Hello! It’s been a long time since I blogged. Since my last update, we had our last day of VBS in Bucharest on Wednesday, then on Thursday we visited the geriatric unit of one of the hospitals in the morning and had the afternoon to do laundry. Friday was sort of a day of rest- we did laundry all day, went to Annisoara’s for lunch and then that evening we went with the youth group to the hospital to finally meet Irina!!! On Saturday we left for Kosova, and we stayed there through Tuesday morning. Now as I type we are driving back to Bucharest for one day of rest before we hop on the train to Transylvania, where we will spend a week doing VBS in Tigmandru and then the next week in Sighisoara, doing more VBS!
Our last day of VBS went fabulously well, and although we didn’t have as many kids as usual we still had a great time. It was sad to say goodbye, but after a successful day of learning about Jesus’ love, we had a huge watergun fight to end the day! It was great. I still need to upload photos from this past week of VBS- I’ll get on that as soon as I wake up on Wednesday morning. I have tons of photos.
Thursday we got up early and took bananas to the geriatric ward of one of the hospitals here. The geriatric wards here are very sad. There is no such thing as a nursing home in Romania, and elderly people must rely on their families to care for them- they have no other options. Unfortunately, many families can’t care for their elders, or some choose not to, and the abandoned elderly usually end up in the geriatric ward. In many cases, grandchildren take advantage of their elders and sell their possessions, keeping the money and leaving the elderly at the geriatric ward of the hospital. Several years ago the local Nazarene church began a program that took sandwiches and tea to the elderly three to five times a week, and sadly it was usually the only food they received because the hospital did not have the funds to feed its geriatric patients. The big treat, though, was bananas. They took bananas because here bananas are slightly more expensive and so are a treat rather than a common possession, as well as being healthy and soft, making them easy for the patients to eat. Things have been changing over the years, however, and now the hospital does feed its elderly patients regularly. But while they do feed the patients, there are so many other unmet needs that the church tends to besides simply food. As I said earlier, many of the patients in this ward are abandoned by their families and completely alone. They have no one to turn to, no one to take care of them. Their emotional and spiritual needs are left to rot alongside them in their hospital beds. This is where the church’s weekly visit comes in. The bananas are recognized as a kind gesture, and although we weren’t able to spend more than 5 minutes with each patient (there were so many…), 5 minutes was all that was needed to make these lovely people feel significant and cared for. We came into each room, handing out bananas and speaking our very few Romanian words in greeting. A big smile was all we needed to communicate. Most of the patients simply talked to us anyway, knowing we couldn’t understand but appreciating the willing ears. A few of the patients even cried out of happiness or appreciation, but they tried to hide it. Tamara explained that the nurses here don’t really like that we come in and minister to the patients in this particular manner, so if they see a patient crying because of us, they will complain and cause problems for the program, making it more difficult for the church to reach out to this community. Overall it was a very sobering experience. I truly enjoyed this trip though, and I really want to do it again before we leave. I don’t know if I’ll have the chance, but it is something I won’t forget.
Friday we had lunch at Annie’s and it was delicious! Annisoara Cristea is the mother of the family that Rachel was staying with during the first part of our trip. We hold VBS at their house everyday because they live in an apartment building that has a big gated front yard. That evening, we went to visit Irina! She had not been outside for a month (to the day) because she hadn’t been allowed (she’s been on very strict bedrest), and had been stuck in her hospital room. She did not know we were coming and Monica went inside to get her, just saying that she needed to come outside and get some fresh air because she had been inside for too long, so she came outside and there we were! The whole youth group, which she’s normally very involved with. She was very happy to see them all, and to meet us as well. We had a lovely time visiting and then we all prayed together for her and the child, and it was great.
Bright and early on Saturday morning we left for Kosova at 4 a.m.!!! ugh. Although my attitude wasn’t the best when we started, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world by the end of that 18 hour car drive! My plan was to sleep a lot on this trip, but in fact after the sun came up I really didn’t sleep very much at all. To get from Bucharest, Romania to Gjacove, Kosova, we drove through FOUR countries in one day! Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Kosova. We stopped to shop for VBS supplies for the upcoming weeks in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. That added over two hours to our trip, but we are now prepared for children’s ministry in the villages! Now, about the drive. We were literally crossing the Danube as the sun came up, and it was breathtaking. I will never forget the moment:
Rachel: “So, how many people can say they’ve watched the sun rise over the Danube River?”
Kristen: “Not very many at all.”
Rachel: “Once. In. A Lifetime.”
Now about Macedonia- that country is beautiful! Remember, I thought Bulgaria was lovely? It is, of course, but Macedonia was also pretty! I love the rolling hills and the unique tall trees that cover the countryside. We took several pictures which I’ll post to facebook.
Now I will try to explain the drive through Kosova, but honestly, not all the words in the world, with all the pictures you could possibly take, would ever do that country justice. Kosova is the most breathtaking place I have ever been, including the Grand Canyon. I will be going back to Kosova in my lifetime. I must. I fell in love with the country as we drove through the Albanian Alps at sunset. Even though the skies were mostly gray, the sunset colored the clouds pink and orange as they peeked down at us through the mountaintops while we drove through. At one spot, we came upon a waterfall so beautiful that we pulled over and went on a spontaneous hiking trip! We spend about an hour at this gorgeous waterfall, taking pictures and exploring. The ice cold water was so refreshing on our feet after sitting in the car all day, and moving around was so nice. And even though this place was phenomenal, it was at the top of the mountain where I simply stood in disbelief. Never have I seen such a view. Like I said, pictures will never do it justice, but I’ll post them anyway. I could talk about this drive for pages , but it’s already been pages and I have to tell you about our few days in Gjakova. We finally arrived at our hotel around 10:30 p.m. (actually 9:30 because of the time change), had a very large dinner and fell into bed. Oh by the way, the reason we went to Kosova is because the Eastern European Mission Field was having a conference there to iron out some details about the upcoming year in all of their separate areas, so all of the missionary families from this field met up in Kosova. It was amazing to get to be a part of this “family reunion”. They really were very much like a family in every way, and it was great to be there as part of the mixture. Our job was to help Gillian with the kids while they had their meetings.
p.s. I met my very first real Irish person. She was mine and Debi’s roommate, and she’s spending her summer in Kosova working with the church we visited, doing children’s ministry. Her name is Gillian (pronounced Jillian) and she makes everything about life better! I miss her terribly, and we were only there for 3 days. :D :D :D Gillian is from Northern Ireland and has the accent to prove it! Haha it was almost harder to understand her than the Kosovar people we met! And she spoke English! Anyway, she was fantastic.
On Sunday we got up and took a two hour drive to church where we met Imir and his wife. Imir is from Kosova and is the pastor of the Nazarene church in Gjakova, and his wife Jeanette is from Kansas. They met when she came to Italy on a Youth In Mission trip. She visited Kosova during that trip, and a year after that she came back and they fell in love. Now they head up the first and only Nazarene Church in Gjakova! It was a lovely service, and my Micheal-dad preached the sermon!! He did an excellent job. After church we all went out to lunch where I proceeded to have the best chicken sandwich of my life. Unfortunately, as we were trying to leave the restaurant, we had a little accident. In our big church van, we backed into a parked car and did quite a bit of cosmetic damage. It turned out ok though, we just had to pay for the damage. Sunday evening we had dinner and played a big group game, then we watched the kids for a few hours while the adults began their meetings. It was so fun. All in all there were about 5 families there, plus a few individuals. Leaving us with a total of somewhere around 10 kids. Monday was our day to shine! We told Gillian (who had been in charge of the kids for most of the week already) to take a day off, we could handle it. The adults were in meetings all day long and we had the kids from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. It was a blast, although challenging at times. We did crafts, played soccer, hung out in the hotel’s playroom, did more crafts, watched a movie, played freeze tag and capture the flag, and just kept the kids occupied all day long. After lunch was quiet time, and I accidentally took a two hours nap, but it was ok because the kids were mostly calm anyway, and my team took care of the more active ones. Woops! Haha something about driving all over the country (or actually, 4 countries) just wears me out!
