Month 2, all-squad month, Draganesti-Olt Romania, 2 days travel, 1 castle, 1 monastery, and several hours of reading Karen Kingsbury’s Baxter family book series. With great excitement we have arrived and are on day 7 here in Draganesti. We are partnered with a church called Hope Church. Pastor Raul is an exceptional leader who holds great vision for the kingdom in Romania. He and his church have risen up numerous missionaries and make it a priority to continue investing in those who have a mission burden, as well as bringing the good news to the cities and villages.
The work they are doing is so important because the region that we are in holds only 0.2% of believers. There is a lot of darkness in this area, and we feel privileged to add to the light that is becoming brighter and brighter each day.
I wanted to give you all a little glimpse into our ministry this month, as I understand it (each day seems to be a little different).
9-10am- personal development time/ cleaning project at church
10am-10:30am- squad worship
10:30am-11:30am- Intercessory prayer with the Pastor of Hope Church.
11:30am-12:00pm- Theology “HW” (Pastor Raul poses a theology question and we have a night to sit with the Lord and read through his word to find the answers. This time is to discuss what was revealed to us.)
12:00pm-2:00pm- Lunch break/team time
2:00pm-6:00pm- Daily Ministry
Each team in our squad was assigned to different locations for our daily ministry. My team was connected with missionary Ionel and his family. With his limited English, he was trying to explain the different programs and activities we will be a part of this month. Out of the blue he said “quien hable espanol?” (who speaks Spanish?). With the greatest excitement, my hand shot up. So far on the race, I wrestled with my inability to communicate fully with people who do not know English or Spanish. I love asking questions and getting to know someone’s heart, but that has been difficult with the language barrier. I have begun to miss my friends in Nicaragua and the depth I have in those relationships.
Therefore, what a sweet surprise it was to hear Spanish come out of the mouth of a Romanian missionary! We dove into a cool conversation about his family, and the reasoning for knowing Spanish (he lived in Spain for 2 years). I have loved working with Ionel, and getting a chance to practice my Spanish.
So far, My favorite moment this month took place on Wednesday. Our whole squad, joined a project where we handed out 500 Bibles in one of the larger cities in this region. Ionel and I tag-teamed in our efforts to share the gospel with people we crossed on the streets. We were blessed with a conversation with a young woman who is a math professor at the University down town. In the midst of talking about Jesus, I could not stop smiling because between four people, we were using 3 different languages! The women would say something in Romanian, Ionel would translate it to me in Spanish, and I would translate it to a teammate in English. I thought about what God had to orchestrate in all of our lives in order for this conversation to happen. He gave me a passion for Nicaragua, where I learned Spanish; he called Ionel to be a missionary after he spent two years in the country of Spain; and he sparked enough curiosity in the women to pause her for thirty minutes to talk with us. The woman gave us each a big hug, and left her information with Ionel to learn more about the church plant starting in the area.
I love being on this wild adventure with Jesus and the sweet surprises that come along the way.
