Thanks to the incredibly random man that saved all the pictures I deleted from my memory card.
God is awesome.
We stayed in Budapest two nights. I mean... really. I have never felt so drawn to place.
If Europe and the Middle East had a baby, it would look just like Budapest. I was so intrigued
by everything about the Hungarian culture and I really don't think thats the last time I'll be there.
SO then we drove a million hours through rain and fog to get to Medias, Romania.
The staff at the YWAM base there are so amazing. Walking in that place I suddenly felt like I was in the middle of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which is really just a great feeling. Romanians are so crazy and I loved every second I got to spend with them.
Being a missionary in that place would be incredibly difficult. Romania has pain and poverty everywhere you look and you can physically feel it driving through the country. Even all the weird Dracula history has had a visible effect on the country and there are a lot of demonic strongholds there.
There is a lot of racism against gypsy people, a lot of orphans begging on the streets, and ridiculous amounts of prostitution... Parents even encouraging their daughters to go into it because of the money. Its really insane.
We spent a lot of time just praying with them and for their country, we led worship for the base in the mornings and I think it really encouraged them. They really need people to go to Romania and live there long term, to be on staff, to help them, to just be a light there. It was so cool to hear the stories of the YWAM staff in Romania, many of them were orphans on street, little gypsy kids, they have incredible stories of finding God and how they are now living to help the kids that are like they were see Him too.
We walked around and had worship in a ghetto of a gypsy town and it was a really beautiful and hard moment.
Some of the gypsy kids in the neighborhood came up and held our hands as we walked through. The YWAM staff told us about the kids that come to the school they started, and how snack time there is the only time the kids get to eat some days. One guy had told us about the growth of prostitution and about the two men that had started it in that town, then showed us the house those men lived in, and we walked by one of them with one of the girls. Hearing about prostitution and how awful it is and how the girls are treated is one thing, but then walking by the girl, the man, seeing the house it happens in, that will never leave you.
One thing I wonder is how to tell people these things. I don't know how to help the people I've met other than to pray for them, to talk about them, to ask God to send more people to help them. I just feel a lot of responsibility to do something about what I've seen.
How do you show someone the terrible things of the world and then ask them to go there? Its hard, its pretty much impossible without God moving in them first.
I hope someday I will be able to have the right words to express the beauty that is in the most hopeless places, the glory of God that is in the eyes of a prostitute, and be able to tell their stories in a way that's worthy of them.