Oh, and I MUST mention the view out of my bedroom window. Holy cow. I thought driving through the mountains was wonderful? As I stepped out onto my balcony, I was surrounded by them. I could wake up to that every morning, no doubt. And the sunset I witnessed on Monday night was simply unbelievable. Playing soccer outside, we had to stop for a moment and admire the beautiful panoramic view before us. A song came to mind more than three times a day each day that I was in Kosova, by my favorite artist. One particular line kept repeating itself in my head:
“Today, skies are painted colors of the cowboy cliché. And it’s strange, how clouds that look like mountains in the sky are next to mountains anyway.”
The cold showers I took EVERY morning because of the lack of hot water, were worth it for that view! The hotel was SUPER nice, but I never got up early enough for a hot shower. I was always one of the last, so I had cold ones. But it’s ok. It’s … ya know… refreshing! Haha.
Anyway. Monday night the adults finished their meetings, and though they had been planning on more meetings Tuesday morning, they actually got everything done on Monday, so Tuesday we got up and had breakfast, packed our things, took communion together at 9, and got to start our trip home much earlier than expected! I was very sad to leave Kosova, but here we are on the way home, and I thought I would type this thing now instead of having to do it tomorrow on my one day of rest and laundry before heading out to the villages. I’m sure I left many things out, but it’s just very hard to remember so many amazing things in one sitting. I do know that I’ve been bitten by the travel bug, and now that I have made many friends in the Eastern European area, I have every intention of coming back to visit them again. I left part of my heart in the mountains of Kosova. I know it’s cheesy, but it’s true. What an unbelievable place. God was everywhere in that place. I ask that you pray for each of the missionary families who were there, by name.- they all have a special place in my heart.
-Jay and Tiana and kids
- Doug and Jen and kids
- Jacob, who attended without his wife Tyler
- Roberta
- Dorothy
-Elka and Ilir, and daughter Deborah
-Tamara and Micheal Hudson, and kids.
And a few others I’m sure I’m missing.
These families have dedicated their lives to God in a way that sometimes seems impossible to imagine. To go and live in a foreign country, learn the language there, raise your kids there, be so far away from the family and friends you grew up with, endure all kinds of unusual and many dangerous circumstances, all to share the love of God with people who don’t know Him as their personal savior. Wow. What a heart for God these people have. Keep them especially in your prayers. May God bless their ministries and their families.
Well, we’re almost home, and I’m exhausted. I’m fairly certain you’re tired of reading, as well. I’m pretty sure I won’t have internet for the next two weeks while in the villages, so I’ll be typing up blogs and just saving them, and I’ll post them when I get back. Love you all, thanks for reading!
Noapte Buna!
Goodnight-
Kristen.
P.s. for some reason my blog is not allowing me to post pictures. I'll try to sort this out, but in the meantime, they're all on facebook. :)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
First week of VBS! In Bucharest!
Well here we are and it's been another five days since my last blog.. yikes! But so many good things to tell!
We have almost completed our first week of Vacation Bible School here in Bucharest! yay! :D But I'll start where I left off last.
-Friday. Our first day of VBS! We took a while to plan because we're new to this, but it went really well! Our theme for VBS is something like "Deep sea adventures- exploring the depths of God's love" and our theme for the day was Jesus loves the children. We planned fun games and snacks, a memory verse time and a craft, and a puppet skit. The puppets went over REAL well. :) lol the kids love it almost as much as we do! I'll post some pictures on here, and more on facebook tomorrow afternoon (that will be wednesday afternoon). I used blue and green streamers to wrap around the fenced area like waves, then taped seashells in between the bars on the fence. The kids really like it! Every day we play water-themed games, which is wonderful because it's SO HOT here. It's a great break from the heat for the kids... and for us as well. haha.
After VBS we went back to the Hudson's and celebrated with delicious watermelon, then sat down and planned Saturday's vbs. That evening there was youth group- they do it on Friday nights in this church, as opposed to Wednesday nights at most churches in the US. We met at Nana's and she cooked an excellent meal for us- of course we're always stuffed to the brim here! It was amazing. Then Monica (the pastor's wife and the youth pastor) looked at us and said "Ok girls, you're the show today. We were hoping you could share your testimonies with us."
haha... what? thanks for the preparation, Monica! lol. But actually it went really well. We all told our stories, spiritual journeys, and how we ended up in Romania. It was awesome to open up to the youth kids like that, because they really responded well. And we learned about each other as teammates, too. It was good. :) We had a blast, and I am really making some excellent friendships with these kids. They are awesome.
-Saturday. Was AWESOME!!!!! :) We had our second day of VBS which went very well. The theme was Jesus invites everyone into his family. More water-games, more snacks and crafts, and a drama acted out by yours truly + teammates! This is so fun! I can't even believe that I get to spend my summer doing this. Anyway, after that we went to Monica and Cristi's for lunch- it was UNBELIEVABLE. I don't even remember the last time I had food that good. I haven't even eaten like that in the states! Monica is a phenomenal cook. We had chicken breasts stuffed with bacon and cheese, heavenly mashed potatoes, peas, cooked carrots, salad, and for dessert, that yummy ice cream and sorbet! mmmm! *note* I have a new favorite thing. It's a drink brand here called Prigat. They have fruit flavored drinks, like juice but better. It reminds me of V8 juice but fruit instead of vegetables. Anyway, there's strawberry banana and it's got real, pureed strawberries and bananas in it, and it's wonderful. I love it!
After coming out of our food comas, lol, we went with Monica to a shop owned by her friend- and boy did we shop. We shopped until we dropped! I took care of souvenirs for 6 people, and myself as well! PLUS I bought a pair of Turkish pants. haha! I can't wait to wear them- they look ridiculous but they are so comfy and light! I'm excited. :) ha we did that for a few hours (yes, all in one shop, lol) and she even stayed open late for us to finish up shopping. Then we walked back and Debi and I went to Nana's. haha sweet Nana- she keeps buying us things we don't need! There is an entire box of hot chocolate on the kitchen table, and she bought another one just because she knows I drank some of it one morning. lol. oh my goodness, the hospitality here. wow.
Tonight, Tamara came home! (She's Micheal's wife, and she was in England because she takes a class there in two week modules. She was finishing a module and now she is home, making our Romania family complete!!!) We had a yummy dinner and just relaxed! Spent time with Tamara and then went to Nana's and fell into bed, exhausted. Long day! haha
-Sunday. Sunday we finally got to go to Church with our Romanian brothers and sisters and hear Cristi preach! Nana told us he was excellent, and she was right! Monica translated for us during the service. The songs were mostly in Romanian, however they did two or three in English as well, which was nice. : ) Then an excellent service ended with a powerful prayer time, in both English and Romanian. It's awesome how even when we can't understand each other we can come together in the body of Christ, with a common understanding and goal, and worship together. Church was great today. :) Afterwards, we went to the mall with the youth group and had lunch, and then went to the park to walk and play games. It was really fun! We found a kitten (named it Cherry, because the word for "you're welcome" is Cuplachere, which we joked and said sounds like "couple 'a cherries" (that has actually been helpful in remembering it, lol) and so Bailey simply replies "cherry!" to thank you, which of course makes no sense at all to any Romanian speakers, and it's always funny) and also saw some policeman on horseback, played frisbee and some other games, and just spent time together with the youth kids. It was really great!
