Though we have only been in Romania for 5 days, my eyes have been opened to so many different things. One of which is the plethora of ways to do ministry. In my experience, mission trips have consisted of putting on a VBS for little kids, building relationships with them, and various other means of interacting with locals in the place we are staying. Here I’ve learned that our mission is to 1. encourage the long-term missionaries, 2. help them with whatever they need, and 3. work on our own hearts. Therefore, we have spent our time so far attempting to pour into the missionaries in this area. The percentage of Christians in Romania is incredibly low due to the traditional orthodox religion to which they cling so stubbornly. Today we visited a village that had only 4 people in it who are proclaimed Christians, though there has been over a decade of ministry there. The work here is slow and the missionaries are easily discouraged at the lack of result from their dedicated serving. We are trying our best to encourage them and there is so much joy in it even though it’s “indirect” evangelism to us. It’s in contrast to what I’ve normally done on mission trips but so meaningful. The missionaries we’ve met with are incredibly grateful and encouraged simply to see young people go all the way there to share Jesus. So although it’s something new and unexpected, that’s a beautiful ministry to me.
-Meredith Cooper
