Month 4 is now complete and Month 5 has begun. We left Albania about 2 weeks ago for our
month 4/5 debrief in Bucharest, Romania.
Before we left for Romania we were told we
would be driving through Macedonia and Bulgaria on a 20 hours bus right
straight to Bucharest. A few hours into
the bus ride we got to our first border crossing. We figured we were about to be in Macedonia but I looked out the window and saw a sign saying “Welcome to the
Republic of Kosovo”. We were all
confused. We all started looking at our maps
trying to figure out where we were and what country we were going to next. We figured our next border crossing would be
Serbia but it still didn’t make sense because it was a lot longer than just
going through Macedonia and Bulgaria. After
we got to Kosovo I took a few sleeping pills so I was out. An hour to two later I was woken up at another
border crossing, but it wasn’t Serbia…we were about to enter Macedonia and now we
were even more confused. We started guessing what
country would be next, maybe Italy or Germany.
It didn’t make any sense where our driver was taking us, but being on
the World Race I just laughed and went back to sleep. After Macedonia we crossed into Bulgaria then
Romania. I think our driver just wanted us to get one more stamp in our passports. So much for just 11 countries
in 11 months, more like 5 countries in 20 hours and a total of 10 countries in
less than 5 months.
about 5 days in Bucharest for debrief as a squad. It was definitely a much needed break filled with squad-wide worship, team encouragement and bonding, spirit cultivation, 3 hour long conversations while sitting on the kitchen floor until 2am, and just a good time to relax before the months ahead. And most importantly we got to pretend we were back in America for a little bit with some McDonalds, Starbucks, and my first trip to a movie theater in 5 months. It’s strange going to a movie theater and not knowing what any of the movies listed are about much less having never heard of them. Right now I am
in Draganesti-Olt, Romania. About 2 hours
west of Bucharest by train. We are with another team this month working together with a church here doing everything imaginable.
