Church in a Bus
Church of God missionaries to Romania tell about an unusual place to stage a church service.
ROMANIA — We recently had some visitors from Scotland. They come about twice a year to visit and usually bring a truck full of benevolence goods for us to disperse to the needy and the Roma churches. When they came this time, their vehicle was a little different.
The church in Suplacu de Barcau does not have a church building; they use the local two-room schoolhouse. Several months ago they were told they had to quit using the school, because they were going to do renovations on the weekends. The pastor called me and said they could purchase some land for about $2,500, but that was just the land, no building. Then our friends Donald and Shirley called me from Scotland saying they had a bus to donate and could we use it?
The Romanians, especially Roma (gypsy), have a very interesting view of a church building. Many people simply will not come to a church if it is held in the home of the pastor or someone else. There are several reasons for this, one of them being they think “if” there is an offering taken, it will be used for the house they are in. they also do not want to make improvements, because they see this as fixing up the pastor’s home with their money, so they just don’t come.
When the bus pulled up in front of the pastor’s house, they were happy to see it. It took us a while to get the bus into the yard and we blocked traffic on the main road, but we got it in. The bus will literally take up his entire yard, but they now have something they can use for a church building. It’s not real wide, it’s not real tall inside, but it is theirs. They had to take most of the seats out of the bus to load other church items. There are only about eight seats in it now, but I am sure they will have wooden benches built and set up in no time. There are two vents in the roof; it gets very hot here in Romania in the summer, and the bus is made out of metal. Hopefully, a few fans will be added for the comfort of the people.
It will be interesting to see how they transform this bus into a church building, but if anyone can do it, these brothers and sisters can. Please pray for the church here. They do the best they can, and they really do love the Lord.
Bob and Caroline Schmidt
Missionaries to Romania
Project Number 0650488
© 2012 Church of God World Missions
