Buna ziua! (meaning hello in Romanian!)
After 36 hours of travel via van, plane, and bus, from Atlanta through London and Bucherest to Craiova, we arrived at the mission house in Romania around midnight Sunday. We were given that first day to rest and recuperate, naturally I spent it exploring the city. Three of my squadmates and I left the mission house, where we’re staying for the month with our host family, in search of coffee and an adventure. We found a cute little coffee shop, called 5 To Go, where a sweet girl greeted us with a smile and a little bit of English. With a cappuccino in hand, we set off again walking along the streets and shops, with lots of cars whizzing by. (Don’t worry they always stop for you if you’re crossing a crosswalk.) We found a lovely square with old buildings still covered in Christmas decorations, an ice rink filled with families skating to music, a mall with a Starbucks, a huge soccer stadium and track & field complex, and parks with trees & ponds & arches & benches. It was a very restful day, with lots learning the city streets. Then Monday morning, our squad started orientation with our host, and Tuesday started our ministry and volunteering. Below I’m introducing more of our ministry host, the church we’re partnering with and the ministry we’re doing this month.
Our new friend, Moni, showing us the “best coffee” in Craiova, Romania!
Originally from the northwestern area of Romania, Pastor Raul Costea grew up during the communism rule, but there was so much life together with people. In his family’s apartment, there were so many other families around that they lived, ate, played, etc. with everyday. Growing up in this time was very difficult, but he grew in his Christian faith. IN 1997, Raul’s prayer was to have missionaries sent to an area in southeastern Romania, known as the graveyard, but a year later God called Raul himself to be a missionary there. After a time of fasting and prayer and working with orphans and missionaries, they planted Hope Church Romania in 2003 in Draganesti, Romania. Then Raul started focusing his attention towards Craiova at the beginning of 2018. That year, he started building a team for church planting in Craiova and assisting existing churches in Dolj county. This city has over 300,000 people and more than 30,000 students. Some of them are foreigners from different Middle East countries.
Their vision is to bring the hope of Christ to Craiova through a church plant and mission base in the city but also to evangelize locally, regionally and internationally. They want to engage with non-believers so that they can form a relationship with them and lead them to learning about God and His Word. They do this through the three P’s– People, Programs and Partners. Their main goal, to bring hope of Christ, is most effectively done by building relationships with the people in the community. Their local missionaries are able to do this over a lot longer of a time, but this is part of the ministry my squad is doing while here. During the time for street evangelism, our goal is meet students, high school and college aged, and create relationships with them, inviting them to the worship nights our team is hosting and the programs Hope Church puts on. The program ministries they provide includes church services, evangelism, children’s ministry in the Roma community, discipleship groups, youth groups for ages 14-23, women’s ministry groups, food distribution, personal supplies, home visits, etc. More programs are listed in this link, https://www.hoperomania.org/ministries.html. These projects are supported by their partners, which is such an important piece of the ministry. Hope Church partners with Adventures in Missions, and has many World Race or Gap Year teams come volunteer throughout the year. They also have partners, prayer and financial, with churches, other pastors, missionaries, and people from the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, etc. More ways to get involved with Hope Church Craiova, https://www.hoperomania.org/partnership.html. God is really moving in this ministry, and the Kingdom of God is going daily! Here is the link for more general information about Hope Church Craiova, https://www.hoperomania.org/.
Pastor Raul and his wife, Ana, along with their two sons, have so graciously opened their home to our squad. They are so welcoming and intentionally take care of each other, our squad, and their missionaries. We are so grateful to be here and learning so much from our hosts, in equipping teachings and one on one conversations! They also have many missionaries that work with us and in the community, some from Romania, some from the surrounding countries, and some from the United States. More about their church and their team here… https://www.hoperomania.org/our-team.html.
Prayer update:
-7 more of our squadmates and team leaders joined us last night here in Craiova after finally testing negative! Praise God! Only 2 more to join us now.
-Please pray for our squad as we continue to evangelize to the community and serve our ministry hosts & local missionaries.
-We are hosting a youth event tonight (and every Saturday), please pray for the youth that are coming to feel loved & welcomed and learn more about God and His word, also be connected with other youth that are believers.
Thank you so so much! Also please comment, I’d love to hear from you!
Blessings to you and your family!
Love, Clara Grace