After that, Debi and I packed our things and left Nana's house to move into the Hudson's home. Then we had dinner with the fam and just relaxed. We planned Monday's vbs and that was that!
-Monday. Third day of VBS. The theme today was the story of the Prodigal Son. haha we put on an AWESOME puppet show, if I do say so myself, and it included a short segment of the song "Party Like a Rockstar" hahaha the kids loved it! man I love VBS. Hanging out with kids, sharing Jesus, learning worship songs in Romanian, playing games, eating snacks, doing crafts and hearing the word of God? It doesn't get much better than that... except oh wait.
One of the little boys prayed for forgiveness today. I didn't understand a single word out of his precious little mouth, but it made me teary-eyed anyway. Slave Lue!!! (praise Him!)
By the way, the main religion in Romania is Orthodox Christianity. From what I understand, they believe in Jesus, but they don't understand that because He came and sacrificed His life, we can now have a personal relationship with God our Father. They pray to the saints, who will hopefully intercede with God on their behalf. Our mission is to explain to them that Christ made the bridge to God for us when He died on the cross. We can come boldly to the throne of God, as his beloved children, and have a relationship with him, and forgiveness for our sins has been granted if only we should ask for it. Isn't He amazing? And He loves each of us so much. And hopefully, as we reach the children with our short simple messages and send them home with crafts and stories, we can reach their parents as well. :) I finished reading Mark today, and I really slowed down during the crucifixion and death story at the end. When we say sacrifice, we really understate what Jesus did for us. Just so we can become clean again and have a loving and rewarding personal relationship with God. And how many people don't even realize the potential of that relationship?? Sometimes I need to remind myself how much I take my salvation for granted. What would I do without the suffering of Christ? And then the resurrection!? How amazing is this? That He could rise from the dead and sit at the right hand of God, extending God's kingdom to us in such a direct way. wow.
So Monday was awesome! Plus we had our best game so far- lol a water-race where they had to dress up in swimming floats/gear and goggles, put a water balloon between their legs and get through the obstacle course without dropping it. It was super fun!
Monday afternoon, I passed out for a while. haha I don't realize how tired I am till I sit down. But that was a good nap. :) Then we planned Tuesday's vbs, had a GREAT dinner with the fam, and then settled down to watch a movie. Sadly, the sound was messed up on the dvd player somehow, so instead I uploaded pics to facebook... (hint hint. go look at them. ;) lol)
-Tuesday! Well today was great. We had a really fun day planned, and it was really hot today. Our theme today was the story of the good Samaritan. haha I feel I must mention that my Micheal-dad starred as the Samaritan's donkey in our drama today, and..yah.. he was excellent. In fact, he even ate grass. lol It was a hit! haha
After VBS we came back to the house and just hung out. We had an amazing home-cooked lunch- Tamara made chile and cornbread- yum! :) I uploaded some more pictures to fb, and we moved all of our stuff to the downstairs room of the Hudson house so that we can all finally live together (the four girls on our team that is)!! yay! It was nice to just relax with nothing to do for a while. It seems that we have a lot of down time, but we use most of it to plan and prepare, so really we don't. We planned our last day of VBS tomorrow (wednesday, last day!!!) went to the market to get stuff for dinner, came back and prepared, ate a wonderful meal, of course, and then just spent time preparing for tomorrow. I can't wait to post pictures for this blog, but I'll have to do it tomorrow. It's late! haha I'm very excited about my latest project for this last day's game. :) Alright well it's waayyyy past my bedtime, so I'll have to do pictures for all of this tomorrow. Till then, la revedere! Noapte buna, toti! Isus te iubeste. : ) (see you soon! Goodnight all! Jesus loves you. :) )
I will also list prayer requests later. Keep all the previously posted ones in your hearts please!
We have almost completed our first week of Vacation Bible School here in Bucharest! yay! :D But I'll start where I left off last.
-Friday. Our first day of VBS! We took a while to plan because we're new to this, but it went really well! Our theme for VBS is something like "Deep sea adventures- exploring the depths of God's love" and our theme for the day was Jesus loves the children. We planned fun games and snacks, a memory verse time and a craft, and a puppet skit. The puppets went over REAL well. :) lol the kids love it almost as much as we do! I'll post some pictures on here, and more on facebook tomorrow afternoon (that will be wednesday afternoon). I used blue and green streamers to wrap around the fenced area like waves, then taped seashells in between the bars on the fence. The kids really like it! Every day we play water-themed games, which is wonderful because it's SO HOT here. It's a great break from the heat for the kids... and for us as well. haha.
After VBS we went back to the Hudson's and celebrated with delicious watermelon, then sat down and planned Saturday's vbs. That evening there was youth group- they do it on Friday nights in this church, as opposed to Wednesday nights at most churches in the US. We met at Nana's and she cooked an excellent meal for us- of course we're always stuffed to the brim here! It was amazing. Then Monica (the pastor's wife and the youth pastor) looked at us and said "Ok girls, you're the show today. We were hoping you could share your testimonies with us."
haha... what? thanks for the preparation, Monica! lol. But actually it went really well. We all told our stories, spiritual journeys, and how we ended up in Romania. It was awesome to open up to the youth kids like that, because they really responded well. And we learned about each other as teammates, too. It was good. :) We had a blast, and I am really making some excellent friendships with these kids. They are awesome.
-Saturday. Was AWESOME!!!!! :) We had our second day of VBS which went very well. The theme was Jesus invites everyone into his family. More water-games, more snacks and crafts, and a drama acted out by yours truly + teammates! This is so fun! I can't even believe that I get to spend my summer doing this. Anyway, after that we went to Monica and Cristi's for lunch- it was UNBELIEVABLE. I don't even remember the last time I had food that good. I haven't even eaten like that in the states! Monica is a phenomenal cook. We had chicken breasts stuffed with bacon and cheese, heavenly mashed potatoes, peas, cooked carrots, salad, and for dessert, that yummy ice cream and sorbet! mmmm! *note* I have a new favorite thing. It's a drink brand here called Prigat. They have fruit flavored drinks, like juice but better. It reminds me of V8 juice but fruit instead of vegetables. Anyway, there's strawberry banana and it's got real, pureed strawberries and bananas in it, and it's wonderful. I love it!
After coming out of our food comas, lol, we went with Monica to a shop owned by her friend- and boy did we shop. We shopped until we dropped! I took care of souvenirs for 6 people, and myself as well! PLUS I bought a pair of Turkish pants. haha! I can't wait to wear them- they look ridiculous but they are so comfy and light! I'm excited. :) ha we did that for a few hours (yes, all in one shop, lol) and she even stayed open late for us to finish up shopping. Then we walked back and Debi and I went to Nana's. haha sweet Nana- she keeps buying us things we don't need! There is an entire box of hot chocolate on the kitchen table, and she bought another one just because she knows I drank some of it one morning. lol. oh my goodness, the hospitality here. wow.
