Romania – Month 11
Hello friends and family. It’s month 11! Can you believe it? I will be home in 31 days (to be exact). I want to give you some basic facts and thoughts about where I am, how I got here and what I am doing. This is the last month I will be doing this for. It’s crazy! Here you go!
1. TRAVEL
On November 1st, we traveled from Chisinau, Moldova to Bucharest, Romania on an overnight
bus (Watermark, it was exactly like the overnight trains we took last year :). We arrived in Bucharest in the morning of the 2nd and took a 2 hour bus ride to Dragonesti, Romania. We settled into the house and had orientiaton.
2. LIVING
Our whole squad (38 people) is living in a small house together for our last month. We started our year together in Mozambique and we will end it the same way we started. Fortunately, I found a quiet room upstairs I can go to when the chaos is getting to me.
3. TOWN: Dragonesti
It is a town of about 12,000 people including the surrounding villages. We are just a 10 minute walk away from downtown where we can get to the grocery story, bank, second hand shops and some restaurants. It is a very cute town with lots of friendly people walking around. There seems to be a lot of teenage guys walking around and I don’t yet understand why they are always around. (I know someone is going to say it’s because there are 30 American girls out and around so I’ll just say it for you 🙂 But seriously, I don’t understand where the girls are in the town. It is confusing to me.
4. CULTURE
Romanians: The romanians we are working with are very friendly, but very straightforward/direct with their communication. They don’t beat around the bush at all.
Gypsys: This culture fascinates me and confuses me all at the same time (like most new cultures). Gypsys are people from India who moved to Romania when the muslims were invading India. Therefore, they are Indian European. They have a culture of their own. They have their own law, own food and own languages (at least 4). They are rich and poor. Some are walking around the streets begging for food and others live in mansions. As a culture, they marry young (15 years old) and have children at a young age.
When I am walking around, I can tell which ones are the gypsys for the most part because their skin color is different and some women have more of a stereotypical gypsy outfit on (long, flowy skirt and long hair). Others, I have no idea. I don’t think we will personally have any interaction with them through ministry, but it is fascinating to me.
I didn’t know Gypsys were their own culture. I still don’t undertand when they left India and why and why they have not adapted into the Romanian culture. I don’t understand how they fit into this society and how they are viewed amongst Romanians. I also don’t undertand if rich gypsys are looked at differently than poor gypsys or if they are all gypsys and money doesn’t make a difference. I don’t know. I have a lot of questions that may or may not get answered, but that is what I am walking around.
5. OVERALL MINISTRY
We are working with a large organization called RESO Ministry whose mission is to share Christ with this specific Southern region of Romania. They do this by having one main church in Dragonesti and other village churches as satellites of this church. Their main goal seems to be church planting and then reaching out to various types of people in churches (widows, youth, adults, the sick, and unsaved people outside of the church). There is a main missionary couple over every church/ministry. There are romanian missionary couples, a couple that is Romanian and German and another couple that is Romanian and British. There are a lot of interesting people we are working with from all over Europe.
6. TEAM’S MINISTRY
Contact: We are working with a Romanian missionary couple with four children. They live outside of the city in a small village. They have started and are in the process of building a church next to their house on their own land. They got support from various donors around the world to help fund their church and are finishing it right now. His salary is based on support, but he has side businesses to help bring in other income. He and his wife own bees and make honey and he raises and races pigeons for money. He used to raise bunnies to sell as well. He and his wife just came to Christ in the last 10 years and he came after being a street fighter. He has a fascinating story. We are working with another missionary couple as well living in the village. She is Romanian and he is British. Another amazing couple with two adorable little boys.
Schedule:
9:45 drive to village
10 – 12 pray and worship in the church
12 – 1 lunch
1 – 3 whatever needs to be done
3 – 4 (English class that I teach. Six students ages 6 – 15 with all different levels of English. I am figuring out how to teach them each…and learn how to teach English in general. Haha. It is a challenge, but it feels good to think like a teacher again and have my own classroom)
Other members of the team do street evaneglism while I teach
5 – 6 – come home to the mission house for dinner
This is our schedule from Tuesday – Saturday. Sunday we have church in the morning in the village and church in the city at night. This past Sunday I shared my testimony and we sang a song. We will be doing testimonys and songs every Sunday morning I think. After I gave my testimony, the church (10 – 12 people total) prayed for me. There aren’t many people, but they are faithful and praying for more people to come.
Overall:
We have a busy schedule, but it is still in a relaxed atmosphere. As I am working with this ministry and in the last month, my emotions change daily. I love this ministry and actually have a passion for the things I am doing for the first time in months (teaching English, having a schedule, and watching how church planting works). While it gets chaotic in this house with so many people, I am thankful that we all get to end this year together. I am looking forward to coming home, but am still nervous as to how it will be after being away for so many months. I am ready to leave The World Race, but am sad to say good bye to the people. I am happy to be at this ministry this month, but am mentally preparing to go home next month as well.
I know this was a lot of information and a lot of thoughts, but that is where I am at. I love this ministry and the people who run it. I love being around the people who have helped shape me and grow me this past year. I love God and know that He has designed this last month perfectly. Regardless of the different emotions I have in the next 30 days, at the end of those days, I will say good bye to this crazy adventure and say hello to my family, friends and boyfriend.
