Stories of Romania

As with last year's trip, this journey into Romania and the Father's heart was full of lessons learned and experiences to be remembered. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be sharing some stories from my favorite memories of the trip, but first, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the most valuable part of the trip for me: community.

I've been in a community-building stage of life this past semester in Iowa City, so perhaps that's why I valued/noticed the community with such intensity.  Truly, it was amazing to see the way that God bonded our team together in His love to accomplish His purposes.

Team [Megan, Natalie, Nicole, Tim, Heather, & I] before our flight out of the US

Each member of our team had a specific gift to bring to the table--Nicole's contagious silliness, Megan's understanding of kids in hard situations, Natalie's love for kids of any sort, Tim's patience in constructing Lego creations, Heather's hugging habits--all these things together made a team that loved well.  

We had a lot of fun together, too.  Toward the middle of the trip, we definitely counted as some sort of odd little family.  We prayed together, talked about things that were on our minds, and talked each other through some decision-making for the future.  It was an amazing time of encouragement, support, and wisdom-sharing. What an awesome picture of the Body of Christ!

We ended our journey with lots of goofy-ness--a sure sign of a life-long friendship bond:

And that, blogging friends, is the community I proudly ministered alongside. I wouldn't have it any other way!