Having established that God was calling us to serve Him in Ottawa, Illinois, we set about clearing up our lives and ministry connections in Romania. In addition to selling the house we had bought with the proceeds from our home in the UK some ten years earlier, we needed to tell our supporters that God had called us out of Romania, something we had never expected to have to do.
Although our hearts had been completely won over by Romania and her people for twenty-five years, we now became aware that that love and devotion had come to an end; unless God had shown us this Himself, we would never have believed that our love affair with our Beloved Country had ended.
Many practicalities faced us in the early weeks of 2017: putting our own house on the market, telling the owners of the house we had been been renting near Iași for the past year that we were leaving (God had led us to move to Iași to work in Collegiul Richard Wurmbrand, a Christian school which we had supported since its inception some twenty-something years before. Ian had taken care of installing and overseeing the computer system in the school, while I had taught English to upwards of four hundred children aged between 6 and 14). We also had to break the news of our move to the U.S. to our Romanian friends and contacts, and to deal with all the everyday things like banks, utilities and other mundane but essential matters.
Strangely, once we had heard from God that our time in Romania was over, we felt only excitement at the prospect of leaving, and threw ourselves into the move with great enthusiasm. So, whilst Ian finished his promised term of office at the school (completed in mid-February), I spent my days packing all the belongings we had brought with us over the time we were living in Iași, as well as continuing with some teaching at the school and my ministry through the church we were attending, which included helping several French-speaking students to improve their English to enable them to complete their medical studies more easily.
A really great couple from the church, themselves American, helped us to move our clothing and household goods back to our own house in Volovăț in early March. Also at that time we sent in the applications for the visas we would need for our move to Illinois.
Once back in our home, we set about packing all our goods ready to be transported in a shipping container to the States, despite the lawyer who was dealing with the visa application stipulating that we should do nothing towards the move that would cost money until we had the visas in our hands! However, it made no sense to put our belongings into storage in Romania or to take them to the U.K., so we decided in faith to send the container with all our worldly goods across the world to Illinois before we had any proof that the visas would be forthcoming.
Probably the hardest part in all this were the farewells we had to say to our friends and co-workers, in particular Mișu and Livia and Petrica and Viorica. Mișu and Livia had been friends since the mid-nineties, and we had taken literally tonnes of food, clothing and other essential items to their organisation, Hannah, over many years for many needy families. In addition to helping with the distribution of these gifts, we had spent several weeks every summer co-leading children’s camps starting around 1996. Most of all, though, Mișu and Livia and ourselves had become very close on a personal level, supporting one another and praying for one another throughout our long association.
Although they were devastated at our news, they accepted that we had heard from God and that we must follow His calling on our lives, as we had done when He called us to work in Romania many years before. Just before we finally left Romania, in June 2017, we spent our last evening with these dear friends in our favourite pizza restaurant in Radauți. All was well until we paid the bill and went outside, at which point none of us could speak, and we turned and walked away from each other with hardly a word: leaving Romania was relatively easy, leaving Mișu and Livia was heart breaking.
Petrica and Viorica are a Gypsy couple whom we discipled for ten or so years during our time living in Volovăț. These were people in whom we recognised a real desire to serve the Lord in their own village and church, and they were invaluable to us as our “eyes and ears” in the village during the many years we worked amongst the hundred or so families in Voivodeasa, a village some eleven miles from our home. Petrica and Viorica worked alongside us tirelessly, and it was a huge blessing to see them grow and progress in their faith as we supported one another through some very difficult times. Bible studies, prayer and discussion and teaching took place with them on a regular basis, and before we left for Iasi we had taken them through the Alpha Course in preparation for them to share it with others in their village. Once again, we found it hard to take our leave of them, as, as well as colleagues, this couple had also become great friends as we worked side by side amongst their people.
God is good, and we are delighted to report that both these couples are continuing to serve Him three years after we left Romania: the camps and other events are still taking place every summer (and earlier and later in the year, too) and Petrica and Viorica’s home is open every day to offer prayer, counsel, food and drink and generally sharing God’s love with the people of the village. When funds permit, they also provide a cooked meal for anyone who needs one in the courtyard of their home.
Having sent the container on its way (not an easy task, as any such procedure is fraught with difficulties in Romania), we realised that we needed to leave. God had told us our time there was finished, and although our home had not sold, we knew we had to obey His word, so in late June we packed up our remaining clothing and set off to travel across Europe for the final time.
To be honest, we felt only relief as we drove through Romania (with me almost constantly in contact with Liva via text messages – what we had not been able to say in person, we managed to convey through text), passed the border and made our way back to the U.K. We knew that we had to be in England to attend the interview for the visas, and so decided to stay with Ian’s sister for the (we hoped) few weeks or months until they were granted.
Thankfully, at that time we were unaware that the visas would not be granted for many months, and that our stay in the U.K. would be much longer than we could possibly have known.