Yes, you read that right! Here’s a quick guide as to how survive for three days with minimal sleep and no caffeinated beverages!
Basically, all you need to do is travel with Adventures In Missions (AIM) and they’ll do the rest for you 🙂
Here’s a quick little run-down of my last week and a half:
1. September 8th-10th: I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia to begin my journey on the World Race. We had three days of spiritual filling and last-minute preparation for the nine months ahead of us. There were lots of sermons, lots of worship, lots of healing and change, and so much more. God was working so much and we hadn’t even left the country for our actual missions trip yet. Shows how crazy He can be 🙂 But, as I’m about to explain, we definitely needed the spiritual filling for the days ahead of us.?
2. September 10th-14th: Hurricane Irma devastated much of southern Florida and Cuba. Our original travel plan was to fly out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to London and then fly to Romania. It was supposed to be a quick and simple travel period. However, all of the flights from Ft. Lauderdale International Airport were cancelled due to the hurricane, and after lots of replanning and rearranging our schedules, AIM came up with a master plan… 17 hour charter bus ride to NYC, stay the night in Queens, NY, 7 hour overnight flight to Portugal the next night at 11:45pm, stay a full day in Portugal, another 4 hour overnight flight to Romania, 45 minute air-tight public transportation bus ride from the airport to the train station with all of the weight of both of our packs on our bodies while standing up, and then finally a 2 hour train ride to our ministry host for the month.
From September 12th-14th, I slept a total of 5 hours and lost 7 total hours of time due to the time zone changes. I didn’t have a bed to lay down on for the entire period. All of my nights consisted of being on an airplane or on a bus. And if you’re like me, it’s difficult to sleep anywhere but on a flat surface. You have no idea how ecstatic I was to finally get to our ministry host and sleep on a bed.
I slept for 14 hours the following night.
The rest of us slept somewhere around 10-14 hours too. It was the greatest gift of God we could have received. It was amazing. After we got that sleep, we were so much more energized and ready for ministry.
Now you might be wondering, “What kind of ministry are you doing in Romania?” Well I’m glad you asked!
Yesterday, September 15th, we had the opportunity to serve in a local village here in Romania called Icoana. We got to hand out reading glasses to those who needed them and their first reading test was to read the Bible. We also got to counsel people and talk with them about Christ through a translator. It was an amazing experience getting to spread the Gospel to people in a different language. I don’t personally speak Romanian, but I speak Spanish and I’ve studied French so I understand a few words here and there. But it was fun to learn how to work with a translator and seeing the abilities that God has gifted them to communicate like that.
Tomorrow on the 17th my team will get to work in another local village with some permanent missionaries that are already here. They told us that it’ll only be an hour, but I’m praying that God uses that hour to the maximum. Also, for the next couple of weeks, my team will get to work with children’s/sports ministry, family ministry, house visits, street evangelism and prayer, church services, and so much more!
I can’t wait to see how God moves in the villagers’ hearts and also our own. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue this 9 month journey together with the Lord.
