Change IS Purposeful

It has been a while since I wrote the last blog. Most of this is because of MCR's very productive schedule! We have been up to a lot and so has God as he's been moving in us and through us! We even had the privilege of getting to do ministry with XMC this past week!

In Romania, the month of March is Women's Month. In the first week all sorts of flower shops and stands open their doors as men of all different ages buy flowers, bracelets, candy, etc. to honor the women in their life. So at the beginning of the month MCR hosted an event for Women called, "Chocolate For The Soul."

Like all of our events, it was evangelical in nature and we were successful with forty attendees! At this even I was personally responsible to come up with some entertainment for the evening. So I joined up with Autumn Marcell and we choreographed a seven minuet dance! The dance was a compilation of some of the most well known songs for women in Romania. We even had the MCR guys do "Single Ladies" by Beyonce! The event went smooth and we had a great ministry return for our work.

While we were doing all of this prep for the week we were also preparing for our tour. With recordings, prop building, and rehearsals we made gradual steps closer to MCR's 2012 tour, "My Story".

Immediately after this our family from the other side of the sea, XMC, joined us in ministry! A few days later we all left for Italy, Rome, for Master's Commission Europe Conference! It was a very powerful time for our students!

If you've never been in Master's Commission before, imagine this: everyone you know thinks you're crazy. You have decided to dedicate yourself for nine months to the ministry God has called you to and everyone thinks you're crazy. When everyone else is going in and out of relationships you have decided to work on one relationship alone: the relationship between you and your creator. You're in a constant state of change and yet on the mission field, a place where it is easy to get fatigued. Oh, and while all of this everyone thinks you're crazy. Now I want to make this disclaimer and say that we have amazing support from our church, families of our students, and many others. However, every friend and maybe even ex-significant others, thinks that you have gone insane. Then imagine you go to a conference with people who are experiencing the same things. It was a great refresher for us.

Let me also say this, though our program is very young, we lacked nothing at that Conference. And in so many ways our students got to encourage, uplift and bring honor to both our program and so many others! Our students even evangelized to the people on the streets of Italy without prompting.

Along with all of this our program was recognized and publicly became affiliated with MCEurope in a ceremony on the last night of the conference. Our program made a mark on Italy in more ways than one. However, we are also thankful for XMC for helping us do this.

As soon as we got back we hit the ground running. From food drives to micro kids everything we did was big and powerful. Many people young and old gave their hearts to Christ! In one night, our students led three taxi drivers to Christ and one of the taxi drivers said  that he was going to go home and lead his wife and kids to Christ!

We also ministered in the Girl's Home. This was the first time I have personally been there since my first year. Let me just say that the home has come a long way since our MCR girls have been ministering there. One really powerful moment that we had at that house came from a song written by an XMC first year, Tray. The song was his testimony, and the theme was: Now that all of this has happened to us...where do we go from here? This theme touched the girl's hearts and they began to weep with tears of healing.

On one of the last nights XMC was here in Romania, I met a guy. For the sake of his privacy I'll leave his name unsaid. I had met this guy on my way to a restaurant. After talking with him I felt the need to have him come eat with us. It was only ten minuets into our seating that he was poured into by Me, David, Oana, and a XMC student named Konnor. Ten minuets later we laid hands on him in prayer and he began to ask God to come in his heart and change him. Later that night I met another young guy and felt the need to invite him to our building. Oana lead him to Christ there and now she and I will be walking him through a program in our church that explains the basics of Christianity!

The world isn't changed by accident. Change is purposeful and sought after. Change comes one person at a time. Change takes time. Change is necessary. And i would like to extend my thanks to Crossroads Master's Commission for all of the change they helped us bring these past two weeks. We became so close that we gave our partnership a name: XMCR. 

These past two weeks we truly did a lot together! Romania will never be the same! Thanks for all of you prayers. 

There are so many more stories i could tell you, but I'll leave with this: Live with hell at your back and heaven in your face. Pursue the ultimate goal: the Father's side...and live out change. This world needs it!