Tears That Hunger and Thirst

Bine ați venit în România!
Welcome to Romania!

My squad and I arrived to Romania on November 9th! After 3 flights and 2 train rides we made it to our base location in Craiova! We spent a few days together as an “all squad” and then split back into our teams for the next couple weeks. My team alongside one other stayed in Craiova for ministry while the other two teams went out to different cities.

In Craiova we are working alongside Hope Church. Most of our ministry for now will be out on the streets, handing out flyers for their weekly youth night, and meeting new people with hopes of getting to sit down for coffee/tea to learn more about themselves and their culture, be their friend, and share encouragement and Truth with them. I have also had the opportunity to help out with the adults English class on Saturday mornings. Just this past weekend we had 14 people there! We were learning about verbs, and practicing reading English with a Bible story  and craft, and the song Joy to the World!

I was recently asked from someone back home where we find souls when we arrive to places, and how those souls change by the time we leave. I’m gonna give a quick highlight of this from Guatemala, and then bring you into what I am currently seeing and experiencing in Romania in this capacity.

Guatemala was honestly a very joyful country. The streets were filled with color, the skies were blue, the sun was out most of the day, and the mountains were everywhere around you. The people there were very hospitable, always willing to offer whatever they had to invite you into their home or give you a simple hello. Church was not uncommon, most people there had at least a little understanding about The Bible and who Jesus is. However, even with all the beauty in the surroundings and availability of the Gospel there is still brokenness, so many hearts were still hardened (just like most places around the world). Most of the ministry I was a part of was walking alongside an existing ministry in their daily routine. This often meant encouraging and pouring into those who are already coming to their weekly events. Which I believe is just as important for us as believers to do. We did spend time visiting local families at their houses, or evangelizing on the streets, but my part in that piece was mostly planting seeds. I didn’t get to see the harvest upfront of a heart radically changed from leaving the darkness and following light, but I did see people hungry and thirsty. So I prayed. And prayed. And prayed. Prayer was something I walked into Guatemala not realizing the depth of its power. But my time in Guatemala learning how to pray, has equipped me for the next step, the next leg of the race.

Here’s a glimpse into one particular seed myself and a few others on my team got to water while we were in the village. One day while we were out for ATL (Ask The Lord, a time where we pray and ask God for direction on where to go, who to speak to, and what to say), we were following Gods voice and ended up on a random dirt road in the back of the village. An older man was riding his bike down this road and stopped when he saw us. We said hello and began talking with him. All he could say though was “I feel like you have beautiful words to say”. We all knew in this moment what those beautiful words were, beautiful words of Jesus. We found out this man had recently gotten an injury and is unable to work at this time, I’m not sure where he was going in that moment but he told us how he didn’t know why he took that road because it’s not one he usually travels. Again we knew, Jesus! It was such a divine appointment and ATL experience. We noticed he was wearing a bracelet with a Christian phrase on it so we asked questions on that leading in to a conversation about our faith and about Jesus. Even after he said multiple times that we “have beautiful words to say” and that he didn’t know why he was on that road, even after sharing the beautiful words of life and hope, this man still chose to leave without trusting in Jesus. He was hungry for the Words but He chose to go the other way. Which leads me to say, there were many times in which myself and my team got to pour into the lives of people there when we saw the lost and broken hearts, but ultimately we can’t make the decision for them to follow Jesus. Had I wish to seen the harvest, of course, but I also know how important planting seeds is, and that often starts with prayer.

Now onto Romania, a place completely different than the culture I just came from. If it weren’t for Christmas around the corner, the city I’m in would probably seem even darker than it already is. Sunshine doesn’t really exist here in the winter, it’s cold, cloudy, gloomy and rain has been very much a constant all day. As far as I have seen and witnessed, the population at majority just seems to have very dry and hard hearts. It’s extremely uncommon for someone to smile back at you on the streets, you will most likely not be invited into someone’s shop or house, and there’s really just not much hope. Most of the population considers themself Christian, being part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. However, if you were to walk into one of these churches you can feel almost immediately the darkness and brokenness. I had a conversation with a high school student here who told me he had never read the Bible before, never has even held it, because in his church he is not allowed to read it or touch it. To pray to God they must first pray to a priest, and that priest is the only one who can communicate with God. When I walked into a church and saw this happening, when I saw the religious acts, when I saw the people going into these buildings hoping to gain access to God in that way, it hurt my heart deeply. I can’t even imagine a life without talking to God, I can’t imagine a life based entirely on religion and nothing on a relationship. I still don’t understand even a fraction of this religion, but I do understand how crucial it is for me to start planting seeds in prayer.

I don’t want to paint a picture and say that every person in the Eastern Orthodox Church is truly not a Christian, because I am sure there are some who are following Jesus and do have a personal relationship with Him. In the same way I don’t want to paint a picture and say that all people in a Christian church in the United States are believers because quite honestly there are many who don’t truly follow Jesus and just attend church. In the end, it’s not my job to be a judge. But it is my responsibility to be obedient to the Lords voice and go when He says go and speak when He says speak. All of this again though is rooted in prayer.

