It has been a little over month since our squad arrived here in Craiova, Romania. Much has happened and our days have been full, so blogging has not come easy. However, I will do my best to accurately catch you all up on what life here looks like.
The ministry we are working with is called Hope Church. They are a sister church to a main base in Draganesti and are currently in a season of pioneering and establishing new church roots in Craiova. That being said, our main ministry here has been networking with local youth and trying to start sparks of interest for the gospel that would draw people into this growing body. We have spent many hours out on the streets trying to establish connections and relationships with pretty much anyone who is willing to talk to us. In that, facing rejection has been discouraging, yet God has blessed us with some really amazing interactions that I will go more into detail about in my next blog. Also, our squad has been involved with shoebox ministry in the local Roma (Gypsie) communities, volunteering for the food bank, planning and initiating youth events, doing sports ministry and helping out with any administrative work the church needs. Needless to say we have been here, there and everywhere a bit while working with Hope. As I said before, the days are long and living with the whole squad in this month does not make it easy to find rest or quiet, yet we are all making it through somehow.
Next I would like to address the cultural context and atmosphere of where we are living. After communism fell, Craiova was basically split into two different regions divided by a mountain range. The northern part had exposure to several outside influences from the West that helped re-establish life, trust and newness from the damage of the communist era. However, the mountain range made it hard for those influences to migrate to the southern region and so a lot of the world around us feels very cold and mistrusting. There are two main people groups that reside here: the Romanians and the Roma (Gypsies). A lot of racism exists between the two groups. Typically the Roma are seen as more lower-class in comparison to the Romanians. They are often mistreated and looked down upon because of their cultural reputation for thievery and renegade lifestyle.
With the majority claiming to be Orthodox, this area has about .5% of born-again believers which makes it very rare to find a solid community in the faith. If that doesn’t sound depressing enough, we were told once we got here that this place is known as the graveyard for pastors and missionaries. This is because many have come in pursuit of creating change, but pretty much all have failed and decided to vacate. Knowing that made our squad determined to find light in the rubble. Before coming here, many of us were given visions or words from the Lord that have encouraged us to seek out the fragments of hope and life that exist here. Most people put up an icy front, but we have found that gentle persistence and patience has opened up a longing for community and love within the Craiova population. One of my favorite things about this place is that the people are not afraid to ask the hard questions. They genuinely seek knowledge and understanding for the unknown and present very unique perspectives during conversation. In Guatemala, I felt like people were only eager to talk to me because I was white or they wanted something from me. Here, however, people only listen to me if they feel like what I have to say is worth value to them. I have to fight for my conversations, which makes them even more rewarding and fruitful when they do happen. Our biggest goal here is to help everyone, especially the youth, feel seen and pursued since that is something they have not experienced much of in the past.
I think it is safe to say that this has been/ will be one of the more challenging months for me on this race. Past dealings with irritability, loneliness and exclusion have reared their ugly heads at me and it has been a process of reassessing myself and coming to the Lord time and time again in order to fight off the enemy. It has been very tempting to fall into the void of self-pity and think of all the ways things could be better, but I know those feelings are merely thick scales meant to cover my eyes from all the good around me. Truly so many seeds have been planted here in our time of tilling this rough soil. I believe that God has so much to come for Craiova and even if we were able to just be a small part of the beginning stages, the best is yet to come in this place.
Much Love – Tris
