What will you be doing in Romania?

Ah yes...my favourite question!! The best answer to this question is "I'll tell you when I get home" but I realize that it's not the most helpful. My three previous trips to Romania have taught me that what I think I might be doing when I get there is not necessarily in any way related to what I will be doing once I arrive! Romania just works that way.

One of my main interests in Romania is village ministry. There are thousands of small villages in Romania that have little or no access to the gospel. Many are isolated and difficult to reach. Pastors that serve in these areas often have to spread themselves among 4-7 tiny house churches in 4-7 villages. Transportation is a huge issue. Resources are minimal and outreach is difficult.

My friend, Liviu, and his wife, Ana, live in the small village of Buturugeni, 27 km from Bucharest. I will stay with them in their village home, participate in village life, and work with the village church to reach out to the local children and youth. Currently my schedule looks like this:

Sept 11 - Arrive in Bucharest at 11:00 pm or so.
Sept 12 & 13 - Recover from the journey and prepare for a week of children's ministry.
Sept 14 - Go to church, then have a party in Buturugeni for my 43rd birthday! I think that this would be a great way to kick things off.
Sept 15-20 - Children's Ministry in Buturugeni. Yep. That's all I know! My plan is to arrive with lots of ideas and lots of stuff and to be as prepared as I can be for whatever happens! Hopefully I will have youth volunteers who speak English.
Sept 21 - Go to church. Do whatever Liviu and Ana do on Sundays.
Sept 22-24 - Take Liviu and Ana on vacation. This is my wedding gift to them and a chance for me to spend some "quality time" with them. Life in Romania can be incredibly hectic (unless you're living in a seniors' home where no one speaks English - like I did on my last trip!) and time away is essential for a couple in ministry.
Sept 24-26 - Ladies Ministry in Buturugeni. Yep. Liviu wrote: "The ladies have difficulties in communicating with the kids, problems in communicating with husbands, etc. Your job is to talk to them and try to encourage them." This should be fun...seeing as I have no husband, no children and I speak Romanian like a three-year-old! That said, I am really looking forward to hanging out with the village women. I am bringing craft supplies and my life experience and an avid curiousity about their lives and we'll just see what happens!
Sept 27 - Last day in Romania
Sept 28 - Go to airport really early in the morning to catch my flight home.

I'm flying to Bucharest on a missionary fare, which means that I get to take three suitcases of 70 pounds each. Two of those suitcases will be stuffed with ministry supplies that will be used both while I am there and in subsequent outreaches after I leave. I really hope that my time in Romania will be an encouragement to everyone I work with and meet and that they will then take what they have experienced and the stuff that I have brought to reach out to children and youth in other nearby villages.

Why Romania?

My first trip to Romania happened during the summer of 2001. I was on a 14-week missions trip to Germany with Greater Europe Mission and thinking about joining them full-time. They decided to send me on one of their two-week work trips so that I could learn how these trips were run. The trip that they chose for me was Romania. Four of us drove from the southwest corner of Germany (near Basel, Switzerland) to Camp Bradatel in the Transylvanian Alps. It was love at first sight! :) I spent three weeks in Romania that year (we came earlier and left later than the work team) and couldn't wait to go back. Everything about Romania fascinated me.

In the summer of 2002, I went back to Germany with Greater Europe Mission and prepared to lead my own team to Romania. A small team of computer science students joined me and two other short-term GEM missionaries to run a week-long computer camp in a tiny village outside of Timisoara. The pastor of the small church there invited all the youth in the village to come and learn how to use a computer. We packed out the small room in which the church met. My translator was Liviu Oprea, a 19-year-old who volunteered his time to run the church's youth ministry. Liviu and I "clicked" immediately and have kept in touch via email and phone for the six years. After the camp was finished, I visited with friends from the previous year, went back to Camp Bradatel and then did a tour of Greater Europe Mission's other ministries in Romania. I was definitely in love and ready to move to Romania ASAP!

That, however, was not God's plan for me. By October of 2002, I had left Greater Europe Mission and taken a job as the Administrator of UrbanPromise Ministries in Vancouver. I thought that I would be there for two years or so and then move to Romania. Mmmmm...no. In the fall of 2006, I went back to Romania to visit friends and explore my options. Romania was on the verge of joining the EU and prices were rising while wages were not. The people were discouraged and many were leaving to get jobs in other countries. It became clear to me that the best thing that I could do was to stay in Vancouver, find ways to encourage my Romanian friends from afar and try to get back to visit them every couple years or so.

Sure enough, two years have gone by and back to Romania I go. My friend, Liviu, has graduated from Bible School and gotten married and I need to go and spend time with him and his new wife. Liviu and I need to talk about his ministry options and how I can help and I want to see if the model of working with children and youth that we use at UrbanPromise is a good fit for Romanian village churches. For the first time, I will visit Bucharest...and I will continue to make new friends and learn more Romanian and eat lots of Romanian food!