Hello Everyone!
Sadly, I’m writing you on my last day in Pitesti (pih-tesh-t), Romania. My team and I, along with team SonShine, have spent the past nineteen days here in partnership with Living Hope Church. We have been mostly going into the poorer neighborhoods in the city and hanging out with the kids there.
The church has built long term relationships with many of the families in these neighborhoods and we got to work alongside them showing the kids God’s love for them. We mostly spent time playing with them, giving them attention that they don’t always receive at home, and showing them that they have value. We also got to spend time in prayer for the city, the kids, and the church. One of the days, as a form of cultural briefing, we went to the Pitesti Prison. This prison was used during communism in Romania. It is the location of the Pitesti Phenomenon, a form of psychological and spiritual torture. It was really fascinating and heavy to hear the history of it. We were also able to spend some time preparing for our squad mates who will be coming to Pitesti during PVT/RVT.
PVT is the Parent Vision Trip. Parents get the option, if their racers invite them (this is prayerfully considered), to come out to the field for one week (usually during month 6, 7, or 8) to do life and ministry like we have been doing for the past months. It’s a great opportunity to see our parents (I’m so hype), serve with them, and give them a glimpse of what our lives have been like. All of us who have parents coming will be heading to Draganesti-Olt (drah-gahn-esht), Romania to serve there. But what about the rest of the squad and RVT?
RVT is coined by our amazing squad mentor (who is coming a week early to spend time with these awesome squad mates before spending debrief with all of us). It stands for Racer Vision Trip. This is for the racers whose parents are unable to come due to health, work, etc. All of these people come together in Pitesti and get to finish out the month with the great people here!
So, what does a typical day look like? Well, there is no typical day on the World Race. Let me just start with that. We have all learned to adapt, be open to absolutely anything, and become more go with the flow than I think any of us would have realized was possible. This being said, I would wake up at some point, climb out of my tent- let’s hold up right there. We have been super blessed this month by getting to stay in a large, open room. So naturally, those of us with tents, set them up and created our own mini bedrooms – such a blessing to have your own space!! Next, I’d usually grab breakfast and head outside or into the church office to spend some time with Jesus. My team continued to have morning devotionals like we had with the Bible school we stayed at in Albania. So usually around 11, we would meet for this.
We each would prepare to deliver a devo one morning during the week. After this, we would grab lunch or head to the gym (depending on when the day’s ministry would start- usually it was a late afternoon through evening thing). Later in the afternoon, we would sometimes (like I said, there is no typical day) spend time in prayer or serving somehow and then head out to one of the neighborhoods. We would catch a city bus to the neighborhood. Once there, we would find the kids and play soccer, throw an American football, “duck, duck, goose,” “baby, monkey, koala,” and other random games. It was a blast!
On Sundays, we would clean up the sanctuary (aka our dining room/multi-purpose hang out space) before church. One person from our teams would share a testimony during the service and, last week, Sarah Ann and I actually sang a song during church (do the things that scare you, you know?).
Every day but off days, we have a mandatory team time. This is basically time created for the team to spend together hanging out, building community with each other. We’ve done crazy stuff, we’ve played games, we’ve spent time encouraging each other, and we’ve laughed a lot. I actually really love it. During this time, we also have feedback.
Dun, dun, dunnnnnnn, feedback. This is somewhat ominous to a lot of people, but it’s just a space created to talk about the ways we’ve seen each other showing Jesus and keeping our team norms (the culture of our team, standards that we as a group try to uphold) – this is affirming feedback. There’s also constructive feedback. This is when we’ve seen each other walking in characteristics that aren’t Christlike, inviting people to speak into possible blindsides in our lives, and bringing those things to our attention. It’s rather humbling at times, but it’s also really good.
Usually, I’d end the night reading (did you know you can get books on your kindle or phone for FREE from the library??? Yeah just figured that out, so sleep has been a little lessened this month- shameless plug, if you like fiction, sci-fi, or just a really well-written series, read Red Rising). I’d usually go downstairs to reset the wifi. Then I’d re-inflate my sleeping pad for the night (it has a hole, but I haven’t taken the time to find it and patch it…priorities, right?), and then I’d crash. Thus, ends the day.
I hope this blog is interesting to you all, letting you in on a day here in Pitesti, Romania. Tomorrow, we head to Draganesti and I get to see my parents in just under two days from now (for the first time in 8 months). After PVT, we head to Bucharest for a debrief and then to Ethiopia on June 2nd! Also, another mini update, we had a slight route change and will be heading to Rwanda after Ethiopia (instead of Uganda) and then will finish in Uganda in August.
Anyhow, love you guys! Hope everyone is doing well this beautiful May!
