Romania Update!

And just like that our Romanian chapter comes to a close. Here is a summary of what our month looked like:

• The Longest of Travel Days: With heavy hearts our squad parted ways with Guatemala on June 7th at 2:30am for a total of around 46 hours of travel via airplane and train to our final destination at Hope Church in Craiova, Romania.                                                                                            
• Abide Moves to Draganesti: After a few days of orientation in Craiova with the whole squad, team Abide found our way to our new home in Draganesti. We were given the opportunity to partner with Hope Church’s original church plant in the town and made the sweetest of friendships with the church staff and community. Our experience in Draganesti was no walk in the park though…It involved a lot of uncomfortable situations, feelings of uselessness, and an overall desire for more. Our primary ministry was street evangelism, something we are all a bit uncomfortable and unfamiliar with already…and then add the language barrier and cultural differences on top of that and you’re left with quite a bit of discouragement and frustration. When it comes to sharing the gospel, one of the greatest struggles is the balance of urgency and relationship. If I know a truth that leads to the fullest, most meaningful life with God and know the consequences of choosing to live a life away from Christ, but choose to hold that information to myself, I am not loving people. There is an urgency in sharing that information. You never know when it is someones last chance to hear about God’s love for them. But, if you are only caught up in the urgency, evangelism quickly turns into a business. Your “success” is determined by your output, and your mind will turn people into an item to acquire, a tally to mark. The personal relationship, genuine love for others is erased by productivity. God loves his children, God wants a relationship with us, and to not display this aspect of God in our interactions with others is not an accurate reflection of Him So, both factors are incredibly important but quite impossible to navigate perfectly on our own. With this in mind, step number one in sharing the Gospel has to be inviting God into it. We need to lean into him and ask him to lead our interactions, to open people’s hearts, and fill our areas of weakness. We need to remember that God is in control, He is the one moving. He’s just kind enough to let us be a part of it. We are merely a vessel, a face, a person to connect with and love on another person. Draganesti started out hard, but soon became a very sweet space for Abide to rest and grow in.  We learned to treasure and steward the slower pace of life, and to give ourselves and others grace as we all try to share the love of God to the world around us.                        
• Time to Be Tourists: We had the incredible opportunity to travel to our Pastor’s hometown and a nearby castle for one of our weekends off! It was a long but honestly quite enjoyable drive full of singing, deep questions, and beautiful scenery. We also got to put on our tourist hats and travel to Bucuresti for a nice relaxing day at Therme, our Pastor’s favorite place to unwind.                                                        
• Back to Craiova: After a couple weeks in Draganesti, Abide was asked to return to Craiova to join the rest of our squad in helping the Hope Church plant there. We went from learning how to steward a lot of down time to a very structured and full schedule. Romania has been full of a lot of extremes for team Abide. Our main ministry focuses in Craiova were street evangelism, building relationships with the young adults and children, helping in church admin, and reaching out to the Roma communities.        
• God’s Power Displayed in Bulgaria: Our whole squad was invited to join our pastor’s wife on a day trip to Bulgaria for some gospel spreading. We made the few hour drive across the border and were then split up into teams and encouraged to spark conversations about God with those we ran into. I am constantly shocked by how inviting people can be to a random person walking up trying to start a conversation. Its just not a normal practice where I grew up and I often tend to be too worried about inconveniencing people to even try. But, God has been very kind in easing me into these kinds of conversations with very welcoming and open people willing to hear me out. Thats how this story starts, with a couple women chatting on a bench, willing to give my little group a chance. Prompted by the pastor’s wife, we approached the bench and asked our go to question, “Do you speak English?” Translation can really get in the way of conversation so we were so delighted to learn that not only did one of our new friends speak English, but she did so incredibly well and to the point where she could translate the whole conversation to her other friend sitting next to her. Both women were Christians, but we quickly learned that our English speaking friend had never really experienced life with Christ. She grew up within the church and had a huge desire to love God, but struggled in fully surrendering her own will and therefore felt the full weight of perfection required to be in the family of God. A weight she had not yet allowed Christ to carry. She also revealed the years of demonic torment she had been experiencing. Despite multiple attempts to free herself from its power over her, she was left with what she described as a dark cloud over her mind and many nights of physical torment. After a lot of hard but necessary questions led by the pastor’s wife, she shared a desire to fully accept Christ and surrender her own will to allow His to be the guide of her life. After praying, she shared in honesty that she didn’t feel much, she wanted to feel different, but for some reason, just didn’t. We asked to pray against the demonic force, to reclaim her body as a home for the Lord, and she eagerly agreed. After praying, she lit up with glistening eyes and verbalized a feeling of faith. Our encouragements finally felt true and she expressed feeling liberated by the dark cloud that held her mind captive for so long. I’ve been asking God for this moment for so long. To be entrusted in a space where the power of Jesus name is on full display. All praise be to God! I hope to hold this interaction, this liberation dearly in my heart, but I am fully aware of how easy it is for me to rationalize moments like this. To dismiss and forget God’s provision. God let me treasure this moment and forever give you the credit deserved for your display of love towards our new friend.                                                                             

Despite the long days, spiritual darkness, and uncomfortable growth, I am so thankful to have walked through this last month with the Lord and my friends. This time was a good reminder to me that we often give our circumstances too much power when formulating our outlook on life. There is a lot of light, a lot of love when you turn your focus towards those you’re doing life with instead of the forces trying to bring you down. Let God in, keep your eyes on Him, and I highly recommend finding some cool Jesus lovin people to do life with.