Short and Sweet—
Romania is a beautiful country and the people are hilarious. Well the missionaries and people apart of Hope Church are hilarious anyways. Romania is half Italian so they all have the stereotype of being super loud. Also, if you don't eat your food fast enough they will come eat it off your plate. We went to one of the pastor's moms house for lunch and they seriously ate their food in less than 5 minutes then kept trying to eat ours. There are only .2% Christians in the district of Dragonesti-olt. This is because of the Orthodox church. The Orthodox priest don't like new born believers because is causes them to lose money. They get money to bless children, bless homes, and marry others. When members of the church decide to leave they get threaten by the priests. Sometimes they will order people to beat them up. They will free fuse to marry them. And will ruin their names. So a lot of people live in fear. It has also only been 23 years since they haven't been a communist country.
Ministry- our focus has been to support the missionaries that are already here. Most are Romanian but there are some from the UK, Germany, and Canada. These are some of the coolest missionaries but they put a lot of time into pouring into us. On our day off (which is their day off too) they drive us around sightseeing and while asking us deep questions about out lives. So far I've had a picnic with some teenage girls and shared my testimony. Some I play with kids and once a week I help someone clean their house. Nows what else I will do! Every day is different!
alyssa
