Romania Update

So I have had a lot of people asking me what I have been doing in Romania. I have been very busy with ministry here. For the first few weeks here, I have been working on a video ministry team. We have been taking videos to highlight the city of Craiova and the people in it. We do this to spread the word about Hope church and to show people what we are all about. The people. When the videos are posted, I will link them in a blog post, but for now, here is a sample video that I took while we were at the park above.

I have had quite a few people ask me what God has been doing in me since being out on the field. There were a lot of things to choose from, and way too many to list in my consistently inconsistent blog schedule. I was debating whether I should share about my spiritual warfare that I encountered, or when I overcame my anxiety, so I settled for the conviction that God put in my heart.

When I came on the race, my reasons for doing so were to learn how to evangelize to people. While I was having a great time filming for ministry. We would often film for one day and then edit for the next week. Since there were only two computers to edit on and six of us, and the fact that I don’t like to edit, I had a lot of down time on my hands where I kind of just sat around not doing much. So after much time with the Lord and talking things over with Cole, I was shown that this is not what I am meant to be doing; that I have so much more potential. So I finally took a leap of faith and obedience and joined the street evangelism team, or “seal” team. (It’s called seal team because our host uses a military analogy for our ministry and he describes Craiova as our battle ground. Also because the seal team has no supervisor other than Jesus).

Not the point. The point is, I chose to step out into an introvert’s worst nightmare: going out and finding people to talk to for 4 hours. So I did. Learning how to converse with people is something that I need to work on, because I am not very good at it. Right now, I have been in seals for a few days and honestly, I have been having a great time with it. It’s been really fun because a lot of Romanian youth love to talk to Americans so that they can practice their English. They also love the fact that these young “wealthy” Americans are coming to talk to them specifically. I am going to share a journal excerpt with you guys that kind of explains a simple story of what happened the other day.

11/30/21, Tuesday, Day 81

“I got to evangelize to someone today which is by far the coolest thing that I have done on this race. Modezza, Maddi Kamb, and I went to go film b-roll at Smart Cup and Bad Habits (the names of two of the coffee shops). While we were there, we ran into [her]. While Marissa was talking to [the coffee shop owner], she brought the question of “what do you put your hope in?” and [she] overheard and asked herself the same question. She said that she didn’t have anything to put her hope in because people and things are disappointing. So I said I agree, but I have something to put my hope in. When she asked what it was, I said it was Jesus Christ. This was such a cool feeling. I never felt anything like it.”

Obviously, I changed the names of the people in the story for obvious reasons. It was really cool to be able to plant a seed in someone like that. Also, I said that I switched over to street evangelism, but I was filming in the story. I still want to film because I think I am really good at it, and it would not be good stewardship of a gift that God gave me if I chose not to use it. On off days when we are editing, I will be doing more street evangelism. But it was so cool so see God reward my obedience towards Him. I could have chosen to stay in a spot where I was comfortable, but instead, I ran toward Nineveh.