Tonight, Tamara came home! (She's Micheal's wife, and she was in England because she takes a class there in two week modules. She was finishing a module and now she is home, making our Romania family complete!!!) We had a yummy dinner and just relaxed! Spent time with Tamara and then went to Nana's and fell into bed, exhausted. Long day! haha
-Sunday. Sunday we finally got to go to Church with our Romanian brothers and sisters and hear Cristi preach! Nana told us he was excellent, and she was right! Monica translated for us during the service. The songs were mostly in Romanian, however they did two or three in English as well, which was nice. : ) Then an excellent service ended with a powerful prayer time, in both English and Romanian. It's awesome how even when we can't understand each other we can come together in the body of Christ, with a common understanding and goal, and worship together. Church was great today. :) Afterwards, we went to the mall with the youth group and had lunch, and then went to the park to walk and play games. It was really fun! We found a kitten (named it Cherry, because the word for "you're welcome" is Cuplachere, which we joked and said sounds like "couple 'a cherries" (that has actually been helpful in remembering it, lol) and so Bailey simply replies "cherry!" to thank you, which of course makes no sense at all to any Romanian speakers, and it's always funny) and also saw some policeman on horseback, played frisbee and some other games, and just spent time together with the youth kids. It was really great!
After that, Debi and I packed our things and left Nana's house to move into the Hudson's home. Then we had dinner with the fam and just relaxed. We planned Monday's vbs and that was that!
-Monday. Third day of VBS. The theme today was the story of the Prodigal Son. haha we put on an AWESOME puppet show, if I do say so myself, and it included a short segment of the song "Party Like a Rockstar" hahaha the kids loved it! man I love VBS. Hanging out with kids, sharing Jesus, learning worship songs in Romanian, playing games, eating snacks, doing crafts and hearing the word of God? It doesn't get much better than that... except oh wait.
One of the little boys prayed for forgiveness today. I didn't understand a single word out of his precious little mouth, but it made me teary-eyed anyway. Slave Lue!!! (praise Him!)
By the way, the main religion in Romania is Orthodox Christianity. From what I understand, they believe in Jesus, but they don't understand that because He came and sacrificed His life, we can now have a personal relationship with God our Father. They pray to the saints, who will hopefully intercede with God on their behalf. Our mission is to explain to them that Christ made the bridge to God for us when He died on the cross. We can come boldly to the throne of God, as his beloved children, and have a relationship with him, and forgiveness for our sins has been granted if only we should ask for it. Isn't He amazing? And He loves each of us so much. And hopefully, as we reach the children with our short simple messages and send them home with crafts and stories, we can reach their parents as well. :) I finished reading Mark today, and I really slowed down during the crucifixion and death story at the end. When we say sacrifice, we really understate what Jesus did for us. Just so we can become clean again and have a loving and rewarding personal relationship with God. And how many people don't even realize the potential of that relationship?? Sometimes I need to remind myself how much I take my salvation for granted. What would I do without the suffering of Christ? And then the resurrection!? How amazing is this? That He could rise from the dead and sit at the right hand of God, extending God's kingdom to us in such a direct way. wow.
So Monday was awesome! Plus we had our best game so far- lol a water-race where they had to dress up in swimming floats/gear and goggles, put a water balloon between their legs and get through the obstacle course without dropping it. It was super fun!
Monday afternoon, I passed out for a while. haha I don't realize how tired I am till I sit down. But that was a good nap. :) Then we planned Tuesday's vbs, had a GREAT dinner with the fam, and then settled down to watch a movie. Sadly, the sound was messed up on the dvd player somehow, so instead I uploaded pics to facebook... (hint hint. go look at them. ;) lol)
-Tuesday! Well today was great. We had a really fun day planned, and it was really hot today. Our theme today was the story of the good Samaritan. haha I feel I must mention that my Micheal-dad starred as the Samaritan's donkey in our drama today, and..yah.. he was excellent. In fact, he even ate grass. lol It was a hit! haha
After VBS we came back to the house and just hung out. We had an amazing home-cooked lunch- Tamara made chile and cornbread- yum! :) I uploaded some more pictures to fb, and we moved all of our stuff to the downstairs room of the Hudson house so that we can all finally live together (the four girls on our team that is)!! yay! It was nice to just relax with nothing to do for a while. It seems that we have a lot of down time, but we use most of it to plan and prepare, so really we don't. We planned our last day of VBS tomorrow (wednesday, last day!!!) went to the market to get stuff for dinner, came back and prepared, ate a wonderful meal, of course, and then just spent time preparing for tomorrow. I can't wait to post pictures for this blog, but I'll have to do it tomorrow. It's late! haha I'm very excited about my latest project for this last day's game. :) Alright well it's waayyyy past my bedtime, so I'll have to do pictures for all of this tomorrow. Till then, la revedere! Noapte buna, toti! Isus te iubeste. : ) (see you soon! Goodnight all! Jesus loves you. :) )
I will also list prayer requests later. Keep all the previously posted ones in your hearts please!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Bulgaria and Back! This is a very long post...
Oh my goodness it's been over a week since I blogged. Unfortunately, I'll be attempting to skim over details in order to get it all in in a timely manner... but we all know I'm not very good at that. :)
Buna!
So Thursday we drove for 2.5 hours (through some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen in my life. wow. God's creation is unbelievable- pictures to follow.) to Razgrad, Bulgaria. There is a Nazarene Church there. They had grown too big for their current building, and have been working on a new church. They built it themselves, from the ground up. They have been carefully and lovingly building this new church for 12 YEARS. This weekend was the opening ceremony- what a blessing to be a part of this amazing time!!!!
They said we were going to help them get ready for the GIANT celebration on Sunday, and for a little bit we did. We cleaned two rooms, moved some furniture, mopped some floors. But when you've been working on something for 12 years, you're really not likely to just hand over the big tasks that are left to the next strangers who walk through the door with smiles on their faces- haha. So we really had a lot of relaxing time... I felt bad, but at the same time it was awesome, because we were definitely struggling with jet lag. Bad. haha we took naps every day, and one night three of us were awake until 5 a.m.! yuck! And at one point, one of the girls slept like, 16 hours straight. haha we're a mess. :) We helped as much as we could, but we spent a lot of our time just building relationships with the people there, and playing games with the kids.
--On Friday (I think they wanted to get us out of the way- haha ;D ) Pastor Nikolay took our team, along with Joshua (a student from Trevecca Nazarene who is spending 7 weeks here) out to this long road, with beautiful trees growing on both sides, for a long way. He pulled over on the side of the road, and do you know what? They were cherry trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We climbed those trees and picked big, almost black, juicy cherries for the next two hours!!!!! It was marvelous! We had sooo much fun! :D How amazing. At one point, I got up in this tree, and found some branches in the shape of a recliner (nice), leaned back with a perfect view of the countryside in front of me (there seem to be wildflowers everywhere!!!!), felt the breeze in my hair and ate cherries straight off the tree. I don't know of a better way to truly appreciate and enjoy God's creation. It will forever be one of the happiest, most peaceful memories of my life. I fell in love with Bulgaria in that tree. :)
However, the day gets better. After cherry picking (with a GIANT bucket of cherries to take back!) we drove to the house of a lovely older couple. I don't know who they are, or their names, but never have I been in a more lovely garden. It was full of fruits and plants, and gorgeous flowers! It looked like a small section of Eden to me. :) Anyway, the best part is that they let us pick ripe strawberries straight off the vine! I literally picked a sun-warmed strawberry, washed it off and ate it. Hands-down, the best strawberry I have ever had in my life. And we could have as many as we wanted! Not to mention the air was filled with strawberry smell, mixed with the perfume of flowers. A small haven- I could live in a place like that. It was wonderful! We didn't stay long, but it was awesome.
