UKRAINE REFUGEES IN ROMANIA, PART 3
CRAIOVA, ROMANIA AND ROMA COMMUNITIES
UPDATE: Through a connection made while I was in Armenia, the Lord has faithfully opened a door to engage in trekking ministry through backpackers affiliated with YWAM! This 2 week ministry will take place on the Colorado Trail from late July through mid August! Multi day trekking ministry has been something that has excited me for a long time (and was prevalent in past World Race routes). We will be ministering to Colorado Trail thru hikers and building connections with friends who do thru hiking ministry with YWAM. Exciting! Please pray over this. Furthermore, it will cost roughly $1200 to successfully complete the trip. If any of you would like to financially support me as this takes place, here is my venmo link: @brett_explorer. Also, please feel free to direct message me as well ([email protected]). Thank you!
Luke 10: 38- 42 NIV
“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed- or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'”
This passage flashed through multiple people on my team as we wrapped up the last 10 days of ministry in Romania. Yet why was this? Why did this Bible passage about sitting at the Lord’s feet as opposed to doing tasks to serve Him resonate so much? Read on to find out, as I contemplate and reflect. Meanwhile, please continue to pray for us as we return home to America in the coming days! I will be back in Boone, NC on June 30!
During the first 12 days of our month in Romania, we were working alongside L Squad. Now, our ministry hosts have a lot of tasks with running the church and helping to settle / transport Ukrainian refugees. During those 12 days, both squads put together helped manage these tasks effectively while also building relationships with local youth from Cariova as well. The community was beautiful (see https://bretthaas.theworldrace.org/post/a-collision-of-community-and-countries), and we had great fellowship in Craiova.
A lot of amazing work continued to take place during the back half of Romania. We built more friendships with the refugees, and some of them gave their lives to Christ (Amen!). I helped out at the Roma community a couple of times. Many of these people are very poor, and most of the children do not go to school. We gave out humanitarian aid on one of our visits, and we did a children’s Bible program on our next visit. Many of the songs were songs that were sung at my Sunday school/ VBS class around 17 years ago, bringing many memories back. We continued to load and help with van convoys destined to the region of Ukraine that I served in back in December. The church also hosted a group of Americans that came who had been long term missionaries in East Asia. I loved talking to them to learn their wisdom and their life story.
But near the end of our time in Romania, some of us sensed a “paradigm shift”. Things began to feel more rushed. The last week of our time in Romania brought me back to similar time periods at the end of each college semester. I jokingly referred to it as the “Final Exams of the World Race” because of the hectic schedule. There was just a lot going on with our ministry and what needed to get done. Is it a bad thing in and of itself? No. But if it takes away from properly abiding with the Lord and being able to rest well, then I am forced to reexaine this in light of Scripture- especially the passage above. For much of the month, it became very difficult to conduct “team time” (a vital period of checking in with each other as a team) as each of us had a lot of individual ministry tasks to do. A number of tasks, due to the nature of our work, were time sensitive and required attention beyond the daily ministry schedule- after hours. To add to this, some of the squad began to feel fatigued mentally / physically, and some of us caught a very unpleasant cold near the end of our time there.
Now, I want to make something clear. It’s not at all my goal to blame the Romania ministry host. Do I think they could do a better job in some areas to make things more sustainable? Yes. And I provided feedback for AIM (Adventures in Missions) after our time there ended. But the last week coincided with other things that were happening also, magnifying the “busy-ness” that many of us were feeling. First, we were planning our transition back home. This involved what we would do for our free 10 days after Romania (stay tuned for the next blog post), and also how we would resettle ourselves back home. This drew out a lot of emotions from our Squad as we processed the final days of the Race together. Furthermore, this also involved us grappling with the World Race itself, what took place, and how God is guiding us as this season comes to an end. These are not simple questions that can be answered quickly. On top of this, a lot of us had time commitments to meet with youth and friends from Craiova that we saw back in September 2021 outside of scheduled ministry hours.
I’m not going to lie. I stumbled through the last week often “going through the motions” as I felt pulled apart in many directions at times. It was difficult to get in the Word for extended periods of time, and I would pray for a half hour in the morning. Sometimes, that was all that would happen before being in “business” mode the whole day tending to what was in front of me. Yet this served as a wake up call. Jesus treasures spending time with Him even more than doing ministry for Him. That’s profound! And so, I reflect. How am I going to confront this as graduate school takes place in the fall? How am I going to be present with the Lord as a mountain of grad related tasks stares at me in the future?
There are two spiritual disciplines that I believe are crucial here. The first is “decluttering” (https://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/is-it-time-to-declutter-the-great-commission). It is the ability to clear away nonessential tasks and/or spreading out everything over enough days to where the “clutter” is managed. Not having so much “stuff” in one day feels so nice! Yet it often requires choosing to put on hold some things that I would want to accomplish. But is it worth it for a closer, more intimate relationship with the Lord? Deep down, I would say Yes! Yet this only goes so far. Sometimes, there is an all day ministry event or a really hard exam week during the semester. It’s truth that some tasks/ things just don’t budge no matter how hard I would want them to. Ultimately, this forces me to keep God front and center in all of it. Will my focus be on God or on everything that has to get done? Taking this a step further, it requires me to step into God’s presence and experience His peace (Philippians 4: 4-13) even as an avalanche of “stuff” comes barreling down at me at breakneck speed- not being dependent on if all that stuff is done or not.
In Armenia, I reflected on the future season that the Lord has in store for me. I believe that He is speaking a time of equipping that is up ahead- especially in these 5 areas:
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A zeal for Scripture and memorizing the Word in personal time with God.
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Diligently learning a new language for missions (i.e. Russian, Arabic, etc).
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“3D Gospel” evangelism (utilizing power/ supernatural and honor/ shame encounters to help set people free in Christ).
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Getting rid of distractions and clutter; keeping the eyes on the prize.
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Trusting God when things make absolutely no sense, and all I have is faith.
And so, I end this blog reflecting on the last parts of Romania, thinking about how to manage #1 and #4 in the future (with #2 coming from the availability that free time each day grants). Again, it has been awesome to serve and get to shine the light of the Gospel to the Ukraine refugees and others in Craiova. This is a different glimpse into what our Squad really faced near the end of the month. There is a time to be honest, and it is one of those times. Thank you again for lifting me up in prayer as I transition to being back home in the States (and prepare for the Colorado backpacking trip)!
