We had a blessed time together as a church at our annual conference this past weekend. The first of May is Labor Day in Romania. This year around 400 people attended the conference regarding marriage and family issues. We stayed in a communist era hotel in the village of Olaneşti, Romania which is known for its thermal-spring waters. Our guest speaker walked us through sessions on how we honor God in our daily lives, how everyone marries a selfish person (we are all sinful, selfish people), and on how men and women are different. One of the things our speaker said was that he often asks couples waiting to get married to define "love". Few, if any, ever give him a response. He challenged us that love is really about giving and that most people would say that the opposite of love is hate. He disagrees. He said the opposite of love is selfishness, because it is all about receiving and never giving. Moreover, we learned that for a man, the most important thing is often to be respected by their spouse and for a woman it is about feeling loved. Interestingly, our speaker mentioned that most women argue that their husband has to first EARN her respect. Yet, our speaker reminded us that this is a pretty western, non-Biblical value that has crept its way into western thinking. His argument was that just like love, respect for a spouse should be non-conditional. Husbands should not have to work to be respected, nor should wives have to work to be respected by their husbands. This, my friends, is what makes Christians unique and Christian values so hard to live by. His argument was also that the idea to "earn" respect is, again, a selfish idea. Christianity is about loving and respecting others despite getting nothing in return. It is the world that asks the question: "what do I get out of it?" But thankfully, Christ died for selfish people. It was a great conference and an opportunity to deepen relationships and make new friendships. We enjoyed wonderful weather, a great place to play volleyball, and blessed fellowship.
Today we celebrated the Global Day of Prayer in Bucureşti together with Christians around the world. At every hour, Christians gathered in places like Korea, Thailand, Africa, France, Brazil, America, etc. to praise and worship our Lord Jesus Christ and to pray for our world, the lost, and the many needs of our world. Several groups from around Romania led us in music and various pastors from different denominations led us in strategic prayer. We enjoyed beautiful weather. Unfortunately, the turnout was not as strong as churches would have liked, which I think is probably more an indication of the struggle we face in Bucureşti to collaborate as Christians across denominational lines. As we say in Romanian, "Everyone in his own camp." Please pray with us for unity among Christian leaders in our city, that we would be united and able to collaborate in order to help the lost of our city come to know Christ. We certainly need and appreciate your prayers. And may we as Christians be united each and every day in prayer.
