A Breath of Fresh Air

The Lord knew what I needed, and provided abundantly this past weekend. One of my friends from training, who is serving in Poland, as well as a team mate of hers came to Romania to visit. She came to visit me, and her team mate came to visit a guy that works with us in a city about four hours away from Bucharest.

On Sunday, the four of us took a train up to a town in the mountains called Sinaia. There is a beautiful castle there, but it was closed for tours, so we didn't get to enjoy that. We did, however, take a lift up the mountain to a point where people can slide down the snow on sleds. There are a few restaurants up there, and a hotel. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel, and our meal was delicious. We took the lift back down the mountain in time to buy our train tickets back to Bucharest. The next train out of town was already filled, so we had to wait for the 8:40 train, which was about half an hour late getting in. So, that afternoon, we enjoyed a few cups of coffee and a relaxing time in a coffee shop in town.
For some reason, I used to think these kinds of trees only existed on postcards...Boy was I wrong. The veiw from the lift going up the mountain.

The four of us...L-R Angela, Kaylin, John Mark and Justin.

Me!! It was quite surreal.

I think God is the best artist ever. This is looking across the valley at the mountains on the other side.

A ray of sunshine in a cold, snowy forest.
The town of Sinaia is below.

It felt so natural being with my peers. Perhaps because this was my first social interaction with people my age and in my state of life in over two months. Kaylin and John Mark know eachother from working together in Poland, and I had been in some meetings with Justin when I first got here. It is hard to find the words to describe my experience...some of us didn't know eachother well, but we are all in the same place right now. We are all trying our best to honor God and obey Him, to live our calling and to depend wholly on Him for what He has in store for us.

It was good to know that I am not the only one facing the struggles we all talked about, and I was so encouraged by the fellowship we shared. We talked about what God is doing in our respective places of ministry, and a little bit how He has brought us to where we are.

I am refreshed by the breath of fresh air that the Lord gave me this weekend.

Christmas...

I will be honest. I have been dreading this day since the day I realized I would be spending Christmas away from my family. For six months, I have come near tears just at the thought of this reality.

But Christmas came and it's almost over, and I made it. It was hard not to wake up in my parents' house and go downstairs and open presents and stockings. But I have been beyond blessed at the realization that my brothers and sisters here are celebrating the same thing we celebrate across the ocean.

Yesterday evening, I went with my supervisor's family to a Christmas Eve service that was a joint effort by our church and another church here in town. There were Christmas carols, a skit, and the Word was preached (though I didn't understand much of what was said...). After the service, we and the choir from our church were invited over to our pastor's house for food and more singing. This was my first opportunity to eat some true Romanian food. They had appetizers...ham, sheep cheese, olives and pickles, and then they served what is called "sarmale." It is meat (in most cases ground beef or pork) mixed with rice and condimented, wrapped in pickled cabbage and steamed. It was delicious. It wasn't quite the Guatemalan tamale I have been craving for a week now, but it was very good.

Today I woke up and had a sweet time with the Lord. I read the Christmas story out of Luke and was reminded again, as I have been over and over again, the reason for this day. I made a pie and went over to my supervisor's house for dinner. We didn't have turkey and dressing...what we had was even better. We had fajitas, enchiladas and chips and salsa. It was delicious. They are such great cooks and hosts....and have fed me several meals since I have been here. They gave me a cute candle holder for my apartment, and we played a game. We had coffee and ate dessert before I came home.

And now it's 10:55pm and I made it. Yes, I have wept some, but I have held it together better than I thought I would. I have been overwhelmed at all the notes I've gotten from people that they are praying for me this week. If this isn't evidence that we serve a living God, I don't know what is...because I don't know how I could have done it without His peace and joy today.

Most importantly, we have the privilege of celebrating the birth of a child that would change the course of history, and as I wrote at the beginning of this post, it has been a blessing to celebrate this same event across the ocean.

Merry Christmas!

