Just a little Wrap Up

Well hi! It has been forever since I have written, that is my bad. I am currently writing this in a plane headed to Romania… actually to Paris because of a short layover, then Romania! I’ll be honest this all hasn’t quite hit me yet, I know it will when we get there. Even though it doesn’t feel real, I am literally so excited! It is currently 11:34pm, I am way to excited to sleep though. I have some absolute bops playing in my ears from a playlist I created with my squad mate Noah and it’s keeping me up for now. Olivia (my beautiful teammate) is on my right and Marissa (my squad leader) is on my left. The flight has been pretty great so far, there has been a little bit of turbulence since we started crossing the ocean, but also we are literally crossing the ocean which is just crazy. The past 5 hours have blown by and I haven’t slept once. I think the credit is due to Olivia because I can count on her for occasional sass. Also she just has the brightest smile and eyes, definitely a great plane ride buddy. I have my hair braided into 4 braids because it is so short right now. However, despite my best efforts, 1 of them keeps falling out so now I have a quarter of my hair awkwardly unbraided. But who am I trying to impress?

Just a recap, Samaritan’s purse was so incredible! We were surrounded by a community that was so loving. It was like being with your grandparents if they had an essence of southern sass. On our second week of ministry there my team had the opportunity to work on the backyard of a couple that just received some truly heartbreaking news. The husband of the woman we were serving had been diagnosed with cancer less than a month prior. Regardless of the circumstances, she walked in full faithfulness. Even though she didn’t understand why God was taking him now she knew something good would come from it. Hearing their story, getting to know them, and loving them was honestly life changing. I know the first week of ministry I had a mindset of making sure the job got done, and I saw what we were doing from a general viewpoint. However, after meeting this couple God really opened my eyes to how I can see the people around me the way God does. Christ sees each of us so individually. I didn’t expect to have my eyes opened to see people who weren’t kids. I knew God opened my eyes to how he sees kids, because I have been working with children for so long, but I didn’t know he would open my eyes to see everyone as children. He showed me his heart for people I could have overlooked. I now feel like walking into Romania I have a better grasp of how to see Christs children like he sees them. Overall, time with the couple at Samaritan’s Purse was so sweet, there was lots of tears but God’s glory was seen so clearly. 

Things you can be praying for while we are in Romania: 

Protection against spiritual warfare- Craiova was under communist rule and so many people are still living with the burden of that. Consequently, many turned to witchcraft. It can often feel like you are a small light in a truly dark place.

The hearts of the people of Craiova- that they would just be open to hear what we have to say, and open to learning about what a relationship with Christ looks like. 

Our ministry partners- they do so much living and serving here full-time, prayer for wisdom, energy, joy, peace, protection, provision, and that God would continue to expand their ministry partners.