Karen Kurth
Romania

E-Mail: missionsmindedk@yahoo.com

The Call

I began my Christian journey at the age of 37 through reading God’s word on my own. I began seeking answers to spiritual questions from the age of 35 when my niece was dying of a rare cancer. Being older when I gave my life to Christ, I really gave my life to Christ. I said, “Here it is. I’ve made a mess of it and if you can use me in anything it will be your miracle.” I finished my BA at age 39-just squeaking in to 40, and I began Christian counseling to deal with issues from the past. I began attending Wheaton Bible Church at age 36 and went to a fantastic adult Sunday school class on the very first day I attended the church and steadily for the next three years. After I finished college, I took the gigantic leap and went to Deva, Romania, with the Wheaton Bible Church Short-Term Mission’s Team as a teacher assistant for English as a Second Language. The teacher I was working with commented that I seemed to have a natural talent for teaching. I tucked that away in my mind. I was surprised to find this love of teaching within myself. When Wheaton Bible Church Teams go to Deva, they stay in the homes of Romanian Christians. I stayed with a high school student, Monica, and her mother. Monica and I immediately clicked and I can only describe it as a David/Jonathan experience. I knew I was going back to Deva the next year. The next year I returned to Deva and was an assistant to the English teacher. She began turning the classroom over to me more and more. On my third trip, on the first morning, things occurred: (1) I was given my own English class and (2) I was asked by a Romanian Christian, if I did not feel that I should be in Romania full-time. I recoiled in fear at his question and replied an emphatic, “No, I don’t think so.” When I returned home I couldn’t forget his words and I began to talk to God about this. I told God I would go to Romania but only if He gave me a husband to go with me. I spent a miserable year of pursuing my own route to obeying God through Christian Single’s matchmaking. On my first date, the fellow said, “I thought I shouldn’t ask you out because I feel like God is saving you for Romania.” That made me angry. The fourth year I returned to Deva and, again, I taught my own English class, and I was forming more relationships with the Romanians in the church. At the end of the trip a fellow team member said to me, “When you are ready to come to Romania full-time, then my wife and I will support you.” I returned home and truly sought God. I began to dream that I was teaching children. The dreams were vivid and repeated. That autumn I met a Wheaton team member for breakfast, after a night when I had the most vivid dream. My mind was still in the dream while my friend was talking, and I finally heard her say, “Karen, do you know that school in Deva really needs a native English speaking teacher?” I looked at her shocked. I found myself suddenly making the decision to find a new home for my cat that fall, and I could not rest for thinking about painting my condominium. From February till June, I worked on my condo. I thought I was sprucing it up for myself, but God was at work in my heart allowing me to let go of material things and my ‘right’ to rule how my life was lived. This summer when I went to Deva I went submitted to God’s will. I did request that if God wanted me to be in Deva then I would like to be asked to come. This past July (2005), I was part of the Wheaton Bible Church team to Deva, and I was a co-leader for the trip. I was in charge of the English teachers (none of whom had been to Deva in the past). The day we arrived, Saturday, we had a brief meeting in the conference room of the church with our Romanian translators, the host families, the pastoral staff from the host church and our fellow team members. I was greeting people and was not paying much attention to the meeting when I heard one of our team members ask if Pastor Timotei was going to collect our passports for safe keeping. (Our manual is perhaps a bit old and it suggests that the pastor collect all passports and put them in the church safe.) Timotei made a joke about losing the passports and then he looked down the table at me and asked, “Karen, would you like to lose your passport for 2-3 years?” I joked back that I would not mind but my heart flipped over. On Sunday, I was waiting for the group to gather so we could get our assignments for the afternoon house-church visits, when Timotei sat down next to me he said, “Karen, I received an interesting E-mail from you. It said, “Karen Kurth, teacher in Deva.” I thought, God is that an answer to prayer? The E-mail he was referring to was one where I listed each team member and their job while in Deva. The other people from the group joined us and the conversation ended. On Monday Timotei asked me to his home to have dinner with him and his wife on Tuesday evening (the only evening my schedule was open). On Tuesday, Timotei picked me up at the church and we chit chatted all the way to his house. His wife was preparing dinner when we arrived, and we sat in the living room. The moment we sat down Timotei leaned forward and asked, “Karen, will you come to Deva and teach English in our pre-school and first and second grade?” I could only reply, “yes.” I had asked God for an invitation, had I not?

Prospective Ministry & Vision

My primary responsibility will be to teach English in the mornings at the preschool and in the afternoons to the first and second grades at the Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Deva, Romania. The school is with the church. Once a week, I will lead an English Club for teens in the evening. I will be expected to make a visit to the home of each of my students each semester. As the school grows and adds third and fourth grades, I shall teach English for each grade. It is essential for this school to have a native English-speaking teacher and for that person to love and enjoy children. Many of the school children (at least 70%) come from families who are not members of the Holy Trinity Baptist Church. This is an opportunity to reach the children and then the parents through the children.
My secondary responsibilities are mostly visionary. I will be a servant where they need to use me in the church. I will frequently host non-nationals in my apartment. I will be a liaison for the U. S. short-term mission teams. In summer, I will help with the Christian camps for youth (they do camps for different ages and camps for kids within the church as well as camps for poor children of other cities such as Hunedoara). I want to help with a prayer group of mothers within the school. I want to be very involved with the young people-middle school and teens who are leaving the church because they think church is boring and condemning. I have much to learn. I need to learn the language well because without words I can only see through a glass darkly.
Also, I have a vision for small prayer groups within the church. In church there is public prayer, and I noticed the young people NEVER participate. Sometimes the older women are shouting so loudly shouting that it as though they are trying to compete in who can be the loudest. A visitor might think, “Oh, how fervently they pray.” I have caught a cynical attitude from the young people as they have made comments on the time of prayer. Again, when I know the language I will better understand. The young people in the church should not just be waiting for the older generation to die.
Outside of the church I hope to make a difference in the community. This past year, I had two schoolteachers in my English class. These women teach in little village schools. We met for coffee one afternoon and shared about the similarities and differences between schools in Romania and the U. S. Since I have been home, I have written to one of the teachers (the one who speaks English quite well). I hope a friendship will build there. She is not a member of the Baptist church or of any other church. But, as I said, my primary job is to teach English in their school.