This month we are partnered with Hope Church to revel God’s Kingdom! You can visit their web page at www.hopechurch.org. It’s a large organization with an even larger heart for the Lord. Here in the southern region of Romania less than one percent of the population are born-again believers in Jesus.
Our host, Raul, is the National Director for this ministry and has us working hard! Our mornings begin with worship followed by intercession for the multitude of people, projects, and partners they work with. Afterwards Raul challenges us with ‘homework’. “Using only Acts chapters 13 and 17, create a missionary profile.” This was the homework our first day!
After lunch we meet up with other missionaries to go out into this town or surrounding areas for evangelism, kids ministry, English classes, home visits, yard work, passing out clothes, prison ministry, babysitting, and even encouraging the long-term missionaries who serve here. This week we went into Craiova (where they just rented a space for a new church) to pass out New Testament Bibles!
Our team- team United, has a unique job, though. We were asked to work in the church office. Our days typically look a bit different. In the afternoons, while the others are out in the town, we are in the office. We are continually connecting with current and potential partners and missionaries, organizing and scheduling ministry projects, and doing everything possible to maximize Raul’s ability to be out in the field.
I would love to be able to tell you that this month is a blast and how wonderful ministry is, and it kind of is, but there are many struggles that I am fighting to overcome daily.
“God is a God of peace therefore I carry a spirit of peace. Yet from the moment I walk into the church to the moment I return to the mission house, I carry frustration. I have a spirit of peace not frustration! So why am I frustrated and where is it coming from?” This is something I’ve had to tell and ask myself on a regular basis throughout the month. So what’s the answer?
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
This region of Romania is a truly beautiful place, but it is submerged in an air of frustration, confusion, and division. Sound familiar? The U.S. is no different. The thing that is different, however, is me. The Lord has reveled to me the power of His name. The power in rebuking the darkness. The power and control that I have been given by Him to walk in peace and ultimately, in victory. Hallelujah!
During the first week here the squad gathered inside the mission house we are living in and, as one body in Christ, we rebuked the darkness and declared peace, freedom, and victory in and around us.
“But what does that look like on a day to day, minute to minute basis?” This was a question I struggled with for a while. When I would begin feeling the darkness I knew that it wasn’t me, but what I didn’t know was how to get rid of it. “Stand up, rebuke it, and pray over that place”, my mentor explained. “Sometimes I do that to rid of frustration and then two minutes later I’ll start feeling fear, and then anxiety. It’s the enemy trying to get in and its really the enemy being frustrated, scared, and anxious because you’re winning!”
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:26-27
This is still a day to day struggle, but now I face the battles knowing that I’ve already won because the Lord has defeated any darkness the enemy tries to throw at me. Read that again!
This is still a day to day struggle, but now I face the battles knowing that I’ve already won because the Lord has defeated any darkness the enemy tries to throw at me.
Y’all!!! The same goes for you! Don’t walk through life discouraged, frustrated, afraid, anxious…You are a child of the King! Call out to Him! He’s your father and He will protect you!
On the third day of our stay here the Lord told one of my teammates that this was going to be a month of victory. Now that we are nearing the end of our time here we rejoice in the report that the Lord has welcomed many people into His Kingdom as His sons and daughters!
The Lord has used each and everyone of us to reveal and further His Kingdom here in the Oltenia region of Romania. Continue praying for my squad and I as we continue on this journey.
