Romania Missions Part 1 by Steph & Chris Watkins
Chris and Stephanie Watkins began attending Calvary Baptist Church in April 2016 and reside in Grand Prairie, TX with their daughter, Ema. The Watkins volunteer to teach regularly in the Boulevard (4 years old through kindergarten) area of Kid City. They like to spend time outside in their community garden, camping, and spending time with friends playing games or watching movies.
In the spring of 2003, Chris was taking his first missions classes in seminary. After each class he would be so excited about a new place we could go. He was onboard for missions and eager to launch. He was not held back that he was in his first year of seminary out of four total. Looking back, I believe this is when God first started cultivating Chris’ heart for missions. Mine on the other hand took some time. I probably told him “you’re crazy” more than a few times. Missions didn’t really “fit in” with what I thought our plans for our family should look like. I have a good friend from high school who was a missions major. She planned to go into full-time overseas missions. I thought, “That’s awesome for her” and truly did see her excelling in the field, but I still didn’t think missions were for me. After college, my friend moved to Romania and that’s when we started to hear about the country from a more personal side. We visited in the fall of 2004 and fell in love with the people, culture, and country. I believe God used this trip to plant the seeds of missions in my heart. Chris and I were both still in school so it wasn’t time just yet.
When we visited Romania in 2004 to say it was eye opening would
be an understatement. There’s something about actually seeing with your eyes,
smelling with your nose (yes smelling), holding with your arms, and hearing the
sounds around you. There were street children everywhere; begging for food,
money, candy - anything to fill their stomachs or hand off to their parents. If
they weren’t begging, they were winding between you pick-pocketing to see what
surprises they could find. Children were everywhere. I vividly remember going
to dinner at a Romanian pizza parlor (not really similar to our pizza). The
restaurant was covered with huge windows and our group was seated right near
one. Throughout our entire meal there was a little blond boy just staring at
us. Literally staring; big eyes peering at us as we ate. It was heartbreaking
and also a good food suppressant! That little one went to bed with a full pizza
belly that night. There was a noticeable difference between the Romanian street
children and the Roma (or Gypsy) children on the street. The Romanian kiddos
would instantly pocket the money or eat the food you gave them or they “found.”
The Roma children would immediately take whatever you handed them to an adult
that was peering nearby. In 2004, children and babies who were abandoned were
left in the hospital until they were three. As long as their parents came to
“visit” them once a year they could not be “abandoned/orphaned” and their
parents would still be entitled to the money the government gives the families
until the child is three. After three they went into orphanages. I should mention
that adoption to The States, Americans, was closed at this time. Romanian
babies that were abandoned were quickly adopted by other Romanians. Roma babies on the other hand were not. We
were not allowed to enter an orphanage while we were there.
Being in a third
world country can sometimes challenge what you thought you believed. The
churches in Romania are much more charismatic then what you would find in most
churches in America. Taking away money and niceties can strip people down to
the bare. People see blessings so much easier than Americans tend to. God is
all they have. Romania’s national religion is Greek Orthodox; yes, it is a
religion. While we were in the city we visited a few churches (buildings).
These churches literally have gold all over them. They are beautiful! They have
huge paintings, beautiful stained glass work, gardens, old beautiful wooden
pews, the décor was amazing. We heard stories of people hiding in their homes
as the priests were knocking on their doors, because the priests would make
these visits and the members were required to pay them. The church in Romania appears
to be all about money. They do not believe in helping the people, and were
mostly looking after themselves. The church is stuck in much legalism and even
more in traditions. The Roma had their own church, but again it was very much
about money. The prosperity message was mostly taught from the pulpit. Which
pew you sat in in church depended on your “sins” and if the pastor had deemed
you forgiven or not. The ones in front were doing good, the ones in the back
not so well. The cool thing is we met missionaries from all over, obviously a
few from all over The States, but also from The Netherlands, Sweden and
England. God IS working through His church- His people.
In 2005-06 my friend started a
foundation in Romania, specifically working with the Roma. She asked us to sit on the board and being
board members gave us an inside look at what was going on with Romanian laws,
politics, needs and culture.
It wasn’t until September 2011 that God opened the doors for us
to go back to Romania again. By 2011,
Romania had just started a “foster care” system. Back in 2007, Romania had
become part of the European Union. One of the stipulations of the EU was for Romania
to “clean up” the street children problem. We saw some children out but not
nearly as many. The hospitals were “cleaning out” the children which meant
dumping many of them at last known addresses they had for their families. Some
even with people who happened to be living at the last known address and had no
relation or idea who the child was. Those who didn’t get “dumped” or left and
went into the foster care program and problems too. The main problem being
Romanians (Eastern Europeans) do not think highly of the Roma. So these
children were not being treated with the most love or respect that should be.
