Romania Recap, Part 2: Testimony

One day in Romania we had a day of prison ministry. Another local church is involved with a ministry called Beyond Bars where they go into the women’s prison and run a program for the young women to be able to get out once in a while and get involved with churches in the area. They brought the girls to Hope Church and asked us to perform some Christmas carols and then the 6 prisoners, all dressed in beautiful traditional Romanian clothes, preformed carols for us as well.

Before we’d started the event our ministry hosts asked us all to take a few moments to pray and choose 4 people to talk with the women. All of us World Racers prayed and came to the same conclusion that myself and 3 others were meant to talk with them and build relationships, which confirmed what God privately asked me to do. So the 4 of us prayed that God would soften their hearts to receiving Him and that God would give us His words to speak to them and that they’d have ears to hear from Him!

The rest of the squad was interceding in the other room during the time we got to interact with them and I sat down next to a girl, Amy (I’ve changed her name in this blog to protect her privacy) and we instantly hit it off! Even with my long sleeves she somehow noticed the scars on my arms and she asked about them pretty quickly. We bonded over the common ground of having struggled with self harm and she ended up telling me her story of how she arrived in prison.

She’s been there for 5 years so far with 3 more years to go for murder charges and she’s only 19. She was kidnapped when she was 14 and experienced significant trauma and ended up killing one of the men who was abusing her in self defense, though she was still found guilty and sent to prison. Amy said she recognized God protecting her that night and she’s grateful but didn’t believe there was any way God could heal her heart or possibly forgive her for what she did. (Like most people in the area she grew up in a Romanian Orthodox home that’s very religious but doesn’t actually know Jesus or have a relationship with God.)

So I shared a bit of my testimony of God healing my heart from abuse and setting me free from the spiritual bondage that correlated and that Jesus came for her, to heal her and set her free too!! And we talked about forgiveness for a long time as well, another girl from my team sharing about Jesus forgiving the man hanging next to Him on the cross knowing full well all that he had done, yet wiping his slate clean.

Then our translator talked with her in Romanian for a while and did a demonstration of Jesus’s free gift of salvation with a McDonald's burger and a cup of coffee and then Amy exclaimed “da!” (Which means “yes!” in Romanian.) She said she wanted to receive God’s forgiveness and healing and she gave her life to Christ right then and there!!

This was such a beautiful day of ministry and being a part of what God had already started in Amy's life. After this I rejoiced and cried with my new sister in Christ, and we laughed and we hugged like we'd known each other for years. It's crazy to me to think that something as simple as a few scars on my arms, the visible parts of my testimony, were what God used to invite someone into His kingdom.

Prayer requests:

• The Race is hard and I’ve been battling for a sound mind against depression. Pray for continued strength to stand firm in the victory.

• Good sleep has been inconsistent and lacking for about 2 months and it’s been making it difficult to function and operate in daily activities, let alone in connecting with and ministering to people. Please pray for God to sustain me and multiply my rest (and sleep!)

• Pray for God to continue providing for my personal finances.

• Pray for family struggles.