After our Asia leg of the race, we hoped on another plane and flew to Romania. We started off the month with our month 6 debrief in Brasov before splitting up for the month of ministry.
Country: Romania
City: Dragonesti
Ministry: Team Yebo was the ‘mobile’ team during our time in Dragonesti. We lived with missionaries who are a part of the church with worked with and helped them whenever they needed it. We cleaned houses, did yardwork, babysat kids, helped with banquets, did odd jobs at the churches, etc. We also did projects with the other teams that we working with the church such as picking up trash around town, prayer meetings, administrative tasks, etc. I joked that this month I was learning to be a housewife.
Contact: Our contact this month was Raul Costea with Hope Church. Raul has a huge heart for reaching people who do not know Jesus in Dragonesti and the surrounding villages. We stayed with two missionaries families this month, Mark, Florina , and family and John Vlad’s family.
Living Arrangements: Like I said before we lived with two different families this month as well as at the team house in between. While staying at Mark and Florina’s we were spoiled. We had amazing food, comfortable beds, and an amazing shower. We were only team house temporarily so we had any open beds available or mattresses on the floor. At the Vlad’s, we stayed in a house that didn’t have heat or running water. It was quite cold so when we weren’t doing ministry we spent most of our time in our sleeping bags or next to the space heater.
Teams We Served With: Teams Beloved, Thriven, and Talitha Cumi also served with Hope Church this month. They all lived at the mission house.
Money & Exchange Rate: Leu (3 Leu=1 US Dollar)
Language: Romanian
Off Day Fun: We went to visit Thessaloniki, Greece for our off days this month. It ended up taking us a lot longer to get there than planned so we really only had about 20 hours there. I ate some of the best food I had on the race in Greece and had fun seeing the sights. I wish we could have stayed there longer.
Great Things From the Month:
-This month was really good for our team. Living with the missionary families helped us to bond and feel like a family. It was so nice to just sit around a kitchen table together everyday.
-I loved working with the missionary families especially Mark and Florina. The missionaries of Hope Church are doing some amazing things.
-I got to do some street evangelism this month and really enjoyed it.
-I grew a lot in my prayer life this month. We met many mornings with the other teams to pray for Hope Church and Dragonesti.
Hard Things From the Month:
-The Orthodox Church is really big in Eastern Europe so I found myself faced with a lot of legalism. It was really cool though to share with people my story.
-Not having a good translator during our time at the Vlad’s house was difficult. We really wanted to connect with the family and get to know them the way we had gotten to know Mark and Florina. We weren’t able to do that as well without the ability to communicate with them.
-Having to pack up and move every week or so was difficult. We fell in love with Mark, Florina, David, and Ruben and wished we could have stayed with them all month.
Memories:
-I had so much fun in Brasov at the beginning of the month for debrief. It was the coolest town. I loved walking around, having coffee, shopping, and going to see a beautiful castle.
-I have so many fun memories of playing with David and Ruben. “I want chocolate and I want it NOW!” “David did you eat my chocolate?”, “David did you use Kristi’s razor to shave your head?”
-I will never forget the travel days for Greece. We started to go crazy in the end. I stayed up all night trying to keep our driver awake by belting out Celine Dion. It’s too funny now.
-We had some fun dance parties and sing-a-longs around the kitchen table at the mission house.
-Freezing our butts off while staying at the Vlad’s.
-We took some killer photos in the cemetery while we stayed at the Vlad’s.
-Countless trips to the Penny Market to get chocolate and treats.
Lessons Learned:
-More Patience. (This is just a given)
-God taught me a lot about giving grace to others even when they don’t get it to you.
-God showed me this month how I have authority over the enemy.
-Further dependence on God.
-This month was the beginning of the lesson of choosing joy.
-God showed me how He was making room for better things by getting rid of the ugly.
Romania was a fun month. After Romania was manistry month for iSquad in Ukraine. My ladies and I had a pretty awesome location. Check back tomorrow to hear more about it.
