsy village. So, we had Atty with us leading us like a good shepherd  (Leif ended up visiting Atty twice in Targu Mures and heard the story of Atty being an orphan, growing up with little confidence, and then finding confidence in Jesus. Atty is now going to school to become a psychiatrist to help people like him, orphans and lonely ones. Amen!)
        We arrived in Copsa Mara after a crazy traveling time that included driving in taxis that got a little more wild than was comfortable. We stayed with a family there where the Mama, Maria, and her two sons were living along with our contact person, Siril, from Norway, who is a missionary there.

This is a picture of Maria's home on the right with her outhouse on the left. It actually was a pretty nice outhouse complete with a colored toilet seat cover. They had a pretty nice house compared to some of the other homes in the village, and were also privileged to have an outhouse-most people just went outside. We stayed in this village for four days-eating great homemade Romanian meals, bucket showering, and saying "Buna" (Hello/Good/Greetings) to everyone we passed on the street. The Roma, or Gypsy people were welcoming and hospitable. There smiles, especially on the children brought encouragement as we brought music, art, games, comfort, and prayers to the families. We worked with the teens and the children doing different art workshops and playing games. We went house to house and encouraged people through listening to their stories, praying for them, and singing over them. At this point my throat was actually becoming much worse and it was painful to swallow and talk. Thankfully, I can play the guitar well enough to bring a melody out and during the house to house ministry I played while others sang. At one house I felt God wanted me to play a healing song for a woman who had just undergone some hard surgery. I had never played just a song for someone without singing for them before, so this was a special moment for me and I was blessed along with the woman who heard it. 

          

         One Sunday I had the privilege to preach in two churches. I talked about walking with Jesus and how we can't move ahead of Jesus and we can't stay behind, but he wants us to be in a relationship with him that is beside him. I shared some personally about how I had surrendered my life to Jesus when I was 14 and started really to walk beside Him. I included an illustration of this, one of my friends was "Jesus" and I was me, showing how communication doesn't work when you're behind or trying to be ahead of Jesus with your own strength. Everyone seemed to enjoy the message and illustration and I was encouraged by the positive response. I enjoying teaching and sharing the truth God has in His word. When I read Philippians 4:12&13 in the second church I got emotional-realizing just how much God had worked this verse in my life and I could say it as truth for myself. And when we returned to the base, what did our base leader read to us--Philippians 4:12&13. God is beautifully faithful, gracious and encouraging I must say. :o) 

          The children in the village were some of the cutest children I've ever encountered. They so longed for affection and attention and would grab your hand and laugh and smile with you as we walked along. The teens also really appreciated us. The girl in the middle picture above was a sweet  blessing to us. When we came into her home after awhile she got up and got her Bible and started to read it to us in Romanian. She was so eager and happy to have older girls there to listen to her and encourage her. Our time in the village was good, but I must say I was out of it mentally a lot of the time. I ended up going to the doctor in the next village because my throat was infected. (For those who want to know-I find this stuff interesting-there was a white substance stuck in the back of my throat. It looked like someone put poofy gum back there.) I also had a fever, so my nights were rather awful. This was the lowest point for me on outreach. Not being able to sleep at night because of the pain in my throat caused me some frustrated nights were I just sat up and prayed and expressed my frustration to God. I didn't like being at low capacity to minister, but it's in these places, for me often when I'm sick, that God ministers to my heart and reminds me that He loves me just as much when I'm lying sick in bed and when I'm preaching in a church. He continued to speak this truth in me when we left the gypsy village, me still being sick and exhausted...but that's in the next update-Targu Mures! 

 Playing games and loving children

Our team plus Siril, translators, and Maria's family eating a traditional Romania Meal-yum!

Outreach in Budapest!

     Oh my goodness, where to start? I obviously got behind in my blogging, caught up in life on outreach. All the outreach teams that left in March have come back and we are together again in Norway. It is good to be back and see the people who have become so dear to me all in one home. Outreach with just 8 people was also fabulous and filled with God's gracious presence. Each team shared today (One team was in New York, the other in Central Asia) and it was an encouragement to hear all that God did through willing people. There is so much I could write about, but I'll just give some highlights from outreach to ya'll and hopefully have good talks when I get back home! :o)

