This month ministry in Romania has been absolutely amazing! I’ve mostly been working as an office assistant at Hope Church learning so so much about the logistics of church planting which I can totally see God using in my future! We’ve been staying in a very spiritually dark town called Draganesti in southern Romania and by through being here the last month, God has opened by eyes to so many things working against us. I’ve been more exhausted, more depleted, had more sickness in our teams than ever before and there is no doubt in my mind that it is because witchcraft, satanic worship and idolatry rules this area.
From what I’ve seen, growing up in America, Satan’s interference looks different because we live in a totally different culture. Identity issues, inappropriate television, overuse of media and materialism all keep us from the truth of God’s word…in my opinion Satan doesn’t appeal to us in the same way that he does in other countries where these distractions are less prevalent.. But just because demonic possessions, satanic rituals, poverty, sex trafficking and witchcraft aren’t happening to you or your neighbor doesn’t mean it’s not real. Its very real and its very scary. I’ve seen how he works and it’s not something we should overlook. Satan is working here in Romania, he’s drawing kids into the sex trade by purchasing them from their homeless parents. He’s whispering in the ears of widows telling them that no one cares and they should just kill themselves. He’s in every corner store where the men come to buy alcohol repeatedly then beat their wives publicly. He’s present here. And the only way he can be stopped is through the power of Jesus Christ.
In scripture we are told that we have the ability to ask for the power of Jesus through prayer and yet before I came on the race…I can think of maybe a handful of times that I truly prayed with the intention of SEEING God show up, in BOLDLY asking for him to come help me because I KNEW only he could do it. Although I wish I had been doing this my whole life, I see now the difference that praying boldly makes in my life and my walk with Christ.
Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus
I had a conversations yesterday with a man at the eyeglass ministry we held about how every day during communist reign in Romania (which lasted from 1942-1989)….he would pray that Americans would come save him, his family and his country. Then in the saddest, most distraught old man face you could ever possibly think of he said “but you never came”….besides the fact that I nearly busted out in tears, his statement made me really think about how blessed I am. I was born in America, I grew up in America going to school for free, I have a free place to practice Christianity and a bed to sleep in every night. I have protection from losing these freedoms and a community that loves me and supports me. But not everyone has that around the world…of course Ive been aware of this but honestly, I’ve overlooked it…and im not sure exactly why but part of it has to do with the fact that I never viewed my prayers as powerful and I never viewed them as requests for God to do drastic things here on earth in order for his name to be known and for his peace to reign over Satan.
After God revealed to me that my view of the power of prayer was not as he designed it…,he gave me an idea that involves all of my incredible supporters…including you!
We have a unique opportunity to come together as a body of believers and unite in prayer this coming Saturday.
Let me explain,
Today my team is heading to Bucharest, Romania for a mini-debrief with our entire squad. We will spend 3 days in Bucharest changing teams, learning more about our next ministry and discussing what God has taught us this past month. THEN, on November 1st my entire squad will be flying to Qatar. We will spend one day in Qatar, exploring the city and then the next night we will fly to India, where we will be spending the next month of the World Race.
I don’t know if you have ever heard of Qatar but its in the Middle East. Even though we are only staying one day there, we have the incredible opportunity of flying directly over the part of the world that is so desperately in need of the power of prayer. I’m no expert on this info by any means but I do know that many Christians in this part of the world are being persecuted and killed because of their faith in God and as our brothers and sisters in Christ they are eager for our prayers. There are so many things we can pray for and I am not aware of them all but I figured, if I came with this request to all of my avid blog readers we are bound to be able to identify and cover a lot of those specific prayers, together.
Here is a picture of our exact flight route from Bucharest to Qatar….as you can see we will be flying around the warzone areas and over the land of Israel….I will be praying for this part of the world during our flight on November 1st and invite you to join me in also praying during this flight. My flight leaves Romania around 5 pm here which is 10 am on November 1st in America…and will last until almost 3 pm in America.
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If you have specific prayer requests you would like to bring to the readers of this blog including myself, please leave a comment below. Thank you so much for joining me in this and for encouraging me to listen to what I feel God is leading me to do. I love you all and miss you all very much… stayed tuned because my next blog is a farewell to Europe!
