Roma outreach is bread of heaven

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, as 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.”

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