Romania Recap: Months 3 and 4

Hey y’all!! With my time in Romania having come to its end, I’m going to share a little bit about what ministry was like in Criova, Romania. The ministry happening in Romania is amazing. The long term missionaries working with Hope Church have such clear vision are so intentional. They spent days just getting to know us so that they could assign us to areas where we would work best, according to our spiritual gifts. It was so evident that their hearts are for the Lord and for serving Him, and they have plans set up that make their ministry super effective. Less than 0.5% of locals in the area identify as true Christians. Craiova is dark, heavy, full of witchcraft, and some people actively practice satanism. Where we stayed, the city is made up of both Romanians and Roma people (Gypsies). The Roma communities are completely different than the main city. With the majority impoverished, and arranged like 3rd world country villages, they are outcast and discriminated against by most Romanians. Hope Church seeks out all people in Craiova using so many methods. It was my squad’s job to help and serve Hope Church in whatever way they could possibly need. 

Where did I stay? My whole squad of 27 stayed in a beautiful house called ‘the mission house’ that was rented out by our mission host! The house is about a 15 minute walk into town from the church and you couldn’t miss it. It’s striped blue and orange and has a bright blue roof, and three stories. Our mission hosts (Raul and Ana) lived on the bottom floor in an apartment next to the kitchen we all shared. The second and third floor were filled by the squad. My team and I lived on the third floor. While other teams on my squad were given bunkbeds, my teammates and I were blessed with our own individual beds! Each floor had its own bathroom to spilt between the squad and we had access to a fridge and stove in the kitchen. (Fun fact: ovens in Romania usually don’t work too well). To keep this massive house clean, our squad had a rotation cleaning schedule which had things like sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, and cleaning the kitchen. (I still wouldn’t call it the cleanest place though).

What did a ministry day typically look like? Like I mentioned, we were assigned to our ministry tasks based on our spiritual gifts (gifts like evangelism, teaching, hospitality, and discipleship). I was assigned to the media team which worked on a YouTube series called the Craiova project. Every morning Tuesday- Saturday looked like arriving at the ministry building at 9 to do worship and prayer as a squad. Then at 11:00 we would do an hour of work around the ministry building. 12-2 was our lunch break where we got plenty of time to try awesome food and explore the beautiful Romanian city. From 2-6 we all worked in our designated ministries, some people evangelized and poured into relationships made while evangelizing, others helped teach English classes. My group went out and collected footage of the city, it’s gardens and parks, and the people. I helped conduct interviews at coffee shops and around town and did some editing here and there. During the second month we spend more time as a collective squad going out to meet up and get to know the younger generation of locals in Craiova that are starved for the Lord and the life He has to offer. Our goal throughout the first month was to make relationships with others by hanging out with them and investing time into them to show them the love of Christ and to share the Gospel. It was so awesome to be apart of the work here and I can’t wait to continue to see fruit from my time in Romania!!

What did meals look like? Mealtime looked pretty similar from day to day, I usually skipped breakfast but, walking to ministry i typically picked up a cup of 1 dollar tea or coffee. If i did eat breakfast, It was probably yogurt and granola or cereal. My favorite lunch time meals consisted of Romanian hotdogs, Chicken Chiflas, and shawarma. For dinner during weekdays, our teams rotated in cooking the whole squad dinner. Dinner usually had some form of rice and chicken, but sometimes we ate spaghetti or grilled cheese.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years: Thanksgiving in Romania was such a special time to spend with our hosts and squad mates. Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated in Romania, but we were given the opportunity to celebrate together and to give our thanks to God. Setting up for Thanksgiving looked like assigning little groups and specific people tasks. There was a decoration team, and different people were assigned to make different foods. I was put in charge of making dessert for the 50 people that would be at dinner! (Because I’m the best baker). I ended up making apple crisp, apple cobbler, and brownies, and they were a big hit. After dinner, a few of us went and passed out leftovers to some of the homeless community. Christmas was a similar story, aside from the fact that most of the food was provided to us, and consisted of traditional Romanian cabbage rolls, corn meal, and bread. My team also did a little mini gift exchange Christmas morning. New Years and Christmas are both celebrated in Romania. New Years probably more so than Christmas. New Year’s Eve we had a little worship session before playing games and eating snacks with the Romanians. At 10, the squad went to a crazy concert in the square, it seemed like the whole city was there. At 12:00 we saw an amazing firework show before heading back to the church to keep partying till 3 in the morning. These special days were so amazing, and while I really missed home for the holidays, I know I’m right where I’m supposed to be. 

And lastly, the progress we made in Romania:

We Passed out: 

-2,000 shoeboxes with bibles in them 

-500 gospel posters (we’ve even seen them hanging in stores)

-2,000 calendars with bible verses 

-more than 2,000 pamphlets sharing the 

We had: 

-more than 200 deep conversations with locals

-25 teen and Christmas events/parties 

-7 flash mob caroling events 

-100 steady and ongoing relationships made with the church 

-90 hours of prayer for the city and its people 

-5 videos made for the Craiova project 

Thanks for reading!! Dominican Republic update coming soon!

Links to a few Craiova project videos:

https://youtu.be/yTuy3qCEewo -Intro to Craiova Project 

https://youtu.be/qJh3B-_pV0M -About the parks 

https://youtu.be/DxJoKGvkXJM -Flashmob video

Pic: My team and I collecting gift boxes to give to local elementary schoolers.