No really, I’m in Transylvania, Romania! And before someone makes a joke about packing garlic, my teammate Ashley is always packing some (not complaining- I’m of the opinion there’s no such thing as too much garlic in food) so… yeah!
By the by, that pic up above is NOT the fabled “Dracula’s Castle”. That castle is about 4 hours away from us (a trip my team is DEFINITELY planning). The castle in question is… well, I’m not entirely sure which castle it is! Our ministry host for this month, Raul, decided to treat us a little bit on our way to the host site by stopping off to see this castle. I tell you what, I was NOT complaining at that opportunity! 😀 When you’re a BIG history buff and someone offers to take you to a castle, any personal preference tends to go out the window in a hurry!
But when we’re not exploring captivating castles (I promise you, it was only a half hour stop!), we’re up to some pretty awesome goings on here in Alba Iulia (Al-buh-you-lee-uh). It’s ALL-SQUAD month, y’all; the only time it will happen along the course of The Race (apart from debriefs)! All 41 of us are all in one location this month with our 3 squad leaders and even our squad mentor is on the field with us this month! It’s no overestimation to say this month is different, ministry-wise. The focus is taken away just a little bit from overall ministry, and that’s actually a good thing, rest assured. All-squad month is really an awesome opportunity to heal and to grow and dig deeper, and digging deeper both into ourselves and each other. I can see its fruit clearly and it will most certainly go a long way in setting us up for success both later in The Race and, well, for life! It’s great to see what one month of ministry has truly worked in all of us, too!
Our ministry host organization is a little different than I believe we can expect from hosts, too. We’re staying at a facility operated by Hope Romania (an offshoot of Hope Church). Unlike pretty much every other host we will likely have, it’s not itself a church in the usual sense. Rather, it’s an facilitator of missions and churches, a program with a vision for the church in Romania. Together with AIM and Partners in Evangelism International (PIE) Hope Romania helps to organize Race teams and other missionaries and bring them alongside its partners and find/fill-in gaps wherever there is need. They actually have World Racers here in Romania almost year-round, and there are even a few World Race alumni on staff! A Gap Year squad ACTUALLY just arrived at their other “hub” in the south of Romania this morning (got to talk to some of them briefly, have NO idea who any of them were! I’ll make it clearer why I got to meet them in my next post!)
Let me tell you, if you want to see what it is to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world, look no further than this organization’s leader, Raul. He is an incredible man who has such devotion and love for Christ and the truth and to share that knowledge with everyone in Romania and beyond, and he has been gifted with such clear vision in how to share that. He sees that the harvest is great, that the workers are few, and has stepped right up and declared “Okay God, you say ‘Go’ to me and Your will WILL be done!” You want to talk about the spiritual gift of administration? Oh yeah, HE’S GOT IT! (he also has the gift of teaching/being a pastor, too, but he won’t admit it).
But yeah, it’s already shaping up to be a great month of challenge (I’ll share my own challenge also in my next post. It’s funny, you’ll LOVE it!), of evangelism, and growth, both for my squad and for the church here in Alba Iulia!
Oh, I should add on that note that my squad, X-Squad (Best Squad!) is the FIRST squad on location in Alba Iulia! The facility we’re living in is brand new (and pretty nice, I must say).
With the mission site being new, that means the people we’re ministering to are largely also new; new in the sense that there are precious few here living in relationship with Christ. Many have never been told of such a thing; rather that all you need to do is see your local priest on occasion and attend church every now and then and the rest is moot. Please be in prayer for the people of Alba Iulia and other mission sites we’ll be working at for the rest of this month. There’s great opportunity here! (We’ve already had several people come into a true relationship with Christ in the past week we’ve been here!! SO EXCITING!!!)
Thanks again for all the prayers and support back home! Keep it coming- it’s working!
And now, to embrace my nerd-side, a picture of me… hugging the castle…… yup 🙂
