Romania

C.S. Lewis says we are all "far too easily pleased". I have been satisfied by a picnic outside at the Baileyana vineyards, but another person might need to reach the heights of half dome, and on the eighth floor of a building where the smell of boiled cabbage lurks slowly up and down the staircases, a lilting, scarfed woman is satisfied with a bottle of oil, some pasta and a short prayer from a stranger speaking a different language.

In this world of news, I've found nothing new, I've found nothing pure,
Maybe I'm just idealistic to assume the truth could be fact and form,
that love could be a verb,
maybe I'm just a little misinformed.

After Romania's Socialist leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, was executed in 1989, Romania set on the path to restoration. We saw droves of humanitarians go to show love to orphans who were born into desperation, and now years later, many those orphans are grown up and thriving in different ways. One man said that, as one who grew up in a boys' home, he became so familiar with sadness that he can recognize it the eyes of strangers, even when they smile.

Let your love be strong, and I don't care what goes down
Let your love be strong enough to weather through the thunder clouds
Fury and thunder clap like stealing the fire from your eyes
All of my world hanging on your love.

Ken and Florence Holmes have been working to sustain people in Oradea, Romania for over ten years. At 80 years of age, Ken, with his wife Florence, work to pastor a small church, manage a kindergarten, and run a monthly food distribution foundation called, "Project Simon", which delivers food to over 400 families each month. While the stress of their endeavors clearly creeps into the kitchen and living room of their lives, they manage to beat it out with constant, constant, prayer and a conqueror's attitude toward the poverty and paranoia left over from a deranged, socialist regime. They trust in God, the perfect father, to provide the money, the time, the energy and the ability to do what they do.

Let the wars begin, let my strength wear thin
Let my fingers crack, let my world fall apart
train the monkeys on my back to fight
Let it start tonight, when my world explodes
when my stars touch the ground, falling down like broken satellites.

And so I went to help move cases of rice from the truck to the storage room, from the cases to grocery bags, then to move the grocery bags from the storage room to the mini-bus, and then up the stairs to the door of some old woman who would kiss my cheeks. I went to clean the top of Florence's refrigerator, and to play speed scrabble outside in 70-degree weather ("the heat" say the Northern Irish people), and to hear stories about growing up in England after the war. I went to be challenged on baptism in the holy spirit and to have my faith reflected back at me by strangers. I went for a very short time, and I hope it was worth it.

Let your love be strong.
All that I am hanging on your love.
All of my world resting on your love.

(words: "Let Your Love Be Strong" by Switchfoot; the sequel also, "Your Love is Strong")