I’m not referring to just any week, but one that challenges us to embrace every moment fully, to look up to our mentors, and to absorb their essence as individuals, role models, and living embodiments of service. It was a week where we dismantled our barriers and forged genuine connections, learning what it truly means to serve God.
From April 23rd to May 1st, 2025, Adventus University, in Cernica, in collaboration with the Inter-European Division, organized an Erasmus project in the heart of Vienna, Austria. As students of the university, we had the invaluable opportunity to participate in this initiative, discovering how we can actively engage in service within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, particularly through the Women’s Ministries department, a department brimming with extraordinary potential to reach diverse social groups.
During those seven days, we undoubtedly moved closer to the divine calling that awaits each of us. Each day was filled with enriching training sessions led by remarkable women who, through their words and examples, introduced us to a living Jesus, full of compassion and deeply involved in the lives of others, especially women.
Our professors, Eliza Spătărelu, Cristina Albu, Laura Maftei, and Gabriela Diaconu (accountant), alongside our guest speaker from the Division, Dagmar Dorn, director of Women’s Ministries, and Elida Oncea, Women’s Ministries leader in the Austrian Union of Conferences, infused genuine value and depth into our experience. In addition to our training sessions, we delighted in exploring the cultural treasures of the city, places steeped in history, art, and beauty that nourished not only our eyes but also our souls.
On Sabbath, we were blessed to attend both Romanian Adventist churches in Vienna. On Friday evening, we held a program at the Meidling church, where each study group and year level contributed with poems, songs, instrumental pieces, and heartfelt messages. Then, on Sabbath morning, we worshipped with the other Romanian community in Vienna, a place where we instantly felt at home, as if we had returned to family.
Thus, I return to that simple question: Can a single week change your life? I leave that for you to ponder. What I know for certain is this: one single week was enough to illuminate a new path for us.
