Draganesti-Olt

the stairs in the mission house - I'm staying on the 2nd floor

Right now, I am sitting in a big empty house.  Until today, it has been filled with my team of 3 other chaperones, a mission project leader, and 14 high-schoolers.  Until today, I've shared my room with 3 energetic teenage girls.  But now, I just watched all of those people pull away in a bus bound for Bucharest, and I'm entering the going-it-alone phase of my trip. As the pastor here said this afternoon, now I'm "Home Alone." 

view from the bedroom window

My heart is so full after 4 days of worship, prayer, and ministry here in Draganesti.  It was incredible to watch my passion for Romania begin to take root in some of these students.  It seems simultaneously completely strange to be back here, and at the same time oddly normal.  After months of preparation and two long plane rides, I still got to Bucharest thinking, "is that all it took to get here?  What took me so long?"  I love being surrounded by the language again, and seeing many things I loved about Romania before that are still true even in this different region and 9 years later.  There are still horse-pulled carts.  There are still cobblestone streets.  There are still roosters crowing.

distributing seeds and church invitations in a Draganesti neighborhood

Most encouraging of all though, there is still an incredible God working through Romanian believers to do wonderful things.  We were here to partner with a church called Biserica Speranta (Hope Church), and our role was mostly just to come alongside the things they were already doing, to join in their ministries after spending time each morning praying for various people, projects, and partners.  We got to do a prayer walk around a university in the nearby city of Craiova.  We got to pass out New Testaments in neighborhoods and parks in that same city.  We got to pass out seeds for people to plant in their gardens here in Draganesti, along with invitations to worship at the church.  We got to pray with people.  We got to pray over new opportunities that the church has, such as purchasing a small furniture-building shop that could help finance their work here.  Some of our team got to do children's ministry and ministry to widows in the community. 

having my hair done by a neighborhood girl at the soccer field,
with lots of interruptions from this little guy

My favorite day was yesterday.  It was cold and rainy, which meant lots of changes to our plans.  I and two of the students got to shadow some local missionaries named Octavian and Nicoleta.  We were dropped off at their home, where we drank coffee (my first since London!) and ate chocolate and learned about them and prayed for them.  I instantly felt connected with them and loved spending time with them.  Then we went to the nearby village of Maruntei.  This dear couple has a heart for this village and is hoping to plant a church there.  We got to do follow-up visits to some non-believing families who had come to some church events recently, and the plan was to gather in a local widow's home for a Bible study with some villagers later that afternoon.  Things didn't go as planned (the woman wasn't home, her gate was locked, and other participants in the Bible study couldn't come because of the weather), but God's plan for the day was pretty incredible.  I was inspired by Tavi and Nicoleta's perseverance, their joy in serving the Lord, and the relationships that they are building. It was an amazing thing to be a part of. We got to pray for and with some of the people of Maruntei, and I was invited to sing a song while sitting at a stranger's kitchen table and to share about a time in my life where God was faithful through hard times.  At one point in our Maruntei adventures, when we were locked out of the widow's house and had no place to go, we went to a mechanic's garage, where we'd visited earlier, to take shelter.  We were invited up into the attic, where they happened to have a ton of dried corn that we helped get off the cob with a weird tool.  We then went back downstairs and drank a delicious pink hot tea while talking to the people who live and work there.  It was one of the most eclectic afternoons I can remember!

cold, rainy, wonderful ministry in Maruntei.  From left to right: Logan from our team, Nicoleta, Octavian (Tavi)

This morning,our team gathered around the Romanian team ministering here and prayed for them. There were many tears - we have all been so encouraged by these faithful men and women.



This blog is already far too long, thanks for reading this long if you did.  This afternoon and evening I will likely lay low here at the missions house, with a quick trip to the train station at some point to work out my train ticket for tomorrow, and a quick stop at a nearby restaurant that I enjoyed eating lunch at the other day.  Tomorrow I'm excited to join the ladies of the church for their morning prayer time, then will head by train to a town called Drobeta Turnu Severin (try saying that 3 times fast) for the first stop on my whirlwind solo tour.  I appreciate everyone's prayers as I travel alone - I'm excited but naturally a bit nervous as well!



sunset from the soccer field in Draganesti