So much has happened since I blogged last. Many times I've thought “I'M GOING TO BLOG ABOUT THIS SPECIFCALLY!” But then time kept passing and experiences kept piling up. So instead of storytelling today, I'm doing something a little different. It is my promise to the cyber world that I will follow through with story-time blogs this month, at least twice :). Hold me to it.
ROMANIA! Is…
dark
honest
intolerant
conflicted
blunt
impatient
worth it
That road sign isn't playing around man.
opinionated
harsh
fun
homey
What I learned in Romania, a journal entry from April 21. Everything in italics has a story behind it, which is where all of those wannabe blogs would've come from 🙂 — As hard as people may seem, everyone is broken. As stubborn as some may come off, everyone can be freed. As different as we are, we can sharpen each other. The words you use are important, the way we dress/present ourselves is important, it is important to follow through, it is important to walk in the Spirit in all situations, there is reconciliation everywhere – look for it, accept it, chase it, embrace it, legalism is hard to break but easy for God – PRAY, administration is helpful in bearing fruit and growing the church body.
The day we left Romania I went to Hope Church, the church our ministry contact pastors. It's a 10 minute walk from where we lived and about 2 minutes before leaving home I was asked to share something with the congregation. With little time and preparation, I decided to be as simple but meaningful as possible through sharing about my experience in the beautiful village of Draganeste-Olt, Romania. So to give you more insight about my time there, here's a summary of what I said:
Hope Church
Although what I'm about to say may seem surface level or irrelevant to today's message, it is very important to me. My time in Romania was a month of refreshment. This country and specifically this town reminds me of my home. I got here and it was COLD. The way the people act, dress, and think reminds me of my family and friends from home. At the beginning of the month my friend gave me a word from God: Pay attention to what I find joy in this month. It brought me GREAT joy to be here. It brought me joy to teach English, go to people's homes and pray, socialize, and live in community (we lived with 2 other world race teams from our squad). It's easy for me to forget that God knows the desires of my heart and He's not out to take them away from me. Romania reminded me how important it is to embrace the passions and gifts God has given us. Everyone is unique and that is part of His endless creativity. I'm leaving part of myself in Romania. I feel refreshed and energized and because of this I'm experiencing a new excitement for the rest of the countries I'm visiting. Hallelujah.
Dance party
Mega feedback/worship night
Teams and dinner
Illeana Maria – I helped her with English this month. She rocks.
To end this I want to leave you with 2 blogs to read, and I sincerely hope these aren't wasted links. Please take time to read them. Although not written by me, they are composed by someone I spent a lot of time with, they touch on 2 of my favorite stories from this country, and they are very accurate. Nick is on a different team than me but our teams lived and did ministry together this month (along with month 1 and 2 in Ecuador and Peru). Nick and I worked together a lot this month with Alecs, a guy our age who works at Hope Church.
Alecs
Nick wrote both blogs. The first is a story about a home visit Nick, Alecs, and I went on that was unforgettable. Click HERE! It's a great one.
The second is a marvelous story of reconciliation between two men, from a gang ready to beat Raul so he'd stop sharing the gospel to a reckless pursuit, drunkenness, and now great friends, meet Raul and J <— Click on that!
Thank ya friends :).
I'll be back SOON!
Pizzy.