My favorite ornament on the Christmas tree at my parents' house in Guatemala is an old round ball, with silk thread wrapped around it and a plastic band with a picture on one side and the chorus of a song on the other side. I don't know how old the ornament is, but I know for sure we have had it for as long as I can remember. The picture on one side is of a child at the manger, perhaps a young shepherd. The other side has the chorus of my favorite Christmas song. It is a very old song, and I don't know that I've ever heard it sung in the States, but we used to sing it at home when I was little, and we also used to sing it in Spanish. You might know it...

Thou didst leave Thy throne, and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem's home there was found no room
For Thy holy nativity.

Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus!
There is room in my heart for Thee.
Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, come!
There is room in my heart for Thee.

When the heavens shall ring and its choirs shall sing,
At Thy coming to victory,
Thou wilt call me home, saying, "Yet there is room,
There is room at my side for thee."

Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus!
There is room in my heart for Thee.
Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, come!
There is room in my heart for Thee.

Merry Christmas, friends.

May your day be filled with the joy that only He can give....

8 Things

My friend Krystal tagged me for this, so here goes....

8 TV shows I watch...
1. The Office
2. Lost
3. The News
4. How It's Made
5. House Hunters
6. Amazing Vacation Homes
7. Ace of Cakes
8. The Tonight Show (sometimes)

8 Things that Happened to Me Today...
1. I woke up to my alarm and proceeded to set it for 30 minutes later
2. I had to walk up to the 8th floor in to my colleague's apartment because the elevator wasn't working
3. I paid my electricity bill
4. I went to language for the last time in 2008
5. I found a bookstore that sells English novels
6. I saw a dancing Christmas tree...it was better than the dancing Santa...
7. I heard people speaking English on the metro 2 times today
8. I went down to the visa office to see what I need for turning in my visa applications tomorrow

8 Things I Look Forward to...
1. My first white Christmas
2. Greece in 2009
3. Ladies' retreat in Poland
4. Being able to play with my niece when she is older
5. Eternity
6. My friend coming to visit from Poland next weekend
7. New experiences
8. Making new memories this Christmas

8 Things I Wish For...
1. To be with my family for Christmas
2. To be fluent in Romanian
3. Some black beans and rice with corn tortillas and avocado (just thinking about it makes my mouth water...)
4. Abundant, affordable travel
5. Laundry to wash, dry, fold, and put itself away
6. My upstairs neighbors not to vacuum at midnight
7. A Guatemalan Christmas Tamale
8. Steady, dependable high-speed internet service

8 People I tag...
1. Elise
2. Erin
3. Jenn
4. Kaylin
5. Gilda
6. Claire
7. Ashley
8. Mary Ann

Christmas Update

Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for your prayers over the past few months already. They mean the world to me, and I have felt them.

Moreover, I have felt the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, as it has become more difficult to not just give up and book a flight home for Christmas. Each day that passes, I am falling even more in love with the Christmas story and what December 25th really signifies. I wonder what would happen if December 25th came and went one year without any Christmas lights, trees, fireworks, presents and loved ones to be around. Would we still remember and more importantly celebrate the birth of our Savior? I pray we would.

Don't worry. This is not how I will be spending my Christmas. I have lights up in my apartment, a Christmas tree, I hear they do fireworks ("artifici" in Romanian) here, I will soon be ordering some gifts online for family, and will be surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ on that day. It is a new experience for me spending this time with new people, in a new place, making new memories. When I begin to even feel a hint of nostalgia, I meditate on the real reason that this time of year is special, and I challenge you to do the same.

As this year comes to an end, I would like to praise the Lord for getting me where I am. I'm thankful for the calling He has placed in my life, and for His faithfulness in fulfilling it. I praise Him for being with me day in and day out, and for the new level of intimacy with Him that He has brought me to already.

I would like to thank you again for supporting me in prayer. Moreover, I would like to thank those of you who have contributed this year to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. 100% of this offering goes towards the support of people like my colleagues and me all over this globe. This offering is our financial support and helps to provide housing, medical insurance, transportation, and education for those with children.

Merry Christmas, dear friends.

Woe is Me...and a shout-out to First Irving

I have been without high-speed internet and confined to dial-up now since Wednesday evening. It's so interesting how we get so spoiled with the advances of technology and then once we know how much better "better" is we feel like we are back in the stone-ages when we are thrown back just a few years in the area of technology.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Quick update: I'm actually starting to recognize people now at church and talk and converse with them. I think my visit to the student Bible Study last Tuesday night helped that a lot, since a lot of the students that were there go to my church.

