Hello Everyone
Greetings “from” Craiova!
(This is a past tense post again)
Life Update
We have moved locations in Romania and are now in Criaova. The ministry here is bigger and does a lot more things in the community. It is also an all squad month so all 25 of us are living under one roof, which for privacy and bathroom reasons is less than ideal. But the people are fun and lovely so it is definitely not the worst. So since we are joining the other teams we are just coming in to help with the projects and people they have been working in, so it is a tad less about new relationships, but rather helping in the relationships that had already been started by our other teams over the last month. The weather is still rather dreary and I had the least amount of free time out of all the places I have been, so, for my blog, I will have to go from memory of just the highlights.
I had been sick for a month already and after going to the Waterpark/spa I had gotten Pink eye and so I had to take the first day of ministry off before joining everyone. You can imagine I was not too happy, but I needed it and it was good for me.
What’s God doing in Romania?
Therme Waterpark and spa was the first part of our joining our team in Criaova and I woke up the next morning with pink eye. God knew I needed a rest day and I had not taken the hint with my long term cold. It was so sweet to let my squad love me and support with with food and live while I rested. With the medical advice of Jessies father and between me and Libby we had all the meds I needed to heal my condition without going to the doctor.
Day 2 was a squad team time and we were all able to share our stories of the spiritual warfare we had gone through, the victories God brought us, and any prophetic things God told us for our time here. It was so cool because someone’s stuff got stolen and then like a week later it showed up in a new place (teleportation vibes)!
God also healed someones neck on my team and he also teleported a bracelet I lost back to me. (Story in spiritual update section)
*these events are not in any real order. Just the order that they came to mind*
Every morning we would atart with prayer before we got started with our ministry activities and that was always a highlight of my day.
We were there for Christmas so we got to hand out shoeboxes to the kids in the Roma communities. We did that on several occasions and we would sing, do a small teaching and then hand out gifts before leaving. The kids were always thrilled to see us coming in with the boxes.
We also handed out shoeboxes to a local Romanian kids soccer team. We met up with them before a game, did drills with them, did a short Christmas message, then handed out presents to them
We sang a lot of carols here as it seemes to be a very big and normal thing. We sang in public as a choir and we did a flash mob song on two occations. Emma would play guitar and we would hand out gifts then group up and sing in the Christmas market in a couple different locations.
We also did a singing outreach activity and I sang Christian songs with Kiley and Ashley in a Gazeebo in the park
We handed gifts from the church almost every night I was there. We would go to the Christmas market in the city center and pass out Christian calenders, pamphlets and books, Bibles, kids board games and whatever other goods they had in storage.
We helped pack up and get ready and package, gift, or card that we handed out, so some of our time was spent getting things ready to be given out.
There was also an English class for adults that a couple of my squadmates helped with on a weekly basis
We had an opportunity to come together to pray for a man, who had asked for prayer, as a squad. He didn’t speak Enhlish so we Google translated it and I think the experience was encouraging for both parties in the end.
One of my absolute favorite things was volunteering for the food bank at the local grocery store Lidle. We would get an orange vest and signs to say what we were there for and we would remind and encourage people to donate food to the food bank via the box in the store. It was so sweet and sometimes surprising to see who would give what and how much. It was beautiful to see people do such selfless generosity. It wasn’t everyone but in 3 hours we would have seen a lot of kindness. Some people would even buy us drinks while we were out in the cold.
Part 2 to that is I loved when we packed up all the food into bags to be passed out to the needy in the community. I never got to hand them out, but i did get to pack them and it was fun to make sure everyone got a good amount of things in each bag. To be honest I can’t remember exact number of bags we packed, but it was around 85. (I only have the before we packed them pictures)
Every Saturday night we would have a youth event and we would pass out a ton of fliers then help set up and run it. There was always snacks, games, songs and a message. A lot of the people who had been there for the two months were close to the youth who would come regularly and it was cute to see the excitement of people reuniting each event.
The Christmas eve service held in English that we attended we did a carol in for them. And it was the one we learned in Romanian. I don’t have footage but I can show you the words and pronunciations for the end verse and a picture of my dress I got myself for Christmas!
We also did Christmas together and it was very sweet. We had a secret Santa reveal and lots of loving cooked meals by our squadmates.
