slava lui Dumnezeu (Glory to God)

We are officially in our second country and just finished our third month of our World Race. We arrived in Romania about a week ago, and traveled for over thirty six hours with about four modes of transportation. We had two days to rest from our travel day and get used to the time zone difference (we are 9 hours ahead from Colorado). It was a rush to be in a new country, to be in a city (being in a small town like Chicaman, it took time to get used to cities again) and TO NOT KNOW THE LANGUAGE. The language barrier will probably have to be a whole other blog because it has been so interesting and God is still speaking through that!

Our first couple of days of ministry were orientation of who our new hosts were, language and culture learning, how do we evangelize to Romanians, and the ministry opportunities that Hope Church has. There are several different ministry focuses, but this week we have done evangelism, a youth event, a children’s Bible study, English classes, and Bible studies for different age groups.

I have been able to go evangelize throughout this week, and it has been very different than Guatemala. I wanted to make evangelism the focus of this blog because I feel like God is stretching me in this area.

The first day of evangelism, I was very nervous for several reasons. We had just been given two days of information about Romania and I had this scenario playing in my head that angry people would start yelling at me, in a language I did not understand, and that I would not be able to defend my stance and seen as weak. I had to ask for prayer because I did not want this fear to be portrayed to others or for the spirit of fear to be looming will reaching people. My first day of evangelism consisted of “yes, tell me more” or “no, I am Orthodox.” In Guatemala, it was very easy to go up to strangers and say, “Can I pray for you? Jesus loves you, do you know who He is?”

In Romania, it is polar opposite. For one, it is not normal for people to approach one another. We try to greet the Romanians with a “Buna Ziua” (“Hello”), and we get people looking at us very confused because it is just not normal to greet on the street. Another challenge I have noticed is the religious differences. For example, I would feel very comfortable laying hands on someone in Guatemala, but in Romania people have declined prayer or have said we could pray for them at our houses. Along with religious differences, if you even mention you are a Christian or anything other than Orthodox Christians, they are immediately turned off.

Something important that our ministry host told us that when we evangelize, we just need to put little pebbles into people’s shoes. We do not to preach the whole Gospel to someone, we just need to plant a little pebble that makes them curious or want to take the pebble out and look at it. It has been interesting to see how reaching people has changed within countries, but it is the reality. You are going to encounter people that want nothing to do with God or believe that their traditions are correct. On the other hand, there are going to be curious people who want to know more and are searching for more. God is definitely showing me and growing me to see both spectrums and to be prepared to stand my ground and share my beliefs.

Romania is opening so many new doors for our whole squad. It is all squad month so all 29 of us are all living in one house! It has been a blessing to do ministry with different people and to walk alongside the squad.

Please pray for squad/team unity, spiritual warfare that is trying to attack us, safety as we do ministry, and for Romania to be set free from all chains!