Hello family, friends, and the random ones who stumble upon this blog! I've wanted to post something for a little while, but have just had a lack of words to actually write down. Between some recent changes within our team and being sick for the last week, I've had a severe lack of motivation to actually post anything. First off, we have all made it to Romania safely! It was a crazy travel day and I still don't know how we made all of our flights and arrived when we did, but it worked out perfectly minus missing our packs for a day. We have those now however so life is good.
Draganesti-Olt.
Our ministry for the month here in Romania is legit. And it's not just because we have warm water to shower with and mattresses to sleep on! Team Monarch is working alongside the wonderful folks of Team Mosaic with a local church here in Draganesti-Olt, Romania. It's in the southern part of the country about an hour away from Bulgaria. Spiritually, this place is pretty much a dead zone. Of 500,000 people here, only about 0.2% are christian, or about 700 people total. Poverty, unemployment, the prevalence of witchcraft, and resistance from the Orthodox church here are all contributing factors to this. So our ministry for the month is under the heading of "church planting" but we are working in a wide variety of areas. In just the first week, we've assisted with youth programs, visiting the sick and widows, working in soup kitchens or clothing drives, gardening, cleaning of yards, logistics in the church, helping with church services, teaching English, and many other things. Unfortunately for me, I've been sick, so they haven't let me do much, but I'm finally on the mend.
The community we live is like an odd mixture of modern day amenities and hold overs from probably a century ago. There is a bank, a market, or a coffee shop, but then you've got horse drawn carts being pulled outside of them. Everything has an older feel here. The house we are living in is planted right in the middle of a rich gypsy neighborhood. So we're surrounding by these giant 3 story houses that look like small mansions owned by the local gypsy population. We're told most of them in this community are wealthy because of shady business dealings or they will travel to surrounding villages and countries to rob people and houses before returning here. It's strange. Apparently last month the team living here accidently let a woman in the house who walked right in, took food off their table and left before they could even react or comprehend what had happened. It's not uncommon to have someone try to open our door once or twice each night. Witchcraft is huge within this population too. We're told that there are days when you will literally see people out in front of their houses with cauldrons and what not. Apparently the so called "witchcraft" capital is about an hour from here. When it was jokingly suggested we travel there, they told us we could pray for that community from the comfort of Draganesti. Apparently it isn't uncommon either to see caravans of traveling gypsy's come through town as well. The great thing is though, we're getting to work with some of the gypsy youth as well in some of the church programs, so it's been great having the opportunity to reach out to this group too!
One of the giant gypsy mansions.
For myself personally, this month has been off to a rough start. Partially because I've been sick. The main reason though is that our Team Leader, Justin, made the decision to return home at the end of this past month and pursue the next chapter in his life he felt God calling him to now. That chapter being marriage. So while I'm super happy for him and harbor no ill will whatsoever, it was heartbreaking for me nonetheless because the guy I've felt closest with this entire trip is suddenly gone. On top of that, I was asked to step into the role of Team Leader, so there has been a learning curve to that along with a little stress. Maybe I got a little too comfortable with where I was at and this is God giving me a kick in the rear now? I don't know. Everything is still a work in progress at this point, so many prayers for myself and Team Monarch would be much appreciated!
Thanks to everyone and God Bless!
P.S. The next deadline for finances is April 1 and two of my teammates are still working towards that deadline. Please keep Jesse Morris ($1,100) and Candice Yates ($600) in your prayers and if you happen to have an extra few dollars laying around, any little bit will help them reach the next deadline! They are a huge part of my family out here and in no way could I fathom either of them having to return home. Thank you so much!
My family on the World Race!
