Write Hard and Pray Harder!: Romanian Missions Trip!

A very dear friend of mine just returned from an AWESOME missions trip to Romania with her Grandpa! I asked her to share with us all about that trip, so here's the post from her. THANK YOU, JESSICA FOR WRITING THIS!!!!

Hello everyone!

This is Jessica Jeffery. Priscilla asked me to do a post about a recent missions trip I was on. It has been incredibly difficult to put the entire story into one blog post. :)

Every year, my Grandpa takes a trip to Romania to give some Bible classes to a church, and visit the places where he and my Grandma used to be missionaries. After many months of praying, God worked it out that I would go with him.

So it was settled, I was going to Romania on a missions trip with my Grandpa. My Grandma decided to make the trip too, as well as Doctor McNeilly, a friend of my Grandpa's. Doctor McNeilly would be helping teach the classes. Many Romanian Pastors attend the classes, as well as members of the church. Adam was also a member of our group. Adam is Romanian born, and plans on being a missionary in Romania.

One Romanian family over there have a ministry of teaching Bible classes to the children in the schools. From an early age this couple Zoli and Ema felt burdened for the children of their country. After they got married they established a non-profit mission name in order to go to the schools. Zoli and Ema now teach Bible lessons in many schools as well as doing crafts, and handing out food and clothing in occasion.

So the jobs Adam and I had on this trip would be to accompany Zoli and Ema to the schools and give a Bible lesson and do crafts for the kids. We also did some special music a few times at the church.

Teaching lessons to these kids was really great. Of course there was the little nerves of will they like me? How is my lesson going to go? What if I mess up? But, as soon as I walked into the first classroom and saw their shy smiling faces my heart just melted. You couldn't help but love them. I was wondering to myself, how did that happen? How could I just love them as soon as I saw them? And it occured to me that as soon as I decided to come, I knew I was coming for them. Choosing a lesson, praying over it, praying for the kids, that's when you choose to love them. So seeing them and getting to know them was amazing. There were still times where it was slightly awkward as we met each other, got past the shy hellos, stumbled over words during a lesson, or interrupted your translator. But, all in all, God really helped us get past ourselves, and focus on pleasing Him.

I was scared before going because I was afraid I wouldn't be good enough. Why me? What could I possibly do to make a difference? But, God was really working on me that I would just learn to trust him. To stop worrying about being good enough, to not worry about doing everything right for my church, but just focus on pleasing God.

Well, I thank God for an amazing trip! My Grandpa and Doctor McNeilly each gave hours of lessons daily. I was glad to play the piano for the people there. My Grandma was able to visit many of the people there, and be a blessing to all of us. Three mornings, Zoli and Ema took Adam and I out to the village schools to give lessons and crafts.

Everyone stepped away feeling like it was a very blessed trip. We thank God for the health, safety, ministry, and overall good memories, from this trip. We were able to spend a day and a half in Budapest Hungary as well. Zoli, Ema, and their son Brian, accompanied us. They were such a huge blessing to us!

I really don't know who encouraged who on this trip. We had gone to be a blessing to the people of Romania and yet, they were able to encourage us. I didn't know their language, I didn't know them, and yet they treated me as a daughter and sister.

I don't know why God wanted me to go, but, I'm glad He allowed it. I don't know if I'll ever go back, but I will always remember it.

There is nothing like meeting fellow believers in other countries! Seeing the differences in each of our lives and yet knowing that we all serve the same God is awesome.

So if I just want to encourage you all to trust God. I don't know what he has planned for all of us but I do know it's better than anything we can come up with. You don't have to go on a missions trip to serve God. He wants us to be pleasing Him everyday. In the normal stuff like doing the dishes or going to work. Are you easy to use? Is your attitude pleasing to God? These are the questions I've been asking myself and trying to work on. So what has he been teaching you?

I hope this post can be an encouragement to somebody! Thanks for taking the time to read it.

~Jess

Deuteronomy 12:18b And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou putest thine hands unto.

(Jessica also shared some pictures with us! I added the captions on my own, so I hope I get all the of them right, but if you have a question, feel free to ask in the comments!)