some of my favorite things in Romania

It’s our last full day here in Craiova, Romania. While walking down the streets, heading to morning ministry, it reminded me of all the things that made the past 6 weeks really sweet. Some are just fun/funny and others are a little deep but either way this country has brought a lot of smiles!

• Doing ministry here with Raul and Ana  and partnering with Hope Church Romania has been such a blessing. Their hearts are not only on fire for reaching people with the gospel but also for the long term discipleship of believers.
• Evangelism. Our night ministry here is centered around going out on the streets or communities and sharing the gospel. Honestly it use to scare me a lot – probably because I put all of this pressure on myself that unless the person accepted Christ at that moment then it was a fail. BUT somewhere along this journey, the Lord reminded me that pressure is off because I myself cannot save anyone, only Jesus can. And man how freeing is that?!! So sometimes walking in obedience to that looks like just starting a conversation and sharing the love of Christ. Sometimes a seed is planted or watered in the heart of a person and other times they are ready to receive Christ. Looking at it that way has made evangelism a lot of fun. 
• Allll of the pretty parks and roads to run around and through. Seriously, Craiova has been one of my favorite places to run because of all of the pretty places here. 
• Physical freedom aka no buddy rule— real life terms: being able to go places by myself!!! Trust me, I’m all for safety and definitely see the actual need and reason to have to have the buddy system (especially in other countries) butttt I’ll probably never take for granted the safety of a country again. There’s something really nice about not having to have to grab a friend to go somewhere and it makes running here a lot easier!!
• All of the yummy coffee. And Maestro – nothing like some lunch from there. 
• Birthdays here!! Ahhh I celebrated my 25th birthday here in Craiova and it was so SWEET!! Definitely one I’ll remember forever. 
• All squad month(s)?? Okay, okay I know people are over it andddd communal living is hard BUT it’s honestly been nice to always have someone to hang out with. Or just be walking out and about by myself and casually run into someone I know. It’s fun!! Also I feel like I’m becoming really good at falling asleep to noise.
• The late sunsets here. The sun sets around 8:40 these days which makes for long but fun days. (The 100 degree temps I will probably not miss- seriously, it was 106 degrees last week) 
• Going to bed really exhausted but also really full. I was talking to my friend the other day about how the tired here is a good kind of tired (for the most part). A tired that at the end of the day I can look back and see that there was purpose lived out and the purpose will last long after we’re gone.
• The relationships built here. The other night we hosted an American Culture event with the church we are patterning with. My friend Heather connected with one of the teenagers and I connected with another. Turns out that the two different teenagers are actually best friends with each other! We were able to hangout later that week – just 2 besties and 2 besties hanging. 

All of these things (and so many more) make Romania a hard one to leave!! We leave tomorrow to start our journey to Albania with a short pit stop in Bucharest. Keep us in your prayers as we close out our time in Romania and travel to Albania. I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store! 

I can’t believe we only have 3.5 months left. If you’re reading from the states, I’m sure I’ll see ya soon!!

MK