I apologize for the long breaks between blogs. Time seems to get away from me out here. I’m sitting once again traveling into the next month of ministry and feeling like there is finally a sweet reprieve to look back and share about this past month.
Life is way different for me now that I am a squad leader on the race. During these past 3 weeks of ministry in Romania, I traveled to 3 different villages and visited 5 of the 6 different teams from the squad. There were definitely moments when the traveling got exhausting or the constant hello-goodbye mentality was difficult, and yet overall I can confidently tell you that I was exactly where I was meant to be. Without a doubt, the month was beautiful and God moved powerfully.
Here is a short re-cap of the past months’ happenings…
The first part of my month I found myself in Viile Tecii, a small gypsy village that was ambushed by 70 world racers who all landed down on it for their ministry month. Having racers constantly around and who had been on the race everywhere from 2 to 9 months was incredible, and unlike anything that has happened before. While my main ministry is always to the squad as a whole and being a support to them as they navigate their way through their journey out here, I was able to partake in some of the ministry in the village. Probably the neatest part of the time was when we took church to the village streets one morning and marched as a group of 70, singing songs to the Lord and inviting people to the service that evening.
Then I moved on to Tonciu, a small village where the two teams there were focused mostly around their church ministry. Each night they held a bible study for the village people out of the book of John. The services were incredible, with worship being sung to the Lord in both English and Romanian. Sickness was a main part of my time there, with at least half the teammates catching some sort of 24-hour bug that left most people hanging out by the church’s outhouse that had endearingly been named “Roberta.”
I could go on and on with ridiculous stories like when we rode a horse-and-cart to a lake 2 hours away where we “fished” for the afternoon (with no luck) and then seemed to break the cart by our massive weight coming home. Or powerful stories like one morning when I got up early and hiked with some of the girls until I found myself up on a hilltop, looking down on majestic His beauty.
And yet….
The most beautiful part of the month was seeing God grow us – all of us that were chosen to be part of this crazy, wacky family known as the J(esus)-squad. Moments of the teams leaving their villages with tears streaming from their faces or the people they ministered to coming face-to-face with their Father show that He moved.
And He move He did.
Entering into this next place of ministry, I’ll be heading to Montenegro, Albania, and Bulgaria to visit the teams throughout the month. The teams were sent out in pairs to one of the three countries with little instruction on how to get there or what to do when they arrive. Their main task is to setup new contacts for the World Race, all the while listening and obeying the voice of God.
As for me, I am choosing to live out this month in a place of deep anticipation and expectation that the increase of His love and grace will build…
