{"id":3380,"date":"2012-12-27T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=3380"},"modified":"2016-01-06T14:32:30","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T14:32:30","slug":"life-as-mission-or-intermission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/life-as-mission-or-intermission\/","title":{"rendered":"Life as Mission or Intermission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.\u201d (Matthew 5:15)<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Bloated and fatigued by the excesses of the festive season, resolving to stick to New Year resolutions; spare a thought for Cluj. Cluj<\/a> is an old Romanian university city in Transylvania and home to a soccer team that played in the same group as Man Utd in the Champions League this season. Less glamorously it has a district called Pata Rat that is not only home to the city\u2019s rubbish dump but also to families of Roma gypsies living in, on and from the rubbish.<\/p>\n

I wrote about my church\u2019s (APCH\u2019s<\/a>) mission to the Roma last year (Mission Possible<\/a>); thirty three of us revisited in 2012. What a difference a year makes! A permanent multi-functional building has been built in the centre of the shanty village and is a beacon of hope for permanence, sanitation, education, medication and a symbol of trust in God in the lives of the Roma who live there and those who help them.<\/p>\n

We erected six more pre-fabricated houses; at a cost of EUR2,500 each and a life span of ten years means families\u2019 lives are being changed at EUR250 per year per family.<\/p>\n

We provided a children\u2019s programme and a food distribution programme. The latter is tough emotionally. Seeing 100+ filthy children waiting prayerfully and patiently for a meagre meal of a sandwich, a banana and a drink is heartbreaking and all the more shocking in that in this European city it is a daily occurrence.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t been on a mission trip, maybe you could add it to your New Year\u2019s resolutions and pray that your life is active in the service of others: pray in the words of Charles Garfield: may your life be a mission and not an intermission.<\/p>\n

<\/div>