Romania in May
Onward and upward, going from glory to glory, we are in Europe now and I find myself enchanted by architecture, history, and mountains and enveloped in a culture that knows how to savor life…. which I love. I'm enjoying it, but pretty much immediately started to feel the pressure of western culture in "trying to get it all done" and "looking good while doing it."
I can see the Lord's perfect timing in putting Europe as our continent to prepare us for home, for it looks the most like home in comparison to our other countries, and with that are the beginnings of the conversations of "re-entry."
God wrecked my heart on the plane ride from Africa to here about the visions for the ministry He's inviting me to post-Race, and what I can say at this point is that it's bigger than me and impossible without Him, but that's what every ministry should be… impossible without Him. We need His presence, always!
God's challenging me to dream big and trust Him. He's shown me so many examples of this over the past 8 months and given me prophecy to fuel the fire. I'm starting to pray for the impossible, and growing in believing Him for it.
Prayers for this month:
– Our "Parent Vision" trip – My mom leaves tomorrow!!! to head to Romania and will be with me for a week. Parents will be doing life and ministry with us for a week… getting a taste of what it's like to be a "Racer." Prayers over all of this! I desire for God to show up in a big way and bring healing, reconciliation, freedom, newness, worship, hunger and thirst for Him, community, fellowship, brotherly love, friendship; all kinds of Holy Spirit goodness to this week for all the parents and racers.
– Romania – there is a heavy spirit of religion, "fleshly" sexuality (if that's a term), vanity, and all things that come with the generational history of a country. Prayers for the light of Christ to bring salvation, purity, reconciliation, and freedom from religious bondage. Prayers for protection over my squad from these cultural pressures. A lot of girls have been struggling with body image, and as a squad, we've discussed guarding our eyes and hearts, and honoring everyone we come in contact with. The people here are gorgeous!!! and really nice from my experience, though that hasn't been everyone's.
– Prayers over my squad and team as we start to think about returning home. Prayers for us to balance being present and focusing on the task and person in front of us while praying into the months to come.
– Prayers for what God has laid on my heart. I'm asking for dreams and visions. Literally. That God would start to guide me through dreams and visions.
I can feel myself getting closer and closer to actually seeing the familiar faces of home.
Life with God and the church body community is… amazing. Thank you for walking this with me.
Abundant love.
~~~ Hello Month 9!!!!! ~~~
My prayer this evening during worship:
Psalm 61
Assurance of God?s Eternal Protection
Hear my cry, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For You have been a shelter for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah
For You, O God, have heard my vows;
You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.
You will prolong the king?s life,
His years as many generations.
He shall abide before God forever.
Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him!
So I will sing praise to Your name forever,
That I may daily perform my vows.
"That I may daily perform my vows to Him. Amen."
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Ministry Prayer:
"The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few."
These are the words that keep coming to mind this month in Romania. We are in an area of highly unchurched people, or as our contact Raul puts it: people with no shepherd. The missionaries here see the need and they are working hard and fast to fill the needs, doing kids clubs, evangelism, home visits, trying to provide for physical needs while providing for spiritual needs. We are also in a poor area where the church planted here itself struggles with being self-sustaining. All of the workers are supported through donations and mission support from other churches that sent them here. Romania is majority Orthodox, so they think they have God, but are so far from knowing Jesus… a hard area to evangelize in. The missionaries are growing tired waiting on more workers; we can feel that some are fighting hopelessness. And it's not because they want to stop, it's because they want to cover more ground, shepherd more people. They need the supernatural rest of Jesus, the supernatural hope of Jesus; to be renewed and restored to push on.
Life here in general is hard. The culture here tends to be cold and critical, especially the older generation, which is hard on the youth that are striving for more. They need the joy of Jesus. All need the hope and joy of Jesus.
There is much, and yet God still says "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth."
I find myself being more and more grateful that God chose to birth me in the family and nation He chose for me. America, and my family, we have our issues, but I have not had a hard life. I see hard here, I saw hard in Africa, in Asia. It has also made me more curious, "Why put me where you chose to put me God?" And I hear, "Blessed to bless."
In our Romanian town, Dragonesti, we wave and say hello to everyone we pass, not a norm for the culture here. Our first week's response from the people was a look like who are you and why are you talking to me, BUT after a couple of weeks, we are starting to see smiles, waves, and receiving "hellos" back; Romanian hellos usually followed by other Romanian words that we don't understand. It doesn't matter that we don't understand, though, because they give us grace in our ignorance in response to us giving them love in our greeting. We are even starting to receive greetings before we can say hello first! 🙂
Please lift up your precious prayers over Dragonesti and Romania. Prayers over the mission and the missionaries here.
Keeping my hands open so the Source from whom all blessings flow can flow through onto all.
Love abounding.
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Update on my mom's trip to Romania! It was an amazing week with the parents. It was awesome for the parents to get a glimpse of what life is like on the Race and in our Race culture. The parents in particular said that they loved the freedom we had in worship and to see how God moved in that. We had worship almost every night. It was great to do ministry with our parents and for parents to get an opportunity to see what God is doing around the world. My team's moms got the chance to experience team-time and feedback and the benefits of that. Was pretty funny, though, the first night we were waiting on a couple of moms to get off of facebook to come to feedback, which is role reversal for sure! My mom was awesome! She was present and up for whatever the day or night held. She's a truth-seeker and "she gets it" as one of my squadmates mentioned to me during the week, which was a blessing for me to see and experience. We had a great week of seeing and sharing what God has been doing in both of our lives the past 9 months. It made me really excited to go back home and continue this God-adventure called life with my family and friends.
Here's a video from the parent vision trip. One of my squadmate's dad made it.
Love and big hugs!
Monica
