Serving in Romania…
Romania was very different from the places we had been thus far on the race. It was an interesting transition coming from India and Nepal to Eastern Europe.
One… a culture shock. I felt like I was in America. The first day entering the church house brought tears to my eyes. There were rows of chairs all neatly set out, ready for us to sit and enjoy our stay. Inside- part of me wanted to sit on the floor. I didn’t want the comfort of sitting in a chair. It also brought back so many memories that I treasure in my heart of how beautiful of a job my parents did in honoring the Lord in doing the best they could to raise this daughter of theirs. It made me want to go back home to America and live life with my family.
When I arrived, I had to keep reminding myself that it is ok to freely share Jesus with everyone. However, as I got to know the culture more I realized the same eagerness to get to know us or the same level of hospitality as did the countries we visited in Africa and Asia was not the same. We were outsiders to them, therefore they did not easily trust us and were less receptive to us sharing Jesus with them.
So I learned a lot about how to start conversations in getting to know them, their culture, and then share Jesus.
We partnered with the mission of Hope Church. We did various projects and events such as passing out flowers on International Women’s Day, giving out “Free Hugs” in the center of Craiova, and helping with their Seed Ministry by passing out seeds (to grow their own vegetables) in different neighborhoods. As well as evangelizing in the parks and streets, cleaning up around the neighborhoods, helping clean missionary homes, doing intercessory prayer every morning, passing out clothing to Roma and homeless people, and passing out New Testament Bibles in the city.
I learned a lot about being interruptible. This month was a month of moving around to different places. (six times total to be exact) It made me really think of where my home is. All the places I have been to -I leave a piece of my heart there. I am blessed that I can call many places- home. But my true home is in the Lord. I feel the most at home when I am in his presence every moment of my life. He is my refuge, shelter, protecter, he is more then all I will ever need. So in him I am at home all the time.
I love how many parks there are in Europe! I had many moments where I would walk to the park to have my quiet time. A place where people can relax and enjoy nature. I would be interrupted by women who would come ask for money but instead I would pray for them. I know that having quiet time at home is great but sometimes the lord asks us to go somewhere else so we can bless others and share Jesus with them.
My favorite thing to do was intercessory prayer. I got to grow more in my gift and use it to edify and bring glory to God. Every morning we did it as a group and then one of my sisters in Christ and I would also take time to do it every day for our host, his ministry and Romania. I love praying for people!
The last part of the month was very hard for me as I moved to a different ministry site as I was an non PVT (parent vision trip) so they put all of the non PVT people in one ministry site and the PVT people were all together. I arrived at the place, looked around and wanted to go back to where I was, I did not like it at all. I felt like I didn’t belong here. I cried out to the Lord and he heard me. By the end of my stay I got to do one of my favorite things; manual labor! Then in the end-it was hard to leave the place as well. I felt like I was being stripped again and again this month and this was not the end of the stripping. It was again time for team changes and it was our last team for the race. I was nervous, excited, sad and all the feels you know! Again, I looked to Lord for my strength and decided he knows my needs and he will supply me with it according to his perfect timing!