So, this first photo is me taking in Budapest. It was so cold that day-we had a hard time appreciating the city as we took a tour with our contact person-but we still saw it's beauty in the old buildings. The people of Budapest weren't as friendly as they had been in Prague, but we constantly had to remember these people had been under hard communism not that long ago and the effects still lingered. There was a general lack of hope and the "no talking" rule on the buses seemed to reflect the silent sadness people had there. The good part is though, God gives us His view of things and He sees Budapest as a place for His glory to dwell. He sees the beauty and life in people, and when we prayed and stepped out in faith-we did too. We did a lot of street evangelism in Budapest, where we created a "program" with drama, testimonies, telling the gospel, worship, prophetic singing over people and prophetic acting for people. This was some of my favorite ministry that we did. I loved seeing my friends and teammates step out in boldness and proclaim truth when they told a personal testimony or shared the gospel. Once we acted out the gospel as Semira told it-that was pretty neat. Simple and effective. Another time we choreographed a little drama piece showing some walking around in chaos and then Adaja and I came in as peaceful dancers, bringing calm. We also performed a mime about God redeeming the past that JoEllen and I had choreographed off of Jo's idea from part of her testimony.
               I realized after Budapest that I never actually gave an official testimony or gave the gospel. But the funny and wonderful thing is, I had chances to speak out wherever I was. I got to thrive in what was natural for me-facilitating a group of Jesus-lovers and leading them into what was next. I did speak out to the people in street evangelism when I felt like I should tie up loose ends, or the Holy Spirit was giving me something to speak. It just came. It was naturally me, moving and stepping up. It was awesome. I learned from this that though, as a Christian, I can do every kind of ministry, it is true God wants us to work in our strengths. I found so much joy in leading and helping others step out. I felt closer to God in my friendship with Him when I was in these roles of leadership and encouragement. One day in particular I was struck with such joy as I looked about the metro and saw my friends moving in their strengths. David was playing the guitar, Camille, Adaja and Lyndsay were drawing pictures inspired by God for people, JoEllen was playing the drums like a beast, and Leif and Semira were ready and willing to talk to whoever came up. I stood there so proud to be friends with these Jesus lovers. We worked as individuals loved by God, coming together under His banner of love to make a family that spread joy. Amen!
             Singing, dancing, acting! Our team was blessed to be able to use our creativity and the prophetic to bless people all along the way in Budapest. One time I danced in the metro to the song "Pure Bride" by Leeland. I was nervous beforehand, but I  knew God was going to bless people and I would let go and let God and just worship Him. Still, I'm human and I had some butterflies. I started dancing and immediately we had people's attention. I could feel the people gathering around me and could see them in blurs as I danced around-but my focus stayed on Jesus and the message I was there to bring. In a way then, I was thinking about the people, but my heart wasn't so concerned with how I looked to them, my heart was impacted by their spirits so in need of Jesus and this message of beauty in purity and hope. So-I twirled and swayed and jumped in that metro. At the end there were cheers and claps and one guy had tears in his eyes and came up and shook my hand. Man, God is good. I was told later by one of the leaders on our team, Leif, who is Norwegian that there was a Norwegian couple that he was talking to who were not Christian. They were listening an talking to him and then I started to dance. They were  totally drawn in by the dance and just stared "in awe." After it was done they told Leif how beautiful it was and how it touched them. The funny thing is, I remember smiling and waving goodbye to them, but I didn't know their hearts had been that impacted. God is good.
           God blessed me so much in Budapest by leading me to sing over people words inspired by His Spirit. Sometimes I sang with Leif from our group, and sometimes alone. JoEllen would play the drums and David played the guitar as accompaniment. It was awesome to be guided by the Holy Spirit and be a team, creating a beautiful song that spoke into someone's life. It was neat to see how people stopped and were eager to see and hear what was going on when we did this. There was one time I had sung over a couple people and there was a guy in the crowd who was so eager to be sung too, but I had missed seeing him. David leaned over to me and said, "Beth there's a guy who really wants you to sing over him, he thought you were going to and got really happy and then you started singing for someone else and he looked so disappointed " I wasn't about to let this opportunity pass by so the  next person I sang for was this gentlemen. He had this huge smile when I asked him his name and as I began singing. I was in awe as this man stood in the middle of a metro station, eyes glued to us, taking in every bit of this Jesus love song sung over him. Another time I experienced singing and dancing with a woman named Elizabeth who happened to be a prostitute. As I held her hand in my and the microphone in the other I looked into her eyes and saw the hunger she had. She gazed so intently into my eyes and never lost eye contact the whole time I sang. My heart was moved with compassion and I knew here was where she could see Jesus-in the eyes of someone just willing to hold and sing and look deeply into her.
            There are many more what I call, "Shabba" (a word that has come to mean "yeah, I'm with you-Amen-encouragement") moments in Budapest. It was my favorite place we ministered in. We saw a lot of fruit and I got to pray with a man to receive Jesus into his life! Another big ministry we did there was "sandwhich runs" where we handed out sandwiches to homeless people and just spent time listening and talking with them. I met so many beloved people, like John the blind homeless man who sang in the metro for money or Chandor who after we talked and prayed with him the next day saved all his begging money and went and bought a Bible. So many specifics-God is specific and He had specific encounters for all of us. My team worked beautiful together in Budapest and I known much of that is because of all the prayers we received. Shabba! We left Budapest happy and ready for Romania.... (and that adventure will be in the next post!)

Pictures: (click on pics to make larger)

.Terry, our friend from England, joined us one day on the banjo!

. Zoo trip with JoEllen and David (We saw baby goats and a baby elephant!)

. Coffee House started by YWAM Budapest where we invited people we met on the streets to come to, to encourage further friendship and speak into their lives. 

.We got to go to the famous Opera house in Budapest and actually see a Wagner Opera!

. Budapest is beautiful at night-great lighting

.Street evangelism in metro-notice JoEllen playing a bucket-she forgot the drum that day. At the end of the day the bucket had a hole in it. ;o)