I can’t believe my first month is Romania has already come to a close! I am currently in Bucharest, having been reunited with the rest of the squad just this morning. We’re all gearing up for 3 weeks of squad ministry and bonding time! I’m sure God will teach us some good stuff this month! I wanted to share a little bit about the ministry we were able to do while in Targu Mures and Stererjis (the village we lived in) the last 2 weeks…..
The last week and a half we were in Stejeris (the village we actually lived in) we connected with the local church, the pastor is actually the woman who owns the house we were staying in. She has two daughters our age, Zuzi and Emoke. I know that one reason we were in Stejeris was to minister to these women. It was such a blessing to get to know them and it made leaving much harder then it would have been. Zuzi and Emoke are both so hungry for God and desire to follow His will for their lives, and to encourage them was just really amazing. Their knowledge of the Bible is simply incredible and truly inspired me to become more initmate with God’s word. I wish we had been able to meet these ladies earlier! I love them!
Me, Emoke, and Zuzi
Because of our friendship with Emoke and Zuzi we were able to have a VBS for the kids of Sterejis. This was one of my favoirte planned ministries we did this month. We played games and focused on the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. One thing I have been learning this month is to “step up,” to take an active role in whatever ministry we are doing, to be a part of the planning process, to lead something if I feel that God is calling me to. In the past taking charge of anything freaked me out, mainly because I was afraid of something going wrong and being labeled a failure. God is definitely breaking this fear off of me and has given me the confidence to just do what He has called me to do. With the VBS I found myself in charge of the story and the skit; God placed it on my heart to give my all to this kids and so thats what I tried to do. And I had such fun doing it. At the end of VBS we had face paints for the kids; we painted them like lions and they loved it! I have really fallenl in love all the kids of Romania we have come in contact with. Also, after the VBS 
I can’t deny that God has given a me gift and passion for kids.
I can’t deny that God has given a me gift and passion for kids.
Some of the kids from the VBS!
One last thing I wanted to talk briefly about was the group of teenage boys we met in the park in Targu Mures. One of our first days in Romania we met 7 guys ranging from 15 to 21 just hanging out in a local park: Sake, Vlad, Raul, Christian, Paul, Vlad, and Eddie. One interesting thing about most of the youth in this area is that they speak 3 languages: Hungarian, Romanian, and English. Because these guys speak excellent English we were able to hang out with them without having to worry about language barriers or a translator. Almost every time we went into the city some of us would see some of them and we were even able to have a few of them over for dinner. They are not Christians and most of them openly admit to hating religion. Yet, they still wanted to hang out with us. They just enjoyed talking to us about movies, music and life in Romania. Sometimes we would play soccer with them. Sake was the one who was particularly drawn to us. He was the main guy that we talked to and one week he even came to church with us. He is a smart guy who thinks about life and what he wants from it. I 100% trust that God is used us to plant seeds in these boys lives and whether it weeks, months, or even years from now He will cause those seeds to grow.
Sake and Eddie in the park!
This month God continued the lesson I learned in Nicaragua about ministry- just hanging out with people, showing in interest in their lives, and loving them for they are, is ministry and can have a deep impact. We need to learn to trust God that the people He is placing in your path our the people He wants you to minister to and that He will continue a work in their hearts, even if you aren’t there to see it come to completion. It was hard to leave Sterejis/Targu Mures mainly because I felt that I needed to do more for these people, but thats not what God wanted of me. I will probably never see Emoke, Zuzi, the village kids, or any of the teenagers again, but God still placed us, placed me, in Romania, for a reason, to love and to listen.
