This has been our shortest month of ministry so far and Team Haven is sad to leave Romania. The beauty of our surroundings, the comfort of having a house to stay in, the satisfaction of our ministry, the pastries….these are all things we feel amazingly blessed to have experienced.
The Lord blessed us with a beautiful house in the village of Acatari to stay in.
The main focus of our ministry has been reaching out to high school and college-age students to invite them to meetings we hold each Friday near the City Centre from 5 – 7 p.m. The meetings are a relaxed church service in an intimate setting. We have a brief time of worship, a few of us share personal testimonies, and then my favorite part – we break into small groups for a ‘get to know you’ period. This is when we get to be real with the students and tell them who Jesus is to us. Not a scary drill sergeant with rules to follow, but our best friend, our confidant, our fav person to hang with and take our problems to.
The goal is to abolish fear and confusion about traditionalism and religion that seems to be the large divide keeping youth out of church in Europe. We have spent most week days this month at two college campuses, Sapientia University, and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Targu Mures. We felt like we were back in school! We were able to meet students here, form relationships and invite them to the meetings. When we weren’t on campuses we were spending time in parks and the city centre to meet youth. (This is where the pastries come in….)
Hanging out at Sapientia with Helga, one of the college students who came to our Friday meetings.
We were blessed to enter in to ministry in Targu Mures on the heels of World Race two teams from M Squad, now set to go home in just a few weeks. It was a blessing to have their guidance getting our feet wet with this month of ministry, and to build on and cultivate some of the relationships they formed last month. We are claiming revival over this city we have fallen in love with and are continuing to pray for the Hungarians, Romanians and Gypsies that create the diverse culture we had the blessing to soak up this month.
Haven ladies leading worship in a park. The kids loved it!
