My amazing SNO team in Vama Veche!!! I was so blessed to have an amazing team filled with beautiful people.
Our awesome fearless leaders, Bart and Roxana!
We would start our evenings with a time of praise and worship. We first had this time at the church we were staying at, but after a few days we decided to bring the worship to the beaches of Vama Veche. It was so much more powerful having this time right in the middle of the area where we had ministry.
Giong into this outreach, I really didn’t know what to expect. Some of my friends in Constanta that have been on teams in the past, told me about their experiences. When I heard that the ministry would start late in the night, I was super excited about that part, but it all worked out and I loved it.
Above, you can see the 4 signs that we would hold up on the street corner, where there was a lot of foot traffic. We would hold these signs, trying the lead people over to us, and try to figure out the message that we wanted to share. We had a bunch of Red Bulls and would shout: “Guess the message and get a free Red Bull!” Once a few people would stop and try to figure out the signs, others passing by would notice us, intrigued and stop to see what was going on.
If we were holding a sign, we would walk around, leading people to the signs, and going over to them to discuss the message. We tried not to give them the answers of the signs, but help them guess each sign with giving them little clues if they needed it. We did have a good amount of people guess the entire message with just a few clues and they need up winning a Red Bull. After we shared thoroughly the message at the end, making sure they understood it all, we prayed for some that wanted it and encouraged them. We handed out a lot of Bibles over those two weeks. We also invited many of them to an online course called The Alpha Course, where they could learn more about Jesus.
The first 3 days of the outreach was a time of learning and training. The second night of outreach, we started to put those things we had been learning into practice on the streets of Vama Veche. One of the things we did one night, that was new to a lot of us, was something called “Treasure Hunt”. We took time to ask God for a specific person on the street, for a specific piece of clothing, shoes, hair color, etc. For example, someone wearing the color orange, someone with pink hair and sandals, someone wearing sunglasses and a hat, etc. Some were vague and others were really specific. We would then write down all those things so that everyone had the list. We went out and walked around in groups of 2-3, looking for these “treasures”. If we found someone…wearing orange…we would walk up to them and explain what we were doing and ask if we could pray for them. Some were surprised at what we were doing, while others were so grateful and happy with what we were doing and received the prayer.
We prayed for so many people and it was beautiful to see how open the people were and so grateful for the prayers. Some were full of smiles after, others crying tears of joy. I was excited for times when I was able to pray over some of the girls that we ministered to.
Our last night of ministry we decided to set up our station right in the center of all of the night clubs. It was really powerful to be right there, even though it was extremely loud. But God really moved in and through many young people that last night.
In the middle of the outreach we were able to share about what we were doing at the church we were staying at. Bart, our leader, shared the message that morning and the rest of us shared testimonies, led worship, and shared a short skit of what we do during our ministry at night.
I loved doing ministry with beautiful souls, wearing our Vama Veche pants!!
We did it!! We made it through SNO Vama Veche 2022!! I was so thankful for this time and spending time with these amazing people. I learned so much from them and God used me in a mighty way. I was way out of my comfort zone for sure, but God used me on the streets of Vama Veche.
I know I could see the change in me from the beginning of outreach by the end of the two weeks. From the first time of hiding behind the signs to going out in the street, talking to people about Jesus and praying for them.
Shoutout to Bart for inviting me last year to be apart of SNO this year!!