Story Time- No Crutches My First Trip to Romania?

22 years ago in June 1997, I had my first trip out of the country to go on a ministry trip to Romania. I fell in love with Romania as soon as we landed. I have so many wonderful memories of my seven trips there.

My first trip there my role was actually to share the gospel walking around the streets and parks being led by Jesus for who to share with. That was the original plan, however, something happened.

The rest of the team was teaching outreach English classes at a school. The first few evenings I spent time there to meet the students before class. One evening, I was playing basketball with some boys in the school yard. All I did was plant my foot to bounce a pass to one of the boys and suddenly I felt and heard a POP in the bottom of my foot. I couldn’t walk.

The next day one of the translators went around the city to pharmacies to try to find crutches for me because I could not walk. The only way to get crutches was to pay someone to make some. So the missionaries made a makeshift walking stick from a broom handle. I could not go to the parks or on the streets, so I stayed around the school.

I spent five evenings helping the other team members in their classes and getting to know their students. I fell in love with teaching English during those evenings.

That experience is what led me to to what I am doing today. My ministry and the classes I teach are all because during my first trip to Romania I hurt my foot, couldn’t walk, and there were no crutches.

That experience is only one of many that remind me of the truth of Romans 8:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who  have been called according to his purpose”

If we had found crutches at that time, I would have never met the people from all of the countries living in my city. Because there were no crutches, I was introduced to teaching English and have shared the love of Jesus with people from all over the world.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.