A Hartland college student and his Romanian friends win the trust of skeptical villagers.
“What is happening here!” the teacher demanded. “If you don’t leave now, I will call the police!” I had suspected something like this might happen, but we had already promised to do the Vacation Bible School. We couldn’t stop now.
Last summer, I organized a group of youth from my church in Romania to do mission work in a small village. The church was dying, and my friends and I wanted to do something worthwhile during our summer vacation. Following the pastor’s advice, we planned a two-part program: Vacation Bible School for one week, followed by a health expo the next week. “This is great!” the pastor enthused. “It’s unusual to see young people organizing everything themselves. I wish more young people would come and do what you are doing.”
The principal of the local elementary school gave us permission to use the school for our children’s meetings. It seemed the perfect neutral meeting place! However, on the second day a teacher and a priest from the village burst through the door, shouting threats and angry words. They thought we were trying to hide something, but the principal had simply forgotten to tell them we were coming.
The teacher soon calmed down and left, but the priest stayed to see what we were doing. After watching the children sing enthusiastically about Creation, he asked them, “I see that you like to sing. What if we have a meeting tonight at the Orthodox church in the village at 4:00? Will you come?” But the children chorused, “No!”
The next day, the children were waiting for us outside the school. The door was padlocked. “Are we still going to have our meeting?” they clamored. We found an open field, and continued meeting there for the rest of the week. Although it was very rainy that season, the Lord always stopped the rain just before our meetings.
At the beginning, the villagers were very skeptical. We learned later that the priests were threatening not to baptize their children or perform their weddings if they attended our meetings. In spite of this, we had a steady attendance at both the children’s meetings and the health expo.
The one Adventist in that village, a little old lady, kept us informed of the village talk. Several women told her, “It’s so nice the way those young college students talk to us. We can see that they’re different. Even though they’re educated, they don’t look down on us.”
Others thanked us personally, saying, “We’ve never had anybody come to our village and do something for us without having any other interest. But we see that you really care. Thank you.”
By God’s grace, walls have been broken down in that village. After I graduate, I want to go back and start a ministry there, continuing what we started. In the meantime, I pray that God will continue to break down barriers in the people’s minds and prepare the way for His truth.
