Nothing Wasted: Week 1 Team Romania

Hello friends!

Under God's provision, Team Romania arrived safely to Bucharest, Romania late Tuesday night after a long (& fun) day of traveling! The first four days that we have spent in this beautiful city have been crazy. We are in LOVE with the culture, language, beauty, and the people of Romania and we are enjoying a winter wonderland of snow! We praise and glorify God for all that He has done and is continuing to do here. Honestly and expectedly, it is difficult to comprise the sacred moments that have occurred during the short time that we have been here but let us give you a glimpse of what we have done, seen, and experienced through God this week!

First, this week we served alongside the Teen Challenge Romania center. We have learned to have no expectations and saying that it has been an encouragement to spend this week with the guys here would be an understatement! It has been such a joy to build relationships with the guys that are currently in the Teen Challenge program. Whether it is sharing meals, shoveling snow, chapel, or hanging out, sharing our stories with one another has been life giving! Seeing passion in the staff of this ministry has been touching and we desire to continue to grow these relationships in the days ahead.

Next, a large portion of our time was spent with the homeless community in Bucharest by bringing tangible needs (food, fire wood, diapers, etc.) to families, a young boy in a sewer, and to several families within abandoned buildings. The way God works is crazy. He used people who donated money to support this trip to buy food and supplies for people here in Romania and we had the honor of spending time with each of these people. Many of us didn’t know what to expect prior to entering into these places and honestly much of the brokenness and darkness that we saw and experienced has been difficult to process through. However, along with tangible needs we brought the uncontainable love, joy, and light we have through Christ. These brief encounters with each family were so sweet and humbling for us to get a glimpse of each person’s story and how God is working in their life. Many of the people we have encountered have been rejected by society and it was encouraging to share sacred moments in what God is already doing by praying with, listening to, and telling them about their value in Christ. Specifically, while spending time in an abandoned building it was so special to get to play with the kids, share the Gospel through a skit, and spend time singing and dancing together.

This week one of the organizations we worked with was Hope Rescue Centre, who is a partner of the Teen Challenge ministry. This ministry is bringing hope through various outreach programs which includes: hope for homeless ministry, hope through sports, hope for Christmas, and hope for homes. Their vision is to bring hope to underprivileged people by offering physical, emotional, educational and spiritual resources that help them become responsible citizens. They are currently requesting prayer for products, volunteers, equipment and furniture, car/van, and land in Bucharest. Here is how you can find out more about this ministry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfCHsKWB2oQ

Yesterday, we moved from the Teen Challenge center to an organization called Children to Love, whose focus is to pour love and hope into the orphan community (which more than 60,000 orphans) of Bucharest. For the next five days our team will be spending each day with two different orphanages or communities of children. Specifically, coming alongside the mission of Children to Love, our heart for this week is to be fully present with each child we have the opportunity to encounter. Whether that be listening to, playing with, reading with, getting to know, or letting them laugh at our attempt at speaking Romanian; we desire that we would be able to reflect the love, hope, and joy of Christ. It is important to us that we communicate, verbalize, and show the depth of the Father’s love for these children by placing value on who they are because of Jesus. Ultimately, we do not have the power to save these children but we rest in the truth that we are called to reflect the love of Christ and offer the truth of who God is and trust in God’s faithfulness, sovereignty, and will for each of these children’s lives.

We are so excited to continue to partner with these ministries and we are so humbled that we have been invited into God’s work here in Romania. Here is how you can specifically pray for Team Romania:

-Strength for the workers in ministry

-That God would grow the seeds we are planting

-The language barrier can be frustrating (prayer to find and use other universal ways to communicate)

-We would bring the hope of Jesus to the hopeless in this dark city

-We would be open and aware of opportunities given by the Holy Spirit

-Confidence, wisdom, courage, and boldness in Christ

-We would be able to spread the love of God so presently with the children this week

-Weather conditions (very cold and lots of snow!)

-That God would use us to share God’s love and mercy to the people of Romania

-Vulnerable hearts that are selflessly positioned to glorify God in every opportunity we are given

-Health, safety, and provision

Thank you so much for your love and support,

With love,

Team Romania

Isaiah 49