Hi friends!
I know it has been a bit, but I just wanted to update you on some of the things we have been doing in Romania.
Romania was not originally on our route, it got added before we launched. Prior to being here, the only thing I knew about it was that Charlie Weasley (yes, from Harry Potter) trained dragons in Romania! Funny, right?!
I am glad to say I have learned a lot more about Romania, their culture, & the incredible people who live here 🙂 We are serving in a small city called Craiova. It’s about 3 hours west of Bucharest, the capital. Below is a view from the top floor of our place during golden hour!
It is an all squad month! Which means we have about a 16X16 kitchen, one stove top with 3 functioning burners, a small sink & 1 washing machine all in the same room. We have 2 bathrooms for 24 people & 4 separate rooms (3 rooms for the 20 gals on our squad). Crowded feels like an understatement. There are three floors & the top floor is where we gather to pray, worship & hang.
Our days are pretty long. I get up to spend time with the Lord around 6:30 each morning – we have to leave around 9 to walk to “the office” – which is where intercession usually happens. We spend 2 hours each morning praying for specific things as a squad – the country of Romania, the city we are serving in {Craiova – southwestern Romania}, the missionaries who serve here. We pray for miracles, we pray for prophetic words from the Lord, we lift one another up. We have spent time in small groups, pairs, or as individuals listening to requests, writing them down, & laying hands on people. Sometimes during these few hours we also get to learn more about the ministry we are partnered with, topics in leadership, & building the kingdom of God as a life-long calling.
Then we have a four hour window from 12-4 each day where we all walk back to the house & teams rotate cooking lunch for the whole squad. Cooking, cleaning & team time happens during these hours. Then typically from 4-8pm we are out on the streets of Craiova! Depending on where we think the Lord can use us best this month, we are divided up into groups for ministry. Thus, I unfortunately don’t always get to serve with all of my teammates at the same time.
We have done street evangelism, which can look like trying to talk to locals. Older people here typically do not speak English, while the youth do – I have had a few conversations about God with some young gals. We have spent time giving out pamphlets or brochures about God, putting them in mailboxes or willing hands 🙂 The neighborhood of Rovine (roe-vee-nay) is where our ministry is focusing on, they hope to saturate this place with the gospel while we’re here!
There are other teams whose approach is more relational evangelism – where they form friendships & then open up the conversation to God. A few groups do this around the university area or in local parks.
I have spent a few days serving doing administration work – stapling, cutting, organizing, printing – which is nice too!
There is also another group who go out to some areas in Craiova to serve the Roma communities! “Roma” is the more considerate term for the people group we are familiar with – gypsy. I am not positive, but I believe in other countries, there are similar people groups we are referred to as gypsies, but here in Romania it’s offensive for foreigners to call the Roma people gypsies.
A person who is a Roma (or gypsy) is a person who has never felt like they had a “home” in the main culture or typical society. They are usually percieved as “goin against the grain & are shamed, misunderstoond & often cast out or intentionally ignored or forgotten. Roma people can sometimes be nomadic, & were one of the people groups massacred in the Holocaust. The ground & people here in Romania, as most other places around the world, carry a lot of pain & a lot of history.
There’s a team made up of people on our squad who minister to the Roma people daily – sometimes it’s kids ministry, sometimes it’s preaching in Roma Christian churches. Here, only men are allowed to preach & when you go to these communities, you are not allowed to wear make up or jewelry (men or women – haha). Women must have their hair & heads covered & if you have tattoos, you aren’t allowed to show them. It’s also about 90-95 degrees here, so it’s HOT (& sweaty). I hope to serve this population at some point while I am here.
OH! I almost forgot to mention, there is also a coffee shop we pass by often – it’s called “5,” where everything is 5 lei (pronounced lay), which is about $1.19 🙂 I don’t go there everyday, but a few times a week & one of the gals who works there is a missionary as well, her & her husband moved here from Russia! It’s been fun to make connections around the world & find that there are people everywhere who love the Lord + coffee 🙂
Craiova is beautiful – here are some pictures of the things I get to see everyday:
