Romania Team – Update #7
Day #4 of camp!
Thursday was an amazing day here at the camp. The war with weariness was beginning to be felt on a spiritual level by both the Romanian leaders and our team, and there was some fear the kids would not respond to the final gospel message given that night, even after seeing so many responding on Wednesday night. But God came through exactly as He intended to.
We started the day with a very droopy-eyed leaders meeting (none of us have been sleeping enough) and Isabelle shared a devotional on Acts 28:1-16, and encouraged us all by telling us how we had encouraged her, reminding us how important it is to appreciate each other. We were the most tired we had ever been when we did the camp dance (we have been doing the camp dance every morning with the students, and usually we had more energy for it) and after breakfast we had our last English classes to teach. The Advanced teaching team reported an excellent final class, and the Intermediate and Beginner classes also felt very good about their last class. For once we did not have to plan a million things during the students’ workshops and free time, so some of us tried to get naps. I was a part of the sports activity team for that afternoon, but I was very tired from teaching the last Beginner class and so Dane and Christian took over prep for that. They had the students play several different ball games and the Romanian competitive spirit came into play, so we went a bit long before dinner and yes, there were a few injuries. But Dane and Christian did a great job dealing with a tough situation, and a lot of the kids had a great time playing despite the ferocity of the games.
After dinner it was time for the final meeting in the tent (at least the last meeting with a long message). People were jumping and clapping for the worship, and some of the kids still seemed energized from their response to the gospel the other night, but many more seemed to be keeping their heads down. Cristian spoke again, explaining to the students what it meant to say that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Many students began to respond, raising their hands to ask for someone to pray with them – including a student we had all talked to and were praying for after he had kept his head down during the message the night before; we were so happy to see that. The Romanian leaders had prepared a “Labyrinth” for the kids to walk through: a series of stations set up to help the kids understand their need for a Savior and which ended with a station where they could choose to go up to the prayer room and pray with one of the leaders, or ask more questions, or say it wasn’t for them. I was not in the prayer room; 5 of us went to pray for the team separately because there was not enough room and we wanted the students to have enough space (and it was actually a very lovely time of prayer for our teammembers in the prayer room and the students). But from one of our teammembers who WAS in the prayer room, here is a personal story from Riley:
At first she really did not think she was being called to be in the prayer room, but when Kimberly said they needed another woman from the Americans to pray with the kids she decided to take a step of faith. Although she was nervous about how she would be able to pray with these strangers who did not speak the same language as her, she prayed for the courage to reach out to them, and with God’s help she was able to pray with several of the girls. Actually, it was one of the most closed off girls who spoke absolutely no English that Riley remembers the most. This girl came to Riley and Riley asked her if she wanted prayer, but the girl didn’t know what she said. Riley started praying, and as soon as she said the name “Jesus” the girl broke down in tears and kept crying throughout their prayer. Riley tried to ask her how she felt afterward, but again the girl did not understand. Still, Riley knew this girl had been deeply affected, and Riley herself had been deeply affected. She realized that her words truly did not matter, that not a single one of her words were even understood by this girl, except the name “Jesus”: the only word that matters.
Most of us got to bed very late, but it was very worth it.
Please pray for the kids as they go home Saturday afternoon. Please pray for our energy as we have one more morning at camp to serve these kids. And praise God for what He’s done here!