Here we are, month 6 of The World Race, on our 3rd continent in Eastern Europe. We are doing ministry in Draganesti-Olt, Romania. This month my team "Amaranthine" is working alongside "Team Ruach," with "Hope Church." The church currently has 19 full time missionaries who work within the area of Draganesti. Our teams this month are serving in many areas, we are making ourselves completely available to serve Hope Church in any way they request of us. This includes: Kids clubs, after school programs, cleaning in the church, helping with logistics in the church, walking around the streets handing out booklets in Romanian sharing about God's love, leading worship and sharing testimonies during the Sunday church service and shoveling snow at the church and others in the neighbourhood as an act of service hoping they would see we are connected to the church and maybe open their hearts to curiosity through kindness.
Our main contact "Pastor Raul," shared with us about this community and the heavy spiritual darkness that the villages live with. Many gypsies live in this area and witchcraft and witchdoctors are dominant in this area. Other countries in Europe know Draganesti-Olt as a dark place and it is one of the areas where witchcraft is most commonly practiced. This part of Romania is very different from the Northern part of the country, less than 0.2% of the population are Christians.
Here is a photo of missionaries who partner with Hope Church and who
serve here in Draganesti-Olt and surrounding villages. Kevin and
Michelle Weppler and Dorothy Reid are fellow Canadians (this is my little shout out!)
Every morning from 10:00am until 12:00pm we meet at the church and have 2 hours of prayer time for the ministry. Each day we meet the missionaries who serve here and pray specifically for their families, ministry, and any other requests they have. Prayer is a huge part of our ministry here in Draganesti, but it is through prayer that we will see things happen!
Kids club is held in one of the missionaries cousin's house. Kids from the area who live down the street come out each week to learn about God and have fun doing crafts, singing and each week they have a memory verse they have to memorize.
Some of the girls at kids club !
Tiffany, Rachel and myself after our first night joining them for kids club. Veronica in the back right is their leader, she also translates everything we want to share from Romanian to English for us. The kids are all well behaved and cute !
One of the missionaries daughters ! She is 5 years old and just the cutest little girl! A few of us go to her house each week to help her mom and dad with emails, translating to English, prayer time and handing out Romanian booklets sharing about God's love to those in the neighbourhood. Last week we also visited and prayed with an older sick woman, who is lonely, cold and hungry.
This is when we first arrived in Romania, we had just come from Africa and were not prepared or used to this freezing weather; so we had to huddle for warmth.
And finally, my team mate and friend Jessica whose from Orlando, Florida making her very first snow angel EVER! So glad I got to experience this special moment with her!
Please continue to pray for my team as we continue to serve and share God's love in Romania! Our final deadline to be FULLY FUNDED is March 1st. I am currently $2,200 away from reaching that goal! Prayers and donations are SO appreciated! My heart is on this trip and I am trusting that is from God and that He wants me here! If your able, please spread the word, pray, donate and help me stay on the mission field and share God's love with 5 more countries! Help me finish the race!
