Hello all! I’m still running around Romania – writing at the moment from the tail end of an overnight train ride from Cluj back to Bucharest. I wanted to share a quick update with you.

Last Saturday marked the end of the summer camp season with Tabara Mia, the organization that I came to Romania with which to work. Even on Saturday morning, I hadn’t yet received clear direction from God as to where to go next and was beginning to stress. We have family in Munich, Germany and I asked whether I could go there for a few days just so I had a destination in mind for when we packed up camp and everyone else went home. They had graciously agreed to host me.

However, a couple days previous, I had received an email from an honorary mother of mine in the States regarding a friend of hers who had taken mission teams to Romania. She had contacted this friend and gotten the email address of his Romanian contact, a missionary that works on a Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base in Cluj. I had written an email to this person, offering a pair of hands should they happen to need help with any short-term projects, and received back word that while he and his family were actually currently in the States, I could try contacting a fellow missionary and the administrator of the YWAM base. I sent off that email and didn’t hear back.

Fast-forward back to Saturday. We packed up and drove the two hour van ride from the camp location (Rasnov) to Bucharest. My staff friends and camp director (who had become an honorary dad in my time with Tabara Mia) helped me by calling the train office and trying to arrange a ticket for me to Munich. We found an available train that left at 2am Sunday morning (effectively that night). Feeling relatively better about at least having a next step, I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that God hadn’t shown me where to go and I felt like I had to scramble on my own.

We arrived at my director’s home in the early evening and his wife (another honorary mom) suggested that I stay one more night in Bucharest with them instead of taking off in just a few hours. I agreed, grateful for a night to rest and the chance to spend a little more time with them.

As I was online and about to purchase a comparable ticket to Munich for the following night, I happened to check my email once again to find a response from the YWAM base. In a nutshell, it read, “Actually, we’re in the process of preparing for a national conference and we have more work than our available staff can complete. We’d love to have you come.”

And off I went to Cluj.

I was told multiple times during the four days I spent at the YWAM base that I was a literal answer to prayer. In fact, apparently they had received my inquiry email offering a hand exactly while they had been praying in a staff meeting and asking God for more hands to help with the preparation that needed to take place. I didn’t do a single extraordinary thing while I was there. I cleaned windows, moved mattresses, cooked, and pulled weeds. But the extraordinary thing about those few days was how clearly I got to see God use me. My “showing up” was a chance for me to get to see God actively answering their prayer. And they got to see God work faithfully as well. It was humbling and gratifying to see God work that way.

I’m now on my way back to Bucharest and then on to Curtea de Arges (a small town not too far from the capital) to spend another week with my Tabara Mia friends in a week-long training school in which Iulian, Tabara Mia’s director and my faux dad, invited me to participate. I can’t wait. Then after that week, I don’t know what will happen. I’m praying for a door to open in the States to something more semi-permanent. But most of all I just want God to lead. If that means showing up in a few more places for a few days at a time to help and serve where needed, I’m happy to act as God’s answer to prayer for more folks.

I hope this story was as encouraging to you as it was to me. Will write again soon!

-Lauren