So as we are about to close the chapter on Month 2 here in Romania I realize I haven’t written a lot. My apologies but there hasn’t a lot that has inspired me to write this month. Month two was a very different month than month one. Instead of a variety of ministry with lots of room for flexibility my team had a very structured routine. Every morning our whole squad would get up for an hour of worship and personal time followed by an hour of praying for the people and projects of Hope Church, the church that was hosting all of us and arranging our different ministry projects. My team was assigned to a project in the neighbouring village of Daneasa. Daneasa is a village of 3,800 that does not yet have an evangelical church. Marian, our contact, has been working to build relationships and partnerships in Daneasa for the past 8 years.
There was a number of things our team participated in during our afternoons. Shea and Kristen worked on making a mural for the kindergarten classrooms at a local school. This was a big step for the ministry as they were previously welcomed into the school by the former head teacher but people in the community which is primarily orthodox did not approve of that and actually had the head teacher replaced and so Marian was no longer welcome in the school and services like handing out free eyeglasses where missed by the people who needed them. Then Marian met a teacher who cared more about a partnership with Marian could do for her kids than about what people said about it. So it was very encouraging for us to be welcomed into not one but three classrooms to produce murals for them.
The school, like all buildings and houses here, is heated by a wood in a ceramic stove. The school had a massive pile of wood to cut in preparation for winter so we always had one guy there chopping wood. The axes were unreliable and the wood was very hard so it was not an easy job and over the month Zack managed to break four axes, thankfully without injury to himself.
While one guy chopped wood the two other guys went with a missionary named Dorothy who happens to be from Canada (Kitchener area) as well. They were very lucky to get to do home visits and meet some amazing widows. Every day they came back with heartwarming stories.
So that leaves me. My job was Marian’s personal assistant. My days were spent sitting on the computer driving around with Marian. I worked on the ministries website, produced broachers and pray cards, and wrote letters to supporters, partners, and new contacts. I was also glad to be able to put my passion for photography to work and took new family photos for Marian as well as another missionary family for the website.
It has been weird spending most of our days apart but on Sundays we all get to be together as we help out in Kids Church. I do miss attending actual services even if I don’t understand the language but I guess we will see what month 3 has in store for us.
Lastly, this month me and my squad were able to go on an adventure to Transylvania and visit Bran Castle, the castle of Dracula. I knew going into it that the castle wasn’t anything too exciting and was far overrated but I wasn’t about to go all that way and not go in. Everyone was right, if you have seen one old castle you have probably seen them all but I’m still glad I went. Bran is a very cute but touristy town and we didn’t have long so it was either see the castle or see the town and I chose the castle. After our quick stop at the castle we went on to the city of Brasov. It was very European feeling with its pedestrian cobble stone streets, old church, and architecture. The best part of the whole trip was the drive out. It was a 5 hour drive through the gorgeous Carpathian Mountains decked out in all their fall colours. It is what I imagine the drive through Vermont to look like in the fall.
