As my time here in Alba Iulia, Romania came to a close I want to let you in on how this month went.
The day was September 5th when we arrived in Romania… We drove through the city of Alba Iulia to our home for the next month and so many of us instantly fell in love with the history and beauty of this city. The fortress to our right and streets lined with cafes and restaurants to our left, the excitement of what is to come this next month was buzzing through the air. Our host, Raul, grew up in this city. He was showing us little things that may be important and telling us little nuggets of knowledge about how to approach reaching these people.
The expectations of most of our squad is scattered all around when it comes to ministry for all-squad month. Are all 45 of us going to be doing ministry together? Are we going to be doing ministry with our teams? Will we really get to spend that much time with everyone? Questions were flying around as orientation started. We find out each team will be partnered up with a separate ministry host… Each team gets their assigned host, except Abundance. My team gets assigned the one ministry this month that scared most of us. Evangelism. I mean, you have to die to yourself if you are going to go up to random people on the streets and telling them about Jesus. It isn’t something that comes natural. It’s something that you can only grow in if you keep pressing into it. So that’s what we did. We evangelized almost every day this last month. We talked to strangers that became friends and we grew so much through it. Through talking to these people on the streets we saw people come to know Christ. Some on the spot, some it took a little more conversation… But God was working nonetheless. We saw a lot come out of being uncomfortable for a month. It made us depend on God instead of doing things on our own power, and it made God seem all the more real.
How did all squad month work? With 45 people living in the same building that sounded pretty daunting to most people. How would I ever get time alone with absolutely no where private to go? Where were we supposed to go for individual team time? These were answers that were hard to come by within the first few days. Many people instantly did not like the idea of always having people around… Being the extreme extrovert that I am, I had no problem with it. In reality all squad month was different than I expected. When this topic came up before the race my instant thought was that all of us were going to be involved in the same ministry, but that obviously wasn’t the case. We had worship every morning at 9AM as a squad, then we did our own thing/ministry as teams until around 5PM. At that point, we had dinner together and a teaching most nights. After the teachings, around 8PM, we were free to do what whatever. This normally looked like games, going to eat the local fast food restaurant called Fat Boy, and going to the gas station for wifi. This is where real community happened.
Overall, Romania was amazing. It was a place that I felt at home. It was a place that was full of beauty, in the people and the landscapes. It was a place that I found out more of who I am, and what my identity is. Romania was a place that will be forever etched in the hearts of so many of our squad.
Now we are on to month 3. Four of our teams have stayed in Bulgaria and three teams, including mine, have come together to work with refugees in Greece. We have been in this country for less than two days and I can see why so many people fall in love with it here. The beauty is breathtaking and the people we have encountered have been so welcoming. This month will not be easy, but God is going to big things through us.
I only have $445 left to raise!!! Help me reach my goal and continue this journey of a lifetime!
In Him,
Caleb Callaway
