As we drove into Romania from Greece, I felt Nicaragua pressed onto my heart. I couldn’t figure out why. The scenery was different, and I had only just gotten to Romania, so how could I compare the two countries that are opposite ends of the earth?
Then the Lord told me it was because this month was going to be a lot like the month in Nicaragua. It’s hot and dry, the whole squad is together, we live in a place with nothing to do outside of ministry, I don’t know the language, we’re passing out Bibles, and doing a lot of evangelism. As it turns out, I was not the only one to think about Nicaragua on my squad.
At the same time, Romania is so very different in many ways. There’s a lot more foliage here, the dogs want to eat your face just for walking near them, we’re all 8 months into the race and feeling more equipped, ministry looks different by team, and I’ll be seeing and doing ministry with my parents in two weeks.
We hit the ground running…or riding. We’ve been in cars a lot in the last week. I started the month continuing to eat as healthy as I could, and ran once. But I ran only once. I could hardly breathe. It was a difficult run and I was frustrated afterwards.
Unfortunately, it started to go downhill from there. My frustration turned into a bad mood that I’m still shaking off. This has been going on for several days, and I can’t remember the last time I was in this poor of a mood for this long.
I felt defeated and didn’t even want to try to fix it (also not normal). I wanted to only eat junk food, I didn’t want to run, and wanted to isolate. I blamed it on being sick for two days, I blamed it on team changes, I blamed it on rice and beans for dinner…
Then yesterday morning, our contact Raul reminded us why we need to set aside an hour and a half every day as a squad to pray for Romania, the ministry, and those ministering. He reminded us that the northern part of Romania that we are in is referred to as the “pastor and missionary graveyard” because so many have come and left.
See, the area we’re in (as well as most of Romania) is deep in witchcraft and virtually void of Christ followers. It’s one thing to be told; it’s another to see it for yourself.
~To Be Continued~
