Romania

Over the last couple of months, people have been asking how this journey to Costa Rica has started. I could give you the short version, but I will give you the LONG version but in multiple blog post. I  want you to understand my heart and my passion and how God has lead me to this journey. If you missed the first post, here is the link for it.


Romania...

 In 2003, the church that I was at took 16 students and 4 leaders to Romania for a 2 week mission trip. It was my first time in eastern Europe and my first time in that country. For the 2 weeks that we were there, we got to stay with host families, we did VBS at a church and got to go to the capital for a few days. It was a great trip and while I was there I felt God calling me back.

The following year, I decided to spend my summer there. I would be going back to Romania with 2 of my friends for the whole summer. My last day of work was in a Friday and the next day I was on the van heading to LAX to catch a flight.

The first month there, we stayed in the same city. We all lived together with the pastor and his family. It did take some time to get used to living in a city and being in a country that I didnt know the language. They spoke Hungarian and I didn't. They had mineral water, which I didnt like but they had vanilla coke which was amazing.While we were there, we got to do VBS with the kids, did an outreach ministry with the Gypsys and put on a camp for a nearby village.

The second month we traveled every week to a different village. The first week we join another team and did a camp for the Gypsy's in a nearby town. Then we went to another village for a week and did a VBS day camp for nearby villages. This was the first time that I had visit villages that had never heard the gospel and I felt like there was more I should be doing but couldn't.
You see during this trip we kept seeing children and young adults place their faith in Christ but I wanted to know what the next step was. Who was going to disciple them, mentor them, continue to teach them who Christ is. My director said that it would be the local church that we worked with, but for me that wasn't enough. At the time, there was 15-20 small churches that 1 pastor would over see. Meaning that there was 15-20 small churches that he was in charge of disciplining, training and leading. And I couldn't see how any one person could do that. I felt as though there had to be more that we could do, more that I could do but I wasn't sure what more was or how I fit in to that. So I prayed, prayed that God would show me where he wanted me. Was it here in Romania, was it now?

Our last stop was at one of our translators home. We got to teach English to young adults and then was able to give our testimonies to those who wanted to stay and hear it. By the end of our time we had about 30 people staying after class. We did a bible study, sang worship songs and shared the gospel. We saw lives being changed.

At the end of our 2 month there, we met up with our 2 week team and headed to Budapest, Hungary to debrief and process everything that we have learned over the last 2 months. During this time, one of my dearest friend, Susan was there. She had came with the 2 week team. It was great to have her there, she helped me process everything, prayed with me and encouraged me. It was during that time that I heard God tell me not here, not yet. See those where the questions that I needed answered. He told me that I was not called to Romania and it wasn't my time to go yet. So I came back to Fresno, I came back to work, doing youth ministry and trying to figured out where God wanted me to go.

5 years later, God started to let me know where that was.....