One of the most meaningful moments this week didn’t happen on a stage or during a program—it happened around a dinner table.
We were sitting in the home of a Ukrainian pastor and his family, sharing a simple, homecooked meal. As the conversation unfolded, they began sharing what it’s been like to leave everything behind because of the war and start over in a new country. There was both heaviness and hope in their story, but what stood out most was their faith and their desire to keep serving others, even in the middle of rebuilding their own lives.
This summer began for me with a familiar joy—welcoming a small team of university students to join our missions work Romania!
Just days ago, four young women from Azusa Pacific University arrived to serve alongside RTC this summer. I could see in their faces a desire to embrace new rhythms, a different culture, and unfamiliar places. I also saw in them a resolute trust in God to work through every detail.
I knew the date was coming, but I didn’t expect it to feel quite like this.
Without telling me, my wife reached out to people from different seasons of my life and asked them to write. I expected a few kind birthday notes. What I didn’t expect were these to be the kind of messages that make you slow down, read twice, and quietly thank God.
It was about five years ago that I made the trip to go and visit a team of pastors that I had met at one of our training seminars. It was at that training seminar that we found a special bond, and they had been so grateful for the scholarships provided to cover their housing and meals. They asked me to please come and visit them, and the next year we made that trip and our relationship has been growing and strengthening ever since.
We have been celebrating the great news of Ana’s engagement over the last several weeks. Her story of coming to House of Hope and how God has guided her steps from the very first day is amazing. I am personally excited that she fulfilled her dream to play basketball professionally, but not only that, because of her talent and perseverance she also graduated this summer from college with a degree in Athletic Training.
It was about seven years ago that I stopped by Daniel Bagosi’s new home to have coffee with him. During our conversation that morning, he told me about some of the children in the community that had been knocking on his door asking for food. He was deeply troubled by this as it was all too frequent, and he asked me if I would go with him to visit the community where these children lived.
Monica was raised in a Romanian orphanage, and when she was 12 she was given to a farmer as a servant. Though she never went to school, Monica eventually learned to read and write at our church using the Bible. She loves the Bible and reads a lot. Today, she is a grown woman, married with two kids, a boy and a girl. She received Christ and was baptized seven years ago at the age of 33.
