After a few days in Brasov, Romania for team changes, raising up new squad leaders, and a couple bus/train rides, my new team and I have made it to Moldova. My new team name is Jenga, which means “to build” in Swahili. It is also that really fun block game in which you pull out blocks and set them in a different place without the block tower falling. We picked this name based on 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed to how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” NKJV
This is our base verse due to all the stretching, pulling, pushing, building, constructing, and tested foundation that comes with being on the World Race. As a team, we wanted our solid foundation in Christ to be one that is molded, shaped, build upon, restored, and compressed by all the encounters that we have in ministry with people, wisdom from our contacts, experiences that we have within our team, and the precious words that the Lord speaks over us daily. We also realized that some of the things that were build on our foundation need to be burnt up and removed to walk in the glorious freedom that we have in Christ. And most importantly have fun doing all these things, and that is where the block game “Jenga” plays into our team as well.
On my team there are two men JohnFrank and Andrew. JohnFrank is a videographer, very energetic, passionate about life, intentional about relationships, and is just a solid man of God. Andrew describes himself in his own words as tall, dark, handsome, enthusiastic, and cute. As you can tell he has an extreme sense of humor and is very humble. Hahaha. I also have two girls on my team Janelle and Lianna. Janelle is our new team leader. She has such a heart that is chasing after the Lord, wants to know everything about God, completely surrendered in her walk, silly, a balloon artist (which comes in handy a ton during ministry), and plain optimistic. Lianna is a sweet lady from Ohio. She is part Japanese. She is a girly girl who is beautiful inside and out, loves kids, gentle, warmhearted, down to earth, and easy to get along with (everybody on my team is though). If you can’t tell, I LOVE MY TEAM!! Best decision I think has ever been made on the World Race thus far. We all cook together, clean together, constantly have bible studies, serve, intentional about having fun, closely knit, respectful of each other, intimate, walk in the same mindset about wanting to grow in the Lord, very easygoing, spirit lead group of people, and we all love watching the T.V. series LOST before going to bed. I believe a lot of my frustrations, struggles, and disappointments that came the first couple months of the Race has completely erased in my new team. We are already so loving, vulnerable, and have this unifying passion about pursuing the heart of God in just the couple weeks I hav been around them. Every day I tell them how thankful I am to be on apart of this team. I feel as if I can do ministry with a unified loving group of believers, then come and be surrounded by a devoted family that all desire the same thing, which is to fervently spread God’s Love and have fun doing it.
While being in Moldova, we have been able to have one whole week of rest, which is absolutely insane and wonderful! We have bonded as a team, recovered from travel days, and took extra time to spend with the Lord to process the three months we have been on the race. We will have two weeks of ministry starting Wednesday the 18th with our contact Andrea (Andrew in English) and his family. Ministry will consist of prayer walks, teaching English, preaching, building a prayer house/ retreat center, and evangelizing. After those couple weeks of ministry, we will have another week of rest before heading to our next country. We are living in a little cozy cottage in the mountains of Moldova boarding the Ukraine. It is very peaceful village with many chickens, tractors, and hardworking people. I have witnessed that the people are very much in love with sharing stories around a pot of tea and singing worship songs. Prayer requests include, but are not limited to: vision for Andrea’s family, unity in the body of Christ in Moldova, vision for the new rehab center, a continual desire to grow spiritually and deepen our bond within our team, divine appointments and conversation with the Moldavian people and with our team, good health because we are living around mold, and God’s perfect grace. AMEN!!
