Earlier this week, I recounted the first part of my experience of being called to Romania in 2000, including my feeling that God had tricked me. Many have asked me what was the defining moment that confirmed for me that God wanted me to move to Romania. That story is below…
In March 2000, I went back to Romania for a brief visit to the campus of the university I was thinking about attending. Emanuel University had begun shortly after the Communist regime fell in Romania. The university had several major programs, the most prominent being a Bachelor’s Degree in Pastoral Theology. The university existed to train young people to do God’s work in Romania.
I visited the campus of Emanuel University, intending to discover if it were God’s will for me to move to Romania for the next five years. I met many foreign students that week, mostly from Moldova, Russia, and the Ukraine. There had never been a student from the United States before, so I was fully aware that I would be charting new ground and hiking through unknown territory, without the benefit of having someone who had gone before me to help me on the way.
Many people asked me later when God’s will first became clear for me during that week. Looking over my journal now, I notice that the first few days feature the phrase “if I come here.” Towards the end of the journal, that phrase reappears, now tweaked slightly to “when I come here.” At some point during my time at Emanuel that week, I knew in my heart that Romania would be my home for the next five years.
My crucial moment of realization can be traced back to the actions of a handful of students who took the initiative to clean the ditches outside the campus gate. During my five years in Romania, I crossed the walkway over that ditch almost every day. Most of the time, it was teeming with trash and mud, and the litter sometimes turned into a dark, oozing oil. In the summer, the stench from the trash could be almost unbearable.
It surprised me that a group of students had decided to clean out the ditch. The task would be dirty and toilsome. But the students were determined. Their willingness to serve moved me, as they tackled a thankless job that no one else would do and worked at it with all their hearts, without expecting payment.
I remember people passing by on the street and seeing us doing the unthinkable. We heard the same question repeatedly: “Why are you doing this?” The students happily responded by sharing the Gospel message of salvation and restoration.
Cleaning up our world is not only a spiritual task; it’s physical as well. Meeting students willing to do the dirty work of making the world a better place was one of the deciding factors that influenced me to go to Emanuel.
I also realized that by moving to Romania, I would have the chance to answer the same question they did. People would inevitably ask me, “Why are you doing this?” Though it seemed crazy and backwards to move to a third-world country to study, I knew this was what God wanted me to do.
Eventually, I came to understand why God had first called me to Cedarville. He had led me to Cedarville precisely because the price was high. This ensured that I would take a year off between high school and college, which meant He would have another year in which to form me for the ministry for which He was preparing me. God had not called me directly to Romania (the thought in high school would have scared me). Instead, He had called me first to Cedarville, only to then lead me to Emanuel.
The way God worked in my life taught me a life lesson. God’s ways are higher than our ways. We don’t always understand the portrait He’s painting. He might lead us somewhere in order to take us somewhere totally different. The important thing is to be ready to submit, depending on His guidance for each step.
The decision had been made. The hard part was over, so I thought. I was moving to Romania. The difficulties, however, were just about to begin.
written by Trevin Wax © 2007 Kingdom People blog
