Undeserving

One question I have often asked myself is why on earth does God love me? I have never been able to put a definitive answer on it, and I don't think I ever will. However, I did experience God's love in the most powerful way I have yet to experience here.

Tabby, one of our translators is doing a VBS in the church she works in. She invited us to come to Campani to be a part of the VBS for a couple of nights. Randy, Ade, and I agreed to go. I was pretty excited to get to see 4 of the kids from camp last week. We got there and piled out of the van. No longer than two minutes after I got out of the van, a young girl came up to me and started asking me questions and telling me how big I am. She kind of stared at me a bit and didn't say anything.

After getting the stuff for rec out Tabby had to go set up so I was left outside with the kids and after getting to know them all I found out this precious girls name. Alisa. Throughout the time we were there she pretty much stuck by my side. And even through the lesson about trust, she spoke up and said that she trusted me. Alisa had no idea who I was. She knew nothing about me. I had done nothing to deserve her trust.

At the end of the night, I asked Tabby about her past. Alisa was orphaned at birth and ultimately ignored until she was five years old. When she was five she was taken in by a family and was finally taught how to speak. And because of this, she is a little bit behind all of the others. She is now 12 and absolutely gorgeous.

When it came time to leave our last night at the VBS, all the kids were upstairs doing crafts when we left, she grabbed my arm and would not let me leave. She squeezed my arm and just before she walked me down she said "Te iubesc". In Romanian that means I love you.

This little girl had no reason to trust or love me. I had never met her before yet she loved me. As I began thinking about this, I thought about how much our God loves us. We spit in his face, we disobey him, we constantly reject the love he offers for earthly things. See this girl loved me even though I didn't know her, but yet, our God who knows every time we will choose to reject him, chooses to love us.

Oh, how undeserving I am.

Camp in Buteni

What an incredible week I have had. I don't really even begin to know where to start this blog. So I guess the best place to start would be with Monday.

Monday was a day of hanging out and playing with the kids and getting to know them a little better. The teams all came up with their cheer and just before dinner each team got to have their moment to shine! The family group times consisted of name tags and bags and silly games to learn more about each other. This was followed by the evening worship time which was basically an overview of the week ahead of us.

Tuesday rolled around and we talked about Noah and faith throughout the entire day. For the second time this summer I have been in a room with boys who speak very little english. Thankfully though, translators were much easier to find. But we had a good time getting to know each other a little bit and talking even though we had no idea what we were saying. Charades is a popular game here. Rec was a blast. Four way soccer is a pretty easy way to wear the kids down a bit.

Hope and the story of Jonah was the focus for the worship and family group sessions on Wednesday. I sat in on rosu (red) for the first time and boy did that group have some rowdy boys. The leader, Mrs. Kristi, asked for some help in controlling them. So for the rest of the week I worked with them trying to keep them under control.

And Thursday was the big day. We talked about Peter and Love. The day was super fun with the hike and the family group times. At the evening worship, 14 children prayed to receive Christ into their lives and begin living a changed life. God never ceases to amaze me. He works through us in so many ways that we do not even see.

And to finish the week off with a bang, we talked about what to do after we have accepted Christ. We talked about investing in other peoples lives just as Jesus invested in our lives. And the then the fun began, water day! We had about 700 water balloons and were able to get through three water relays in before the chaos began. Once the water balloons were all gone, there was some standing water and so we had some slip and slide fun!

So that was the week. It was incredibly busy but TONS of fun. And now it is time to get ready for Rich Fork to come and I am pretty excited to see some familiar faces from home. I will keep you all posted as interesting and fun things happen!

Pictures

OK so as promised, I got the pictures from Flaviu. We only took pictures once we got to the top so its just the view, and if you have a problem seeing me without a shirt... dont look past the first three. It was really hot as we climbed up this mountain. Flaviu got burned similar to my painting story for those who are familiar with it. I, on the other hand, just got a little crispy. Not burned, but crispy.

Also, this will likely be my last blog until next Saturday. We leave tomorrow morning for Budapest to pick up the team and bring them back here to Oradea. I am SUPER excited to finally start camps. And without further ado here are the pictures.

Off to the left of the peak

Straight ahead

Off to the right.

Behind the peak.

Underestimated

Ok so today was a sightseeing day for us. We got started at about 6:30 this morning... and I was up around 5 to catch the end of the All-Start game on my computer (AL comes out on top once again (AL is not a player.. its the league)). Anyway, for those who know me, I am not a morning person. It takes me a while to wake up and be fully alert.

