Month seven we were in Romania. We took a plane from Delhi, India and after a long day of traveling finally arrived in Bucharest, Romania. From the airport it was about a three hour bus ride to Brasov (also known as Transylvania), our debrief location. Our squad spent five days together; relaxing, enjoying the sights of Eastern Europe, but also having some hard conversations with our squad leaders and coaches during our team debrief. I was a little disappointed because I wasn’t able to see Dracula’s Castle, which was one of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Romania. We were able to Peles Castle which is known as the most beautiful castle in that area. At the end of debrief our team has a slight team change. Our squad leaders add Jochem Veldhujzen to our team. The decision was made for many reasons but one of the main reasons was because we only had one guy our team and that was my Team leader Joseph.
We left debrief and had a eight hour train ride to the east of Romania; to the city of Lugoj. We spent the first two days of ministry at the center, run by Precept Ministries International, loading and unloading Bibles, painting fence boards, and befriending two brothers our age (Sam and Florin). We were blessed to have soft warm beds, laundry service, food prepared for us, and unlimited free WIFI! It can’t get any better than that!!
So after those two days we packed up all our stuff again and head into the city of Lugoj. We stayed in the attic of a private Christian primary school. They call it an attic, but it was basically like dormitories in America. Our main job in this city was to perform manual labor where it was needed. So the first day we washed windows inside the school (Top, bottom, high, low). For church on Sunday we were active in the service: sharing stories and lessons learned on the race, singing, and making, friends. The church we are attending is in the neighborhood of Mondial. This neighborhood was built around a former brick factor and when the brick yard closed everyone in this community lost their job. So now it is known as one of the poorest communities in the city of Lugoj. All of the believers at the church are very new, so it was great to reach out and get to know them a bit.
We stayed at the school and worked around the church until February 18th. The church had a lot of work for us to do. The first assignment and pretty much the only assignment we had was to clear this area of land in the back of the church. We pulled weeds and throne bushes, dug up bricks and tree stumps, and also help revamp something’s around the church. After February 18th we traveled Timisoara, where we were handed off to another contact. The work in Timisoara included working with a new church and invited students from a college campus to come to the new church.
