Reflections from Summer 2014, Part 1

By Alicia Jones

Five great teams from North Carolina came to Eastern Europe this summer to serve through the partnership between Baptists on Mission and Hungarian Baptist Aid (HBAid). The teams served Hungarians and Roma in Ukraine, Romania and Hungary through holding clinics, VBS, outreach events, and English Bible Camps. Over the next few posts we’d like to share the stories of what we saw God doing this summer.

Romania, August 2014Three team members with village children

The week was packed, but the team just never seemed to run out of energy! That describes the short-term mission team to Romania. They did VBS in two villages and at the main church. They hosted a concert, a Jesus film showing, men and women’s events, and a community bonfire. They shared the gospel through music, testimony, and preaching in seven villages and at the main church.

The highlight for me was the showing of the Jesus film on Saturday night. We started at 9 pm to make sure the sanctuary was dark enough to see the film. I really didn’t know what to expect. This was an idea the team brought; we had never shown the Jesus film.

It was nine o’clock and I was still struggling to get the projector set up. I was full of anxiety. Storm clouds were gathering, only a few people had taken their seats. The night before the power mysteriously went out in the church building, would it tonight? The cord I thought would power the projector was the wrong one. I started to pray silently.

I soon discovered that my laptop power cord fit the projector; I let out a sigh of relief. The sound was not clear, but we jiggled the cord a few times and it became audible. We were set. People kept trickling in. The storm was fast approaching. We opened the film viewing with prayer and started the movie. It took a few starts, but we finally got it going.

About ten or fifteen minutes into the film I took note of the room. It was packed! I don’t even know when and how so many children and adults slipped in. People in all the chairs, two or three children to a chair, people sitting in the window seals, and people on the floor. It was like the crowds surrounding Jesus in the film.

Dusk was gone and the storm clouds had made it pitch black. But the story of Jesus shone all the brighter on the sheet taped to the wall. It was dead quiet in the room. I never imagined the Jesus film would capture the attention of the people so intensely! They watched until nearly 11 pm without a word. The sound went out once, but no one moved a muscle. I jumped up and started trying things. I lifted silent prayers again. God answered, the sound just started up again. The message of Jesus was heard loudly and clearly by the Roma people that night in Romania!