REST
Here are a few things I have learned since arriving to Launch September 8th, to now, living in a small town in Romania: Europe is beautiful, community in Christ is fulfilling, lack of sleep has consequences, and rest in Him is essential to fully living out His love.
Today is Sunday, our second one spent in Draganesti-Olt… We arrived the 14th, Thursday morning Romania time, and had been traveling since 4 AM on Monday the 11th US time. During that travel, we had one 16 hour bus ride, two plane rides, one long train ride, and one very exciting and adventurous layover in Lisbon, Portugal. (Lisbon is breathtaking and I hope to find myself living there one day). Because of the long travel days and lack of sleep, I was sick for the first couple of days in Romania… but thankfully it didn’t last long. On the first Monday we were blessed with our two day break to Greece. Look out for pictures on a separate blog post:)
During Launch, which was three full days in Atlanta with Gap Year 2017, we were all given an individual key with a word on it. We are to live out the words on these keys, and when we finally have, we give the key away to someone else. Before I arrived at launch, the Lord revealed something very important to me: I have never been super consistent with how and how often I spend my time with Him. I have always just brushed off spending one on one time with the Lord as something other people do, but not something I had time for. I had never wanted it enoughto do it.
The key I received had the word REST on it.
This year, I am going to work on resting in Him. Without being filled with the Holy Spirit and without being renewed every day, how can I overflow with His love to others?
I hope to get through the entire Bible during my 9 months abroad… I am currently reading Luke, and am loving having a wise squad mentor and leaders to turn to when I have questions. I have found myself looking forward to my quiet mornings spent reading His Word and resting in Him. How different my high school life might have looked if this was something I had consistently done!
This month, my team is working with a program in Hope Church called 9,000 souls. This looks like working in kids ministry, handing out Bibles, and evangelizing. I have the privilege of creating a short movie about 9,000 Souls which will be posted on Hope Church’s facebook… Please look out for a link I will be sharing once it is posted!
Romania is all squad month, which means 38 people crammed into one house. We have a week and a half left, and I am already sad to be leaving all my non-team members!
Please pray for the rest of my time in Romania and thank you so much for staying updated with my blogs!!
God is so good.