Well, in my absentmindedness, I forgot to take my camera on a sightseeing trip! But thankfully, we are going back there before I leave, so I can show you all some pictures of the beautiful country of Romania.

Randy, Ade, Roxy, Flaviu, and I went East toward Cluj and deep into the Vladeasa Mountains. We took a single lane, rock road about 25 minutes into the heart of these mountains to a waterfall. For me, I have only really seen one other water fall so this was quite an experience for me. Roxy, Flaviu, and I climbed up the side of the waterfall where Randy and Ade met us to continue further up.

As we ascended the mountain, the stream that led into this majestic waterfall disappeared underground. There was a trail that led straight down to where all the water went underground. Flaviu and I made the short hike down to that point. We went about 30 yards down to get to this point, and in those 30 yards, the temperature dropped to about 50 degrees. It was quite neat to be able to see my breath a little bit in the middle of July.

After Flaviu and I had our time down there we continued up the mountain to our picnic spot, but it was only 10:45 so we went on a little hike to an old abandoned mine no more than twenty minutes away. After scrounging around in there for a bit, Flaviu and I headed off to hike up this mountain that had a partial rock face. We had to had to head in the valley between these two enormous, majestic mountains. From where we saw them, the hike looked pretty simple not to steep at all. We were wrong.

We made it about half way up before we started climbing almost vertically to get to the peak of this mountain. There was grass that came up to my shins that was rooted deeply in the rocks that we clung to in order to continue our climb. There were flies EVERYWHERE. And they weren't the little ones like back in America, the were big. But after about an hour and a half up, we finally made it, exhausted but delighted that we only had the trip down to get the food! Flaviu did take pictures on his phone that he will be sending to me, so I will post them in my next blog.

Charades

WOW! What a weekend! I had a great time traveling and getting to know the kids from Girish and Tote. I got to see many, many beautiful sights along the way. On Friday we left the apartment around 7:30am and headed to Girish to pick up the kids. We finally left Girsih around 10 and headed north to Rau de Mori. It took us about 6 hours to get there.

Along the way we stopped at the fort in Deva around noon to eat lunch and just get out of the car. Shortly getting back on the road, we stopped at a bison reserve, and went to see some bison. And before we made it to Rau de Mori, we stopped one more time at some ruins from the ancient Roman empire. It was very interesting, and a bit surreal to be there.

That night, we played five songs at their (not so) midweek service. Then it was off to bed. But, this is where the fun began for me. We were all divided up into small groups to stay with members of the church. I went with Flourin to a holiday home in between to huge mountains. Flourin, myself, and two other boys stayed there. I was the only one who spoke english.

I now know how to play charades! We attempted to play some type of board game involving numbers and 60 points and domino type pieces, but I still have no idea how to get points. We had a GREAT time laughing at each other and trying to understand what was going on.

Saturday, was a day of touring the area and having a semi restful day, along with some practice for Sunday. We went to a monastery and got to go inside and look around. I have never seen anything like it before. Next stop was the dam up in the mountains. I have never seen anything as beautiful as this place, despite the rain (see above). The cabin I stayed in was about 15 minutes away from the dam.

By Sunday, we were all exhausted, not from doing so much, but from traveling so much. we did our program on Sunday morning for Church ate and then left. We arrived back in Oradea late Sunday evening and went straight to bed. It was quite a new and exciting experience for me, especially with the language barrier but fun nonetheless.

Emporium

Wow the last two days have been quite busy, but very fun! Yesterday we spent the day going around running errands and getting things finalized for the first two camps. We made hotel reservations here in Oradea and also got the bus lined up to take us from Oradea to Bhutan, the villagae the first camp is in, and then Dezna, which the team from Rich Fork will be in.

And after a full day of running around, Randy, Ade, Sammy, Becky, Roxy, Flaviu, and I went to see Ice Age 3. It was quite a funny movie. I enjoyed it a ton! It was a GREAT time to be able to relax and watch a movie.

Today was pretty much, planning for next week as far as games and worship time talks. Randy and I are in charge of speaking at the worship services along with doing the planning the rec. We then went to meet with Anka, the girl who will be playing guitar with Roxy this summer, at the Emporium. The Emporium is a pizzeria with about 50 different kinds of pizza, including one with french fries, which is what I had. When we ordered the pizza, they brought it, and they were full medium sized pizzas like you would get from Papa Johns or Dominos. Naturally, I ate my whole pizza.

