By Cindy Stanton

It was December 2018 when our plane landed in Budapest. We were about to meet some of our team for the bus ride to Romania. How did I get to be 66 years old before I went on a mission trip? My husband, Gary, had been on the board of Remember the Children (RtC) for several years and had made a few trips to Romania. I was excited to be able to experience what I had read and heard about for years.

The team quickly began to work well together. The purpose of this trip was to assemble and distribute Christmas bags to children. Families also received a bag of food items. Andy had determined that it was more cost-effective to purchase items for the bags in Romania rather than collect and ship items from the states. Much of the purchasing had been done by local contacts before our arrival.

Many of our stops were at small churches which were packed with eager families. The gospel was preached and demonstrated. There was heartfelt gratitude and smiles wherever we went. On one of the days, we visited a gypsy village. Words cannot describe the type of housing we saw there. Poverty did not stop these lovely people from being thankful. There was obvious respect for Andy and Daniel who was their local pastor. On one of our last days, we went to the House of Hope. Our team was able to interact with the children in this group home by doing a craft with them. We also watched them open individual gifts that we had shopped for specifically for each child. We enjoyed a delicious meal and listened to the 20 children sing for us.

Being a part of RtC’s Christmas bags distribution was a tremendous blessing to me. On several occasions, I had tears in my eyes as I was trying to grasp what this ministry does and how great the love of God is for all people groups. I can wholeheartedly say that it was worth the wait for me to go. God bless RtC for continuing to share the Christmas bags in Romania during this season.