Have you seen God work in your life? Our recent PIEI short-term mission trip (STMT) to Romania was a critical lesson in how God’s plans are much bigger and better than ours. God’s amazing lesson started when we were notified our flights had been canceled to Romania. At first, we thought that maybe we weren’t supposed to go to Romania. That would have been a good assumption, right? However, we also knew the local missionaries had started a work that depended upon our assistance. We were to replace the tin on the roof of the new PIEI Missions Center, located in the Southern part of Romania (Podari – near Craiova) and it had just been removed the day we were notified of our flight cancelation.
With the firm belief our team was to travel to Romania, we searched for alternatives; however, none seemed available. Finally, one of our team members called the number of a travel agent they had not spoken to for over ten years. Not only did he answer the phone (still working for the same company), he was able to secure ‘lower priced’ tickets a few days later for the team’s travel!
Upon arrival, we discovered the local workers had removed almost the entire roof, not just the tile covering as was planned. No one had any thought this project could now be completed. There was just not enough time; however, the team got to work. Within a day, we were working alongside the Romanians; however, we still did not see how we could complete the work before we had to depart. By the third day, we were working together, communicating (interesting hand signals at one point), laughing, sharing stories, sharing meals, and more importantly, individual testimonies and prayer time. We started with not knowing how we could work together with a group of men who had a different language, methods of construction, outdated tools, and a project larger than we could imagine. We finished as one complete team, giving our Lord the credit, praise, and honor, He deserves. Not only are both teams willing to work together in the future; they would WORK to work together.
Our Lord worked many more miracles during this trip, and I know every participant would say over and over, “You should have seen…! It was amazing.” However, in my humble opinion, our Lord’s largest miracle was changing our hearts! We were blessed to be able to watch Him work through our efforts and create something impossible (in our minds). Rest assured; we do not deserve any credit! Our Lord receives all the credit!! We serve a Risen Lord and can do all things through Christ!!! Have you seen God work in your life? He is always working in your life; we are the ones that must LOOK for HIM. One way to see HIM work is to join us on a short-term mission trip. May these words serve as your invitation…
PIEI Missions Director - Romania/Ukraine
