May-September 2024
It’s been quite a while since my last newsletter, so I have a lot to report from May through September that includes all of the summer activities. Shortly after the Spring 2024 college semester ended, I was able to go to my first BIMI field conference held in Zagreb, Croatia. These conferences are meant to be a time of encouragement and connection with other missionaries, so I was very thankful to get to meet veteran missionaries and others who had recently moved to their field just like me. Since one of the ministries I help at in Romania is the Bible college, this conference is a chance to promote it to missionary children or any church members who are interested in studying the Bible more through the one-year program. Throughout the week, we were able to go out and explore Croatia together, and at the end of the day be challenged from the Word of God. I was very appreciative of the messages prepared by the guest speaker who taught about what it truly means to say, “I want to live and love like Christ.”
During the months of June and July, we try to keep a regular schedule of having group activities with the youth and young adults, volleyball and picnics seem to be their main draw. We have one Ukrainian girl that has attended church a few times after she came to one of these, so we pray that we can have more of these types of connections and that others will be interested in coming. Another outreach we have during the summer is church camp. We actually had four weeks of camps: a Ukrainian family camp, two youth camps, and a men and boys camp. During one of the youth camps, I was able to work on the janitorial staff since the country does regular inspections for the facility to stay open. I hope to do even more with this camp come the following summers. During the second week of youth camp, we saw one of our Ukrainian teens make a profession of faith, and we are happy to see more of them show a desire in helping us with the kids clubs each month.
In August, my roommate Sarah and I took an English certificate course known as CELTA through Cambridge University. God showed His provision in so many ways during this month. I had originally been looking at a different program, but had waited too long to sign up and it was already full. But once I started looking into a different course I could tell it was going to be more thorough. Another thing God worked out was where my roommate and I would be staying. I was able to find an AirBnb that was only a ten minute walk from the school; this was especially great after our day ended around 8 pm. This course was exactly what I had been wanting and needing ever since I moved to Romania, so the timing was perfect to get to go. It was a lot of work that stretched me, but grounded me in how to set up ESL curriculum.
Now that September has come and gone, the Baptist college has started back up. But my biggest prayer is for how my new teaching certificate will be used. I am continuing to have youth English clubs at a Ukrainian center, and two students at the college also need ESL tutoring. Starting October 7th, Sarah and I will be starting an official English course for adults. The way that schools run language courses are six weeks at a time, so we will be running it just the same. Of course, the main objective is for these students to learn English, but we are holding the course at our church. So we pray that there will be several opportunities to share the gospel and invite others to our services. If you could also be in prayer as we start, that we can get more people from the community to attend.
Thank you so much for your continued support and prayer!
In Christ,
Olivia West
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