Romania Update

Hi everyone! I want to thank you all for your prayers and encouragement – I could literally feel each of you lifting me up, and I know it was prayers because I would not have been able to push through this past month without your prayers. We have officially been in Romania for over a month, and since arriving here I have had the flu, a stomach issue, a bad cold, and allergies. But honestly, since I put out my last blog asking for prayer, it has been better and better and I only have you all to thank for it. 

We have been hopping all around Romania, starting in a small village of Draganesti-Olt, visiting Sibiu, moving to the city of Craiova, spending a week in Brasov (where I currently am), and then next moving to Alba Iulia in two days! We are currently taking a few days off of ministry to get deeper training in how to work with refugees, as that will be prevalent in our ministry moving to Alba Iulia. 

I don’t have a lot of words for the upcoming month. I know it will be challenging and heart breaking and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to serve people coming out of Ukraine looking for safety. If you’d like to pray, here’s some ideas:

• Our host is still needed financial and prayerful support as they are sending vans back and forth to the Ukrainian border to pick up refugees and bring them to their families/places of refuge, and for the ones staying in the city the church is bringing groceries to them so pray that financial support is continuously coming in

• Pray for the families who are being torn apart in these past few weeks and inevitably the upcoming ones as well. The families that are fleeing, and are seeing videos of their homes being destroyed hours after they’ve left. For the families who are rushing to the border with absolutely no place in mind to run. Pray for their safety, their peace of mind, and for all their needs to be met

• Pray for our squad to be strong and use discernment and that our impact would be bigger than what we see. That this month would not be wasted on feeling tired or unmotivated but that we would press into everything we can while we are here for a whole other month.

That being said, I will just share some pictures of what life has looked like the last few weeks.

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The view from the Mission House in Craiova

 

Helped sing songs and lead games for a youth program in the Rroma community

 

Took a train to Bucharest and was alone for more than 3 minutes straight so I deemed it worthy of documentation

 

 

Took a walk in the oldest park in Bucharest

 

Visited the worlds heaviest/most expensive building with my friend KRISTIN!!! (WHAT?! Small world right?!?!)

 

Spent the weekend with my dear friend Kristin which meant it was a weekend filled with incredible, intentional conversations, lots of history and art, and amazing traditional Romanian food, such as Papanasi pictured here! SO GOOD!

 

Saw a nice wall. Took picture with that wall.

 

 

 We lived in pidgeon land in Craiova. This was just the daily view walking to ministry in the morning.

 

Spent an evening on zoom with all of our parents doing worship and prayer and testimony sharing half way across the world here in Romania:)

 

All Squad month means a month with my girls!

 

Exploring cool streets in Brasov and leaving our mark!

 

Prayer and worship session after spending an afternoon in refugee training yesterday

 

Hiked with the logistics team through the Romanian forests to get to the Hollywood (Brasov) Sign!

If you look closely you can see the big “Brasov” sign which we hiked to! Beautiful and even though we did not have proper attire, it was totally worth it!

 

Visited Dracula’s Castle and got free flowers and jewelry because Romanian’s take International Women’s Day SERIOUSLY! 🙂

 

Our backyard view for the week in Brasov 🙂