Radna, Romania
I had a high expectation that Romania was going to be the best experience ever. This summer, I had met fabulous people from Romania while working in New Orleans and was instantly sold on the country. It was going to be awesome. We landed in Bucharest, Romania and immediately had to get to the train station and take an overnight train to Radna. The train finally arrives 45 minutes late — me and the eleven other women on my team for the month board the train. All of our stuff in our air-porters, which are the same size as us, along with our pillows and day packs. We thought it was simple, we must be on a sleeper car, all together, in car number seven. False.
The hall of the train was wide enough to fit one person, dragging their bag behind them. We went all the way down the car, just to find a train conductor who we thought would be more than willing to help us out. I said "Excuse me sir, would you mind just telling us where our seats are located?" He shouted back, "WOAH WOAH!!! EASY EASY MA'AM. Where are you from?" My friend Meredith and I replied, "The United States." He replied, "EASY EASY EASY!!" Clearly we were getting no where. One last time, I said,"Sir, could you just show us where we need to sit so we can get out of everyone's way." He responded, "No." This was the course that our travel day took — anytime we asked for help, a firm "No." was given. We couldn't help but keep a light hearted attitude, full of laughs because it was the most unreal travel experience we have encountered thus far.
Thankfully, we arrived to Radna, greeted by our contact. We arrived at the conference center we'd be serving at and settled in. Our contact, Mihai, is a young man, owner of two goats and two sheep, one of which is named Godzilla. Biggest sheep thing ever. Mihai is keeper of the land. His life will teach you discipline, no doubt. He is a shy one, with a deep love for The Lord.
Our job was to get things ready for upcoming busy season. Much of our work included landscaping and painting. My great friend Meredith, otherwise known as my sweet southern bell, and I were devoted to the painting of the zip line. We sacrificed some of our only clothing we have for the year to the vicious red oil based paint.
(workers of the land, naturally)
(profressional zipline painters)
We also had many opportunities to help out our sweet neighbor Sofia, who is unable to do her normal days work due to health problems. Sofia has a tender heart and will feed you bread + honey until you're ready to embrace the next pant size up.
We worked with another team this month, Arise&Go. It was so awesome to be partnered with this wacky bunch…
Jolene is their awesome leader. She is a woman who never lets you stay where you are at. She always points you to Jesus in every situation. In hard times, she's the first to bring you back to Kingdom Things and not let you dwell on your current circumstances. She pushes you to be the person you were made to be, the best version of yourself. I learned a lot about how to be a woman of character from her and how to keep my eyes on the throne of Christ in every situation.
picking potatoes with our neighbor Sofia.
Romania was a challenging month for my team. We struggled with a lot of unmet expectations, desiring so much to be working with people all the time, yet having a whole month of working the land ( I don't even know if that is a phrase, but I'm going to use it.) The thing with hard times is it brings you to a place of growth and stretches you to keep your thoughts on the things above. I believe that the Lord brought us to a place where we were forced to realize things about ourselves that perhaps we didn't want to realize. I know that was especially true for me. My heart was challenged daily, asking, am I showing up to serve the Kings of Kings with all my heart? Am I approaching the King of Kings with the kind of reverance John the Baptist did when he said, "after me comes One who is mightier than I, the straps of whose sandals I am unworthy to stoop down and untie" (Mark 1:7). Am I willing to serve Him with joy no matter what He is asking me to do? "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God…"(Psalm 84:10). I wrestled with these questions and many others this month.
Romania wasn't everything I wanted it to be, but it brought my heart to places it needed to go.
my team (minus one: Cassie Wilson)!
http://www.7izvor.ro/en/conference_center.html
