As my time in Romania comes to an end (we leave tomorrow), I thought it would be a good idea to reflect back on what this month has consisted of.
Overall it has definitely been a month of transition. It has taken a lot to get used to living in community with my squadmates in an entirely new culture. This first month in Romania, my entire squad has been together in one location. We have had to get used to living with 50 other people in one house/backyard, sharing a bathroom, cooking for each other, and really just getting to know these people who will be our family for almost the next year. It has already been a growing experience for a lot of us and has been hard at times bringing together so many people with different backgrounds from different points in their life to live literally every minute of the day together, but it has been an amazing thing to see God moving through these times. It is incredible to watch people choose to set aside their wants and put others before them, to make the effort to get to know someone even when they think they have nothing in common, to choose to love through differences and frustrations. It has been a great and real example of what it means to live in a community seeking to live in truth and understanding.
(Boat ride with some squadmates on our day off)
Aside from our new living conditions this month, we have been transitioning into doing fulltime ministry for the next 11 months. Being that our group is about twice as big as any group our ministry contact has ever hosted, it has been a little hectic organizing ministry for everyone. It has taken a lot of flexibility and patience as our ministry has not been exactly what all of us were expecting. Many of us have had more downtime than expected since there has not been enough for all of to do everyday. God has really used this time to readjust my concept of ministry for this year. Mission work doesn’t always mean doing big things like feeding starving children and building churches. It can be as simple as picking up trash in a community and gaining the respect of the locals, or doing yard work for a local missionary so they are free to continue investing in young women in the area. Mission work can mean handing out flyers for hours multiple days in a row in the heat of the day to make sure every possible youth in the community has a chance to come to an event to hear the gospel and feel loved. It can be cleaning a school classroom, singing songs with a group of kids, or doing laundry. And that is what I did this past month. I had the chance to partner with a great church that is so unbelievably invested in reaching this community for the Lord. I had the chance to get to know some of the great local missionaries here and serve and love them in small ways so that they can hopefully have an even larger impact.
(Kids Club I helped at one day)
So I could look back on this month focusing on all the times I didn’t have hot water to shower, when I felt misunderstood by a squadmate, when I was frustrated I didn’t speak the language, when I was hot and tired and didn’t feel like handing out one more flyer, or when I felt like I was doing absolutely nothing that made any difference, but I have realized that God is at work in every one of those situations. That he is moving in the moments when we think nothing is happening at all, when we feel like we are doing the least. He may be growing our patience or our dependence and understanding of him. He may be giving us the time to serve a fellow squadmate or the freedom to explore new types of ministry. He could be using our smile to brighten someone’s day or a simple high five or game of Duck Duck Goose to make a child feel special. God is not only present in those situations, but he is doing great things.
(Playing Duck Duck Goose with some local kids)
It is crazy to think that this 11 month long journey already has just 10 months left. I am sad to leave Romania and the people I have grown to love here, but I am excited to look forward to my next month and am challenging myself and would like to challenge you as well to allow God to use the small moments in our life, the moments that could be easily mistaken as wasted time and choose to believe that God can use those to do amazing things, amazing things in our lives and in the lives of people we may not even know we are affecting.
