Church Planters, Blizzards and All Those Things

In the early morning of January 26, 2012, a team of 4 from NLI travelled to the airport ready to train church planters in Constanta, Romania.  When they got to the airport they were greeted with an 8 hour delay due to a  blizzard that was sweeping across Romania

In the early morning of January 26, 2012, a team of 4 from NLI travelled to the airport ready to train church planters in Constanta, Romania.  When they got to the airport they were greeted with an 8 hour delay due to a  blizzard that was sweeping across Romania.  Eventually they got on a plane.  When it landed on the snow laden runway the plane erupted in applause (which I have since heard is not unusual for Romanian flights) and the air hostess said “Welcome to the North Pole.”

And the North Pole it was.  Snow was piled 4 foot high on the side of every road.  The temperature was -18C and the team began to hear the news of the impact of the blizzard.  The road from Bucharest to our destination in Constanta was blocked.  People had actually frozen to death in their cars.  The Black Sea in Constanta had frozen and a train between the two cities had derailed.  So our team spent the night in Bucharest hoping to leave for Constanta the next day.  Conditions were still freezing and the roads blocked.  Yet another night was to be spent in Bucharest.

Finally, on the evening of the day that the church planter training was supposed to run, the team were able to make it to Constanta.  Reports when they arrived were: one of the church planters was still snowed in and unable to reach Constanta and people had been driving their cars out on the Black Sea.

On the Sunday the team were finally able to do some of what they had travelled for.  They presented a gift from churches and friends all over the world to a Romanian church that was to help them rebuild their church building which had burnt down  last year.  The people were so encouraged that people on the other side of the world were moved to action by their story.  David Rowlands, one of trainers on the team, preached up a storm at this church, which was translated into Romanian.

Next the team spent time with a pastor who reaches out to Muslims and shared in the service, this time in Turkish.  It was amazing to hear the stories of how the people had to fight to be Christian in a Muslim culture.  After that the team went to the International Church where Kevin Westfield, the team leader,  preached about dreaming big, this time in English.  The students were on fire and were already beginning to talk of doing something to reach the other students on the campus.  So it was three church services in one day, in three different languages.  In between services, time was taken to talk to the teams, encourage the pastors and set goals for the coming year.  Despite the three days it took to get there the team felt that the trip had been fruitful.

The next day the team headed back to Bucharest to catch up and encourage leaders of churches and organizations dealing with human trafficking.  These conversations are the beginning of exciting new friendships as we began to discuss how we could help one another.

One more night in Bucharest and then it was off to the airport to head home.  In true Romanian style, the airport was packed, security took over an hour to get through and the plane was delayed as it had to be de-iced.  That said, the team did arrive home safe and sound.

Lesson learnt:  in mission, you must be flexible, especially during blizzards!