One of the funniest memories of the trip so far was when, in the car, Debi was in the back holding a bouquet of flowers (that the older couple sent with us, of course haha) and when we turned and asked her to move the flowers so we could take a picture, she pops out from behind them and the entire car burst into laughter. She had giant tiger lilies, and she had been smelling them... hahaha... and there was bright orange pollen ALL OVER her face. I took a picture, but it was already after she had wiped some of it off. Still good though. :) LOL it still makes me laugh so hard- it's an ongoing joke with our team. haha so good!
When we got back, Nikolay's son Simon took us on a two hour tour of the city of Razgrad. It was lovely, and we saw lots of awesome places. We ended the tour on a large hill overlooking the entire city, as well as the countryside surrounding it, and it was fantastic! There are tons of beautiful wildflowers in Bulgaria just growing everywhere. Rachel and I enjoyed creating a bouquet on our walk, and one Romanian woman who was just on the street when we passed even picked flowers out of her own garden to add to our collection!
I feel the need here to mention my special friend Lubomir (Lupcho was his nickname!). Joshua was living with him, and Lupcho was the only person that the church people trusted to sand the inside of their building. So, by himself, he sanded the ENTIRE building. BY. HIMSELF. This is a BIG building. And he worked day in and day out, sometimes not sleeping for days. It took him two months! When I commented on how impressed I was, and how wonderful it was that he had done that, do you know what his answer was? He simply stated:
"I love my church. :)" wow. He was awesome, and he made our weekend a lot more fun.
--On Saturday, a group of students and professors from Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee arrived- they are taking some classes in Bulgaria, Romania, and Kosova (its only a few days), and they were also lucky enough to come to Razgrad for this celebration! So we went sight-seeing with their group, and visited some fantastic ruins, as well as the Bulgarian History Museum. It was lots of fun, but no pictures allowed in the museum. Got lots at the ruins, though. When we got back from that, we just played out in the yard with all the kids- it was funny because we had soccer, frisbee, catch, football and tag all going on at the same time, in the same yard. I got nailed in the face with a frisbee by a little Bulgarian girl whose only English words were "I'm sorry" and "Thank you" haha she was sooo precious- I think she was between 6 and 8 years. I couldn't make her understand that it was ok, so I leaned down to her and pointed to my forehead, and made kissing noises with my lips. She kissed my forehead, and I smiled and threw my hands in the air like life was wonderful, which made her laugh. Honestly, it hurt like the dickens for five days afterwards, but her smile was worth a little bluff. :)
I learned a few Bulgarian phrases, but they are even more difficult than Romanian, and I certainly will not attempt to spell them. It's a Slavic language, not a Romance language, so its VERY different from Romanian. lol. I made one funny mistake- I was trying to learn to say the equivalent of "I'm happy to meet you" and in my efforts, managed to say "I'm taking drugs". haha! That was a good laugh for my new friend Annie (the pastor's daughter) woops!
p.s. I have never met a people who can eat as many times in a day as the Bulgarian people! We had breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and sometimes second dinner! And it was like they did not know the words no thank you! It is just not acceptable to not eat when offered food- its like they do not believe you are not hungry. We ate until we were about to pop, every day! Most of our meals were bread, cheese or tomato paste, and meat. Every meal, every day. lol but I also think that this was because everything else was being used in preparation for Sunday, so our meals were sort of an afterthought. The hospitality here was amazing. These people were sooo kind and considerate, making sure we always had what we needed, keeping us entertained, understanding when we slept at odd times, and being open and friendly, treating us like family,even at this busy and stressful time. It was wonderful.
So Sunday. wow. hours and hours of preparation all come to this! Our job was to watch the kids for an hour during the service... haha not so much. It's very difficult to exercise any amount of control over small children when they don't speak your language, and you don't speak theirs. And on top of that, apparently a nursery is not a familiar concept in Bulgaria. The parents would NOT leave their children with us! Most of them just... stayed. So we had 20 kids, and maybe 8-10 parents watching them, which completely eliminated our job. That was slightly frustrating. However, it did mean that we could just go and watch the celebration service instead, which was nice. There were many many speakers, pastors from other churches in the area who brought gifts for the opening, and lots of choirs, bands, and singing groups. Also, our Romanian friends drove the 2.5 hours to come and celebrate with our Bulgarian brothers and sisters! So great to see them! World missions director Louie Bustle (sp?) was in attendance, and gave a speech too. AND a Bulgarian folk performance group performed, played and danced for us! All dressed up in historical outfits- it was cool. After that, there was a GIANT lunch. I don't know when I've ever seen so much food in one place. There were lots of unique foods that I tried, I won't even try to type up the names. I will say that my absolute favorite was this wonderful mixture called Russian Salad. It had peas, carrots, and lots of other things in it, mixed up in a creamy yellow sauce, and you spread it on bread and eat it. YUM.
This is only one table out of like, 7...
oh, cool bit of trivia. The Bulgarian word for eat? Yum. seriously. haha awesome!
After a very very long day, my team and I took a nap (ha naznaps in other countries, too!) and then helped with clean up, then had dinner, then had second dinner. lol. What an amazing day- I can't imagine the happiness after such a long wait for this day. haha we were taking pictures that night and Pastor Nikolay said "I'm all out of smiles! I can't smile even once more! My cheeks hurt!" but we protested, claiming what an awesome day it had been for him and his family and church, and in the next second he was laughing and smiling and we got a great picture. He joked, saying "Fine! But that was the LAST one!!!!" of course, it wasn't true.
Monday we left for Romania again! When we got back, Micheal and his girls took us to what's called the Village Museum. They took houses from different eras in Romanian history, in different areas of the country, and brought them all to one spot. So you walk through a neighborhood of various housing styles, to see how people lived. Very fun, very interesting. And there was honeysuckle! yum!
--Tuesday was a day of rest, but we went on a very long walk through Bucharest, admiring the architecture and exploring the city (we took Micheal's daughters Emily and Julia with us as tour guides) and it was SO FUN!!! We had a fantastic time! First, we took a taxi- now that was fun. I told you already about the driving here... yikes! There were 6 of us so we had to split up into two taxis, but we made it safely to our destination (Praise Him!!) and began our walk. We found this amazing little boutique in a hole in the wall, and wow they had some AMAZING jewelry!!! I shopped to my heart's content, buying souvenirs! Earrings and a couple necklaces. It was great! And they were not expensive, either. I truly enjoyed myself, and I am still SO excited about the things I bought. The earrings here are way better than anything at home, in my opinion. :D We also stopped at a booth out on the street, where I bought another souvenir, that was fun too. My favorite thing though about this day, was that after all that walking, we sat in the shade at a European Cafe, relaxing and watching life happen around us. Now THAT is a way to spend the afternoon. We had cold cokes, were sitting in comfy outdoor furniture under giant umbrellas, in the middle of several beautiful buildings, in Europe. WE. ARE. IN. ROMANIA. Whaaat? haha it just hits me every once in a while. This is awesome. :D
--Wednesday. Chill at Micheal's. Debi and I had our friend Chris (Pastor Cristi and Monica's son) show us how to ride the bus from Nana's to Micheal's so Micheal won't have to drive over and pick us up all the time. Long walk, 25 minute bus ride, short walk, and we're there. :) I felt accomplished! haha. We planned our first VBS session today, because we begin our first VBS on Friday! We're doing Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with the kids here. It's a struggle to put all our ideas into concrete plans, especially since this is our first go-round. But we can do it!
