It has now been 3 weeks in Craiova, Romania and I want to share about my time here so far.
Craiova is pretty much polar opposites to Guatemala. Not only is the temperature frigid, but the people and culture are a lot colder. The weather in Guatemala is consistently warm and comfortable, at least in San Antonio Agua Caliente, and the people are bright and welcoming. When you greet someone on the street, you do it with a tone that is sing-song-like and at people’s homes, they open the doors with a clear invitation to come inside and talk. In one word, Guatemala is warm. On the other hand, Craiova is cold, really really cold. It does not help that we are here in the colder season though because Craiova can actually get quite warm. Saying “buna” (hi) or making eye contact and smiling at people on the street is rare. People always seem to be on a mission, similar to people in New York. Also, while in Guatemala, I luckily picked up a decent amount of Spanish fairly quickly, but I have picked up little to no Romanian. Thus, talking to people here has been hard!
My squad is partnering with a church called Hope Church. Yes, I did say squad, which is an important difference here on the race. While in Guatemala, I was with my team of all girls (Abigail, Carol, and Katherine), but here, I am living with my entire squad of a little under 30 people. We are all packed into one of the ministries homes, living on two floors and sharing two bathrooms. It has been an interesting time. At Hope Church, we spend time putting on youth events, evangelizing, passing out packets that the church has made, helping in English classes and other classes about hard topics in the Bible, getting to hear from the pastor of the church and learn from him, and do any other projects the church needs help with. For the first two weeks here, I was put in a role called PA (Personal Assistant) for a woman whose name is Teresa. Teresa went on the race recently and felt the Lord call her back to Craiova. She felt called to create a place for the future racers to feel loved and seen while partnering with Hope Church. This is not to say that Hope Church does not love the world racers well, but is more so emphasizing how the differences in culture and the process of church planting can make hosting a large team of missionaries difficult. Teresa is able to see the needs of the church and the racers then find a way to satisfy the needs of both as best as she can. She, in other words, has a large role and I am thankful for her. Thus, being her PA was a privilege. I loved getting to help her and walk with her day after day, which is pretty much what my role entailed. I was pretty much there to organize her thoughts and tasks, then make sure they all happened. On top of that, I made sure she was not bombarded with many texts from our huge squad; I would receive all the needs from my team and help in any way I could then give them to her. It simply made her life a bit more maintainable. With this role, I did not partake in the hours of “hitting the streets” (aka evangelizing) we would do every afternoon for ministry. This created a sense of distance from me and the people of Craiova, but more than anything has redefined what ministry can look like for me. It does not always include going out to evangelize and make many new relationships with the people of the country you are in, but can look like loving and being there for those who are already there to do that. Being here to spend time getting to help her, to know her and to love and be loved on by her has been life giving. Jesus calls us into so many kinds of relationships and I am happy he called me into this one!
Friends and family, this has been an interesting past couple weeks and I am glad that I can share it with you. I welcome you joining us in prayer, it is needed. More to share in my next blog.
