Hey all!! So I fly out tomorrow to head to my second country which is Guatemala. As I begin to step into this next chapter of the Race, I reflected on the past three months and wanted to share with you what I thought of. I hope you can see a small glimpse into all that’s happened here in Romania. So here it is! Enjoy!!
The first three months of my World Race experience were spent serving in Romania with a ministry called Hope Church. During these months, I helped in the office as the point person for communication between our ministry host and my whole squad and doing administrative work. My main focus was scheduling, maintaining partnership connections, and miscellaneous tasks along with occasionally joining in market ministry, street evangelism, youth ministry, and planning events.
I served in Craiova, Romania, which is in southern Romania. It’s known as a graveyard for missionaries due to the very low number of Christians. After hearing this, my squad and I were a little skeptical about how the locals would respond when introducing the Gospel to them. Through being skeptical, God showed me He has been at work here, and I saw many hearts change.
After the three months, I began to see locals smiling back at us on our daily walks. Relationships were made with the baristas and grocery store employees. People began to willingly accept flyers sharing about Jesus and invitation to events. During street evangelism, long conversations were being held, hard questions were being answered, and Christ was being considered and pondered. The atmosphere seemed a little more uplifting towards the last few weeks than it had been in the first few weeks. Although we were not able to reach every single Craiova resident, the people we talked to and interacted with showed a change.
We saw God turn street evangelism into weekly gatherings with people wanting to learn more about our glorious Father. God provided us with the opportunity to start a youth night on Saturdays where youth could come and be themselves. It didn’t matter if they were believers or non-believers; we welcomed them with open and loving arms. Memories were made over games, movie nights, sharing stories, and getting to know each other. On Sunday evenings, God gave us the opportunity to start a Bible study about the book of John and finding more about how God truly sees His children: beautifully and wonderfully made through Him.
Lastly, I saw God bless the ministry we were serving in. Hope Church recently moved to Craiova after planting a new Church in Draganesti-Olt for 15 years. Since the church plant for Craiova is in the beginning stages, the ministry is still working on establishing everything with this new church plant. God gave me the opportunity to specifically bless the executive director and his assistant. I was able to do the jobs and tasks which had been on their to-do list for months but never had the extra time to accomplish. God helped me produce resources to spread the word of this ministry, organize files online, create a newsletter, and build up the relationships with their supporters. While being in the office, I saw God take stress off of these two people because I was able to accomplish exhausting tasks.
While being in Romania, God reminded me of the importance of the gifts He gives us. Being organized and logistical minded has always been part of my personality, so much so that it has become second nature to me. When I was assigned my ministry, I was excited to hear that it would be in an area I already knew I enjoyed. I loved having tasks to accomplish and doing behind the scenes work. Since I was with new people, who have now become my family, they were unaware of how natural this gift was to me. It was so natural that I had forgotten it was a gift. My teammates were constantly reminding me how amazing it was for me to be able to process and accomplish everything that was given to me in the office. Through these affirmations, I began to realize this is a true gift from God. I started to be conscious of it and thanking God more and more for this gift. He started growing me and my passion administrative work even more. He showed me that I am a blessing to others even if the task or idea seems so minuscole to me. God reminded me that He has blessed me, and I should fully embrace the blessings even when they feel natural and become second nature.
God also taught me a lot about being in constant conversation with Him. During these months, we spent a lot of time in intercession for the ministry. This made me more interested in growing my own prayer life. I made a goal of praying daily for myself as well as praying for certain people at home each day. I began to ask questions and wait for answers instead of just forgetting I asked a question like I would have done in the past. Through all of this, I started to hear God talking back and physically saw Him answering the prayers of the people I was praying for and my own personal prayers. I am thankful I took this time to grow more intimate with God. I now have a more intentional and personal relationship with Him.
I am so thankful for all the growth that happened in Romania and am excited to see what God has in store for all of us in Guatemala.
Thanks for reading! If you have any more questions, comment them below or message me!
Lots of Love and Prayers,
Paige :):):):)