Then we had a New Years eve party that was from like 5pm to 3am the next day. We has so many events and games. We split into teams and did a competition style event. We even had karaoke. We did a potluck with TONS of food to feed all the people who came and we watched fireworks in the city center at the start of the new year. A couple from the church got engaged and it was very sweet. I think my team won overall, but it was hard to tell if I am honest lol. It was a long day and I don’t think anyone really took many pictures, but I personally forgot entirely except a selfie with a friend before we started.
I joined Ashley to do some outreach on our ATL (Ask the Lord) outings, to talk to and build relationship with the couple that worked at a local coffee shop. We spent lots of intentional time conversing as they worked and it was nice of her to invite me into that. We went and did ATL and handing out calenders whenever there was not a lot to do in a given moment.
We also were encouraged to do one on one’s with the Romanian connections we made and so lots of my squadmates would go on those during the week. We also had an option to do one on one’s with eachother if we wanted so some people would do that as well to build deeper relationships.
After ministry one day I did a one on one with Emily and it was a really nice restaurant with food and helped me get to know her better specifically.
I also did an adventure day where I went to the Botanical Garden and then went on the Farris Wheel with our squad leads. It was so much fun!
We would do prayer walks around the stadium quite often. It held a international convention for witchcraft a while back and so our squad walked and prayed since they first arrived and we joined in when we came but the atmosphere there had already changed dramatically, so we knew God had been moving there with our prayers. We also did a prayer walk around the college once as well.
We did a all day worship event for our squad and it was so restful and nice. We did all different types of worship and each of us helped lead an hour slot of a type of worship. Mine was a stillness/reflection/debrief session and I ed it with Sophie. My favorite session was the one led by Libby where we pray and ask God to talk to us about our future and then we write it to ourself in a letter to open it at the end of the race. No one was to share what was written till then. God had so many sweet things to say. And when I was praying and doing a “what is God saying to another person” activity. The person I prayed with didnt know me well at all and the same was true of me for her but when we prayed we hit so many things that the other person had been going through and things that were written in our God inspired letters so it was big confirmation that it was God and not us. It was a wonderful day.
We were asked to write notes to eachother inspired by God and God helped me to do all mine last minute and they turned out great. I loved hearing when people would tell me it connected to exactly what they were in at that moment in their life
The last two days were Mini Debrief days.
Day one was announcements of who was the new raised up squad leaders, raised up team leaders, treasurers, logistics and worship coordinators. I had agreed to step into worship coordinator for the squad and work alongside Ashley, so I was introduced as such for the squad that day. Then we had a lot of free time for the new leaders to do meetings.
Day two we had a teaching on listening well by Shua. We talked about the four types: silent listening, questioning, Empathy/compassion, Story/connect, Support, Analysis, Evaluation, Advice and how they are best in that order and to remember to ask what people are looking for when sharing. Then we listened to his testimony. After that was lunch and I met up with Elora and Ashley for worship coordinator training. We talked about what worship was, function of worship and forms of worship. There were 7 forms: Hallal- praise, Yadah-cast glory to God confess or give thanks, Shabach-to address aloud and loud (proclamation), Zamar-Instrumental, Tehillah-Singing, Towdah-extend hands in adoration giving thanks for what God will do, and Borak-To kneel bless or salute. And we dissussed logistical stuff too. We also did a spiritual warfare training. We talked about Battle protectants, Song of Solomon 2:4 -staking a banner, Zachariah 2:5 -wall of fire, Hebrews 1:7 -Ministers made of flame, Psalms 104:1-9 -flaming boundaries that can’t be crossed, Hebrews 1:14 -Angel’s to guard. Creating a perimeter, Luke 10:19 – God protecting you and giving you authority, John 1:9 confess and God will forgive and cleanse, Song of Solomon 2:14 -God speaking and hiding us, Psalms 91:2, 27:5, 30:20, Colossians 3:3 -God being our refuge and fortress and hidding us and protecting us. Steps to take before starting in spiritual warfare: asked to be cleansed and hear from God, ask to be shown the ways you are trying to fight on your own, ask what God wants you to do with the life given, then move into 1)taking the ground/staking a flag, 2). Setting up a perimeter guard, 3) Establishing communication with God, and 4) Putting up “camouflage” and having God hide you from the enemy. Psalms 105:15 and Chronicles 16:22 – Do not touch my anointed one’s and do my prophets no harm. Ask God to speak, test everything your hear, ask God for clarity or collaboration. Put on your armor Ephesians 6:12-?. Then we discussed how hard hears and hurt emotions can be barriers to hearing God’s voice and were reminded to walk in the freedom God gave us.
