My Prayer Update

Friends,

I have been in Romania now for more than three months. I can't believe it.

I finished language a couple of weeks ago and have since begun working on some mobilizing of students and preparing for one group that is on the way here in May for three weeks. I got 100 on my language evaluation, and I'm thankful for the gift of the language. Now if I just had more opportunities to use it, that would be good for me to practice.

I went to Galati (pronounced Galats) the weekend I finished language. Galati is a city in Eastern Romania close to the border with Moldova and Ukraine. I was very encouraged by what I saw my colleagues doing there and am excited to be able to hopefully work with them some during my time here.

Thank you for your consistent prayers for me and I ask that you continue lifting me up. I have seen the Lord work in my life in many ways over the last three months and I know it is because of your prayers for me.

I will be meeting this week with my new supervisor and talking about some options for me to be involved in ministry here in Bucharest. We are having a lot of changes in the whole organization as well as a change of personnell here in Bucharest. A lot of coming and going of people is happening within the next few months and I'm sure that this will pose a change in the dynamics here in Bucharest, which may not be a bad thing.

I apologize for not keeping you all updated as I should. Hopefully some super exciting things will start happening soon and I will be able to keep you more up to date.

For now, please join me in praying for all of the changes going on in the IMB as well as here in Romania. Also please pray that the Lord would be clear with me in showing me His purpose and plan for me here in Romania and how He intends to use me in impacting lostness here. Pleas pray for the students that He is calling to join us here in ministry. Pray that they would hear the call, recognize it, listen to it and obey it.

Blessings,

Angela
http://2yearsinromania.blogspot.com

The last couple of weeks...

God has certainly blessed me already in 2009. I have never seen His hand move in my life in such a short amount of time than just the time between Christmas and now.

I made it through Christmas, like I said, without any major crises. He was truly good to me. And then He blessed me with a fun relaxing time with friends, which I posted about a couple of weeks ago.

Soon after that, He handed me some friends here in Bucharest.

I finished language last week. I scored 100 on my evaluation, which is crazy. I had never tried to learn a language before now, since Spanish comes as naturally as English, and I learned both of those at the same time. Romanian has come easier to me than I expected, and the great advantage of having Spanish is that it helps immensly with my pronunciation as well as understanding concepts in the language that don't make sense to those who speak only English. For example, I understand the concept of masculine and feminine (though it threw me off when they threw the neutral in there), and I understand the conditional form and how it is to be used, as well as the subjunctive. Some lessons, my teachers would tell me that Americans have a hard time with this, and it usually doesn't come until the next book (which I wasn't going to get to), but they would teach it to me anyway. More often than not, my response was, "we have that form in Spanish, so I know what circumstance I need to use it in." Now I don't have any excuse not to use my language. I'm thankful for this gift.

On Friday, I heded East to Galați (pronounced Galats), on the border with Moldova and Ukraine to see what's going on out there as far as ministry goes. I came back so encouraged. The team out there has a very specific plan that has cost a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get off the ground, but after almost three years is picking up momentum. I was tempted to stay there and not come back to Bucharest because it got me so excited for what's going on out there. Major props to the Galați team. I think I can honestly say that after catching their vision, my life and thinking of how to do ministry in Romania, and Europe in general has completely changed. Not that I had any thoughts on it before, but I will say, I have seen the light. Check out their website if you have time here.

Now I must be off to run errands. Have a great rest of the week, dear friends!

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.