I was looking for something on my PC and ran across this testimony that I was asked to give on a i Emphasis Day at our Connection Service (Wednesday evening) at Prestonwood Baptist Church in 2004:
About five years ago I was sitting in this worship center reading the worship guide. There in the bottom right corner was one simple paragraph. It described an orientation meeting about a mission trip to
Eastern Romania. It was a church building mission trip. Hum, it just stayed with me all that day.About 15 minutes before that meeting began, we were sitting at home and I told my wife that I felt I need to be at a meeting at church. Tammy asked me what kind of meeting it was, and I told her about the church building trip to
Romania I had read about earlier in the service. I accomplished something that men consider a fine art – I took my wife by complete surprise. You have to understand that before this announcement, if she heard me talking about going overseas – that meant
Oklahoma. Well, I went to that first meeting. I did not know anybody at all in that room. But I knew that I had the skills they would need. You see, I have always been good with my hands. I was a good hammer and nails guy. The very first thing discussed at this meeting was that no physical structures would be built. No hammers and no nails were needed on this trip. This group was going to
Eastern Romania to help build up the body of believers; to grow churches, to share the story of Jesus door to door. That was not what I had in mind. I didn’t have the skills needed for this.Well you probably guessed that I stayed for that meeting and I went to
Romania and God used me. God changed me and He grew me. I wanted to be a tool used by the Lord. But at this point in my life I was a very dull tool. Yet, He still used this tool. I was completely out of my comfort zone. I didn’t speak the language. I wasn’t comfortable sharing my faith. I was working with two different pastors – one had been critically beaten for sharing the Gospel with a man; the other had been imprisoned for bringing Bibles into the country under communism. And I was here to help them?
Over the last four years I have returned each year to share the greatest story ever told. The story of the how God loved us so much that he sent His Son to die on the cross and pay a sin debt that we owed. You see the majority of the people in
Romania (about 97%) believe in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, but they have never accepted this free gift of salvation. They don’t know if they will go to heaven or not because it is based on being a good-enough person to them.
God has sharpened this tool over the years; made me more useful for His work. I am in my third year in seminary. But one of the most important lessons I learned in
Romania – there is nothing I can do to save anyone – nor am I expected to. You see God’s command is that we share the story. There are two reasons people are afraid to witness: Fear of failure and fear of rejection.
Romania taught me that faith is all about trusting God – so I can only fail by not going. And rejection – God said to Samuel it is not you they are rejecting – it is Me.The beautiful Christians of Eastern Romania taught me simplicity in that God is the most precious part of their life. He is truly their All-In-All. In the Gospel accounts of Mary washing the feet of Jesus, Mark adds one wonderful line to the story – “and Jesus said, ‘She did what she could.’”
