Why I am who I am...

My faith…

I’m originally from Romania and I come from a non-Christian home. I was 7 when the Communism fell, but God was still a taboo subject among people. So…how did I find faith in God you might ask?…. Well, it’s an interesting story that I love talking about, because it shows that nothing is impossible to our awesome God! He is the one who planned every detail of my life so carefully…and my life story is about Him, the great Author of all!

For many years my life had no specific direction. I guess I was one of those typical teenagers who would do almost anything just to belong and to feel accepted. I was just living my life from one day to the next without a purpose, and I couldn’t wait for the nights to come to meet with my friends and enjoy life to the fullest. I think God had enough after a while, because He chose my nonsense lifestyle at a party like that…on the dance floor to be more specific! How? Well, you see, I was just dancing with a guy on a slow song when suddenly my knee popped out, my ligaments broke, my knee cap got seriously injured and my knee slowly filled up with liquid. Don’t ask me how, because even the doctors laughed about the irony of the situation. Weird, I know. But it will all make sense, you’ll see.

Anyways, that night I was taken to the emergency room and had a surgery the next day. Being in the hospital for a whole month I started seriously thinking about my life—for the very first time! It became obvious that I could not continue the same kind of lifestyle. I was wasting my gifts, my health and precious years of my life.

While I was recovering, I heard about an American exchange program which offered the opportunity for Hungarian students living in ex-Communist countries to study oversees a whole year, experience something new and then returning home make a difference in their own communities. The idea of going away and start a new life sounded really promising, so I sat down and started seriously working on answering the essay questions for the application. Few days later I was called in for an interview, and the next thing I know is that I was flying to Canada.

Why me? I didn’t know the answer to that back then, but now I do!

I had to go all the way to the other side of the ocean to meet God! Isn’t it amazing how God works? Canada changed my life! Living in a wonderful Christian home, attending a Christian school and going to church every Sunday had a huge impact on my life. At the the beginning I was pretty rebellious in my heart. It was way too much! Christians were nice, and I considered myself religious too, but I didn’t want to have anything to do with God on a personal level! But God had other plans for me I guess. And boy, am I thankful for that or what?!

One day I was invited by my friends to a youth conference where my favorite English teacher was the guest speaker. I had no idea that he was a youth pastor too. I was like: “What?? He’s a priest? Well that should be interesting. Of course I’ll go!” And good thing that I did go, because that event completely changed the course of my life!

My teacher went on and on that night about God’s unconditional love and amazing forgiveness. And for the very first time I actually understood the whole message of salvation!! I remember soaking in every single word he was saying about this loving Father… and by the end of the meeting I just couldn’t stop crying, because I was so broken about the weight of my poor decisions that I’ve made in the past. My heart was so full of gratitude, peace and joy, knowing that I can start my life all over with Christ!! It didn’t matter anymore what I did, because His blood payed the price for every one of those mistakes!!
How come I didn’t see this Great Love before? And why I didn’t believe it?

My life was transformed drastically after that evening and my hunger for God was growing rapidly every single day.

By the time I came home, I was a new person in every way! And I wanted to tell everyone about the One who came and gave His life for me.

In order to be able to graduate from high school and be qualified to take the final exams, I had to repeat the year in a school where my beliefs were questioned daily. It was a real challenge to live out my faith in front of all those who knew me before and not live the way they expected me to. God strengthened my faith even more during that year and my interest in missions became stronger every day. However, I knew that in order to become a more effective instrument in God’s hand I needed to be rooted in His Word. That’s when I decided to go to a Bible college in Hungary…where I later met my Prince Charming (TS).

So, as you can see, God works in amazing and mysterious ways and He has a wonderful, personalized story for each one of us. Including YOU! Will you let Him be the Author of your story?

in Him,
Reka  <º))))><