I was in Romania for a month and part of ministry was to evangelize and make friends. When I think about making friends, it takes time. I don’t want to force friendships to be made or force Jesus on people because I’m on a time crunch. Sometimes I doubted being able to make friends in such a short amount of time, but I didn’t limit God to my worldly perspective. In the end, God surpassed my doubt and gave me a greater understanding than my own.
One day a few of us were evangelizing in the center area and after we handed out the bags of items to people we went to a park to play basketball. Going to play sports at the parks was one way that we could start making connections with people. I knew there was a group of my squadmates at the park playing and or watching basketball. I was mainly going to watch because I’m not good at basketball. When we got to the park, I walked up to some of my friends that were talking to new people. We found out that these two girls in their early 20s are also Christians. Next thing I know, we were getting to know each other, talking about life and they were teaching us words in Romanian and the places we should visit. We made sure to tell them about the church and hope to see them on Sundays.
Fast forward to Sunday, I am at church and one of the girls is there! After service we were talking and time went by and we both decided to go to Starbucks to keep talking. We talk about life, family, our interests and ironically we had a lot in common. A couple hours go by and she has to go home, but it made me so happy to make a connection with her. She said that she loved Hope Church and would be coming back on Sundays.
Throughout my time in Romania we would talk on social media or at church on Sundays. God showed me that friendships can blossom into something beautiful in just a short amount of time. I’m grateful for this connection where we get to keep in touch even though I’m not in Romania anymore. I’m grateful that they can still attend Hope Church and continue to make frindships with people there. I’m grateful that God used me to continue to be a light to people in Romania and will forever cherish these friendships.
