romania • week 9

I am sitting here, in the community center in Medgidia, Romania. It is a beautiful day with the sun coming through the windows. The rest of the week will be full of time spent with little ones who have next to nothing. Today, though, is a day of rest.

A friend has lent me a book to read so I spent a few hours this morning reading A Simple Path, a biography about Mother Teresa. It is beautiful and her life speaks of love, which especially inspiring for me and in light of the way we spend our days looking for ways to share God's love. 

"The success of love is in the loving--it is not in the result of loving." - Mother Teresa

And I think that is beautiful. We have spent our time here engaging in children's ministry at a few churches as well as at the community center. We usually have two or three programs each day, each at a separate location. The Roma children come to the community center from Tuesday to Friday for Bible lessons, meals and showers. There is always love and light in their little eyes! As exhausted as I feel by the end of the day, I do feel extraordinarily blessed to have gotten tired from doing ministry work. Here is a video about the ministry our team is involved with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClbrlPbSsv8&sns=em


The journey last week from Macedonia to Romania was totally blessed. The bus from Skopje, Macedonia to Bulgaria had enough space for our team to sprawl out and relax. And then what should have been a long layover followed by an overnight journey on a potentially uncomfortable bus ended up being a short layover followed by discounted tickets on sleeper cabins in a train. That was Bulgaria to Bucharest, Romania. And then for the final leg of the trip, Bucharest to Medgidia, we caught a train that we should have missed, but it was delayed to depart even later than we were late. God's fingerprint was all over that day and a half of travel. 

Today is the first day of week 9 of outreach. I can't believe it is almost over! But it isn't just yet... we still have two and a half weeks until we return to the YWAM base in Herrnhut, Germany to debrief. 
If you are looking for a good read, I want to take the opportunity to recommend a book by Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz (which I haven't yet read). A Million Miles in A Thousand Years was the book that kept me occupied for the first half of the journey from Macedonia to Romania and it was so good. Here is a quote from it for you: "A story is based on what people think is important, so when we live a story, we are telling people around us what we think is important."


Thanks for joining me on my journey by reading this! 
-m.

skopje, macedonia

Hello! Our team is currently in Skopje, the capitol of Macedonia. Keep reading for a little bit of history, stories of God's provision and to hear about what we are up to!

This is really a city where east meets west, both culturally and religiously. The city is split by a river and one on side are Orthodox Christians and on the other are Muslims. The architecture is pretty varied with an old castle and then also modern buildings as well as new monuments that look like they could be older than they are. The city has actually been burned down, suffered a flood and has endured war, so none of it is as old as the Bible times... but Macedonia is mentioned in the book of Acts! Also, this is where Mother Theresa was born.

Our team has experienced so many blessings from God in the past week and a half, which I feel is a confirmation that this is where He wants us to be right now. We were blessed to be put in touch with wonderful Christian friends here in Skopje. They helped us arrive to the hostel where we are staying, invited us to spend New Year's Eve with them, and have been wonderful ever since! God really blessed our team financially with giving us a great deal on the hostel. Instead of paying 13 euro a night per person for the cheapest dorm beds, we are paying 10 euro a night per person to stay in the nicest apartments, and this also includes a good continental breakfast in the morning and as much coffee as we want (God knows how much I love coffee!! I could write an entire blog post about how God has shown how much he loves me through the provision of coffee all throughout my DTS... maybe I will!). There is a local farmer's market (called a green market here), and on our first visit a friendly vendor gave us each a free banana. These blessings are so amplified when we are living on a budget!

Our ministry here is different than our other locations on outreach: as opposed to being planned out ahead of time by our contacts, the nine people that make up our group spent two hours in prayer and worship each morning and ask God what is on His heart for the day. Our team has done many prayer walks, some street art and street worship, handed out sandwiches and have made personalized booklets with our testimonies to hand out to new friends. A few of my friends pointed out what a blessing it is to be so free in this time. We have all the freedom to do whatever we feel God is asking us to do each day. What an incredible opportunity!

Yesterday was Christmas in Macedonia (so this was the second Christmas I have celebrated on outreach!), as it is an Orthodox country. Our team passed out sandwiches and candy and had the opportunity to pray with people. One of the Bible passages I have loved during this time is John 14:12-14, in which Jesus promises: "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. you can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!" So we pray for big things! Please let me know how I can be praying for you!

Our team is praying into where God would like us to serve after January 14. If you could please pray for our next location, continued team unity and ministry opportunities, we would really appreciate it!

Love and hugs,
Meghan