Here’s a recap of our second month on the Race in Romania! (Again, I have pictures to post, but WiFi isn’t good enough to upload them yet….stay tuned.)
Week 1: Debrief in Buncharest, Romania
R Squad began Month 2 (or rather, ended Month 1) by gathering together in Bucharest, Romania for a few days of debrief. Our time there was filled with a nice balance of squad-mate dates at McDonalds, roaming the streets of Bucharest and attending thought-provoking sessions with the whole squad led by our leadership team. Our next Debrief will be at the end of Month 4 in Zambia!
Week 2: Week-long outreach ministry in Greece
Our contact in Romania, Raul, has a heart for outreach in the Balkans, so he gave our squad the opportunity to travel to Thessaloniki, Greece for a week of ministry! We spent five days serving throughout the city and then got to spend two days touring and relaxing at the beach. If you read my blog, you can hear more about what my team for the week did in Greece!
Week 3 & 4: Ministry in Draganesti-Olt, Romania
During our time together as a squad in Draganesti-Olt, we stayed at Hope Church’s mission house. All 55 of us were spread out amongst bunk beds, tents and hammocks, sharing two toilets and two showers. After a week or so in a bunk bed, I opted to set up my hammock out back, and it was the BEST DECISION I’VE EVER MADE! It was my little introvert oasis escape from being surround by 54 other people non-stop.
One of my favorite “ministries” of the month was cooking! Our teams took turns covering kitchen duties, so I had the opportunity to make Mexican food, breakfast burritos and chicken fried rice for 55 people! On meal duty days the “chefs” stayed home from ministry because that day cooking was their ministry! It took around 5 hours to complete the task, but I loved being able to tackle such a large task and succeed at the end of the day by serving up a yummy meal.
Week three was spent in various ministries doing anything from handing out Bibles to picking up trash around town. During week 4 our squad was broken up into our normal teams, and my team (Geronima) was assigned to work with Pastor George in a neighboring village. We absolutely loved our time spent with him and wish we had more than one week to help out with his ministry. We hung out with local kids at the park, handed out tracts in the village and scrubbed rugs by the river! We had a great time.
On one of our weekends off, the squad took a quick trip to Brasov to check out Dracula’s Castle! This was one of the places I KNEW I had to check out since my route included Romania. So glad I got to go!
