A High Kirk Team recently headed off on a mission trip to Romania with Exodus. The team consisted of seven young people and three leaders from the Ballymena church.
On their return, they compiled the following article for The Church Page explaining what they got up to.
“When we arrived in Romania we headed straight to Sutor, where we met some of the other teams that would be serving in other villages.
Our first full day there we started off with some training that would prepare us for going out to serve in the different villages. We learnt about different ways to take kids clubs, and some ideas for what we could do each day. Then we also learnt about house visits and how to prepare for that. After the training was completed we took part in a bush camp, where the people leading it were trying to show us how much freedom we have, and how much injustice there is in different parts of the world. During that time, we took part in different challenges and activities that challenged to think of the freedom that we have, the freedom to know and love Jesus and helped us realise how that’s not the case in many places around the world.
The main point that stuck with us was that we all take that freedom for granted, and how we all need to use that freedom better, to serve and love God.
After we finished bush camp, we began preparing to leave to go to the village of Tămășeu. The village is close to the border of Romania and Hungary, with all the people there speaking Hungarian as their first language. As we arrived, the first thing we realised was how God was blessing this village and how God was bringing the people together for Him. We met the Pastor Lazslo, who is one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. He helped us fit in right away, and showed us how around the church halls and where we would be staying. Many of the times we spent eating with Lazslo were filled with a lot of laughter, love and fun as we learnt more about each other’s culture.
From the first moment, we arrived in the village, we realised that even though we were there to serve them, the people from that village also wanted to serve us and show God’s love back to us. It challenged us, seeing the generosity they showed even though they didn’t have much too give. Over the course of our time there, we enjoyed being able to get to know the parents, children and young people there. Each day the focus was on building relationships with the people there and sharing God’s love through serving at the kid’s club, English classes, painting fences and visiting families. Each day presented different challenges and thoughts that showed us a little bit more of God’s character and God’s love for the people of Tămășeu.
But before serving each day, we started off by spending some time with God in prayer and devotions. During devotional time, we had the opportunity to read a new devotional called Time Out: John or other devotionals. It was great to be reminded about Jesus’s heart for people through the book of John. We also found it amazing giving the day over to God before going out and serving as it helped us to see where God was working and how he was answering our prayers.”
As well as being involved in lots of other activities the High Kirk Team helped with a Kids Club.
“At Kids Club each day there was 50 children from the village and the local area, where we taught them some songs that we would sing, hear some stories from the bible, played some games, did a memory verse, a quiz and learnt some songs in their language. At English classes, we had the amazing challenge where we expecting 15 but ended up with 40 each day. As we served we were reminded that God never gives us more than we can handle. At night time, we had the opportunity to meet up with the young people and get to know them. Each night there was a lot of laughter and fun as we played different games and learnt more about each other. The last couple of nights we had a bonfire. Here we used Google Translate to break the language barrier and build friendships.
On the Sunday, we had the opportunity to take part in the worship at the church. It was an amazing experience seeing how different cultures worship. Then after church there was a family day where everyone had lunch together and played games with the children. It was great to see everyone that went to church that day walking over across the road to have lunch together.
We have been really blessed to play a part in God’s amazing plan in Romania. We all enjoyed getting to meet everyone there, and the connections we built made it really difficult to leave. But we have come away with a greater understanding of God’s heart and His love for people.”
You can find out more about what’s on at High Kirk Ballymena on their website.