Romania

Romania

If you've read my first two posts you'll already know a few things, 1) I have a lot of typos and 2) Romania (located in Eastern Europe)
has stolen a decent chunk of my heart due to my experiences there last year.  Honestly, it's extremely difficult to put my love for Romania into words.  Those of you who have been on similar trips around the world or to Romania with Open Roads in the past will understand.  The way I described it in my first post is the simplest way to do it.  God's presence is obvious and He is moving in BIG ways there.

A little background and more information on what we will be doing in Romania and why I'm choosing to go back this summer.   Romanians suffered under oppressive communist dictatorship during the Soviet occupation in the late 1900’s (as recent as 1989).  As a result, countless children ended up in state-run orphanages.  Today, these orphans are adults. Adults left with scars, both physical and emotional, resulting from horrendous living conditions in state run orphanages.  Our role in these orphan's lives is to simply show them God's love.  Tragically, love is a foreign concept to many of the orphans we'll be working with due to their upbringing in the orphanages, so we aim to show them love of the purest kind: the love of God.

In Romania, we have the opportunity to partner with an organization called Open Roads.  Although we only get to be with and love on our orphan friends for two weeks, Open Roads is with them all year round.  With that being said, another wonderful aspect and goal of our trip is to bring encouragement and validation to the group of Romanian leaders who work with the orphans year round, loving on them and sharing the gospel. Together, Romanian Open Roads leaders and our team from America will be putting on a week long camp for Romanian orphans.  We are hopping the pond on Tuesday (the 28th of July) which means camp is in just two weeks!

Last year, my biggest worry heading into the trip was the idea that I would be continuously comparing Romania to past trips to Honduras, a country and people I fell in love with early in high school.  As it turned out, I had no issues staying present, a truth I can only attribute to God, keeping me focussed and all in where I was at.  This year, my biggest worry is very similar.  Rather than looking back and comparing to past trips, I'm worried about looking ahead and thinking of my gap year adventure next year.  Doing so could rob the chance for God to work through me completely during my time in Romania.

After experiencing God's power last year, I am much more confident that He will show up again and allow me to be fully present while in Romania.  Another bolt of confidence comes from the fact that I am beyond excited to return to Romania and reunite with my brothers and sisters in Christ that I got to know last year.  I am feeling much more excited than nervous or scared to return.  I can't wait to see what God will do this time around in Romania.

While in Romania, I won't be posting here on my blog, but the Romania team will be keeping up a blog chronicling what we are up to while on the ground.  The link for our blog is hsmromaniagoteam.wordpress.com (side note: COMMENTS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED! We read them out as a large group and love to know that people back home are following along).

If you missed the opportunity to support the Romania team this summer (the trip is now fully funded), I'm still in need of support for my adventure next year! Here's the link to give: https://www.leadertreks.org/about/give/.  Currently, however, prayer for the Romania team in general and specifically for God to keep me in the present on focussed where I'm at while on the ground is more necessary than financial support.

Thank you for reading and for your continued prayers!


Benjamin Hershberger