Twenty years ago, I took my first trip to Romania. It would be my final summer before "real" life - it was just before my senior year of college - and I wanted to use it well. I had no idea then that that first trip would not be anywhere near the last.
Trip #13 begins this week, Lord willing. See prior blog posts if you'd like for a little more history on trips 1-12, but for the sake of your time and mine, today's post will focus on 2025.
This year's Romania team is the biggest I've led, though I've participated in bigger teams previously. We're a bit of an eclectic group this year, ranging in age from 5 months to older adult, and ranging in depth and length of friendship from one of my childhood friends joining for the first time, to a woman I've not yet met in person. There will be 11 of us total, from 3 different states and 4 different churches and 6 different families. Here are our plans:
October 2nd: Rendezvous in Bucharest - our team's 5 different flight paths will bring us all to the Bucharest airport, Lord willing, by Thursday evening. I'm hoping we'll have a little bit of time to settle in and explore and fight the urge to sleep until a reasonable bedtime.
October 3rd: Rendezvous with Romanian friends: our friends Alecs and Tavi, from Hope Church Draganesti, plan to pick us up and take on the role of tour guides. With all my visits to Hope Church, and all my visits to Bucharest, I've not yet spent any time with Hope Church friends in the busy capital, so this should be fun! They'll then drive us to Draganesti, the little town that captured my heart back in 2016 and never let go.
October 4th-8th: Ministry in Draganesti and Maruntei. This includes a health/eyeglass clinic, home visits, youth group, testimonies, and the honor of celebrating a Romanian Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving isn't a national holiday in Romania but is celebrated in evangelical churches on various autumn Sundays, and the village of Maruntei will celebrate while we're there. This'll be a first for me!
October 8th-12th: Ministry in Craiova. Pastor Raul shifted his attention to Craiova, the 6th-largest city in Romania, several years ago, and the church there has been growing so much that I can't keep up! This will be my first time in their new church building. We'll be doing various church and evangelism events there, and meeting with lots of friends old and new.
October 12th-16th: Church-planting activities in Thessaloniki! Next on the horizon for Hope Church is the hope to plant a church in the city of Thessaloniki - yes THAT Thessaloniki/Thessalonica, where the apostle Paul had similar aims. Our team will travel by a very long van ride (that I'm actually pretty excited about) through Bulgaria (adding another country to my tally!) and on to Greece. We'll spend a few days there with several Romanian friends, working on building relationships with people in that city and planting seeds for the hopeful church-to-come. We'll also take a day trip to Philippi (yes, THAT Philippi) to see some ancient church history sites.
October 16th: the team disperses! Some will travel home that day, some will wait til the next to travel either home or onward to other adventures, and as for me, I'm sticking around for a little while. My friend Carol and I had grand adventures in Greece and Croatia two years ago, and decided Greece was well worth a bit more of our time. We've reserved some epic Airbnbs in both Thessaloniki and Athens, and we're hoping to add an island tour this time around as well. This part of the trip will be all play and no work.
October 23rd: I head home!
As is always true, these are only my plans, and I've set to see what God has planned. Every trip holds unique joys and unique challenges. A few prayer requests:
- for safe travels and easy airport transfers, especially on October 1st. There are so many of us taking so many different flights, and quite a few tight layovers. It would be wonderful if we could all make it onto our flights as planned and arrive on schedule to our destination!
- for protection from motion sickness. Two of our young team members (ages 6 and 8) struggle with this, and one of them is especially nervous about her long flight. We'll be on lots of planes and van rides, and it would be a blessing if these journeys could be pleasant!
- for health and wellness for the team. A specific new request as of tonight is for my back. I had a back injury at work in August, and I've basically recovered "in full," but this suitcase is really heavy, and I'm praying I will be able to carry it without incident. Thankfully, it should get lighter as the trip progresses!
- for effective ministry. The gospel is the best of news, and many people don't know this yet. We'll have so many opportunities to have gospel conversations with non-believers, to share our own stories of God's faithfulness, and to encourage the faithful saints laboring on tough ground year-round.
- that we would honor the Lord in all things - our interactions with the Romanians and with one another and in our own hearts. These trips have always included some degree of me having to fight my own selfishness, pride, and insecurities, and God uses each of these trips to sanctify me. Please pray my oft-weak faith and oft-weary heart would be refreshed and spurred on.
So many words! Here's just one picture - of a much-younger Krista on Romania trip #3, 18 years ago! Pictures of 2025 to come!