Prayer meeting at the church tonight- it was a good message about the different names of God and what they mean, and how they apply to our lives today. Then an excellent time of prayer and sharing with the women. I love Wednesday nights!
Another amazing home-cooked Romanian meal tonight from Monica! Corba, and stuffed cabbage leaves (full of ground beef, dill pickle relish, onions, and lots of good stuff) with sour cream and cornmeal! mmm... so delicious. oh man. Really good. :)
--Thursday. Today was awesome! We went to the water park with some of the youth group kids!!!!! :D (No pictures, though, because I didn't want to get my camera wet...) super fun! We spent the whole day there! There were 27 slides, and although the rides are a bit "rougher" than the ones at home (when you go down a slide, you leave with scratches on your back), it was very fun. ha there was one slide that was REALLY fast, and several of us lost our tubes in the middle of it, which really hurts. Me included. I got flipped over inside the tube, and rode tubeless on my stomach for a bit. Not very fun. lol but I came out ok! haha my tube however, got stuck in the slide, and the poor person behind me had to push it out on their way down. woops!
Sadly, I was the only member of my team who left the park uninjured today. I had a few scratches, but everyone else actually, legitimately got hurt. Rachel also flipped and lost her tube in that slide, but she landed on her head. ouch! It took her out of business for several hours. Bailey banged her foot on one, and it's swollen and bruised, but ok. Debi hit the back of her head and still has a headache. Please pray for our physical health, as tomorrow we will be dealing with lots of little kids and we need our energy!
On another note... lots of topless bathers today. That was a bit of a shock. I expected it for later when we go to Varna (the Black Sea, we'll be visiting the beach!), but not at this family water park. It's a very normal thing here, though. haha lots of thongs, topless females, and men in speedo's. It's certainly something to get used to. At first I was very surprised, but when none of the youth kids reacted, I quickly recovered and moved on. However I couldn't quite get used to it, and was surprised again and again. haha oh dear...
All in all, in spite of the injuries, we had an AMAZING day. We really bonded with the youth group kids, and we had a blast.
Tonight we were all invited to dinner with Bailey's host family, Carmen and Cornell. Wow, this was an amazing meal! Meatballs with this great mixture of I don't even know what, and bread and salami and cheese, and cookies for dessert! My favorite cookies are these ones that are just like Milano's, from home, but they're even better because they are bigger, with more chocolate! :) My favorite meat here is salami- its basically just uncooked pepperoni's, which I sometimes buy in packs at wal-mart at home just to eat (Tiffany Hursh, thanks to you! lol) so I'm very happy that it is a staple in the menu here. OH! And Carmen has these beautiful cacti plants, whose flowers (some may know this, most probably don't) only bloom once a year, and for only 24 hours. Now, if you can believe this, when we sat down to dinner in her garden the blooms were closed, and she pointed them out to us, saying "I think tomorrow they are going to bloom!" About 15 minutes into dinner, I looked up and said "you know, I'm pretty sure those flowers are blooming?" Guys, by the end of dinner, the flowers had fully bloomed. It was incredible! Who knew such a beautiful thing could unfold so quickly? Literally 45 minutes from closed buds to gorgeous flowers. It was awesome to see something so special! And Cornell picked them off and gave us each one, saying we should enjoy them for the 24 hours they will be alive. It made my day. :) So now I'm back at Nana's, and its very late. I have to be up bright and early tomorrow because it's our first day of VBS and we still have lots to do! Please pray for us as we begin our ministry. Also, Tamara (Micheal's wife) comes home to join us on Saturday- we have been looking forward to her return, and she will be the key that really gets the ball going on our ministry. yay! Sorry for how long this blog has been- I'll try to do it more often so that they are shorter! :)
Here are my prayer requests:
-Irena and her baby and family
-Carmen's daughter and Parents- they are not christians and this is very difficult for Carmen and family
-The progress of the Romanian church- they are expanding their building and its taking longer than expected
-My new very good friend Betti- she's one of the youth group. Her parents are not Christians, and times are tough in her home. Also, her cousin who was only 22 died last week because of a simple medical mistake. Such a tragedy, and her family needs prayer and support. Ask God to be with her especially. She's an incredible young woman.
-Monica's job is very tough lately, she needs wisdom and guidance, and patience
-Several unspokens
-Our children's ministry is beginning this weekend
-Any previously listed requests in other posts.
Well, I think that is everything. Now I am going to post a few pictures and collapse into bed. It is miserably hot here, and there is no air conditioning- it's very hard to fall asleep. But I love this place. :) Noapte buna! (Finally... ;D haha)
Buna!
So Thursday we drove for 2.5 hours (through some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen in my life. wow. God's creation is unbelievable- pictures to follow.) to Razgrad, Bulgaria. There is a Nazarene Church there. They had grown too big for their current building, and have been working on a new church. They built it themselves, from the ground up. They have been carefully and lovingly building this new church for 12 YEARS. This weekend was the opening ceremony- what a blessing to be a part of this amazing time!!!!
--On Friday (I think they wanted to get us out of the way- haha ;D ) Pastor Nikolay took our team, along with Joshua (a student from Trevecca Nazarene who is spending 7 weeks here) out to this long road, with beautiful trees growing on both sides, for a long way. He pulled over on the side of the road, and do you know what? They were cherry trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We climbed those trees and picked big, almost black, juicy cherries for the next two hours!!!!! It was marvelous! We had sooo much fun! :D How amazing. At one point, I got up in this tree, and found some branches in the shape of a recliner (nice), leaned back with a perfect view of the countryside in front of me (there seem to be wildflowers everywhere!!!!), felt the breeze in my hair and ate cherries straight off the tree. I don't know of a better way to truly appreciate and enjoy God's creation. It will forever be one of the happiest, most peaceful memories of my life. I fell in love with Bulgaria in that tree. :)
One of the funniest memories of the trip so far was when, in the car, Debi was in the back holding a bouquet of flowers (that the older couple sent with us, of course haha) and when we turned and asked her to move the flowers so we could take a picture, she pops out from behind them and the entire car burst into laughter. She had giant tiger lilies, and she had been smelling them... hahaha... and there was bright orange pollen ALL OVER her face. I took a picture, but it was already after she had wiped some of it off. Still good though. :) LOL it still makes me laugh so hard- it's an ongoing joke with our team. haha so good!
When we got back, Nikolay's son Simon took us on a two hour tour of the city of Razgrad. It was lovely, and we saw lots of awesome places. We ended the tour on a large hill overlooking the entire city, as well as the countryside surrounding it, and it was fantastic! There are tons of beautiful wildflowers in Bulgaria just growing everywhere. Rachel and I enjoyed creating a bouquet on our walk, and one Romanian woman who was just on the street when we passed even picked flowers out of her own garden to add to our collection!
I feel the need here to mention my special friend Lubomir (Lupcho was his nickname!). Joshua was living with him, and Lupcho was the only person that the church people trusted to sand the inside of their building. So, by himself, he sanded the ENTIRE building. BY. HIMSELF. This is a BIG building. And he worked day in and day out, sometimes not sleeping for days. It took him two months! When I commented on how impressed I was, and how wonderful it was that he had done that, do you know what his answer was? He simply stated:
"I love my church. :)" wow. He was awesome, and he made our weekend a lot more fun.
