In March, we opened up our 2nd Micro Kids site in a small gypsy village about five min. from where we live. I am happy to say that it has been very successful! Every week we do worship, a Bible lesson, puppets, drama, etc. Needless to say, these kids are always ecstatic! Most importantly, however, they get to hear God’s word!
In this village, not one person can read, making it hard to know God’s Word or find a job. The whole village lives in a state of poverty, barely able to feed themselves. When we did a food drive to the town, they lost their minds. No one had done this for them before. Being both gypsy and in poverty, their society looks down on them, few willing to reach out and help them. This is how we have decided to be the light of Christ to them, by helping them with their most basic needs…needs that they are unable to meet.
Last Saturday we did a shoe drive for the kids of this gypsy village, called “Beautiful Feet”. Our director of the Master’s Commission program, Florin Cucu, was the first one to notice this need. I became aware of it at a Micro Kids.
One Saturday, as we began to play games with the kids, I stepped on a broken chunk of glass. It was at that moment that I began to look around where I was standing…and as far as I could see, broken glass littered the ground. My heart just about stopped every time I watched a kid step on a chunk of glass…yet, they still played on. One little boy had a gash on his foot, which had become black from the dirt shoved in it. Many of these children walked around like this during the snowy winter…barefoot on ice.
Jesus says in Matthew 25:40 (New International Version, ©2011) “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ We wanted to be the hands and feet of Christ, reaching out to the least of these. And so, we put shoes on these kids!
Now, once again imagine this: You are an uneducated gypsy, living in Romania. All your life, and all your parent’s life, not one person was willing to help you. You’ve been told, “You’re a gypsy. No one will help you. If you want to live you have to steal. You steal, or you go naked. You steal, or you go hungry. You steal, or you die.” And, the biggest denomination in Romania does virtually nothing to help you.
Now, imagine this: Someone comes claiming, in the name of Christ, that they have a free gift for you. A gift you cannot buy. A gift…something entirely different…a gift…something you didn’t have to steal…Imagine how radicle this is to the ears. The village wasn’t really sure how to handle this.
The shoe drive went well. However, towards the end, their inability to believe that the gift was free took over. To insure that every kid got a pair, we had to surround our bag of shoes from hands trying to steal a free gift. I remember at one time having to hold back two young men from the village, one in each arm. They kept saying to me in Romanian, “What are you doing?! Come on man!?” trying to break through my arms. Knowing that what they were doing was a survival instinct that had been taught as a virtue to them since birth, all I could say, with a heavy heart, was, “I’m sorry brother ‘Imi pare rau frate’.”
You know, this really got me thinking. Christ’s gift of salvation is free. He’s standing there handing it out…and yet, because of the way our culture has raised us, we try stealing the gift through our good works. All our life we’ve been taught that the good go to heaven, and the bad to hell. When the truth is, we all need the gift before us. We can call the mud on our feet shoes, but we all are barefoot. However, if we just submit ourselves to God’s way, we wouldn’t find ourselves being held back from the gift that is being freely given.
There were still some kids who did not receive shoes that day because of size conversions, so we will be doing this again. However, this shoe drive, a display of selfless love, did affect the people. In a good way, of course. And this selfless act, though it may seam confusing to them at first, I believe will change them!
Please pray for safety and for the regeneration process at work in their hearts. You can really see the change that has taken place in the village because of God’s Spirit and the ministry we’ve done there. As a team, we all really have heart for that place and want to see these people come to know more of God, and be everything he created them to be.
Please pray for safety and for the regeneration process at work in their hearts. You can really see the change that has taken place in the village because of God’s Spirit and the ministry we’ve done there. As a team, we all really have heart for that place and want to see these people come to know more of God, and be everything he created them to be.
Also keep our Youth Camp, coming up later this week, in your prayers. We’ll be having youth from all over Romania come and we want to see God’s will done. Our mission, as usual, is twofold: Compel Christians to change their community, and to bring others into the saving way of Jesus Christ.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. Your partnership’s evidence is found in the countless needs that have been met, and the many who have heard the message of Jesus Christ. God bless.
