What I’ve learned on the mission field in Romania

From multiplied sandwiches to transformed lives, Liz Face reflects on two decades of Gospel mission in Romania and why returning home doesn’t mean leaving her calling behind

Recently, Liz Face witnessed a modern-day miracle when 97 sandwiches multiplied before her eyes to feed more than 120 children.

It was during an outreach to a Roma community who live on a landfill site at the municipal rubbish dump in Cluj; part of her work with the organisation she leads in Romania, the Corabia Foundation.

Working closely with Elim missionaries Bob and Edith McDonald, Liz has been helping bring the Gospel to Romanian and Roma children since 2002, especially since moving to the country in 2014, and has seen God move powerfully time and again.

But now, with family needs calling, she is preparing to return to the UK.

So what have been some more highlights of her time on this mission field?

Children’s work

“Early on, Bob and I felt very much called by God to work with the children here,” she begins.

“There was very little for them to do besides school and helping on the land and they just used to gather outside a bar.”

The team now run programmes for kids and teens, including separate regular weekly groups for Roma and Romanian kids, holiday clubs, weekly groups and a mixed group for Roma and Romanian teens during which the Bible is shared.

“We end with ten-minute epilogues, or as one of our boys has christened them, ‘the boring bit’. I joke with them, ‘Come on, it’s the boring bit!’ but I also tell them they’ll someday realise it’s the important bit.”

It’s special seeing children Liz has known since pre-school coming to the Friday night teens group, she says. “Now they’re twice the size of me!”

Bogdi Pop

Corabia Foundation team member Bogdi Pop came to the programme aged just nine, and another of Liz’s big highlights was seeing him get baptised.

“I remember him being a very personable character but also a bit of a class clown.

“He got into DJing in his teens, and drinking, girls and a party lifestyle.

“He still came to us and loved music, so we invited him to an outreach at the Roma church.

“There was an appeal, and Bogdi says he doesn’t know how but he found himself at the front and committed his life to Christ.”

A year later, he got baptised.

“The morning of his baptism he first went to a memorial service at the Orthodox Church,” Liz recalls.

“The priest didn’t know he was there and told the congregation, ‘Don’t have anything to do with the boys at that mission, they’ve been filled with devils!’

“Obviously that piqued everybody’s interest and around 200 people came to his baptism.

“He could easily have gone down a destructive path but instead he found God and it’s wonderful to see what God’s doing with him now.”

The Roma community

Early on, Liz and the team began working with the local Roma community.

“The Roma and Romanian communities are quite separate and the Roma Christians felt like square pegs in round holes at the Pentecostal church in the village. We ended up building a venue for them and establishing a church in 2014.”

The pastor’s wife has recorded the names of everyone who’s been baptised there and is up to 100 now, while the church has gone from five regulars to 60.

“It’s noisy, but I love being there and experiencing worship in a different way,” Liz says.

The team have worked closely with Roma children too, building a programme to fit their culture which regularly attracts up to 40 kids.

A highlight from all this is a transformation in the Roma community.

“We’ve really seen God change lives,” Liz says.

“Not long after I arrived I went for a meal with Bob and Edith at the home of a lady who works in the mayor’s office and her husband, who’s the local police chief.

“Both of them had had regular, often negative dealings with the Roma community in Sanpaul.

“We’d just started working with them and there was huge prejudice against them because they were known for violence, crime and alcoholism.

“We ourselves had had several car batteries stolen and had got used to bringing them into the house whenever we got home!

“Bob told this lady, ‘We believe God loves them and can change their lives’. She replied, ‘I’ll believe that when I see it’.”

Bob and Liz worked hard to build relationships, become accepted and to treat the Roma teens the same as the Romanians.

“It was hard, but after a while the Roma kids realised if they behaved reasonably there were no problems.

“They could see I was treating them equally and with respect. Living that out was what opened doors. Slowly, people saw we really did want to help and share a message that was as much for them as for the Romanians.”

Fast forward nine years and Liz returned to the couple’s house.

“She told us, ‘Things have changed so much. Many Roma have got proper jobs, the kids are staying in education and the families are living better.’

“They’d seen with their own eyes the evidence of having God in your life.”

Others were noticing it too.

“My neighbour is a teacher and says the Roma kids do so much better now. In fact, for the past two years, the top scorer in her school has been a Roma boy. That was unheard of.”

Hosting teams

Aside from outreach, Liz and the team also host mission teams. They hear great testimonies, particularly from young people, of how this has impacted their faith, vision and understanding of God’s calling.

“One 14-year-old girl wrote in our visitors book ‘I would like to do more mission. If I ever get the opportunity to come back, I will always say yes. As you said at the start of the week, I will go back a different person.’

“So many people say that seeing what God is doing here gets them thinking. He uses this place to start pushing people into their own missions.”

What’s next?

“For the past four years I’ve been saying we should prepare because I’ll need to go back to the UK at some point,” Liz says.

“That time has come because my dad is 94 and my siblings have health issues too.”

But Liz isn’t planning to cut her ties with Romania.

“My plan is to be based in the UK and visit, rather than be based here and visit the UK. I’ll still be involved!”

She has another good reason for relocating.

“I’m a grandma of four and it’s struck me that I spend all my time telling other children about Jesus but less so my own grandkids. I want them to be my mission ground too.”

In terms of her legacy, Liz says she has worked with hundreds of children through her programmes and prays that some of what they’ve learned will stick with them.

And when it comes to Romania she has one final plea: “Does anyone want to come and take my place? It’s an exciting life!”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.