--On Saturday, a group of students and professors from Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee arrived- they are taking some classes in Bulgaria, Romania, and Kosova (its only a few days), and they were also lucky enough to come to Razgrad for this celebration! So we went sight-seeing with their group, and visited some fantastic ruins, as well as the Bulgarian History Museum. It was lots of fun, but no pictures allowed in the museum. Got lots at the ruins, though. When we got back from that, we just played out in the yard with all the kids- it was funny because we had soccer, frisbee, catch, football and tag all going on at the same time, in the same yard. I got nailed in the face with a frisbee by a little Bulgarian girl whose only English words were "I'm sorry" and "Thank you" haha she was sooo precious- I think she was between 6 and 8 years. I couldn't make her understand that it was ok, so I leaned down to her and pointed to my forehead, and made kissing noises with my lips. She kissed my forehead, and I smiled and threw my hands in the air like life was wonderful, which made her laugh. Honestly, it hurt like the dickens for five days afterwards, but her smile was worth a little bluff. :)
I learned a few Bulgarian phrases, but they are even more difficult than Romanian, and I certainly will not attempt to spell them. It's a Slavic language, not a Romance language, so its VERY different from Romanian. lol. I made one funny mistake- I was trying to learn to say the equivalent of "I'm happy to meet you" and in my efforts, managed to say "I'm taking drugs". haha! That was a good laugh for my new friend Annie (the pastor's daughter) woops!
p.s. I have never met a people who can eat as many times in a day as the Bulgarian people! We had breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and sometimes second dinner! And it was like they did not know the words no thank you! It is just not acceptable to not eat when offered food- its like they do not believe you are not hungry. We ate until we were about to pop, every day! Most of our meals were bread, cheese or tomato paste, and meat. Every meal, every day. lol but I also think that this was because everything else was being used in preparation for Sunday, so our meals were sort of an afterthought. The hospitality here was amazing. These people were sooo kind and considerate, making sure we always had what we needed, keeping us entertained, understanding when we slept at odd times, and being open and friendly, treating us like family,even at this busy and stressful time. It was wonderful.
So Sunday. wow. hours and hours of preparation all come to this! Our job was to watch the kids for an hour during the service... haha not so much. It's very difficult to exercise any amount of control over small children when they don't speak your language, and you don't speak theirs. And on top of that, apparently a nursery is not a familiar concept in Bulgaria. The parents would NOT leave their children with us! Most of them just... stayed. So we had 20 kids, and maybe 8-10 parents watching them, which completely eliminated our job. That was slightly frustrating. However, it did mean that we could just go and watch the celebration service instead, which was nice. There were many many speakers, pastors from other churches in the area who brought gifts for the opening, and lots of choirs, bands, and singing groups. Also, our Romanian friends drove the 2.5 hours to come and celebrate with our Bulgarian brothers and sisters! So great to see them! World missions director Louie Bustle (sp?) was in attendance, and gave a speech too. AND a Bulgarian folk performance group performed, played and danced for us! All dressed up in historical outfits- it was cool. After that, there was a GIANT lunch. I don't know when I've ever seen so much food in one place. There were lots of unique foods that I tried, I won't even try to type up the names. I will say that my absolute favorite was this wonderful mixture called Russian Salad. It had peas, carrots, and lots of other things in it, mixed up in a creamy yellow sauce, and you spread it on bread and eat it. YUM.
oh, cool bit of trivia. The Bulgarian word for eat? Yum. seriously. haha awesome!
After a very very long day, my team and I took a nap (ha naznaps in other countries, too!) and then helped with clean up, then had dinner, then had second dinner. lol. What an amazing day- I can't imagine the happiness after such a long wait for this day. haha we were taking pictures that night and Pastor Nikolay said "I'm all out of smiles! I can't smile even once more! My cheeks hurt!" but we protested, claiming what an awesome day it had been for him and his family and church, and in the next second he was laughing and smiling and we got a great picture. He joked, saying "Fine! But that was the LAST one!!!!" of course, it wasn't true.
Monday we left for Romania again! When we got back, Micheal and his girls took us to what's called the Village Museum. They took houses from different eras in Romanian history, in different areas of the country, and brought them all to one spot. So you walk through a neighborhood of various housing styles, to see how people lived. Very fun, very interesting. And there was honeysuckle! yum!
--Wednesday. Chill at Micheal's. Debi and I had our friend Chris (Pastor Cristi and Monica's son) show us how to ride the bus from Nana's to Micheal's so Micheal won't have to drive over and pick us up all the time. Long walk, 25 minute bus ride, short walk, and we're there. :) I felt accomplished! haha. We planned our first VBS session today, because we begin our first VBS on Friday! We're doing Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with the kids here. It's a struggle to put all our ideas into concrete plans, especially since this is our first go-round. But we can do it!
Prayer meeting at the church tonight- it was a good message about the different names of God and what they mean, and how they apply to our lives today. Then an excellent time of prayer and sharing with the women. I love Wednesday nights!
Another amazing home-cooked Romanian meal tonight from Monica! Corba, and stuffed cabbage leaves (full of ground beef, dill pickle relish, onions, and lots of good stuff) with sour cream and cornmeal! mmm... so delicious. oh man. Really good. :)
--Thursday. Today was awesome! We went to the water park with some of the youth group kids!!!!! :D (No pictures, though, because I didn't want to get my camera wet...) super fun! We spent the whole day there! There were 27 slides, and although the rides are a bit "rougher" than the ones at home (when you go down a slide, you leave with scratches on your back), it was very fun. ha there was one slide that was REALLY fast, and several of us lost our tubes in the middle of it, which really hurts. Me included. I got flipped over inside the tube, and rode tubeless on my stomach for a bit. Not very fun. lol but I came out ok! haha my tube however, got stuck in the slide, and the poor person behind me had to push it out on their way down. woops!
Sadly, I was the only member of my team who left the park uninjured today. I had a few scratches, but everyone else actually, legitimately got hurt. Rachel also flipped and lost her tube in that slide, but she landed on her head. ouch! It took her out of business for several hours. Bailey banged her foot on one, and it's swollen and bruised, but ok. Debi hit the back of her head and still has a headache. Please pray for our physical health, as tomorrow we will be dealing with lots of little kids and we need our energy!
On another note... lots of topless bathers today. That was a bit of a shock. I expected it for later when we go to Varna (the Black Sea, we'll be visiting the beach!), but not at this family water park. It's a very normal thing here, though. haha lots of thongs, topless females, and men in speedo's. It's certainly something to get used to. At first I was very surprised, but when none of the youth kids reacted, I quickly recovered and moved on. However I couldn't quite get used to it, and was surprised again and again. haha oh dear...
All in all, in spite of the injuries, we had an AMAZING day. We really bonded with the youth group kids, and we had a blast.
