Month 8- In Bulgaria teams were switched again and I’m back with all girls. I was lucky enough to get 2 girls from my first team and also kept a girl from my last team. The whole squad spent a few days debriefing in Sofia, where I spent my 25th birthday. Then my team headed to Bankya, which is right outside of Sofia. It’s a quant little town near the mountains. We had to hike up a steep hill just about every day to get home. Our house was a house built by the mafia. 5 stories and very nice compared to what we are use too. It was freaking awesome! Here for ministry we were helping a church. So we spent a week with a youth camp teaching classes, being lifeguards, and kitchen duty. We also helped unbox and clean over 200 boxes of books making them into a library. Even though we weren’t in Africa anymore we still have shared testimonies at church. Spent time with the youth from the church by walking around Sofia, going to the Rila Monastery, and exploring ruins in Plovdiv. That was a lot of fun.
Month 9- Romania the land of “Roma” people or as we know Gypsies. This month we spent in Calarasi with Outstretched Hands. We lived in shipping containers that they built into a school, so it was really nice. We lived in Calarasi near the poorest people but we spent a lot of time out in nearby villages. For ministry we played volleyball with teens, gave testimonies at church, did intercessory prayer, lead children programs, helped with after school programs, lead teen studies, helped with a tent event, cleaned/organized an attic, and prepared crafts for the tent event. We basically became a part of the team that is there always and were even made apart of the weekly staff meetings. The people were just beautiful and so loving. Some of my favorite times were spent spending the night in ciuselet as part of the village. The team got to get out of town for 2 days to Brasov to see Bran Castle (Dracula). The whole squad spent a week in Dragonesti-olt half were with PVT but my half worked with Raul’s ministry. We passed out bibles called the New Testament project to every house in different villages and some helped with office work. Then we went for a mini debrief in Bucuresti, which also was a lot of fun.
When I come up with something where I actually finish it I’ll do my best to post. Thank you for keeping up with my travels! Currently on month 10! Will be home soon.
