A Filipino Kind Of Week...

"How come they're so happy all the time?"


  We've had a Filipino group from the Filadelfia Bible School in Oslo, Norway in the past week. They were around 50 but divided into smaller groups for each location in Calarasi. It has been a great honor to have them with us, even for such a short amount of time...They've had a huge impact in the lives of the kids and adults, but also in our lives. 

  Many, many people have come asking us "Why are they so happy all the time? How can they be happy with all those problems and issues they've had in the past?" Someone replied "I think it's a national thing, just like Romanians. People here in Romania have hope as a mountain, as if it's in their DNA. I think that happiness is in their Filipino DNA and that's why they're cheerful." 

  I could say so many things about this trip, but instead, I'll let these speak by themselves. 
 

My Filipino friends, Rachel and I

Outstretched Hands of Romania and Filadelfia Bible School teams

Rachel, Josh and I 

Mickey Mouse and the Caramidari boys

Jimmy and Jenny

The Hope Centre Chapter

  The Hope Centre is located in poorest neighborhood in the county of Calarasi...The process of developing this community centre began in 2009 with the initiative of Outstretched Hands of Romania. The history of this place is absolutely extraordinary, it has really amazed me to see what The Lord is able to do when people are ready to surrender all to Him and begin to fulfill His will. 

  From a place of nothingness, He wanted to create the Hope Centre, which is like a pillar of light in this slighted neighborhood. People come here and they are treated with kindness and love, the workers pray for them, they help the kids with their homework and many other things, and they all leave changed and full of hope. 

  I have been able to see all of these things that I have noticed closer since I started to involve more there, especially with the kids. Many kids and teenagers have been changed just by the simple decision of people who decided to make a change in their lives...  
  Click here for more about OH and the Hope Centre history

  

homework with Costi

boys from Caramidari

kids praying for Becky Ley before her departure back to The States

These moments...

These are just a few moments that I was able to capture of the simplicity and uniqueness of these people. The way they wholeheartedly wants to serve and help always strikes me. I'm very sorry for the low quality of these pictures, they were taken with my phone but in the future I'll try to give you better quality photographs. 

kids from Chiselet after a three-days leadership Conference

drawing for me from a little girl in Roseti; she meant to write "Amber" haha

kids from the Hope Center helping to unload groceries from the van for a Filipino team

prayer at a church service in Roseti

It all began with...


  A prayer. And then another one, and then one more; it kept on going on. I was in my senior year of high school and, unlike all of my classmates, I had no idea of what I was going to do after I'll be graduated from high school. They all seemed to know exactly what they wanted from life: some were going to be law students, future doctors, teachers etc. , but I was battling in my head that I knew I was not going to win unless I had help from above. 

  I wanted to go to college and have a normal life as everyone else, but at the same time, I knew I wanted to stay and make a difference among the people who needed to have a lighthouse in the darkness of the world. It has been a cruel battle between my personal desires, my earthly self and the plan that I knew God had for me. It seemed like nothing was going anywhere further, I felt stuck in prayer, I felt stuck in my personal relationship with Him at that time and I thought that I will never get the answer to my question and that is "What do you want from me now, Daddy?"

  Not long after graduating, I had the opportunity of going to a Christian camp in the city of Cluj-Napoca, which is about 575 km distance driving from where I live. I had wanted to go to that camp for a very long time, so that was my first time there; somehow, I made my expectations really high, thinking that God was going to reveal the answer to me there...

  Once I got there, I felt stuck again, I couldn't experience anything with God and that made me feel anxious and worried, even angry since everyone else in that camp was experiencing healing, visions, and complete changes. Not long after I got back from Cluj, I left for Italy where I stayed for about 2 weeks and a half. THAT has changed my life! 

  My vacation there was pretty nice, the places I have visited were incredibly beautiful, such as the Mediterranean Sea for example, but that was not why it has changed my life. While I was there, I have experienced feelings of loneliness at a whole new level. So I started to pray and ask for an answer. I was missing Romania incredibly much for absolutely no reason and I was questioning myself day by day. I had reached to the point where God has given me the answer to my prayers and that was that I had to go back to my place of birth and start to fish for people. 

After I got back to Romania, I had decided to start working for Outstretched Hands of Romania, an organization that wants to raise an army of children and poor to bring the gospel to the unreached parts of Romania. This amazing organization with great people is being found in Calarasi, in the south-eastern Romania, at the border with Bulgaria. 

  The most interesting thing that I experienced in Italy is that sometimes He wants to take us away from our place of comfort, where we usually get distracted by several things, so that He can share a secret with us, in a place of nothingness let's say, or like I called it, in a far away desert where we can closely pay attention to what He wants to speak to us. So, if you are facing a hard time when it comes to knowing God's plan for your life, just pray and ask Him to take you away in a place of nothingness, in your own desert and He will reveal Himself to you right there, I promise! 


About Outstretched Hands of Romania