(video cred: Kirsten Reilly)
For the month of October, we were working with Hope Church in Draganesti, Romania. Draganesti is a small town in southern Romania that is predominately Eastern Orthodox. Christianity is not openly accepted by the community. Despite the nickname, “cemetery for pastors and missionaries,” the pastors and missionaries have not given up on the people of Draganesti. Hope church is doing amazing work for the Kingdom in this small town. They have around 100 regular attendees at there weekly church service and several community outreach programs. There outreach programs include things like, providing clothes for the poor, providing education support for underprivileged kids, VBS programs, providing goats, bees, chickens, or greenhouses as a way for a family to generate income, evangelism, and prayer.
Our ministry with Hope Church this month was dynamic. Personally, I worked with the kids after school program everyday, where I helped the kids with homework and then taught them English. Mostly poor, non-christian families send their kids to this program. The program was started to provide a better education for underprivileged kids so that they could get a better job when they get older and provide for their family. Also, if they are educated, they are more likely to not fall into human trafficking. Darren led worship every morning and worked in the office with the head pastor. In the office, Darren worked on logistics, helped facilitate all the outreach programs and did pastor care, where he made home visits to encourage and pray for people. Other members of our team worked with kids club, street evangelism, and developing a website for the church. One the weekends the whole team would travel to the surrounding villages to evangelize, play with kids, pray for people, and lead a church service.
Please keep Hope Church and the missionaries in your prayers.
We are still in need of about $9,000 by January 1st in order to stay on this mission trip that The Lord has called us to. If you would like to support us, you can click on the “support me” button. Also, please continue to pray for good health, safe travels and our new team.