Tonight we were all invited to dinner with Bailey's host family, Carmen and Cornell. Wow, this was an amazing meal! Meatballs with this great mixture of I don't even know what, and bread and salami and cheese, and cookies for dessert! My favorite cookies are these ones that are just like Milano's, from home, but they're even better because they are bigger, with more chocolate! :) My favorite meat here is salami- its basically just uncooked pepperoni's, which I sometimes buy in packs at wal-mart at home just to eat (Tiffany Hursh, thanks to you! lol) so I'm very happy that it is a staple in the menu here. OH! And Carmen has these beautiful cacti plants, whose flowers (some may know this, most probably don't) only bloom once a year, and for only 24 hours. Now, if you can believe this, when we sat down to dinner in her garden the blooms were closed, and she pointed them out to us, saying "I think tomorrow they are going to bloom!" About 15 minutes into dinner, I looked up and said "you know, I'm pretty sure those flowers are blooming?" Guys, by the end of dinner, the flowers had fully bloomed. It was incredible! Who knew such a beautiful thing could unfold so quickly? Literally 45 minutes from closed buds to gorgeous flowers. It was awesome to see something so special! And Cornell picked them off and gave us each one, saying we should enjoy them for the 24 hours they will be alive. It made my day. :) So now I'm back at Nana's, and its very late. I have to be up bright and early tomorrow because it's our first day of VBS and we still have lots to do! Please pray for us as we begin our ministry. Also, Tamara (Micheal's wife) comes home to join us on Saturday- we have been looking forward to her return, and she will be the key that really gets the ball going on our ministry. yay! Sorry for how long this blog has been- I'll try to do it more often so that they are shorter! :)
Here are my prayer requests:
-Irena and her baby and family
-Carmen's daughter and Parents- they are not christians and this is very difficult for Carmen and family
-The progress of the Romanian church- they are expanding their building and its taking longer than expected
-My new very good friend Betti- she's one of the youth group. Her parents are not Christians, and times are tough in her home. Also, her cousin who was only 22 died last week because of a simple medical mistake. Such a tragedy, and her family needs prayer and support. Ask God to be with her especially. She's an incredible young woman.
-Monica's job is very tough lately, she needs wisdom and guidance, and patience
-Several unspokens
-Our children's ministry is beginning this weekend
-Any previously listed requests in other posts.
Well, I think that is everything. Now I am going to post a few pictures and collapse into bed. It is miserably hot here, and there is no air conditioning- it's very hard to fall asleep. But I love this place. :) Noapte buna! (Finally... ;D haha)
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The Journey Begins!!!!
After 4 airports, 3 planes, and a total of 13.5 hours in flight,
I AM IN ROMANIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
So much to tell, so little time. but I write just like I talk. Sorry! haha...:
Buna, cefati? (boo-nuh, che-fahts? Hello, how are you?)
We left El Paso and flew to Chicago, where we had a two hour layover. However our flight out of El Paso was postponed for an hour, so we got to Chicago with one hour to recheck in, go through security again, and get on our next plane. We had been told that since we were traveling internationally, we were allowed to check two bags for free. We did not have have to pay at American Airlines and were told that our bags were cleared all the way to Bucharest, but in Chicago when we switched to British Airlines, the story changed...
The man at the counter kindly told me that it would be $60 extra dollars for my second bag. *gasp* Three out of the four of us had two bags, and it was to be $60 a piece! That is $180 of our ministry money! As I (also kindly) tried to straighten this obvious mistake out with the man (who was new, and had no knowledge and no authority, lol just our luck!), my team is constantly checking their watches and we have less and less time to get through security and onto our flight. So we end up paying it, but believe me I will be calling back and getting our refunds. :) In a very kind and mild-mannered way. lol. So we run through the airport at BARELY catch our flight. But catch it we did, and then we crossed the Atlantic and landed in London!!!!
As you can imagine, I was ridiculously excited when ALL of our flight attendants had such perfectly beautiful British accents!!!! lol it really made my day. I could have listened to them talk for hours!
The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we made our next connection no problem, then arrived in Bucharest at 4:15 p.m. their time, on Tuesday- for those of you at home (AR and OK) that would be 8:15 a.m. Tuesday.
Exhausted and hungry, we met Michael Hudson (our Missionary) and loaded up the car to drive to his home. His wife Tamara, is out of town right now but will be joining us on June 12th. They have three lovely girls, Julia (14), Emily (12), and Elena (8).
May I just interject here, that today was the most I have ever feared for my life. Romanian drivers are insane. I was terrified, and honestly a little nauseous by the time we got home. It's like there are no rules, and the "4 second rule" is actually the "4 centimeter rule"! People drive in all the lanes, they don't seem to know what blinkers are, it's normal to cut people off dangerously close, pull U-turns whenever you want, and drive on the tram tracks. Which I found out today is illegal, but never gets punished. lol I thought I was going to die. haha! It was fun, but it's one thing I hope I'll just get used to.
And my first Romanian meal was... (drum roll, please!!)....: Pizza!! haha he ordered pizza for us. Just like home, and very "delicios!" (delicious! :D) haha that's an easy word- the rest are not the same. We had a short meeting, which I fell asleep during (haha) and then we were dropped off at our host family's houses. Since Tamara is not home, we are staying with other families from the church. Rachel stayed with Don and Anishoara (Anny-shwara), Bailey stayed with Carmen and Cornell, and Debi and I stayed with the Pastor-and-wife's Mother (Nana :) lol) in her apartment. So Nana is in her bedroom, and Debi and I have the couches in the living room. Cristi and Monica (pastor and wife) live in the apartment across the street. I fell asleep before I hit my pillow, and slept all night.
Wednesday, we got up and met at the church at ten. Our hosts are unbelievable hospitable, with all kinds of food laid out for us for breakfast. None of it Romanian, however! We then drove to the Hudson's house and had a meeting about our schedule for the summer, went over our VBS materials, and just spend time relaxing and did laundry while we ate lunch. After the meeting, the four of us went on an outing with Julia and Elena. We learned how to ride the tram, went to the mall, and had McDonald's for a light pre-dinner (because we don't eat dinner till around 8 ish. tonight it was actually 9:30) At 6 ish, we went to a prayer meeting. We had a short time with both the men and women, and then we split. The women shared prayer requests and then prayed for each other in a circle, and it was wonderful. It was mostly in English because surprisingly, several of the people there speak a lot of English quite well! We had a powerful prayer time and then hung out afterwards, just visiting.
Next we split up and went back to our host families. Debi and I went to Monica and Cristi's house, and had our first legitimately Romanian meal! It was fantastic! I'll upload a few pictures soon. We had corba (pronounced Chorba), a PINK vegetable soup that was absolutely delicious! And then Musaca (moo-sa-ka), which is a layer of baked potatoes, a layer of ground beef plus lots of other yummy things, and then another layer of baked potatoes! YUM!! we finished up with desert, ice cream! It was the best ice cream ever, and we also had SORBET!!! I LOVE sorbet. MMM it was wonderful. We did a lot of talking with Cristi and Monica, and they are phenomenal people, with phenomenal stories. Amazing. I'll try to share some of that later.
For those of you who made it this far, I appreciate your ability to read my long-windedness. :) I have some prayer requests for you please:
Pray for Irena. She is pregnant but has very little amniotic fluid, and the circumstances are building for a miscarriage. Also, the doctors here do not believe that an unborn fetus is a child yet, so they are all pressuring her for an abortion. It is a very dangerous situation for her but she will not be the one to end the baby's life. Praise Him for His faithfulness in even the toughest times. The baby's heart is still beating, and I believe in miracles. We know God works for the good, even in the worst of situations. Keep her and the baby, and her family in your prayers.
Carmen's oldest daughter does not know Jesus, and neither do her parent's.
Pray for the church here, and the pastor and his family.
Pray for our ministry in these months, that we will be God's vessels, and as we work, people will not see us, but that they will see God through us. That we will be examples of His perfect love for His people.
Amin! (Amen!)
Tomorrow we head to Bulgaria for the weekend, I'll be back in Bucharest (and back to the internet) on Monday afternoon. Have a wonderful weekend- Pace! (pah-chey, peace).
Sunt fourte bine, dar obo sita! (I am very well but I am tired)
Multumesc, se noapte buna! (Thank you, and goodnight!)
by the way, none of these words sound like they are spelled. :)
Love you all. Pray for us as we begin this amazing summer.
Kristen :)
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