HEY, HI, HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY :))) It has been a MINUTE since I have given y’all an update. I cannot believe I am already in Albania, which is my THIRD country out of SIX. Time is flyinggggggg by too quickly. I wanted to write a blog post to fill everyone in about my time in Romania and everything that God has been doing in my life. I am SO sorry that I am a little behind in my blog posts. It is just BUSY out here y’all!!!
Sooooo we left the beautiful country of Guatemala on November 8th. We left our hostel at 12:30am and then took a two hour bus ride to Guatemala City where we flew out sometime in the wee hours of the morning. We actually flew from Guatemala back to the United States (Houston airport, what’s upppppppp). Of course during our layover in Huston we got Chick-Fil-A for the last time (9 months is just too long to go without the Lord’s food). We then got on a 10ish hour flight to Germany at 4:20pm on the 8th. We arrived in Germany sometime the next day (I think in the morning?? I was so sleep deprived I didn’t know what was going on). We had a tiny layover in Germany and then hopped on our last flight to Bucharest, which is the capital of Romania. We arrived in Romania sometime in the afternoon on November 9th. We then hopped on a four and a half hour train that would take us to Craiova. By like 9:00pm on November 9th, we had FINALLY made it to the mission house in Craiova. The travel days on the World Race are an adventure all their own 🙂
Pretty plane views 🙂 
Last Chick-Fil-A ;(
First of many train rides!!!
On November 10th we woke up and hit the ground running with our first day of ministry in Craiova!!!! Woohoo!!! So my squad has 4 different teams. Two of the teams were going to spend their entire time in Craiova, Romania. Then one team was going to spend a few weeks in Alba Iulia (another city in Romania) and the other team was going to spend a few weeks in the town of Stonesti. My team was gifted with living and serving in Stonesti!!! Before heading to our new homes though, we adventured to Alba Iulia as a squad for an overnight adventure 🙂 We stayed with a local Romania family and they served us a traditional Romanian dinner and breakfast! It was such a beautiful introduction to this country. They also had the CUTEST dog, Gimmly!! We were able to sightsee around Alba Iulia as well as go and see Corvin’s Castle. I was NOT a fan of the castle lol… Way too much spiritual darkness and heaviness. One of my squad-mates and I ended up leaving the castle after only about 8 minutes of exploring and we decided to sing praise and worship songs outside of the castle, pray for our teammates in the castle, as well as the surrounding area and we anointed each other to get rid of any dark things we might have picked up while in the castle. It’s crazy how once you are acutely aware of the spiritual realm, you really just can sense it everywhere!!!!
First day in Craiova!!!!
Alba Iulia adventures 🙂
On November 14th, we headed to our new home in Stonesti! Stonesti is a small countryside town about an hour outside of Craiova. My teammates and I were sweetly surprised with the most quaint and adorable home to live in that was connected to our ministry hosts church! Not only did my team and I work and live in Stonesti, but we also often worked in Dragonesti, which was a bigger, more cityish town about 10 minutes from us. To give a little context, the church in Craiova that our other two teams worked with, was affiliated with two of the main churches my team worked with in Stonesti and Dragonesti. There were also other smaller branch churches we helped serve in and with. All of these churches were interconnected and essentially “sister churches”. While in Stonesti/Dragonesti, our ministry consisted of many jobs and tasks which included serving different people who worked for the churches in their homes, helping with kids ministry, running and attending youth events and street evangelism. We often never had a consistent week-to-week schedule while we were there. Our “working” ministry hours were also less than what we had been accustomed to on the Race, so we were also able to enjoy rest and intentional time with the Lord and one another.
Our home❤️
Some fun days of ministry:
Celebrated my first major holiday away from home: THANKSGIVING!!! We had a normal day of ministry and then cooked a nice dinner together as a team. If you so kindly donated to our Thanksgiving feast, THANK YOU SO MUCH again. Your generosity truly means the world to me. Honestly, it didn’t really even feel like Thanksgiving, because of having ministry as well as not engaging in any “typical” holiday traditions. However, it was a super sweet and sentimental day with my teammates. I even made a PowerPoint that described all the reasons I am thankful for them 🙂
My bestie Kelly sent me letters to open along my journey 😉
My team and I headed back to Craiova for the weekend of December 1st because the church there was holding a really large youth event. My team was given a skit to practice and perform together at this youth event. Performing and dancing in front of 80 young adults was definitely a growth experience 🙂 We headed back to Stonesti again and got to ride the train! One of my favorite parts about Romania was getting to ride the trains! It was such a cool experience and a cool way to see the country!