We spent most of our time in the little village of Tinca where the ministry we
were board members of was placed. We were able to spend a lot of time with the
children of the center, their families and others in the Roma village.
Chris and I felt the NEED to do
something; to listen and to act. If
we’re being completely honest, there was a HUGE fear of fundraising of that
magnitude, which kept us from leaping sooner than we did. We would constantly
talk about the people, and the need, and being there, but felt completely
stuck. We were there for ten days and leaving was one of the hardest things we
did. God had burdened both our hearts
for the needs there and finally fundraising was starting to look not so
hard. Summer of 2011 was a season of
much thought and prayer for us. We were
feeling a heavy burden for the needy but were not sure where God wanted us. We
came up with two options: (1) move to West Dallas, share Jesus, and help in one
of the poorest areas of our city or (2) move to Salt Lake where Chris had been
offered a job in one of the heaviest populated Mormon areas. Taking the job in
Salt Lake meant we would have to fundraise for his salary. Then, sitting on the
plane in September of 2011 heading back to the States, God threw another idea
in the mix.
This idea was the one that burdened
our hearts for many years, but we never thought the doors would open; becoming
missionaries to the Roma. We struggled a bit with “are we pushing God?”, “does
He really want us there”, or “are we following our own hearts desires?” We
prayed, asked our community to pray, and finally in December of 2011 we both
felt at peace as we sent out our first round of fundraising letters with a date
of leaving for Romania in January 2013 - almost nine years after our first
visit and 11 years after Chris’ missions class!
Fundraising is a full-time job. Chris
and I both worked stressful full-time jobs where overtime was the norm. Yet,
the money kept coming in. We would talk about Romania and someone would come up
and hand us a $500 check or write to us and make a $10 monthly commitment. God
basically did all the fundraising. For Chris and I this felt like confirmation
from Him letting us know Romania was where He wanted us.
Chris and I left the States on January 3, 2013 and arrived in
Budapest, Hungary on the 5th. Budapest is the closest airport to
Tinca, Romania; the place we would call home. We had arranged for a driver for
the additional four to five hours it would take us to get there. Our first
three months we lived in the team home, “Katartizo”, a six bedroom home that my
friend’s ministry turned into a location teams could stay when they came on
trips. In March, we moved into our permanent home which backed up to the Roma
Village. Tinca, the “town” we lived in, was too small to be declared a town or
city, it was a village. We had two main streets with one stop sign. We
frequently walked from one side to the other several times a day, which was
just at a mile. This was the norm for most villages in the area and the nearest
“big” city was a drive of 45 minutes. In Tinca, the two main streets and right
off of those were where the Romanians lived. Romania is still a country of
segregation when it comes to the Roma. The Roma had their own section, which
basically backed up to the Romanian part of the village.
Tinca had the biggest Roma population
in our county. Roma, are nomadic by nature; they go where they can find food or
money until they are kicked out or get bored and want to move on. As you drive
through Romania, you see a few mud brick or falling down wooden shacks here and
there. You see a lot of covered horse drawn carts as they are traveling,
although not rare to see a Romanian in a horse and buggy too. What this means
is for Tinca to have a Roma village of 3,000 was huge! Plus, that’s only the 3,000 that were
“documented”. Tinca was also a village human traffickers would frequent because a
Gypsy gone missing is really not a big deal to them. The Roma village did not
have running water, kitchens, or outhouses. Basically they were one room,
falling down, critter infested huts. There was a constant stream of liquid
running down the sides of the Roma dirt streets. In the winter as you walked in
the Roma village you just kept telling yourself “it’s just mud, it’s just mud”
knowing full well what you were stepping in. Between the Roma village and the
livestock you can only imagine the smell; Romania’s distinct scent will forever
be engraved in our noses. Our home, which mercifully did have indoor plumbing and
a kitchen, backed up to the Roma Village. We walked in almost every night and
spent time with our Roma families. We were also the first people they went to
when they needed something.
In the next edition, we’ll share a
more candid view of what daily life for the Roma looked like and how living out
the Great Commission affected not just the Roma, but us as well.
Ready for Romania Missions Part 2 by Steph & Chris Watkins? Click here!
Ready for Romania Missions Part 2 by Steph & Chris Watkins? Click here!
