Mission: Albania

I never thought I'd be a missionary in a foreign country, going on a mission trip to another foreign country.  However, last week we had a Master's Commission mission trip to Albania.  One of the goals we have for our students is to expose them to the mission field in other countries.  God does tell us in his word to go and make disciples of all nations.  He commissions us to go out in our communities, nation, and world to spread the life transforming gospel of Jesus Christ!  Every week our students lead and run local ministries.  Every so often we put on outreaches to the nation of Romania, and now we have just gotten back from our missions trip to Albania! Our vision for this trip was to come underneath a local missionary there, Sean Mason, and help equip the youth with tools.  Whether it be for their worship team, school, etc. 

The first three days we modeled Micro Kids for a ministry that helps kids with school.  We showed new ways of learning, that we had found successful in our Micro Kids.  For those three days not only did we do Micro Kids, but we loved on them like they were families.  These kids grew so attached to us that a group of girls had taken one of our first years, Carmen Marin, into their home, where they practically treated her like royalty.  It wasn't just the kids who grew attached, though.

On Wednesday we climbed a mountain with the Mission Emanuel Youth to get better connected with the young people under Sean Mason.  Megan Dean filmed a part of this adventure:

 also have to brag on our first years.  There was this one guy that worked at one of our favorite restaurants.  One day when we were walking back from dinner, our guys saw him and began to share the gospel with him.  He was very open, receiving, and hungry for it!  They came home excited about what God had done!  One of our first year girls even got to share the gospel with a Muslim girl!  Our students never once treated our mission trip to Albania as a vacation.  Every second they were ready to spread the gospel!

On Thursday, Liz Cucu, Niki Mirela, and I were guests on a Christian radio station to talk about our mission in Albania, Master's Commission Romania, and then give a word of encouragement.  I got to give a word of encouragement on the life transforming power of the gospel, and how it had transformed my life!  I have to say, that this is one of my favorite subjects to talk about right now.  What was also cool is that this message reached not only Albania, but Macedonia too!

This same day we helped train the worship team in practical tools of worship.  Sorin worked with a guy named Armando, teaching him how to play the drums.  While the girls worked with a girl, teaching her how to play the guitar!

God moved greatly in us on this Missions Trip.  We got to meet needs and support our fellow Christians across the world.  For one of our students it was the first time she had left the country!  We accomplish what we set out to do: we supported our Christian family, and got to expose our students to a possible mission field!  Glory to God, and thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Faith+Hope+Love+Team Passion

Since my last blog, we have done three big events amidst our regular weekly ministries.  These three events were so successful that we are planning to make them part of our ministry next year!  The first event was our youth retreat: Credinta, Speranta, si Dragostea (faith, hope, and love), the second event: Kids Day outreach, and the third: The Team Passion Outreach

Here are some photos from the youth event:

We only had room for forty youth, and the roster filled up so fast that we had to turn many away.  We had invited all the young people that we had ministered to since we've been here and these are the first forty to have signed up.  They had a blast.

Bianca and I were over the games...and let's just say we held nothing back.  All the young people were split up into teams of faith, hope, and love, and battled it out in the competitions for the title of Youth Retreat Winner!  I forget what team won, or I would have told you.

However, the most important thing was how powerfully God's Spirit moved at this camp.  Out of the 50 people that were there, I counted at least 6 young people give their heart or recommit their lives to Christ.  And in the last session we got to pray and minister to all forty young people.  That session was amazing.  In fact, you could talk to every one of those students and they will tell you something that God had done in their heart that night!

Some young people decided that they were going to change their world.  Others began to weep with a desire to see more of God.  And then there were those who found themselves free!!!

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Then there was the Kid' Day event, where we went to one of my personal favorite places to minister, Ludesti.  Here are some pictures from it:

Ludesti is one of the sights where we do Micro Kids, and in honor of National Kids Day, we did something special for them.  We took them all out to a field and played games with them, gave out candy, and showed each and every one of them unconditional love.

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And then there was the Team Passion Event which we just got finished with yesterday.  Here are some pictures from it:

In Master's Commission Romania: we are broken down into two teams.  In Team Justice there is Bianca Doll, David Petre, and Oana Neacsu.  In Team Passion there is Sorin Arsene, Carmin Marin, Megan Dean, and I.  Each team was given the funds for whatever outreach we chose.  Here is Team Passion:

  

Plus an awesome man of God named Bogdan.  He's the guy in the grey polo.

When I asked our students what they would like to do, Carmin didn't hesitate to express her desire to see all the people in the hospital get saved.  I remember her saying, "Every day there are new people coming, because every day people are dying.  And I want to see them get saved and healed, for real!"

If you guys could keep her dad in your prayers.  He has cancer right now and we're praying for healing.  It's this thing that has given Carmin such an exposure to the hospital.  We ministered in the Cancer Care Wing.

Let me start of by saying this.  Hospitals here are like nothing I have ever experienced.  There's no privacy.  Rooms would have multiple people in them, and they were coed.  Faucets on the walls were hooked up to IVs on the walls, and the sanitization process was not the best.  What really broke my heart, was when I found out that the people in this hospital weren't coming for a chance to be cured...but to wait to die.  Carmin had talked to one room of people that admitted this.  They said that they had been at a better hospital in Bucharest, but because they had no chance of living, they sent them to wait out their days in Targoviste at a less prestigious hospital.  Everyone was crying.  However, amidst all of this darkness, God's Spirit moved powerfully!

We know for a fact that at least 14 of 20 accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!  With every person we left a New Testament Bible, and everyone was reading them!  They were hungry for every word and intrigued about them.  This ministry was so successful we are talking about how to make it a regular part of our ministry next year!

I'll personally never forget praying for one guy as his wife walked into the room.  She began to cry, thanking us repeatedly.  Things like this don't happen much here in Romania, so when it does, it means the world to them.  That day, 14 people were snatched out of the grip of an eternity away from God and will be sitting before his throne!  Man, Glory to God!_______________________________________________________________________________

Next big thing on our calendar is a missions trip to Albania we are taking our students on.  We want our students to experience every single type of ministry, and we want to make connections for them, so that they can be prepared for ministry outside of Master's Commission.  So please be praying for our trip: First for the move of God, that the lost will come to know God, and then for direction in everything we do!  We want to do God's will according to his standards!