Viewing 2016 from 2017

This time last year, we had just arrived in the States for our first visit back after living in Romania for 2 years.  We were so excited to share what God had taught us, what He was bringing us through, and our excitement to continue in Romania. We were trying to explain how God had changed our ministry every 6-9 months and yet still vision cast for the future.

The season before we left Romania, we had been getting a lot of questions about work and faith. People shared their desire to reach out to their co-workers and they struggled with how. So we shared with people about how much of our ministry is relational, meeting with people and desiring to encourage them. We shared about the english ministry we were working with, and we were given materials to bring back and share. And we shared that God seems to be placing work and faith in our path, but we were not sure what we would be doing with it. While in LA, we sat down with our pastor and asked him for books and materials to start with on the subject.

Then we returned to Romania at the end of April, just in time for another Easter. I won’t lie to you, it was hard, especially for me, to come back. It was hard to leave family again. It was hard to leave english worship and prayer. (and the beach…if I am being honest.) We came back to have just missed the last english ministry meeting and some of the other relationships we were excited about were really busy as we arrived back. It was hard. God felt distant. The purpose we had just shared about for 3 moths felt shaky.

There were also good things. We felt stronger in our Romanian, even after having 3 months off. The regular summer happened with a Mt. Bethel team coming. Jeff’s parents came to visit.

Jeff got invited to work on an article about work and faith in Romania and how church leaders here could help encourage their church bodies in this pursuit. In August, we had the opportunity to go to London and pray for our church family planting a church there. We were able to meet with friends again in english and see their excitement for the city.

Sometime between June’s uncertainty to August’s ministry, we noticed our conversations starting to change. June sound track was a lot like, “why are we back here God if we don’t see a ministry to serve in?” August started to have more conversations with, “Romania is home now. And we have a visa for 2.5 more years. Which visa should we get in the future?”

Then the article that Jeff helped write with 2 other friends was published in English and Romanian in a Global Missiology Journal. (You can check it out here if you want. ) And the guys started to talk about how it only scratched the surface and we needed to do more. So then there was discussion of doing conferences or seminars to help equip people in more practical ways. Fast forward to now, we will be having a beta test for the seminar in Bucharest a month from today and we are in the planning stages for the one in Timisoara.

It is funny to think about a year ago, saying this is something people keep talking about, maybe we should do some research, to now. God is directing our path and we are excited to see where 2017 takes us.