In 2015 God gave Ed Novello, a member of The Church At Pine Ridge, the idea to organize a fund raising banquet for Gateway to Hope’s Rasa Family Centre.  The church rallied around Ed in a remarkable way and raised $16,000.

One Night For Romania

I had very little contact with the Neufeld’s mission in Romania.  They had been to our church and I was aware of them but I had never met them before, I didn’t know much about their mission there.  I’m involved with a ministry called the Care Network in our church.  When something happens that causes people to need support inside our church and in our community we respond through prayer, we respond through presence - being there for the person, and through resources.  

When some people from our church returned from their trip to Romania where they went to support the Neufelds.  They were talking about their experience and they had a slide show.  And one of the pictures, it shows an empty piece of land and right beside is the Neufeld’s residence.  He said on this empty piece of land the vision is to build a house, a safe house for women and children who don’t have the same safety net that we have here.

For some reason this just caught my attention and it was really an experience that I haven’t experienced before.  I felt  there was a clear request that this is something that we need to advocate for.  For a few weeks I thought, what am I going to do?  My background is cooking so the idea came to do a banquet.  We proposed the idea to the elders and they supported us so that’s kind of where “One Night For Romania” started.  God actually provided the resources, He provided the workers to do this and it was just a cool place to be because you could see God’s fingerprints though this.  

When we yield our lives for the fatherless and the widow I think we become awakened, we become awakened for this Gospel, we become aware of this redemption story that’s going on all over the place.  We can get overwhelmed by the amount of need that there is in the world and we sometimes get paralyzed not knowing what to respond to.  It’s not about responding to all the causes but actually asking Him, “Where would you like me to be?  Make me aware of the things that you want me to respond to.”  I think there is a sense of awakening, there’s a sense of being aware because the faith that transforms into action becomes alive.

So that’s kind of how this story started.  I’m so grateful for our small group, I’m grateful for my wife who supported me through this calling.  I’m grateful for our church and I’m grateful for the opportunity to just be asked to do something for the Lord. Ultimately it’s not about even the church or me but it’s about leveraging the blessings that have been given to us to the ones that most need it and the ones that God cares for.

“if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God’s love abide in him?”  1 John 3:17

“Learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, and plead the case of the widow.”  Isaiah 1:17

Ed Novello

June 5, 2017