We stayed in Stonesti until December 12th and then headed back to Craiova. The other team from Alba Iulia headed back as well, so our entire squad was under one roof! 25 people sharing two bathrooms is FUN 😉 No but really we were blessed to be together as a squad, especially with the holidays coming up. Our ministry in Craiova consisted of LOTS of Christmas caroling, handing out Christmas presents to different kiddos, collecting food donations at local grocery stores, handing out food donations in different villages outside of the city, doing house visits and street evangelism.
Stonesti fun!!!
Craiova fun!!
I was able to go on a house visit and meet a family who really had a profound impact on me. It was a mother, who had 10 children, but only lived with 7 of them. The older children lived with their father. The youngest child had been diagnosed with Leukemia. She was only five years old. The father also had cancer, struggled with alcoholism and was physically abusive. This family truly broke my heart. I cried the entire way home from the house visit because of all of the sorrow and sadness I was feeling. Another missionary (Edi, from Germany) that was also working with the church had been really touched, as well as heartbroken because of this family’s circumstances. A few weeks after the original house visit he organized an opportunity for us to go back and visit the family again! So we were BLESSED to be able to go back and eat snacks, color and play soccer with the kids as well as read them a story from the Bible and most importantly pray for them. Please support me in praying for this family and for the Lord’s healing hand to touch the little girl as well as the father. Pray for supernatural hope and peace for the entire family, especially the mother. Pray that the Lord is covering them and providing for them and that they are trusting in Him and His plans.
Celebrated Christmas and New Years while in Romania!!! On Christmas Eve our squad decorated Christmas cookies together and watched Home Alone. On Christmas morning we opened our stockings (so kindly given to us from our Squad Leaders) and our gifts from our Secret Santa’s (Jessie, I LOVE YOU)!!! We were also prepared and served a delicious breakfast by some of the girls on our squad as well as a delicious dinner!!!! It was SO sweet. Again, without the traditions from home it is hard for the holidays to really feel like holidays. But it’s such a gift to spend the holidays this way, because it is truly a once in a lifetime experience. For New Year’s Eve we held a youth event at the church from 7pm-2am, yes you read those times correctly 😉 We did karaoke, trivia, dance battles, bible songs and skits, ate, and watched fireworks at midnight! That same night was when I left for Brasov at 3am… Sleep is for the WEAK.
Talking about adventures, I was able to adventure to Bucharest AND Brașov (like I just said) while in Romania. Took a train ride (four hours there and back in one day) to Bucharest and explored with some of my teammates. We had an incredible time! We took a SEVEN hour train ride to Brasov (left at 3am on January 1st) and spent the day in the city and then took a SEVEN hour train ride home at 8pm (the same day!!!) and arrived back in Craiova at 3am. Truly was SO.MUCH.FUN. Memories I will never forget 🙂
Bucharest!!!
Brașov !!!!
Ended our time in Romania with a mini debrief(just 2 days). We basically found out who our raised up squad leaders are (CONGRATS GIRLS), found out that our teams are not really changing for Albania, had time to rest and spend some intentional time together as a team as well find out where we will be heading in Albania!!!
Then on January 7th we got on a bus to head to ALBANIA! It was about a 15 hour drive and we passed through 3 different countries (Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia). We drove in the middle of the night and continually had to get off the bus to get our passports checked and walk across the border to the next country!!! It was such a cool experience 🙂
I am now living in Korce, Albania and my ministry looks like serving at a coffee shop run by 2 Americans who have a youth/young adult ministry here! Albania is already a DREAM. I am truly in love. I am so excited for his next season and all that the Lord has for me and my team!!! I look forward to (hopefully) being more on top of my blogs and doing a better job at updating you all!!
OKAY, that’s all for now, friends 🙂
Love Always
In All Ways,
Ryann 🙂