We also had a handbell rehearsal in Girish, which was a BLAST! And tomorrow morning we leave at 7:30am for Rutor Demor, which is a village about 6 hours towards the northern part of Romania. We will be playing in a church on Friday night, touring on saturday, along with a hike perhaps, and then Sunday we will play in church, have lunch, and then hopefully begin our return back to Oradea. I am VERY excited to get to spend the weekend with all of these children from Girish.

Drivers Ed

We all remember the first time we drove a vehicle for the first time. We all remember those times in drivers ed when the instructor had a brake pedal so they could slam on the brakes if you did something wrong. The intimidation of the old lady or man sitting in the passenger seat was unbearable. If you went a mile an hour over the speed limit, they would tell you to slow down.

I would like to tell you a story of my own from drivers ed, one which scared me so much that I nearly peed my pants. Not because I almost died, but because I didn't want to fail the test on the last day.

I was driving on the highway at about 65 mph and it was about time for me to switch with the student who was riding with me. My instructor, who happened to be a driving Hitler, told me to pull off at a rest stop to change. So I pulled off using my blinker and everything. I pulled into a parking spot, turned off the car, put the emergency brake on, and took my seat belt off. But before I could get out of the car, I got a stare that told me to stay seated. She informed me that I did not turn my blinker on when I turned into my parking spot. Apparently, according to her, I can get a ticket for this. I was scared out of my mind!

Why do I tell you this story? Because I was more nervous than after that moment this evening. We were pulling out of the church in Tote after handbells. Randy stopped and called me up to drive. The van is a stick, which I know how to drive. Nothing was different. I am just 7000 miles away from home. I guess thats why I was so nervous. I sat stiff as a board for a full thirty minutes while I drove part of the way back to Oradea. Laugh all you want, it was probably a pretty funny sight to see. But I drove, I didn't kill anyone, or anything!

Birthday!

Last night I went to my first Romanian birthday party! Becky's grandmother wanted us to come over and celebrate with them. Becky's whole family was there and we ate and had a GREAT time!

For those of you that came here last summer, you may remember Christina. If you dont remember her.. look to the right... ill give you a hint. She has grown up SO much and is just as cute as can be. Randy and I brought a kite to fly with the kids there. For all of them, they had never flown a kite before and the wind was just perfect! They had a blast flying that kite. We were out there for about an hour just looking up in the sky at the kite.

The kite had a picture of CARS on it and Christina said, "I don't like this kite." We inquired why and she responded with "it has CARS on it. Those are for boys. I want one with a princess on it." It was quite funny.

As we were walki thing back from the field, Christina and Marina started to attack me. They were tickling me and jumping on my back. They had a GREAT time, and so did I!

Orphan

Sorry I have not posted in so long. I did not have any internet access in Ukraine. So here's the update! Odessa is a BEAUTIFUL city. We did not stay in Odessa however. Our place was an orphanage about thirty minutes outside of Odessa in a village called Ushni. I have many, many stories about this place some of which I will get into on this blog.

I misunderstood Randy when he told us we would be doing a creative ministries camp. We did not teach children how to be clowns and do puppets. We taught middle aged people how to do things such as juggling, magic, face painting, balloons, and makeup. This part of the trip was fun, frustrating, and very interesting at the same time. We had a good time teaching and having fun with these people and teaching them to use their talents to minister to kids across the Odessa region in orphanages and hospitals.

Our housing conditions were incredible. We stayed in an orphanage in Ushni, which is a village about 30 minutes outside of Odessa. There are 10 children living there. Yana's gorgeous smile, Irra's tender heart, Natasha's precious attitude, Peter's adorable laugh, Vicka and Valea's stunning eyes, Valea's cute freckles, Marina's laugh, Sasha's incredible work ethic, and Masha's captivating quietness all captured my heart almost instantly.

These children found out that we were walking back from the church we were working at (its about a 30 minute walk) and ran to us to walk back with us. Each time we came back from a session, they were there to greet us with a smile and hug and take our bags upstairs. As we were packing and preparing to leave on Tuesday night, they all came up to our room and gave us something of theirs to take with us. There were two in particular that stuck rather close to me. Irra and Yana. Irra and I developed a secret handshake, and Yana taught me how to count to ten in Russian. Yana and Irra teamed up and gave me a picture frame with a picture and a note from them in it. "I be bored without you! Our home always open with you and your friends!"

These kids just wanted attention, along with the ones we visited as clowns. I am amazed by what a handshake, counting to ten, and loving them can do. Not just for them, but for me. I was scared and lost in the world, without a father who could protect me eternally, but rest comfortably knowing that God loves those children along with me.