Hello all! I am currently in Draganesti, Romania with the entire R Squad! A lot has happened since I last updated you, so get comfy and grab your coffee.
After leaving Albania on July 25 we took a van and a bus over to Bucharest Romania for our first debrief with the squad (see previous blog). This adventure turned into a 20+ hour bus ride due to some unforeseen political issues. The original plan was to drive from Albania, through Kosovo, and through Serbia to reach the Romanian border. Upon our arrival at the border of Serbia we are told that Albania and Serbia are not on the best of terms right now, and since we had Albanian stamps in our passports, we would not be able to cross into Serbia. So we backtracked through Kosovo, into Bulgaria and Macedonia, and finally into Romania. Several hours and a full page of passport stamps later, we made it. After debrief we took a train to Draganesti which is where our Romanian ministry contact is. We spent a few days to rest, dumped our things, celebrated my birthday, and then embarked on a 14 hr bus ride to Thessaloniki, Greece for a week.
Doing ministry in Greece has been something the World Race has been trying to accomplish for awhile, so it was a huge blessing to be the first squad to go to Greece. Our ministry contact in Romania, Raul and Hope Church, have a heart to spread God’s word to the Balkan countries, including Greece. So Greece is part of our Romanian mission. Our purpose in Greece was to do some street evangelism and look for ministry contacts for Raul. We definitely were not always sure of exactly what we were doing or if we were having an impact, but we know God had us there for a reason.
My group partnered with Paul, a pastor of a Nigerian church in Thessaloniki, Greece. We spent the first day getting to know him and his vision for the church in Greece. Being a pastor in Greece is hard. The Greek Orthodox religion prevails, and many people are very resistant to change. From what we understand, their view of Christianity and redemption is skewed, and more based on information and traditions than an actual relationship with Christ. Paul places so much trust in the Lord and he sees a revival coming for the church in Greece through the younger generations, but they lack strong leadership and committed Christians. Just being in the presence of Paul and hearing his heart for these people and his complete trust that the Lord would prevail was amazing.
My own internal struggles during this week were confusing. Hopefully you read my blog about debrief first, for some background. So this week, after many days of rest and rejuvenation, I felt very ready for God to move and use me. We had an awesome worship and prayer session on the first day of ministry, and then we were told what ministry options we had. I heard about going with Paul to do some evangelism and knew that was where God wanted me. I also knew this was something that would definitely be out of my comfort zone. After we met with Paul we went to go get dinner before going to hand out tracks. (Greece is a siesta culture, so everything shuts down in the afternoon. Most of our ministry happened in the evening). While eating, it started to downpour. Paul said no evangelizing today due to the rain, so we headed back to the church to help him with some computer work. I was a bit confused, because I felt like God had been pushing and prodding me, and then this falls through. The next day was equally confusing as we went out to hand out tracks, but no one was really interested in having a conversation with us. Many young people took the tracks and were reading them, but they just kept on walking by. One woman I handed a track to even came back after me when she had read it so she could give it back. She was stating she was Orthodox and had no interest in what we were doing. I felt very ineffective and useless.
The following day Paul had some church meetings, so we met up with one of the other groups that was worshipping in the park and then offering prayer to the people sitting there. We worshipped for awhile, and then some people dispersed. I stayed back at first, finding that it would be incredibly easy to just sit and sing the whole time. But I have committed to not going back to that comfy castle, so I stood up. And then I just stood awhile looking around trying to decide who I would go talk to. After an uncomfortably long time, I approached two young women and talked with them for a bit. They only spoke a little English, so we did not get too far. And eventually they wanted to join the rest of their group nearby, so we parted. I went back to our group and saw an older woman who had sat down, so I tried to talk with her. No English. Back to square one. At this point, Haley came by (one of my fabulous teammates who loves evangelism – this is one of her things) and asks if I have prayed with anyone yet. I told her no, so she went with me as we made some more attempts. Still no luck. I am feeling some frustration at this point. Why is God pushing me out of my comfort zone if nothing is going to happen?! But I have been praying so much the last week or so that I do not want to stay, I want to go and do, and I will not be content to let this night pass by. I prayed for one conversation and prayer, just one. So I got up and walked around again. Nothing. Sat down. Up again. This time I pass by an African man and he catches my eye and watches me come by, so I sit down and introduce myself. He speaks English! After talking with him for a bit I asked him if I there was anything I could be praying about for him. He said yes, that he had diabetes and it was sapping his strength. So we prayed and continued to talk, and he was telling me how he was sure this was a divine appointment, and that he was sitting there 4 hours before I finally came by (in my typical slow fashion), and then all of a sudden I am there.
This whole experience is still somewhat confusing to me, but I feel God working in me and providing opportunities, even if I have to ask for them. I also think our greater purpose for being in Greece was to encourage and support Paul. We were able to shower him in prayer, encourage him, and help him with some social networking within his church. If I have learned anything so far on the race, it is that it is really hard to be a pastor in the places I have been to. Raul describes the southern part of Romania as a pastor graveyard. Paul voiced his struggles with finding strong leadership for his church. Our contacts in Albania were concerned about the lack of mentors and strong Christian leaders for their youth. There are a lot of people here who do not want to be bothered. They do not want to hear anything different; they want to keep to their own ways and long standing traditions. Sometimes this reminds me of churches back home. It is hard to change, and it is even harder to convince others to change.
The next day we attended Paul’s church and got our first taste of authentic African worship, shared a few of our own songs, and then got back on the bus for another 14 hour bus ride back to Romania for the rest of the month.
So…this is where I leave you for the moment. No pretty ending. But God who has started a work in me will finish it to completion. Stay tuned and I’m sure there will be more to tell.