Fundraising Update
Thanks to the lastest donations of the wonderful people in my life, I am happy to announce that I am fully funded!! Everyone who gave, I would like to say a huge thank you! THANK YOU! I can say I never expected to be fully funded before Christmas but God has used you to bless me immensely!
If you still want to or feel led to give, I still use personal money for food, necessities and fun and so I offer my Venmo as a way to continue to give while I am out. @AnahbelleGregg . You can make a note of what you want me to use the money for or just leave it up to my greatest need in the moment.
(I will have me @ for venmo in this section in following blogs)
Spiritual Update
It has been a time of a lot spiritual growth as this was a very heavy country and we were very intentional in prayer. God was helping equipt me to fight in the spiritual realm more via experience and teachings. He also was growing me in the importance of worship as was the start of my Albanian time looking at my life as an act of worship. In my time in Criaova I didn’t do as much solo time with God as I did in Alba and I think I could tell a big of a difference in my attitude, but I had so much prayer and worship with the squad and that did help. I have a hard time sitting and reading even if it’s the Bible but I think it’s importance became increasingly clear. And I knew I wanted to do more of it in the next country. I had been growing in what it looked like to be in submission to leadership and as my team lead pursued God more and more it became easier to trust and follow any and all decisions because I trust God and I them also trusted she was hearing from God. So it was really cool to live under leadership that was not my style but I was decidedly submitted to. God also grew me further in boldness and we had to God and interact with strangers and grow relationships over my time in Romania. I felt more at ease when I asked God for direction and He gave it, even if it was that I get to choose something. I am learning to hear and trust more and more. I also was learning on leaning on God to provide and would leave my daypack at home and only bring a wallet and phone places and Gkd would provide for what I needed whether it was wifi, direction or other people and I grew in confidence of His provision and it relaxed my anxiety a buch too.
Story of debrief and the anklet. God wanted me to trust Him and rely on Him and I had been doing pretty good but he showed me that I still was trying to make things happen for myself. And during worship I was really wanting to hear 2 specific songs so I would hum them in every interlude, but when I finally gave up my want to God IMMEDIATELY Emma Song both songs, one after the other and I felt so loved and encouraged. But that night I got home and I saw my anklet was missing and I wa overwhelmed with sadness and worry and I just wanted to fix it myself but I couldn’t. I had gone to the meeting place via Bolt and now the placed was closed to us because debrief ended and the Bolts couldn’t be called back. Jessie offered to make me a new one and I was still very sad and felt like crying but I knew nothing could be done. The next morning I was walking to breakfast with people and still a little sad secretly and GOD BROUGHT ME MY BRACELET Kelsey was in front and she saw it on the ground on the sidewalk! I did not walk that the day before! I didn’t even “give the situation” to God, or ask Him to and he still did it for me. God reminded me in that moment that He is in control, He loves me and nothing is impossible for Him. It was so sweet and encouraging. I am so blessed to love and be loved by Him.
Prayers
Pray for all of the people on our squad as they are heading and settling into their new locations
Pray for me that I continue to grow in my relationship with God and trusting and hearing from Him. And pray against sickness as I have a small cold again.
Pray for the ministries we worked for in Romania that God continues to move in them and that they reach the younger generations for Christ. Pray for revival in the people and the country, unification of the Romanian and Roma, and pray against the spirit of Pride
Pray for the new ministries we will be headding to in Albania. We don’t know what they are yet, but pray God’s hand is evident and we are able to use the gifts God gave us to reach the people of Albania for Him.
Pray God does big things in Albania! Pray for God’s will to be done. That He does healing and miracles and gives dreams and visions and that many people come into a relationship with Him. (The country is mainly Muslim and secondarily Atheist)
I pray for my supporters, You guys! I pray God moves in your lives and speaks clearly to you. That you hear His voice, do His will, Abide in Him and live in the favor of God.
Answered Prayers
M is growing and developing in her faith! I love her very dearly and I have loved seeing the updates on Bible reading/study, and prayer life! But continue praying too!
Thank you
Thank you all so much for your financial donations, comments, texts and prayers! You all are so instrumental in my being here and helping God move further in these countries and ministries. I am so blessed for partners like you! You have shown such love and kindness to me and I hope my updates are encouraging and uplifting to you all back home! All my love and God bless!
