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It was truly a blessing to have the opportunity to go
back to Apata, Romania. Last year I made friends
and it was great to see them again.
Afternoon of January 12th, 2012, the team meet
at the airport in Bucharest. The team consisted of
seven from Texas and four from Berlin, Germany.
We proceeded to Carrefour, a Walmart-type super
store where we divided up and picked out coats,
scarves, gloves, winter hats, etc. I counted twelve
overflowing shopping carts. We checked out,
boxed and loaded the items into our vans. We ate
and then started the drive over the mountains to
Apata. About 10:30pm we arrived at our hotel and
we were very worn out.
Jan. 13th we meet the Romanian team at the host
church, City on a Hill. After greeting each other we
had a time of worship. Then we brought in the
items we had bought at Carrefour, along with the
shoes and boots that had been bought earlier. My
wife, Zuzanna Low, organized the sorting and re-
boxing. Then we ate lunch at the church.
After lunch we left for the village of Ormenis. We
divided up into teams of four or five and we begin
going house to house sharing Jesus. This day was
dedicated solely to sharing Jesus. My team was
made up of Zuza (Susie), Katie Jeanes, Pastor
Eduard (Romanian), Donny (Romanian) and I. We
prayed with ten people to accept Jesus. These
people welcome you into their homes with no
questions asked. (This type of evangelism would
be really hard in America) It is amazing how humble
and hospitable these people are. The team I led
visited five homes. One of the homes that really
touched me was where a middle aged couple lived.
They could not afford electricity in their small
home. Their son, daughter, son-in-law and their
small child were present. The family was real
sorrowful because their son/brother had just been
sentenced to three years in prison. The mother
was emotionally overcome by grief so we prayed
with her and for her imprisoned son. We then
presented Jesus and ask if they would like to
receive Him into their hearts. The mother and her
daughter accepted Jesus. The sad part was that
the men would not accept the Lord. To see
someone reject the Lord like that was emotional to
me.
Jan. 14, Saturday we went back to Ormenis to
distribute the items we brought. This was a
massive operation where we again went house to
house in the same area we had evangelized the
day before. It was amazing to see the emotional
response as these needy people received new
coats, scarves, gloves, blankets, hats and shoes.
Oh, yes, we also had some stuffed animals that my
job had donated. With it snowing and the
temperatures being below freezing, these items
resulted in warmth for body and soul.
Sunday we ministered in the host church in Apata.
In Romania, this is a large church for a village.
Actually people are also bussed in and come on
the train from other villages for the Sunday
morning service. It was about a 3 to 4 hour service.
The worship was great and our key speaker and
team mate, Gary Billups gave an encouraging word.
Sunday afternoon we left Apata.
In the afternoon we left apata and drove to Brasov,
Romania ( A historic city on the edge of
Transylvania) were we spent a short time site-
seeing and shopping. Then we drove on the our
hotel in Bucharest.
The team flew out from Romania on Monday
morning. We may never fully know how much
Romanian lives were changed but we do know how
our lives were changed. Although I was on the
team that went last year, this year I think I received
a deeper understanding of the spiritual and
physical needs of the country. I look forward to
praying for Romania as a more informed Christian.
There was a blessing for Susie. On the way back
she stopped in Serbia to spend four days with her
family there. She was able to be there on her
mother’s ninth (90) birthday.
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