Writing this blog on the way to Portugal for month 11!
In Romania all the men on the squad were together for “manistry month,” where a lot of manual labor and questionable decisions take place. Emilie, Lauren, and I joined the ladies on the other co-ed team for one month. Next month we won’t be in teams because we will be hiking the Camino.
After flying from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Frankfurt, Germany, to Bucharest, Romania, we spent the afternoon and night in Bucharest before taking a train to our ministry site. We made it safely, although only Anna managed to get off the train at the right stop. The rest of us missed the stop and had to be picked up in the next town on the line.
Our team, Lavender, served at Apa Vie ministries this month. Apa Vie is Romanian for “living water” and was started by Roy Olsen, who is from New York. He moved to Romania at 60 years old and runs Apa Vie alongside his spunky Romanian wife, Melania.
Apa Vie is located in Pe?tere, a small village known for caves near the city of Cara?-Severin in Southwestern Romania. Roy and Melania host camps and conferences for youth, families, and pastors. Roy also speaks in nearby churches.
Our first couple weeks in Romania were a warm 70-80*F with lots of sunshine. During downtimes, I enjoyed long walks in the countryside with one or two teammates. We walked Blackie, Roy and Melania’s dog, past corn and sunflower fields, cows in the pasture, and a herd of sheep under watch of their shepherd. The trees were beginning to turn and drop their leaves, and in the distance were low mountains that made the sunsets even more breathtaking. The evenings and mornings were crisp, and it got really cold for a few days in the middle of the month, but warmed up towards the end of our time there.
At the beginning of the month, we attended a discipleship conference that was held at a hotel a couple hours away. The conference was two days of teachings, mostly in English and translated to Romanian. There were also beautiful worship hymns sung in Romanian.
One of our main ministries this month was sharing testimonies and encouragement in church services. We traveled to neighboring villages and spoke in Baptist, Orthodox, and Pentacostal churches. Because churches in Romania are generally conservative, we wore dresses, hair coverings, and took out piercings and covered tattoos.
We also had the opportunity to lead a youth service at Apa Via for some young adults in their late teens and twenties. We had a game, snacks, and an activity and teaching about spiritual gifts led by my teammate Jen.
One Sunday we drove to Serbia with our translator Dr. Bebe to lead two services at an Orthodox church. Unfortunately our van broke down on the way! We made it in time for the services, but had to be rescued by friends of Bebe. I shared a short message about Gideon. Gideon was afraid and didn’t feel the most qualified for his role, but he was still chosen and used by God. God whittled the Israelite army down to just 300 men so that it would be obvious when they won that it wasn’t by their own strength. I asked the congregation, “Do you believe one person could have won that battle if God was on their side? Would you still say yes if that person was you? Who or what are the Midianites in your life? What is God trying to show you about relying on his strength throughout this battle?”
We worked on several construction projects around the Apa Vie properties, including clearing out storage rooms that are going to be renovated into bedrooms, reroofing, painting a sidewalk and garage floor, varnishing a terrace, mixing mortar and building a brick wall, drilling holes, placing posts, and sawing lumber for a new shed.
One of my favorite memories from the month (and the whole race) were our two visits to a children’s home. We met Ruben and Karen, who have the most beautiful hearts for taking care of kids who need their help. Some of the kids speak English very well, some speak a little, and others hardly any. It didn’t matter, we had fun and connected with all of them. We bicycled in a convoy around the village. We shared meals, laughed, talked, read books, and played with the kids on their playground, skatepark, basketball court, and soccer field. Their house is perfectly situated with horses roaming the fields in the backyard and mountains on either side. The sunsets there are the best I’ve seen. This family made it hard to leave Romania.
Ruben also drove us to Corvin Castle, a fun site to see in the region of Transylvania. We enjoyed that day so much, both the views and the company.
We were in three different countries during the course of one week! Our host generously allowed us to take an adventure to Budapest, Hungary. We rode a train there, ate good Hungarian food, and saw sites like Parliament, St. Stephen’s Basilica, and the shoes Holocaust memorial on the bank of the Danube River. Of course we had to get coffee and a lángos. We explored both the Buda and Pest sides of the Danube River, saw the fisherman’s bastion and the Buda castle, and did some shopping at a covered market. We were able to spend our two nights in Hungary at the home of a missionary family who are friends of my teammate Emilie. They have a beautiful home and sweet kids, and they were so welcoming and hospitable to us. They fed us with yummy meals and intentional conversation about what we have learned on the race. When we were trying to get to their house, we met two other American missionaries, and one of them helped us get tickets and find the right bus. We also ran into a Christian couple from Denmark who were so encouraged to meet other believers on their travels. It was a quick but blessed trip.
Overall, even though this month was the longest time we spent in one country, it felt like the shortest. We saw and did so much. Please keep Romania and Apa Vie in your prayers, especially for God to provide someone for Roy and Melania to eventually pass their ministry onto.
