YWAM Constanta, Romania DTS team

Although this is a blog dedicated to our church's (Christ the Savior Church) ministry to the Roma-RAE peoples of Montenegro, here is a report on something our international congregation has been doing during the summer. More concretely, I'd like to share with you about the time we’ve had with the YWAM - Youth With a Mission team from Constanta, Romania. Already the second team that we (our English speaking congregation) hosted in less than two months; they stayed with us for 4 weeks, as a part of YWAM’s DTS - Discipleship Training School program. Our church has been partnering with the YWAM for many years, going all the way back to 2013, which is when we hosted our first YWAM team.

Since then, we hosted and have been serving together with many different YWAM teams, coming from different base countries, bringing us people from all over the world. Being open to the guidance of the Spirit, taking a humble and servant attitude of the heart and ready to get their hands dirty, YWAM teams have always complemented well with our ministry.

With this particular team, there is an interesting story of how they got here. Back in November last year, while they were still praying where to spend DTS outreach phase, one of the leaders received, in prayer, an image of Jesus holding His heart - a motive very common in Catholic imagery. This was shared among other leaders, but no one could relate to it as something relevant for what they were praying for. It was only upon their arrival here, that they saw a similar image, a decorated tapestry used in a room where we hold our Roma-RAE congregation’s children’s Bible clubs! Indeed, God really speaks and confirms Himself to us in unexpected ways.

Upon their arrival, the team, both the leaders and the students, were ready for “whatever it takes”. And that’s exactly what we did…they helped us with finishing up some long-started projects, Roma-RAE ministry/children’s work in Podgorica, organizing sports events for teenage boys from our church, evangelization in Roma-RAE settlements on the coast, helping with small groups, etc.

                                 

The majority of their time, though, they helped us promote our international ministry by helping make our church known among the foreigners and English-speaking locals. For that purpose, their team has been going out on the streets in the evenings, meeting people on the streets, sharing with them information about our church and sharing the Gospel (if there was a chance). It was really interesting and exciting to see how God was using each one of those encounters and conversations. Finally, with their help, we were able to organize our first movie night, where we watched “Jesus Revolution” in our church space. Having in mind that we want our church space to turn into a community space available for Christian and other community events, this was something we were really excited about! Last, but not the least…the farewell party with barbecue provided for our church a great time of fellowship, wonderful time in a relaxed, warm and family-like atmosphere and of course, great food!

As the team is serving in a different location now, we would like to offer our prayers for them. We are thankful to our Father for crossing our paths and bringing us together. While serving together, we really got a chance to share lives, encourage one another, have great conversations and strengthen each other in faith. We pray for Lord’s protection over them, for them to continue to be open for His guidance and for God to provide for them with what their souls and bodies need. We hope to get a chance to serve our Lord together with them again soon!