We Made it to Craiova, Romania!

We made it to Craiova, Romania!

Hey guys! We're finally here! We were beyond blessed with our flights. We ended up getting two checked bags free at American Airlines and when we got to Frankfurt we ended up getting our carryon items also free (wasn't supposed to be apparently but we were boarding and we didn't have time to get it taken care of). The flights were long and small but we arrived blessed. We're definitely here for such a time as this.

Here's what we've been doing this week:

Battling the beast that is jetlag (finally last night we slept most of the night through).
Got a new phone plan and Romanian numbers ($10 for unlimited everything say WHAAA).
Found a perfect apartment but they still haven't messaged us back so we're praying they will soon.
Looking into volunteer or student visas. Once again pioneering on this front. This is to give us a lot more freedom to go into the Balkans and not being stuck in Romania the whole time as that is our heart.
Communicated with Raul about types of visas and we're looking at starting a sister nonprofit in Romania so we can have more freedom to help Hope church in the Balkans. But for now we need either a volunteer or student visa until we get that set up.
Visited the University of Craiova, will probably visit again.
Unpacked, got a bus ticket, host grandma (who doesn't speak English) took us around the town and helped us with immigration.

We're so blessed and excited to be here. We've been praying a lot for Ukraine. We're safe where we are. Romania is taking in refugees and they might make their way down south where we are. If they do, we told Pastor Raul to let us know and let us help. Refugees have our hearts.

We're also giving ourselves grace. This is a new language, a new culture, a lot of things are 10x harder than they "should be" because of the language and cultural barriers. Jonna was able to get our new phone plans understanding 10% of what was being said but took all day to work with our phones. We're celebrating the small victories.

Even if it looks like we're "not doing much", it's in-fact taking most of our time. We're celebrating these small victories.

Financially we need about $2,025 a month for our living expenses. This covers bills, emergency savings, and some ministry/travel expenses. IF (big "if") we get refugees our way we want to be able to help them and not worry about bills. The pyramid is a visual representation of the monthly support we have at this current moment. We have a good saving but we don't want to have to use all of our savings. We are able to budget well, and now that we're here we're able to make a more accurate budget that we will be doing soon. We pray over our partners that they receive the blessing and honor of helping our Balkan and Romanian siblings.

Prayer Requests

Pray for the peace, safety, and justice of Ukraine and the people being affected.
Pray for the refugees that are escaping, that they are safe, find food, shelter, water, and peace.
Pray God miraculously protects our Ukrainian siblings, and for the provision to be met to supply them.
That we grasp the language easily.
For us to have good culture adaptation.
Financial support to be fully covered.
That we continually get closer to God.
We're praying over our spaces every night, please pray with us. The spiritual warfare is real.

In Closing

Under no uncertain terms we definitely couldn’t do this without you. Whether that’s through prayer, emotional support, or financial; we are always incredibly grateful for you. Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers, you have no idea how much it means to us. Please message us when you have prayer requests. We would love to pray for you.

The Nations Call Team. Jonna and Alyssa