The title of this post is really not that true. For all of us we still have the faces of the children we played and loved on etched in our minds, there is not much hindsight, it seems like we just saw them. The tears that were shed as we said goodbye, and the eternal hope we have for them that one day if not here on earth, but in heaven we will be joined together. It has been my hearts prayer the last few weeks that God would continue to pour out his unfathomable love on the broken lives in Romania that we experienced, I have held on to the the truth that our God is a God of restoration. Our lives have forever been changed by what he allowed us to experience, God's calling to be a people of blessing is impressed on our hearts, and we have all developed a deep desire to live lives that contribute greatly to His kingdom.

Here are a few things that our team have personally taken away from this experience:

1. God is so much bigger than we allow him to be. You will never have a big picture of God if you don't place yourself in situations where you desperately need him to show up.

2. God is calling everyone right now to be a people of blessing, to bring God's picture of restoration to the world, stop making excuses and Go!

3. When you know who you are, you will know what to do. God's children know what to do!

4. Our hearts should break deeply for the orphan and widow, but this heart break must lead to action not just sympathy. Jesus spent significant amount of time with these people, so should we.

5. People are desperate for a picture of a God that really cares. We have been called to walk in the ugly part of peoples lives and give them this picture of God.

6. We complicate things way to much in the western church. God's will everyday of our lives is to love him deeply and out of this love, love others deeply.

7. Check out all our Romania Pictures Here: Romania Picture Gallery

 See what we have been up to by clicking the link below. New pictures of students at the baby hospital, we took a trip to an amazing castle, and more VBS madness!!!

Sometimes life just does not make sense, we live in a world of inconsistencies that make us question the goodness of the God we claim to follow.  We live in a world were injustice is rarely revenged, the poor are left needy, the hurting and broken are left alone to their sorrows. To spend almost two weeks with children that have been abandoned, raped, left in gutters as newborns, thrown out and discarded as trash, brutally been beaten and considered unworthy in society has been a humbling experience. It has been a humbling experience because the love from these orphans puts to shame the love offered by the wealthy, worthy, putt together, attractive people in my life. I myself fall into the second category. It is a love that can not be described and penetrates to the deepest part of your being, exposing the voids you never knew you had. The love of the broken has shown me my own brokenness and what it looks like to love from the midst of it. I had the opportunity to hear the stories of many orphans now adults, and the constant theme I heard was, "I am blessed." How can a child who is thrown away consider her life blessed. These children would not exchange their experience for another. Because they were born in a country where communism stole the hope of the people, and had parents that abandoned them or brutalized them in horrific ways, they were placed in orphanages that look similar to the Lord of the flies movie, where they experienced strange Christians that constantly loved them till their hearts melted with the love of Jesus and discovered God as their father. They would not change a moment, for without the pain they would never have known Jesus as savior. In a country with only %4 Christians  the only way they would ever hear the name of Jesus would be to be at these orphanages where Christians come to shine Christ's love. How is that for a picture of a huge incredible God. There are many things we will never understand in this broken world, but one thing I know to be true. Our God is constantly redeeming the broken in ways we could never imagine. It is not our job to question, but to be the redeeming agents available to go to the most broken places to love as Christ would.