Our entire 11 month journey is guided by “ATL”, Asking the Lord.
Sometimes it’s our leadership team in the States and on the field asking God and following the doors He opens and the ministries and hosts He lays on their hearts. And there are times that we as individual teams get to sit with the Lord and trust where He leads us within a county. We got to experience this team led ATL in Romania for the first time.
My Team, Gloria a Dios, ended up in Timisoara, Romania which is on the western border.
After much deliberation and prayer the Lord started confirming Timisoara to each of us by things we wanted to help with in Romania. One of us felt called to pour into Ukrainian Refugees and there was a center in Timisoara. One of us felt called to pray and possibly talk to students and staff at University, and University of Timisoara was the first school that pulled up when she began researching. Yet another one of us has a heart for people with special needs and we were lucky enough to gain a contact through our Criaova ministry host for a special needs orphanage with a speech assistance program (which is what this person studied in college) and where was is located… Timisoara.
I was the last one to receive confirmation about our location. With all these other opportunities we had already decided as a team to go to Timisoara. Since I wasn’t given any specific ministry or calling I decided that I would look up Bible studies for our team. We had discussed using our ATL days to dig into rhythms and disciplines together so I simply did a search on the YouVersion app for spiritual disciplines. I clicked on the first one which was perfect, it was 10 days long which is the amount of time we had before we came together as a squad at debrief. So I looked through it and then I saw it… “We would like to thank Harvest Church Timisoara for providing this plan.” I immediately doubted, I thought since I had my Romanian SIM card in my phone that maybe somehow the Bible App had an algorithm that I had trigged to only show Romanian studies. But I checked the next 4 or so and they were all from the United States. So God confirmed for our team that we were indeed going to Timisoara!!
The timing of this ATL trip was unfortunate because although God used these things to get us to Timisoara, He quickly closed the doors one by one as we reached out for information and to ask to help. The Ukrainian Refugees center was closed for the holiday. The University was closed for the holidays. And the orphanage was unavailable due to the holiday. Even Harvest Church didn’t have any opportunities other than cleaning before and after their services for us to help due to the holidays. But God still made our time sweet and instead of serving we got to be served in this season.
We fell in love with Harvest Church Timisoara, honestly by their instagram page but then being there in person and meeting the leadership team was a true move of God. Not only were we welcomed to Church and given free lodging, we were also invited to multiple homes from the church staff and provided multiple large, delicious meals.
During our ATL trip to Timisoara we went through that 10 day study of Spiritual Disciplines together as a team. One of the days was on fasting so I decided to fast for my Sabbath. After my Sabbath I felt God saying to continue fasting the next day to complete 2022 weak in the flesh but strong in the spirit. Then I got to the end of the day and God again challenged me to continue the fast to begin 2023. I ended up breaking the fast with Communion at the church service the night of the 1st. It was a difficult couple of days (especially day 2) but it was Spirit filled and He definitely sustained me.
At one point I was hungry and weak and we were on our way to a church members house for a home cooked meal that I knew I was going to struggle to skip. We were at a bus stop and I stood there in the sun and a few of my teammates came over and began praying for me. Something else I learned from this experience is that fasting does make me even more emotional and sentimental so I did cry several times during the three days, including this moment. But after their prayer we put on worship music at that bus stop and I was truly amazed at how revitalized I felt. Sustaining from the meal was no longer a tragedy in my mind and I looked forward to meeting Jesus at His Communion table to break this period of building up spiritual strength.
While the church lined up to grab bread and wine for Communion I sat in my seat and God shared that all He wanted from me this coming year of 2023 was to COMMUNE with Him and the people He places around me. So I am walking out this year with a sense of honor that the Creator of the Universe wants to sit and be with me. I also feel called and lead to be intentional and present with the people in my life at whatever stage. Whether it is my smaller teams of people on the race, or the whole squad, or if its when I return home and its my family and friends I get to sit and commune with!
This period of ATL was overwhelming with how tangible the provision of God is in the big and small ways. I was amazed at the unity of the big “C” Church. We all serve the same God and through that abundant love are we called to love and exhort and encourage other believers in the faith. I now how a fresh perspective of how this looks in real life.
