I wasn't planning on moving to Romania...

From worship leading and mentoring to Youth Alpha and summer camps, Heidi Longworth has spent the past decade immersed in mission in Romania. It all stemmed from an ‘Abraham and Isaac moment’

Heidi Longworth wasn’t all that interested in mission. She definitely wasn’t planning to move to Romania. But a challenge from God to put some worship lyrics into practice led to an unexpected calling to the city of Hunedoara.

“Mission had never been a priority for me,” she explains. “I went to Bible college to study worship thinking I was called to work in the UK, so I never really thought about anything else until one evening I was sat in my college room.

“The next day was Worldwide Wednesday, which had a lot of activities around mission. I felt guilty that I wasn’t that interested and prayed about it. I felt God challenge me: ‘If I was to send you somewhere, would you go?’ It took me a while to reply, but eventually, I said yes.” In what Heidi describes as an ‘Abraham and Isaac moment’, she heard nothing more and went on to work as a music and worship leader at an Anglican church in Hertfordshire for the next ten years.

“I thought God had forgotten and that I could stay in the UK after all,” she says. Then the seeds of her missionary journey were sown in 2004 when she was invited to join a team to run a week-long kids camp in Romania. Two years later, the couple who organised it invited her to come and work with them in Hunedoara for a year.

“I said, ‘It’s cold in Romania, and I don’t do cold!’” she laughs, “But there was something about that conversation I couldn’t let go.

“In church, we’d been talking about how worship isn’t just singing songs on Sundays but giving your whole life to God and being alongside people in the world. I felt God challenging me to put the lyrics I’d been singing into practice and to ‘give him my all’.

“I couldn’t quite accept that he wanted me to go to Romania, but he did a huge work in me, and when I stepped on the plane in 2010, I was so excited!”

Heidi joined Deo Gloria Church in Hunedoara and began leading worship and getting involved in a host of youth and children’s activities. Her church in the UK agreed to support her for a year, but as that time drew to a close, she was keen to stay.

“I told God I’d stay until the money ran out – and ten years later, I was still there!” she says.

Fast forward to today, and while the pandemic caused Heidi to return to the UK for two years, she has spent the past year getting back into a raft of fruitful youth projects.

“A lot of the churches around here are fairly traditional, but at Deo Gloria, the youth have a style of worship that they enjoy. Our pastor is open to everybody using their gifts, and he creates opportunities for people to do what God is calling them to do.”

For Heidi, this has meant mentoring youth to help lead worship on Sundays. It has also involved developing a flourishing youth group. “Before the pandemic, they were struggling because there were only five kids, and there wasn’t much for them in church, so I got them together and did a Youth Alpha once a week. When I came back after Covid the group had really grown. Many of them are unchurched, so they’re exciting to work with. We’re running a weekly youth group and are planning to run another Youth Alpha, discipleship courses and more small groups this year.”

Heidi is excited about the work she is doing with her girls group, too: “We’re meeting with them separately to do discipleship, mentoring and studies on women in the Bible. This generation has so many challenges. While that can be overwhelming, it’s important just to be there for them. It’s been great to see them grow in faith.”

Heidi has also enjoyed supporting children with disabilities and their families through week-long summer camps. “There is still quite a stigma attached to disabilities in Romania and very little government support. People are not cherished here as they are in the UK, so it’s an honour and privilege to create a space at camp where they are loved and appreciated and where we can share the gospel with them.”

Heidi is enthusiastic about the year ahead and the opportunities she has to develop this work.

Where once she was a teen with little interest in missions, today God is doing fruitful work through her to enrich the lives of young people overseas.

Getting equipped

From 2020 to 2022, Heidi returned to the UK for a vital time of equipping.

“I’d done ten years in Romania without a mission agency, and it was very tough at times. I’d learned on the job and decided I needed more knowledge about different cultures,” she says.

Heidi signed up with All Nations Christian College to study for an MA in leadership and mission.

She also joined and worked for her mum’s church, New Life Community Church in Crewe, through which she connected with Elim Missions.

“It became clear that when I came back here that it would be good to be part of something bigger. So New Life agreed to become my sending church, and I signed up with Elim Missions.

“Since returning to Romania a year ago, it’s been a completely different experience with their support!”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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