Thursday, March 10, 2016

Bucharest!

After a wonderful morning of prayer and intercession with Pastor Raul, we packed up and headed out of the Mission House. A three hour drive later and we were at X Hostel in Bucharest! The students and chaperones had a couple of hours of free time before we all met for a fun dinner together. Great memories before we head back home!

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Rainy and Productive Day!

Once again, our teams enjoyed a morning of teaching and prayer with DRob and Pastor Raul. The clouds rolled in and the rain came down - all day! The upside was we got to trust God with our Plan B! First, we went to a big, furniture warehouse and prayed over it to see if this could be a possible ministry location for Pastor Raul. Then, we split up in to our teams and headed out for more ministry. 

Team Tonk (Grace, Priscila, Nicole, Amberly)
Team Tonk spent the day with Pastor John. We went to a few homes to visit the families within the churches to encourage them. The first house we visited we got to share a few of our testimonies and pray for a single mom with one child. Another family came in within the home while we were still there and we got to pray over them as well. They wanted to show us their backyard and our shoes got dirty from the mud. One of the women would not let us leave until she cleaned our shoes off as much as she could. How practical her service was to us! We got to hear Pastor John's testimony which was exceptionally encouraging. After that, we visited an old man named Elijah and prayed for his health and his wife. Pastor John invited us into his home where we got to meet his family and encourage them with conversation and prayer. Today was a day well spent toiling for the Lord in all that we did! Praise be to God for how He encouraged us today! 

Team D-Rob (Elisa, Quincy, Erica, Carly) 
Team D-Rob spent the day with Veronica. Today we went on home visits guided by Veronica. The first house we visited we met a 15 year old girl who had recently be baptized. Erica and I both shared our testimonies with her, encouraged her, and prayed with her. It was sweet fellowship even though there was a language barrier. The second house we went to was a 14 years olds house who shared two rooms with her 6 siblings, parents, nieces and nephews and grandparents. It amazed me how joyful these new belivers were even though they have almost nothing. The last house we visited we meet a 21 year old mother who was babysitting three children. Erica and I shared a time in our live where we saw God. After fellowship, we played games together and bonded. In the end our hearts were overwhelmed  to see what the Lord has been doing in Romania!

Team Jodi (Riley, Megan, Emily, Sidney)
Team Jodi first visited a furniture warehouse/factory that the church is prayerfully considering to purchase to hopefully receive a steady income to support the local missionaries.  We then went a nearby city to look at a building Hope Church is considering to buy to use as a church.  We visited two houses in C, and spent time praying, giving testimonies, and even singing to the homeowners.  We hope God will soften their hearts and grasp the wieight of the Gospel.  Hope Church has been perseverant in their pursuit to expand their church's influence around southern Romania.  We are glad to be a part of their mission!  

Team Krista (Logan, Anna)
Team Krista , minus Sidney, spent the day with Tovie and Nicoleta. Their ministry is in a small town near Dragonesti. We first spent time with the missionary couple at their house and got to know their heart and motivation for the people. We then drove to the town and visited families who had attended an event the day before. It was very encouraging to see the love they had for the people and their desire to create three families we visited invited us into their homes, and Tovie and Nicoleta led discussions about the Bible and answered the people's questions. Only one person in that town is a believer, but two more have recently made declarations of faith. It was a very encouraging day, and we feel very blessed to have partnered with this couple for the day.



Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Team Day

After morning devotions and lunch we headed to the church for a full afternoon of ministry! 

Team DRob (Quincy, Elisa, Amberly, Erica, Carly)
Team DRob spent the day ministering to children. We spent the day with Veronica, who has been leading the "kids' clubs" of Hope Church for 13 years. We first rounded up the kids from a nearby neighborhood then went to a grassy area. We opened with prayer then sang with the kids and taught a Bible story. The first kids' club ended with a game of football (aka soccer) then went to the next kids' club. There we did some more praying, singing, teaching, and played some more football. The kids loved having us there and we were blessed to be able to spend the day with them!

Team Krista (Anna, Sidney, Logan, Emily)
Team Krista spent the day ministering to the people of Dragonesti-Olt. Our group split up into 3 smaller groups, each with a translator, and walked around Dragonesti-Olt passing out bags of seeds with invitations to Hope Church. Many of the groups had encouraging conversations with the locals and even had opportunities to share the gospel! The day ended with a fun game of soccer and playing with kids at the soccer field. Praise God for such an encouraging day! 

Team Tonk (Grace, Nicole, Priscilla)
Team Tonk spent the day ministering to widows. We spent the day with Dorothey, a missionary with Hope Church, traveling the Romanian countryside paying visits to six widows. During each stop we were able to provide some groceries, a flower, and a Leigh's blankie. We talked to each widow for 30-40 minutes, listening to their stories, loving on them, and eventually praying for their needs. Each expressed immense thanks and told us how blessed they were for our visit.  We hope they know how equally blessed we were! 

Team Jodi (Riley, Megan)
Team Jodi returned back to Craiva for the day.  We met the local missionary there, Adi, and passed out flowers to female college students because it was "Women's Day" in Romania.  Each flower we passed out had a letter attached to it informing the students of a college bible study group that Adi hopes to lead.  Each women gladly accepted the flowers.  We then went to a family living in the suburbs of Craiova who Adi has been in contact with to share the gospel.  The family was extremely poor, struggling from a earning a sufficient income and enough food for there large family.  They are heavily influenced by the Orthodox religion.   Adi passionately conveyed to them that Chirst the only one who can forgive our sin, not the priest.  Seeing Adi's zeal for Christ was encouraging to all of our group.  We then returned to Draganesti and enjoyed playing soccer with the locals! We lost!! 

 

Monday, March 7, 2016

Jet Lag

Hoping we don't spend too many more 3 AM's in the kitchen!


A Day of Sharing!

Today was most certainly a day of purpose! Pastor Raul did an excellent job of planning a day of trusting God with our emotions and words. The day was broken in to two themes: Bible distribution and Jericho walk.  We met at the church at 9:00 AM for intercessory prayer and worship. What a great start to the day, praying for what was to come! Hope Church prays every morning (M - F) for an hour - what an example for our students! We then loaded in to vans, New Testaments in hand, and headed to a neighboring city, Craovia. We broke in to our ministry teams armed with translators and God's Word, and headed in to neighborhoods ready to give a New Tesatament to whomever God placed in our paths! What a step of faith we took, trusting God for strength, the words to say, and for receptive hearts.  Needless to say, wonderful conversations ensued! Two hours flew by as we engaged with the young and old, discussing careers, families, religion, and Jesus! What a joy to be on the streets of Romania sharing the gospel! After a quick ride to downtown Craovia, we were invited to participate in a Jericho walk. This consisted of pairing up, walking around the University (about a city block in length), and praying for the students and faculty. Amazing to take part in something so seemingly simple and yet so transforming! Finally, we took our remaining New Testaments and handed them out to dozens of people in the downtown area. Conversations about Jesus were taking place all around us! We ended the day eating gyros at the food court in a nearby mall.  What a day! Enjoy some of the pictures!