After a month in Craiova, my team of 7 packed up, said a hard goodbye to the rest of our squad, and headed up to the historic town of Alba Iulia. Just for some context, our team is named Kaleo, which means “called” in Hebrew. There are 7 women who make up Kaleo, and each and everyone of them is full of passion for the Lord. They love deeply and walked boldly in Christ. They also happen to be some of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Our squad jokes that if you every want to have a good time, hang out with Kaleo. All that to say, living with them for a month was full of memories.

Our new ministry in Alba was actually pretty similar to our ministry in Craiova. We worked with a youth pastor (who soon became one of our dearest friends) to encourage the teenage believers living in the area. We had girls nights, game nights, and youth nights with some of the teens. It honestly was so fun, and I felt like I was back in my youth group at home. One of the funniest stories was when our ministry host told a local teen basketball league that a bunch of professional American basketball players had come. There reaction when we showed up to play was priceless.

One of the new ministries that we got to be a part of was the churches refugee ministry. The first day that we got to Alba, another girl on my team and I got the opportunity to go to an event at the church. The event was a prayer night for Ukraine, and there were about 30 refugees that had come to pray over their country. One of the women very kindly offered to translate for us, and we sat and listened as they told stories of family back home fighting on the front lines. It was incredibly moving listening to their prayers. A moment that really struck me was when one of the refugee said that as heartbreaking as this war was, the Lord is still working through it. A lot more people come to know the Lord when they’re in war then when their country is at peace. He was right. Many of the refugees in that room hadn’t been Christians before the war. During that night we met a 15 yr old girl, named Sveta, whose family had fled to Romania after the war started. A few of us had coffee with her and got to hear more of her story. She told us how she had fled Kiev with her family after missiles hit within 3 football fields of her home. They’ve been living here for the past year, doing online school, and working. She said that it’s been really hard because her friends from Kiev now live all over the world. She also has family member and friends that are still living in Ukraine and fighting Russia.  She asked that we would keep praying for her country, as one day she wishes to return!

Throughout our time in Romania, we got to meet many other refugees like Sveta. We were kindly welcomed into their homes and they shared their stories with us. All of them were equally as heartbreaking and moving as Sveta’s. On one of our last days in Alba, we got to go to a vigil that marked one year since the beginning of the war. Hearing these people, who have lost so much, cry out to God to save their country and their loved ones is something I will never forget. Our time is Alba soon came to an end, and we were off to Swazi!

-KJ