Friday was a beautiful day. I took a nice walk to the mall and back. It is a good 30 minute walk either way, so I feel like I got in plenty of exercise, as well.

I have been catching/keeping up with my pastor's sermons back in the States. It's such a blessing that they podcast them so that I can keep up. After hearing a sermon in Romanian and barely understanding the gist of it, it's nice to hear God's teaching from a voice and language I recognize. I love my church back in the states with my whole heart. I never thought I'd find a church in the States (being in an American church for one year at a time or less every four years was not the best thing for my perception of American churches...) that I would love so much. That body of believers has been one of the hardest things for me to leave behind during this time. There's nothing like being a part of the Body of Christ and having that fellowship. But I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that they support me in prayer 110% and are very very missions minded, and I could not be more thankful for that.

Yesterday my supervisor's wife was able to attend church for the first time in almost 6 weeks. She has had severe back pain and I remember her saying, "it's so good to be here." That's how I felt every time I walked through the doors at First Baptist Irving, especially after being gone for a few weeks. I can't wait for that feeling again in a couple of years. Oh I can't wait.

Do I have to have a title?

On the night before Thanksgiving, I met with a very nice Romanian couple who work for Campus Crusade for Christ. I had met them the previous Sunday at church, and agreed to meet with them for dinner sometime during the week to discuss possible ways that I could plug in to their ministry as something local that I could be involved with. This experience involved several "firsts" for me.

The first first was that I had to buy a tramvai ticket. I had not yet ridden the tramvai since the second day I was in country, and that was with a colleague and his daughter.

The second first was that I rode the metro to a stop I had never gotten off at before. And since it gets dark here by 5 now, it was dark when I came out. Fortunately, though, I had asked for specific pointers as to which direction the tram needed to be going for me to go the right direction after I got out of the metro.

The third first of that evening was that I got on and off the tramvai at the right place going from and back to the metro. Since I wasn't familiar with the area, and knew that I was going to a mall, I decided to go a little early so that I could backtrack if I got lost, and so that I could look for some cold-weather shoes (aka boots, not snow boots) since I'd been kicking myself for not packing the ones I left in Texas. They wouldn't have fit, anyway, and this was a good excuse to buy new shoes, anyway :). I was praying the whole time that I would be able to fall in love with some that I could afford and that would meet my semi OCD attitude towards having to match my black shoes, belt, and purse, even though I know it's not a big deal anymore. The Lord was more than good to me and I found a black pair and a brown pair that both were very affordable, especially since they were having a great sale. And now my toes and ankles can stay warm during the next months.

I had a very nice dinner with this couple. They practiced their English and I didn't practice my Romanian. But it was ok that way.

On Saturday, I went again to the big Sam's like store and was able to buy a Christmas tree and some decorations. I think I deserve a Christmas tree. Turns out I didn't buy enough lights, so I had to go to the market the next day and buy some more, but that was a good, fun experience. I think I might go back. Here's my Christmas tree...the picture is not very good because I am not super creative with taking pictures, but maybe during the next few weeks I will produce a better picture. This should do for now:

I also strung lights up around my windows since I don't have curtains. I think it gives a nice touch.

Monday was a holiday and they had a Military parade in another part of town. I didn't have class had intended to go to the parade, but decided against it. It was such a foggy and cold day, and I had not just stayed home all day in a very long time. So that's what I did. I stayed home. I finished decorating my tree, watched DVDs and made peanut butter balls.

Yesterday my language teacher canceled class because she has had a cold now for over a week. So I decided to go to a Bible Study for university students that is put on by a different organization, not mine and not Campus Crusade. Several of the workers for this other organization go to my church. I have wanted to visit but just had not gotten around to it. I really enjoyed myself and I think I'll go back. It was a good chance for me to meet some other people and also to fellowship. I hope this is somewhere I can plug in and be able to serve, as well.

That's all for now, folks. I'm not going to go wash my dishes because my hot water is out for 12 hours today...until 8 pm, but I'll find something to do!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!