Give Me Joy in My Heart

What is the meaning of faith?

In visiting other countries doing charitable there are always plenty of opportunities to see Gods work and better understand him. This was much the case when visiting Romania on behalf of the charity Cry in the Dark where, for one week at the end of August through the beginning of September, fourteen of us from Tenterden and the North-East of England faced up to “The Hard Hat Challenge”.

Our task was to help in the building of an extension to Casa Lumina, an orphanage for children with learning difficulties and life limiting illnesses situated in Comanesti. The extension will accommodate the growing needs of the children as they develop into adults.

The sheer fact that a Christian organisation such as Cry in the Dark has achieved so much is just one unbelievable testimony to Gods work.

Throughout our work we had many opportunities to interact with the orphans and it was remarkable, even emotional as to how much love they have and wanted to give. Alan Clover, who in his seventies, was the oldest member of our party had been to Casa Lumina before albeit some two years ago. Yet one of the girls remembered him from his previous visit and embraced him so lovingly. The tears of joy that welled up in him was quite infectious as many of us struggled not to weep alongside him. At the end of the week, Nicholas Cooper, a curate from St. Mildreds Church in Tenterden, offered a communion service on a makeshift alter created from one of the work benches. Two of the orphans attended this service with such quiet respect and dignity that we all felt humbled by their presence. Where we thought we would be ministering to them, in fact truthfully they were ministering to us.

On the Sunday of our week in Romania, we spent the morning in worship at the Biserica Sfanta Trieme Church, a free Christian church in the city of Bacau. This church is a modern, white walled building hidden away behind some houses in one of the back streets. The service was conducted from a stage on the first floor of the church which was back dropped by a magnificent wooden cross. A welcoming warmth and love from the entire Romanian congregation soothed any apprehensions that we may have been feeling.

Lyviu, an operational director for Cry in the Dark in Romania conducted the music and singing along with his wife Anna. The words to the songs were projected onto a screen on the stage, karaoke style, and I’m sure it was with some amusement that we British folk were trying to sing along evangelically in Romanian.

Pastor Marion gave the sermon. Fortunately we had a few very clever members of the congregation who thankfully translated for us. His subject was joy.

Joy comes in many forms. Entertainment gives us joy, so does our favourite football team when it is winning. Such joy is short lived (particularly if you support Gillingham) and we have to keep searching for it time and again. There is a longer lasting joy that comes from things like a loving relationship, marriage and family.

Once discovered though, the joy found through God is everlasting. In order to find this joy we have to repent of all our sins. Sin creates an enormous barrier between us and the joy of knowing God. Therefore we need to seek forgiveness and once given, the hurdles and barriers are removed and we can experience the joy given by God, forever.

During the blessing there were a couple of the congregation who cried. These were not tears of sadness but of gladness, realising that they had come to God and he had spoken to them. Indeed, as I found out later, there was one young, debonair looking lad who had not that long ago been out on the streets, getting into trouble, committing crime. This church had saved him and turned his life around.

Towards the end of the service Lyviu and Anna’s little boy - who must have been two or three years old – made an impromptu and unannounced appearance on the stage. His innocence of face and his unrestricted actions seemed to poignantly demonstrate the presence of joy without barriers.

There were three messages that I took away from this wonderful Sunday morning service.

1. Nicholas Cooper, the curate, offered a prayer which was translated for the benefit of the Romanian congregation. In it he pointed out that language and culture doesn’t have to be a wall built between us. The wooden cross mounted magnificently above the stage unites us all in one common good.
2. As was demonstrated so effectively throughout the service by Pastor Marion, the joy of God is eternal, once we have sought forgiveness from all our sins.
3. During the service some of the children sang a song with the self assurance that only children have. The motif on the tee-shirt of one of the little boys read “Pick noses, not fights”.

How fantastic is that?

Terry Norrington

www.whatisthemeaningoffaith.com

www.cryinthedark.org