Sunday Church!

“I went to Coteana today with Jermey, Shane, Isabel, Ethan, Courtney, Mackenzie, and Mrs. Connally to go to church. The church was a home church that met in an extremely small room. There were 12 people there, including their two children. There, I led worship with Ethan, Mackenzie and Isabel gave their testimonies, and Shane gave a small sermon. Being there was very impactful because too often in America we get caught up in going to church to be entertained rather than worship God with fellow believers. This church reminded me what church should be like: intimate and genuine. Because of the small size, of both the room and amount of people, they seemed so intimate and truly seemed to carry each others’ burden. I saw that it did not matter how well prepared the worship or speaking was, but rather the heart in which they did it. Then, later in the night we attended to church service at Hope Church. During that service, I was able to lead worship. That was definitely my highlight of the night because while I was singing in English, the congregation was singing in Romnian. It was a small glimpse of what heaven might be like some day: everyone worshipping Jesus regardless their language. During the day, I was reminded that God is not just a God of the United States, but of the world and was in awe that God heard all of our cries as we prayed and worshipped, regardless our language. “ - Brianna Widger

“Today my group (Thorsen, Audrey, Lindsay, Hannah Rowe, Bjorn, Tonk, and Mrs. Tonk) and I went to Comani with Alexae, Raul’s brother, to go to his church. We were in a relatively small sanctuary for a church, and it really didn’t look like a typical American church in that they appeared to have the bare minimum of almost everything—stage adornments, a coffee table, seating, and more. However, I realized soon after the service started that this Romanian church of around ten people had a huge advantage over nearly all American churches in that there was nothing keeping them from reaching the heart of what they were gathered there for. There was no spectacular lightning or sound systems that you find in most churches; there was only the Word, Jesus, and people ignited with the fire of the gospel. In other words, there wasn’t anything distracting them from God that distracts us at home without us even realizing it. In my case, for example, I was asked on the spot to share my testimony and sing a rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’. While I was pretty caught off guard at first, I calmly went up, shared my testimony, and sang amazing grace. No one was worried about things like eloquence or singing quality that I catch myself usually thinking about; all these people cared about and wanted was Jesus. Also, the language barrier was a little hard to overcome at first (translators, which mean pauses between thoughts, parts of the sermon being all in Romanian, etc.) but after Alexae’s ten year old daughter, Priscilla (she’s very nice, we became friends), told me that ‘everything good starts with prayer’, I found myself realizing that Romanian prayers and English prayers are all prayers, and during prayer, we pray... if that makes any sense.” - Anna Giek

“My ministry group (Sidney, Malory, Carson, Jake ) and I made the hour and a half drive to Craiova to lead a church service. We brought along Caden and Connor since none of us were musically inclined to lead worship. All of the other groups also participated and lead a church service but my group was told our service would have the most people so we were all pretty nervous. In the car ride, we put together our service including songs and preaching by Caden, and I was told I would be giving my testimony. I was very reluctant at first but my group reminded me that I needed to be pushed out of my comfort zone and I was immediately encouraged. We arrived at the church which was a room in the back of someone’s house and there was only two people who showed up. At first my group was slightly discouraged by the outcome but by the end of the service the small intimate setting ended up being one of the most powerful services we had experienced. After the service we headed back to the church in Draganesti to prepare for our evening gathering that we helped organized. The service started at five and ran for about two hours. In this we participated in worship and messages/testimonies prepared by students and D-Rob with the Romanian people. Hearing the Romanian voices and the voices of the other students was incredibly moving. Overall the past two days in Romania have been full of building relationships and spreading God’s word with all different ages and I can’t wait to see what the next couple days hold.” -Hannah Best