The Global Church

This is a story about how my team traveled to Timisoara, Romania to see what the Lord had for us there.

The World Race implements something called ATL into our year of mission. ATL stands for ask the Lord! It is a time spent without a ministry host, but rather the Lord as our host. It encourages us to ask the Lord where he wants us to go, who he wants us to meet, and what he wants us to do.

After our time with Hope Church Romania, we had ten days of ATL before we traveled to Albania. The Lord guided us to a city on the very west side of the country called Timisoara! Here is how he spoke to us to go there:

• We had a ministry connection a woman named Dawn who is a missionary there. She works with orphans and children with disabilities at an early intervention center.
• My teammate was interested in continuing to work with Ukrainian Refugees. Timisoara has a refugee center.
• I was working on Hope Churches Instagram one day and a church appeared on my feed, Harvest Church located in Timisoara. 
• My teammate had an image of a green courtyard and through google found a photo that looked close to her imagery located at The University of Timisoara.
• A friend we met while doing Hope Church ministry goes to college there, as well as attends Harvest Church.
• We felt the Lord was leading us to do a ten day Bible study together about spiritual disciplines. As we searched the Bible app on our phones, the first one that appeared was a ten day bible study on spiritual disciplines that was made by Harvest Church Timisoara.

With all that said, we bought train tickets and headed to this new city. We booked an Airbnb that was given to us at a discounted price to fit our budget and we contacted Harvest Church to let them know that we are missionaries traveling to Timisoara.

An hour before arriving to Timisoara, they let us know that they had free housing available for us with beds- praise God! We stayed at our Airbnb for a few days and then found home in their space for the rest of our days.

Throughout our days in Timisoara, we built relationships with the leadership staff of the church. We went to a prayer night, they invited us over for home cooked meals, and we had the opportunity to serve on a Sunday. They displayed radical hospitality that reflected how Jesus always welcomes us to the table. One night we were invited to a home with all the leadership of the church. At 11 pm, they served us a beautiful meal! For hours, we talked and played games. From being complete strangers to friends, Christ brought us together. 

One day on the bus, I met this guy from Bucharest, a city on the other side of Romania. He asked me if I was a Christian and I said, ‘yes, of course!’. He was a Christian, too. He then asked me if I was in Timisoara for the Christian conference called UnLuCru. He explained that there was an event going on for youth on the days around New Years Eve with worship and speakers but it was sold out. We were initially sad that we couldn’t go but also thanked God because that meant there were youth desiring to experience the Lord.

On New Years Eve, we planned to go to a testimony night at Harvest Church, dinner, and see fireworks in the city center. After the service, the pastor instead invited us to get into the conference with him. He had spoken at the event the day prior!

So there we were, in a packed room with hundreds of young believers from all over Romania, and just a few rows ahead from the person who had told us about it. At midnight, we rang in the New Year with an altar call, many youth came forward to fully accept Jesus into their lives. I saw the hope and revival happening in Romania. A time of revival is calling this generation. I was astonished that the Lord had brought us to be in this special place to start the New Year.

I mentioned a ministry connection we had with Dawn, a missionary from the United States who has been living in Romania for twenty-five years. Her passion is to serve orphans and individuals with disabilities. At the early intervention center, she works alongside physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists to provide services for children with disabilities in Timisoara. On my last day, I had the opportunity to meet with her and work alongside her SLP’s in the speech therapy clinic. Speech therapy is a new field in Romania and in great need of services. The Lord truly led me to the sweetest place that was able to use my love for speech therapy and teach me about the orphan crisis in Romania. 

Throughout our entire time of ATL, I saw the Lord provide for us- physically and spiritually. I saw the global church become our family for a week. We met a body of believers that strengthened us with their prayers, hospitality, and encouragement. God sent us to Timisoara for greater reasons than we could have imagined. He used so much to send us there, but to reveal something entirely different.

“It is the Lord who goes before you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you. Do not fear or be dismayed.””
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭31‬:‭8‬ ‭

Lord, help me to tune my ears to your voice. Help me to take the next step knowing that you go before me. I don’t want to do anything apart from you. Thank you for the global church and for people around the world who know you. Thank you that wherever we go, your presence is with us. Amen.

Be well. Love well. Mags