We are finally in Romania and are CRAZY excited about where we are and the pastor we're working with, plus the adorable little Hungarian village we're living in right outside the city is adorable, the surrounding country side is BEAUTIFUL, and I cannot wait to dive into this month's ministry. seriously, it's gorgeous. pictures/videos of that to come (promise) but for now – a list of firsts from our first travel "day":
-First 3:45am metro trip to an airport
-First discovery that I'm allergic to JFK International Airport (so much sneezing, what is up with that, JFK?)
-First time time experiencing a waitress at an airport bar stopping in the middle of her work to pray…which she did immediately after we asked her if there was anything we could lift up for her. she just asked what we were doing, got a quick synopsis of the WR, and prayed over us claiming Jesus's protection and covering and strength for our travel. it was awesome.
-First time realizing that I'm FULLY FUNDED (I've had to realize this several times…short blog on this to come real soon, but the bullet point version is that an anonymous donation put me over fully funded if all my pledges remain as they are, so I still need most of what people have pledged to give me, but I don't need to seek any more funding)
-First time being told that a country's capitol would wait for us
quick story: we missed a lot of flights because a lot of other flights were delayed, but we were going to get to poland an hour after or connecting flight to Romania was supposed to leave. we had a quick power-prayer sesh, and when we were done, our squad leader walked over to the counter where the airline representative told her, "Warsaw will wait for you."
-First time in Poland! We were in Warsaw for 12 hours because…
-First time learning that Warsaw lied. we got to Warsaw and were redirected through Germany, but we had a 12 hour layover and they gave us 2 meal tickets and…
-First shower in an airport! what? it was awesome (and kind of weird and freezing cold).
-First time in Germany!
–First sprint through Germany…
-First really big laugh at the ridiculous things that can happen on WR travel days.
another quick story: we got off the plane in Munich, Germany and were bussed to the main terminal where we were met by a small asian woman asking "BUCHAREST? BUCHAREST? COME QUICKLY, PLEASE!" …apparently the plane to Romania was already boarded and waiting for us, so we literally sprinted through security (I have a German stamp in my passport now, thanks series of unexpected events) and then from gate H-3 to H-46. yes, 46. the entire airport. we arrived at the gate, had our boarding passes scanned, ran down literally 8 or 9 flights of stairs to get to another bus…which drove us right past the plane we had just flown in on. right past it. hahaha. that just happened.
-First time being in a foreign country for less than 30 minutes (how does that happen?)
-First time in Romania!! we landed in the middle of the night and had to wait until 5am to get a bus to get to the train station.
-First jam sesh in Romania – we had two guitars and a uke and 3 hours to kill, so we worshipped in the airport while no one was around for a while. Felt great to bring Jesus in with us!
-First Romanian train…
one more quick story: just picture this: it is 5am, pitch black dark outside, your team and a few members of other teams climb into a small bus to go to the "train station." the bus stops in the middle of no where, it's still dark, and as he's turning around you can see that there are trees on one side and basically nothing on the other side of the dead-end dirt road. behind you there's a concrete ramp that goes up a ways and around a corner, there are handrails on either side. the bus reverses about 20 feet up the ramp and the driver says "here. out." ……..yes, really. so we get out, get our gear, and walk up this ramp to find an empty train platform (it's still pitch black dark) lit by 4 far-spread street lamps.
-First rooster crow on the race…
story continued: we got our bearings and started to feel a little more comfortable while we waited in anticipation to hear the other half of our group's reactions to our surroundings. it was worth it, their faces were great. the train came, and we practically had to jump the train (it was stopped for about 30 seconds? maybe 45? there were 24 of us each carrying about 80lbs of gear). we get on the train, it's still dark, everyone on it is sleeping, and then it's real:
-First real language barrier.
we weren't sure how we were going to know when to get off the train…so we just waited and watched…
-First Romanian sunrise. we figured out when to get off, and it was definitely food time.
-First Romanian cafe experience (they were playing American top 40 hip hop about every other song, and we literally all ate omelettes because it's all our waitress could communicate to us. yay! laughable experience, for sure)
-First time sleeping 16 hours straight (actually, that was a first ever. but we did. our travel took about 60 hours, we arrived Sunday night (Sunday early afternoon EST) and hadn't slept since Wednesday night. it was incredible.
-First Romanian grocery store experience ("this sort of looks like something almost familiar….oh look, snickers!" really.)
I'm sure I forgot some of the hilariously (un?)fortunate stories from the weekend, but my teammates blogs likely supplement where mine is missing information. check them out:
kaylynnloveless.theworldrace.org stephaniemay.theworldrace.org marissadale.theworldrace.org weswebb.theworldrace.org and christianroderick.theworldrace.org
We have spent our first day in Romania resting and diving into the Word and each other, we're about to have dinner with our contacts (none of us have eaten today…so dinner is gonna be awesome), and my team (at least the women, it hasn't been vocalized by the men, but I'm confident speaking for them) is so assured that this is where we belong for right now. we're feeling happy, rejuvenated, and incredibly blessed.
prayer: a few of the women in the house (on my team and our sister team for the month) are feeling sick in different ways, but we believe the Lord has equipped us to pour all of ourselves into the ministry He's placed before us this month, so we're claiming a restoration of health over them in His time and His way, and eyes to see the sweet things Jesus teaches us while we're sick in the meantime.
until next time: Hello and love from Romania!!
