Debrief time! We are all together in Brasov (brash-ov). A gorgeous city nestled by the mountains. Our schedule is fairly open this time because everyone has begged for more down time to be able to rest. When we arrived it was just getting dark but it was only jacket weather. We woke up the next morning to find the ground covered in snow. Yes, there were some snowball fights. The first day we had our Parent Virtual Vision, which is the online version of the parent trip that they normally do. With our route changing so much AIM was unable to plan a trip so we did a video call with them. Samantha and I were on the committee that planned the schedule and thanks to our host the previous month we had a large space with a projector and wifi. Everyone had a part. Some people told stories, some people answered questions and we all sang together in a small worship time. There was even a time set aside for the parents to offer words of encouragement and pray over us. Somehow it ended exactly on time. There were a few hiccups getting started but it got worked out and the whole thing ran fairly smoothly. And my team got into a snowball fight on the way back to our hostel though I’m pretty sure Keith (our coaches fly in for debrief) started it. *side note: it’s going to be so strange and lonely traveling anywhere alone when I get home. I’ve been around people so much that it’s going to feel weird going to a store or something by myself.
The next day debrief really got started. There were slots for one on ones with the SQLs and leadership team throughout the week and nightly worship sessions and talks. We discussed our squad values and got some trauma training to prepare us for this upcoming month working with the Ukrainian refugees. In order to avoid the cold I would order food online and have it delivered when I wasn’t out doing one on ones. Oh! We also took part of a day and went to Vlad the Impaler’s castle aka Dracula’s castle. It was fun to walk through and learn about the different people that lived there. At one point they forgot there was another floor because the door was hidden behind a painting. There was an area dedicated to the lore that surrounded the castle and I highly suggest NOT looking into the original stories for vampires and werewolves and things. Very disturbing. There was another area dedicated to torture and a lot of people that chose to go in were grossed out and disturbed. I took too long touring the castle itself and didn’t have time to go check it out.
I’ve been praying for a long time for a close friend. Certainly I have a lot of friends but, no offense to them, they are all much much younger than me. I’ve grown apart from my friends from school and rather than simply looking for a guy I started praying for a best friend. Since starting this trip I have been praying about so many other things I kind of just forgot about that one, plus I’m surrounded by so many good people, I just haven’t even thought about it. My mom asked me right before debrief if I felt like I was close to anyone on this trip and reminded me of my prayer for a friend. That night I added it back into my prayers and while I was praying I pictured someone walking up to me and stating “God told me we a going to be best friends.” My introverted side came out in a panic “God please oh please be more subtle than that. I don’t know what to say to something like that so maybe I’ll just pay more attention and I’ll notice it that way.”
During worship one night while we were all praying over each other someone came up to me and said they felt in their heart that they needed to tell me that they really wanted to be someone I could talk to and rely on. They said they wanted me to consider them a close friend and then they burst into tears. I was just sitting there dumbfounded and also kind of berating God for putting me in this situation. Then I started crying and we laughed and hugged and later I told her about my prayer.
Debrief ended and the teams split ways. Dear God and Selah went up to Alba Lulia, and the others went back down to Craiova and our host from the previous month as he transitioned to helping refugees. The Alba teams were working with two different churches and we split up in front of the train station. Our host was Florin and we spent the month helping Flaming Worship church (Flacara Închinarii). We spent our first week organizing, labeling, and packing boxes of food, clothes, and medicine to be sent to Ukraine. Our second week was spent passing out bibles downtown and just spending time with some of the young couples from the church and some of the youth. The rest of our time was spent getting clothes ready for the church yard sale where they raise funds for Ethiopia.
(church logo?)
I think the community there poured into us more than we could ever pour into them. We were invited into homes for game nights and lots of stories, tons of local food, the most famous of which is called somales. Its like a cabbage roll with meat inside and dipped in sour cream, not American sour cream. This is only similar in consistency.
One of the families we met were teaching their toddlers their fifth language. They would rotate languages each day and only speak that language at home. I want that for my future kids! What an advantage to be able to communicate with all the different people around you!
All of the young couples in the church have crazy artistic skills and while visiting someone’s home we were shown pictures from their wedding and they kept listing off all of the different people that made the different decorations and things and well I may just go to them to plan events for me in the future because they really know what they’re doing!
We had so much fun getting to know everyone there and it felt like a second home. I think Alba has the best community I have ever seen and unless I go back, I’m going to spend the rest of my life looking for something similar. I’ve not seen a planted community so unified, so willing to volunteer, what a beautiful picture of Christ’s love being poured out on their town. As we prepare to leave I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before I’m back here.
