Oh man, it has been a busy past two months of the Race. I spent this time serving in three different locations in Romania; Draganesti-Olt, a small town in the south, Craiova, a large city in the south, and Alba Iulia, a large city in the north. The ministries I was fortunate enough to work with were incredible, and our ministry partners were so loving.
We spent the first two weeks in Draganesti-Olt working with Hope Church Romania. We primarily did street evangelism and worked with a local family and their church plant, which included physical labor and helping out with a youth event. It was a good two weeks, but we unfortunately weren’t able to do much ministry due to about half our squad getting sick.
Our next stop was in Craiova, where we continued to work with Hope Church Romania, but at their newer church plant. Our ministry included hosting many events for teens and young adults at the church and connecting with them. It was a lot of relationship building and getting to know some of the locals and just trying to show them the love of Christ and get them connected to the church. I greatly enjoyed my time in Craiova, but it was exhausting.
After two weeks in Craiova, my squad spent one week in Brasov, a city in northern Romania, to receive refugee training for the following month due to the invasion of Ukraine.
After receiving training, two of our teams headed back to Craiova, while my team headed to Alba lulia. We were blessed to work with Flacara Închinarii (The Flame of Worship), a local church in Alba, where we did a variety of things there. We packed multiple vans with food and supplies so that the church could drive them into eastern Ukraine, did physical labor at a nursing home a few times, worked with some refugees who had come in from Ukraine and were living in Alba for the time being, did street evangelism, prepared a yard sale for the church so that they could raise funds, and spoke at a teens event, which included testimonies and Q&A. It was a great month and our ministry host and partners loved on us so well and made us feel like a part of their family.
I absolutely loved my time here in Romania; the ministries and the people were all amazing and I felt so blessed to be able to spend two of my months on the Race here. Next stop is Lesotho, where the other two guys on my squad and I will be working with Jesus 4 Africa Lesotho. After that, our last stop will be in Eswatini before heading back to the States towards the end of June. I’m looking forward to these last few months and seeing what the Lord has in store. But that’s all for now. I hope you are all doing well.
God bless,
Colton
Here is my team with some of our ministry hosts and partners in Alba lulia
My team and I packing boxes to be brought into Ukraine while living in Alba
My team and I speaking at a panel for a teens event in Alba
Doing physical labor at a church plant in Draganesti-Olt