Here’s a glimpse into one day I went out to ATL on the streets in Craiova. A few days ago in the morning myself and two others headed back to the church for a break after being on the streets for ATL. On our way back one of my teammates saw a woman and could just sense a very demonic presence in her. She insisted we follow this lady and speak to her. When we got to this woman she tried to say “hello” but the woman just looked at her, and then turned the other way immediately. My teammate began praying over her as she walked away and the woman just looked back and set eyes on her again. (Later we found out this was probably a witch we encountered, witchcraft is extremely common here.) But in the midst of that entire situation I had seen this man sitting on a bench as we walked to the church and just smiled and waved to him. When we turned around to follow the woman I saw the man again and could just sense a simple peace, but broken peace. Finally after walking back towards the church we passed him a third time. I knew I had to stop so I asked the two girls with me and we stopped. He didn’t speak any Romanian, but one of the girls with me did. His first question was “what do you want from me”. That made me sad. I told him how we didn’t want anything from him, I just felt like we needed to talk to him. As my friend translated this conversation we found out that he had just recently lost his wife and his nephew. As tears rolled down his face we could just see the brokenness and feel his sadness. We got to pray for him, tell him about the church, and my friend had a Bible in Romanian so he got to keep that as a gift.

Later that day I had went back out for ATL in the evening after dark with one of my teammates. After grabbing some laundry detergent we set out to pass out flyers on our way home through the rain. I prayed in that moment asking God to just highlight a person to us if there’s somebody we need to talk to. Honestly being in the cold and rain I had hopes of getting home as quick as possible, but God highlighted a woman. As she walked by me and my teammate, I could just sense that she was so sad. I told my teammate and we tried to think of what to do or say but at this point she was already a good ways in front of us so chasing her down would not be a great idea. We sat there talking for a bit, and as we were trying to decide whether to go look for her or not we looked up and she was at a vendor right in front of us! After a few minutes of “how do we start this conversation, what do we say” kind of thoughts, we approached her and talked. During our moment of standing in rain with this woman we found out that her husband just recently passed away. With tears rolling down her face, just like the face of the man from earlier in the day, we could feel and see her sadness. She told us how alone she felt, and we could see how hungry and thirsty she was, just looking to hold onto some kind of hope. That day out on the streets, God reminded me of how intentional He is with us by the way He had us purposely seek out these two people. He reminded me that He sees us in our pain and our sadness.

I realized in those moments how hard it must be to live a life with no hope in front of you. Without Jesus there would be no hope of having a loving Father who will never leave you nor forsake you. There would be no hope of a future and eternal life. That’s what a lot of these people are walking in every single day here. A dark world where there’s no joy, no light, and no hope. Trying so hard to find satisfaction, to fill that God sized hole in the middle of their heart. Romania is filled with so much brokenness, so many lives separated from God, so many teens chasing after ways of the world and witchcraft. There are kind people here, there are some smiles, there are gentle hearts, but most of the population is searching, living in daily hunger and thirst, not knowing what can truly fill them.

So the answer to the question of “what do the souls look like when we arrive and when we leave”, some people are lost and some have found hope. In the US, in Guatemala, and in Romania. There are people who have no knowledge of Jesus, there are people who want nothing to do with Jesus, and there are people who wholeheartedly follow Jesus. I get to be a vessel and plant the seeds in between, watering them when I can, and seeing the harvest when God makes them grow. Our world is broken, and in the middle of waiting for the harvest, I will intercede for the lost and brokenhearted. I will trust and pray. I will seek out the tears that hunger and thirst.

Here are some ways you can pray for my team and I while we are in Romania:

-the Lords protection and covering over us: spiritual warfare is very real here, pray that God would protect us physically, mentally, and spiritually

-healthy bodies: I have been battling congestion in my chest and sinus’s for about three weeks now, pray for healing over myself and my team in the midst of sickness

-discernment and obedience: with most of our ministry being on the streets pray that God would give us wise discernment and radical obedience

-ministry hosts: this city is spiritually dead, pray for our ministry hosts to have endurance when the fruit is not visible, and for them to find rest to keep being obedient

-temptations and past trauma: it’s been said that spiritually dark places like the location we are in can have a tendency for the enemy to slide a foot in the door and try to bring up past trauma and temptations to attack. Pray for myself and my team, that God would help us to take our thoughts captive and resist temptation, that the enemy would have no room to take a seat at our table.

-holidays away from home: pray for my squad and the missionaries who are away from home for the holidays as for many of us this is our first time being away from family and friends during this time of the year

Thanks for praying and keeping up with my journey. As always, I would love to hear a simple hello from you, drop a comment saying hi, leave a prayer, send some scripture, or any word of encouragement. I would love to hear from you!

With love,

Ashley