Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ” Matthew 22: 37-39
Meet Romi*
Romi owns the top floor of the house just opposite ours in the courtyard. He’s a 37 year old single guy who runs his own business for technical repairs in the plastic-mould injection industry. Beyond work, Romi has 2 main hobbies: fishing and mixing his own techno music. He lives alone with his cat, Oxia. Unfortunately, due to some tragic circumstances, he has no family in his life.
Romi was the very first neighbour we met when we moved into our house last year. As we were unloading boxes from our moving van, he came over, introduced himself, and offered to help. Realizing we were not “from around here”, Romi did his best to practice his English with us, and told us several times that if we needed anything, we could ask him.
At our first “fête des voisins” (party of neighbours) last May, Romi was the first to arrive to help set up. After a great evening together, he was also the last to leave. As he helped clean up, he repeatedly expressed how awesome it was to hang out with everyone.
Since that first party, Romi has consistently been the most motivated to participate in future gatherings. And one thing we noticed was how much effort he put into the food he would bring. He shared that because he lives alone he eats out or orders in most of his meals but he prefers to and really likes to cook for others.
As a family, we too love to cook. So just before Christmas we invited Romi over to make tourtière together, a traditional Québecois meat pie. He was super excited about it, and in the end we had a great evening together cooking, eating and talking late into the night.
Following the Christmas break, Romi called Joel and asked when we could get together to do it again! So in mid-January he came over to make another family favourite: dumplings. During our time of eating our creations, it was Romi who brought up the subject of faith and the existence of God. We have known for quite a while that he is a determined atheist, but he was open to discussing faith and enjoyed the debate that lasted 3 hours. ( Joel loved it too! )
Next week we are planning to make Vietnamese Pho, and Romi has suggested inviting another friend, Mike, to join in the fun.
It is clear to us that Romi is on a path, due to his life choices, that is more destructive than anything else. And through our discussions with him, it is obvious that he feels alone.
Yet we know for certain that God has orchestrated this relationship, and we are fervently praying that we be able to demonstrate to Romi the truth that God loves him. We pray that he would feel embraced and loved by our family and for ongoing opportunities to build a trusting friendship with him.
Please join us and pray for Romi.
Who do you LOVE? We would love to hear your stories!
With joy,
