So i know it made very clear that I was horrible at writing blogs, but this may be the worst. It has been over two months that I have wrote about my trip and what God is doing in me and my team! This past month in Romania has been incredible. Eastern Europe is beautiful and the people have been open hearted and loving that we have worked with. But with that, I have experienced many feelings and there has been much darkness here. Eastern Europe is very unique because there is so much happening here. There are the gypsies which have much witch craft and because of that they believe in many spirits and the enemy has a hold on this land. The other Romanians are controlled by greek orthodox and there is much paganism that occurs there too. I thought the Catholic church was full of idols with their rosary beads and mary statues, but they have pictures of Jesus and Bible charters in their church everywhere. They have many sections where lighting candles, communion, crosses, and statues that you can pray to for certain things. Also, it was similar to the Vatican with money in certain areas all over to buy their way to heaven. It was extremely sad. The people are controlled by this pagan lifestyle and the priest is the law in the village and in the churches and his prayers are what gets them out of hell and they will pay for prayers. With all this occurring in different people groups and also in the church, the villages have some crazy rituals as well that are quite scary. When someone dies, they believe that you need to put their picture on the outside of the house and every night they feed their spirit that they believe is walking around their village. It is scary because they are inviting the enemy to come but also spirits to come in. The land is very dark and oppressed. There are hardly no jobs. The county where we were was 80% of people do not have work. Also, there are .02% Christians in Olt County! I was so shocked but I believe it to be true because these people are searching for something, I can see it! Much of the younger generations have no religion choice. Many will say that they do no believe in God or anything at all. It is hard to even talk to them because all their families are greek orthodox followers and there are generations of believing this pagan religion. So what does this have to do with prayer? Well, I gave you the facts of things that happen here and things that I feel everyday. I feel the oppression and the control the enemy has on Romania, but I can also see hungry hearts! I can see that prayer will have to be the guiding factor for change in this country. It will take hearts to be open for Jesus to come. It will be praying off the enemy and saying that he has no place here. Also, bringing the spirit before us so the presence of the Lord is with us. Every time we prayed as a group somewhere, there was always someone coming up, someone watching over us, and crazy things that happened to keep the presence of the Lord to invade the places we were. You really can feel the presence of evil because revival is coming for this country, I know it! Personally, I realized that I took prayer for granite my whole life. I would pray occasionally if I needed God to answer a prayer or to bless my food. It was not something that I desired. Prayer was not a big deal to me. As the race progressed, I know that God wants to hear from me I can worship Him through prayer and share my day with Him. I can ask for His presence to go before me and he guides to change kingdom. I can pray over people and feel the presence of the Lord, Jesus also will let me feel their heart and be specific to what they need to hear without them asking me to pray for anything specific! Crazy thing is I do not have to pay for it. God wants us to personally talk to Him. He desires us to come to Him and talk to Him, share our heart. Bring his presence. Ask for what we want our life to be and the people that we will encounter. I can pray on people throughout the village without them saying no, or "I do not have money". What is this? Our God has given us a gift that we do not use. We have made God so complicated. It is simple, you are His creation and all he desires is a relationship with us. As a daughter of the most high God, he wants me to just talk to Him and love Him. He does that for me, why do I not take the time for Him? I have been so challenged being in Romania because I realized I am close to God, but I do not speak to Him like I should when everyday people are going to church, asking for prayers, paying for prayers, praying their ancestors into heaven, and witchcraft. I have been called to bring truth. To pray for people and share Jesus with them. This is has been a lifestyle change for sure. Praying for me, my team, squad, ministry, people we encounter, my family, and every area of life...I need to bring it God. He knows about it already, but He wants to hear from us! :) So I always include my funding info. I am $4,000 away from being fully funded. July 1 is the deadline and here is the link if you want to participate in supporting me! https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=worldrace&desc=For%20Lauren%20Leabhart Thank you for being apart of my journey and feel free to comment, email me [email protected] or my Facebook Lauren Leabhart :)
