A Broken Heart

God is breaking my heart.

One of my favorite little Roma boys is smoking with older boys from his neighborhood. He is in 1st grade.

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The church in Corabia, a city twice the size of Draganesti, is barely surviving even though there is a passionate couple trying to sow seeds of Christ's love for years now.

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A young boy, the first in his family to attempt going to school has not been seen in class for over a week. Now he is found running around barefoot, in clothes that are never washed in a yard full of trash.

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A young Romanian woman is doing her best to provide for the social needs of the community, help at-risk children with homework, all while being a wife and a mother. She is trying to do it all but she is worn out and stretched thin.

In the last 3 weeks, these are just a few things I've witnessed and God is using them to break my heart more and more for these people and this place. It hurts. It hurts to see the brokenness and desperation. It hurts knowing how little I can do. It hurts knowing I will leave in less than two weeks.

But it is with a broken heart we are driven to action. It is the reason we turn to God in prayer. We realize we cannot do it without him. A broken heart is the reason we start programs such as After School to provide children with the opportunity to have a better education and ultimately better life. It is the reason we preach the gospel. Only the hope of Christ and the Holy Spirit can truly bring change in the lives of people. My broken heart is the reason I know I can leave my home and family to return to Romania.

It is with a broken heart we also become more like Jesus. He came to earth and had compassion on the lost and broken people. The origin of the word compassion is "to suffer with". It was His broken heart for the world that led Jesus to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world.

So while it hurts, I am thankful for the broken heart God has given me and I pray he continues to break my heart for what breaks His.

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"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

[Psalm 82:3-4]

Photo via asociatiasperanta.ro