Internationalmatt's Blog

My Favorite Christmas- Romania 2005

When people think of Christmas, we usually think of time with family, Christmas Eve Services, Holiday gatherings with friends, and shopping. As I reflect back on Christmas, the Christmas that stands out as my favorite was when I went to Romania to serve others one Christmas.

In December 2005 I went to Constanta Romania at Christmas time. My home church has partnered with a church in Constanta for several years. Their pastor and his family were in South Africa studying in a seminary, so my church sent me to Constanta to help them with their Christmas services. The trip started out a bit rough because of snow in Lincoln and Minneapolis that caused my flights to be delayed and I arrived in Romania without my luggage. The rest of the trip was wonderful.

the children practicing for their Christmas program

Once I was in Constanta, my first activity was to help with the Christmas Eve program of the children. It was a blessing to help out. I was also able to give the children some Christmas candy. Their performance was wonderful. While I was at their practice, some college students invited me to a meeting at a Baptist church. I went with them. The meeting was for all college students who wanted to come. There were students from the Baptist church, Orthodox church and Evangelical church at the meeting. On thing that was funny was that because my luggage did not arrive until the next day, I was wearing a sweatshirt with NU on it which is for Nebraska University. Nu is no in Romanian. At the meeting they asked me if I would speak, so the first thing I did was explain that my shirt did not say no.

I also preached their Christmas eve and Christmas day services. After the Christmas day service I was invited for lunch at the house of some members. We ate Sarmale and a lot of other good food. I stayed until January 1st then went to Bucharest to met with a few Chinese students at Bucharest Christian Academy. The highlight of the trip for me was spending time with the children who come from poor families to share God’s love with them and to be able to give them some holiday treats.

December 24, 2010 - Posted by internationalmatt | children, Christmas, Holidays, Romania, Travel experiences