God's already done such amazing things here in Draganesti, Romania with my T-Squad.
I've become a part of a community that I've never experienced. That includes this town and within my squad.
We've been partnering with Hope Church in Draganesti and I feel so privileged to be a part of the work they're starting here. For the most part, when walking around, people look at us like we're crazy. I mean I'm sure that 50 Americans walking around in large packs and going to the grocery store to buy out all the food does look strange. . .But also we've been able to connect with the locals here in some awesome ways.
One Sunday my Squadmate Jeff and I were at the nearby school soccer field just hanging around and tying some resistance bands up to work out. I'd only known about this field because I had picked up trash at the school the week before. After a few minutes a few boys came up to Jeff with looks of sheer marvel at these huge rubber bands and wanted so badly for him to teach them how. Jeff excitingly taught them and eventually there were 7 boys out there with us all wanting to give it a go. They LOVED it. They looked like kids at Christmas that had just received the thing they've always wanted. None of them spoke English, but somehow we were still able to communicate everything we needed to. It was so much fun!! we knew we wanted to see them again so somehow, with not knowing anything but basic Romanian words, we got the boys to understand that we wanted to meet them again on Wednesday at 8pm to play soccer and football and we would bring more friends and so should they.
Wednesday came and there they were! Almost our whole Squad was out playing and eventually a good handful of kids showed up to play along with some of our translators from the church. We all had a blast out there building relationship with the local youth! They loved every second of it and it made me smile just to see the joy on the kids faces to have so many people to play with. We were able to meet again this past week and even MORE Romanians showed up to play, but this time we had watermelon to share 🙂 Building relationships and community is my favorite!! I know in those moment that THAT is the World Race and THAT'S why I'm here. It just gets me SO excited and I want more!!!
When you stop to pay attention to the little moments in life and try to find God in them, you never know what will happen when you give in to what He wants to do through you even in the simplest times. When you seek Him you will find Him!! He always shows up and I'm so glad I've been able to witness that!
Though some moments may be simple for some, they are HUGE for others.
This is a shout out to my Squadmate Aubray!!! At training camp we were in a share group together and she had shared some stuff about her past one beign that her past dream was to be a singer, but things had happened and she actually hadn't sung in 3 years. Even when we worship she fakes it.
We had squad time to bless our AWESOME squad mentor Carly as she headed out, and towards the end Aubray spoke up and reminded Carly that even though she hadn't sung in 3 years she inspired her to step out and right in that moment she wanted to sing "Aint No Mountain High" to her in front of all of us!!! SO COOL!!! I was so excited because I knew when I heard her at training camp that she would sing while we were on the World Race, I knew the Lord would bring it out but I couldn't believe it was so soon!!!!
Luckily I caught the WHOLE thing on video and I hope that Aubray and our squad can cherish this moment forever. It was a moment that embodied the TRUE meaning of freedom! What a joy to be able to share that with one another!! P.S. this girl got pipes!! She had an incredible voice!
