Abiding in Him

      This past week has been quite an interesting one and I have many anecdotes to share!  


      Well starting with the weekend, we had camp meetings/training for our 1st week of teen camp with Alfa Omega and Cer Deschis.  We met on Saturday morning and Sunday evening with a group of about 20 of us that will be working at camp.  Of course, the meetings are mainly in Romanian, so I'm only catching the gist of the conversations and when Andrew chooses to teach in English.  On Saturday, there were a lot of "getting to know each other" and our personal desires for camp kind of questions.  So when it got around to me the 1st time, I decided I could contribute in Romanian that "Sunt din Statele Unite si lucrez cu echipa ABWE."  And everybody clapped haha.  But when it got to our camp experiences and what we wanted to see happen at camp, I told them I wasn't confident enough yet and I just spoke in English while my friend translated for me.  (And I don't know how I STILL get so red even speaking in my own language to a big group of my friends, but it's so frustrating!)  Jenny was next in the circle after me, and she quite confidently shares in Romanian how she didn't grow up going to camp and she's never worked at camp.  She's been here like 2 months!  But she's been speaking everything she knows since the beginning & it's awesome!  But I was like "Way to show me up Jenny!" haha.  After the meeting, we had a big picnic on the Postema's awesome huge balcony, and I loved hanging out with everybody outside in the sunshine for a couple hours.  On Sunday we went to church, the mall to grab some Pizza Hut, and back to church for our 2nd meeting, where thankfully I didn't have to do any of the talking.  Then I went to the park with the gang where I his around a volleyball with some friends and watched the boys get super sweaty playing soccer.  


      On Monday I had a lesson then met up with Kristie, Jenny, & Pratt to get some dinner in Lipscani, the pretty old part of the city that's my favorite place to explore.  We couldn't choose which restaurant to pick, but after seeing someone eating a legit Philly cheesesteak, our decisions was made.  We all got those except for Pratt, and it was amazing having a little taste of America!  Tuesday I had another lesson & then helped Rachel pack and clean and get ready to head back to the States.

I wish you could see it better, but in the spring there are these "puf de plopi" or the white fluffy things from poplar trees flying around everywhere so thick that it looks like it's snowing! 

Fountains make me happy!  This is at Unirii & that's the People's Palace in the distance.

Oh those summer nights

LOVE Lipscani!  All those table will fill up & it's the place to be!

Philly Cheesesteaks!

Jumping picture with Romulus & Remus = awesome

      So Wednesday morning, I woke up at around 4 am to hear Rachel yelling from the bathroom about something.  Turns out, there was a massive cockroach scurrying across the hall, and we both just jumped up on something high and yelled at each other to kill it.  I ended up throwing my tennis shoe at it from my bed, and it somehow flipped over and wasn't moving.  I found some bug spray in the closet, so I doused it with the poison and we just left it there because we didn't want it to flip over & scurry out of sight.  Thankfully, when I got home from the airport, it was in the same place and pretty much dead, so I swept it up & threw it out the window.  So we got all her luggage down the stairs & got in the taxi around 4:30 am.  It only took between 15 and 20 mins to get to the airport at that time in the morning with no traffic!  I helped her get checked in, we prayed together, and then said our goodbyes.  I then went outside, got a taxi and told him where my apartment was, and he told me it would be 30 lei to take me there.  It only cost us 12 lei to get there so I wasn't falling for his scheme!  So I got out, and jumped on the bus that just stopped at the airport.  I figured I could figure out how to get home from wherever the bus took me with my handy dandy Bucuresti public transportation maps on my ipod, but when the bus reached the end of the line and just stopped there, I started walking.  This bus goes out to the middle of nowhere outside the city, and since it was 5:30 in the morning, they waited a while at the end before turning around and starting their route.  I think I walked a couple miles, no joke, until I started seeing civilization and not just trees.  I eventually got on another bus, figured out my plan to get back which involved 2 more buses and some walking in between, and arrived home around 7 am.  It was way too much walking way too early in the morning, so thus I went back to bed for a few hours to add to the 4 I had gotten the night before.  I went to the baby hospital later that afternoon & got to help take some of the older ones outside to play at the park across the street.  I've been told the teams from America helping with Heart to Heart arrive on Tuesday, so after that, I probably won't be able to go to the baby hospital anymore because it's too crowded!  


      Thursday was my last official day as an elementary school art teacher poser!  During our class times the kids helped me set up everything for our art show after school.  We used a whole huge role of masking tape to put all of their artwork on the walls in the art room and the hallway and yet they were still falling off.  The art show was short and sweet and I think every student had at least one of their parents there to show off their masterpieces to!  The parents brought snacks & drinks, and I had a slideshow projected on the wall with all the pictures I've been taking throughout the semester in our classes.  The kids and teachers presented me with a little book of notes from each of the students which was so precious & encouraging!  I loved getting to know and having fun with each and every one of those 20 kids and I'm going to miss them dearly!  I'm helping the teachers pack the building and helping with the field day next week so I'm glad it's not goodbye too all the BCA family yet! 

My favorite 1st & 2nd graders :]

I'm going to miss all my "Famous Master Artists"

Packed out Art show!

All of my art students!

Their real selves :]

     After I got home from cleaning up the art show, I had one of those "I'm an idiot" moments.  I got changed into a t-shirt and shorts and was cleaning up the apartment a bit, and I decided to take the smelly trash out before I started to cook some dinner.  The thought going through my head was "Oh I'll just be gone a minute, I'll just leave the door unlocked and leave my keys here."  But of course out of habit, I twisted the knob on the lock as I left.  When I came back up, I tried the door, and then the "I'm such an idiot" thought went through my head.  As I was standing in front of my door, I realized that the spare set of keys that Rachel had were also still in my apartment, along with my phone, so I started walking.  I waited for the tram and took the long way to the Graef's since I didn't have my metro card, and when I opened their door, all I said was "Umm...know any good locksmiths?"  Thankfully, we didn't have to go through the whole locksmith ordeal in Romanian, which would be a disaster.  I called Mihai, the guy from church we rent the apartment from, and turns out he has a set of keys and lives like 5 minutes from me!  So Tom gave me a metro card and Mihai was waiting in front of my block to unlock it for me!  It was once again an unwanted adventure, but at least they all got a laugh out of me!  


      On Friday I had an early 9 am lesson with Delia in the sunshine, then I grabbed some food at the mall and headed to BCA.  I sorted all the artwork to give back to the students, and made a huge dent in organizing and packing up the art supply closet!  After school, the Smith's offered to give me a ride to the metro, but ended up kidnapping me instead and taking me to their house for dinner.  They live on the outskirts of the city & have a really nice spacious house with a little backyard and garden.  This little bit of the "country" (and by country I mean not apartment blocks and having a little green grass) made me miss my home so much more!  Delia and I got on the conversation about my house this week, and she was so surprised to learn how much of a country girl I really am!  But talking about the land, cows, strawberries, corn, and pool made me really want to spend a day at home!  Anyways, before I start lusting for the country again,  I had another adventure on a long tram ride getting back into the city from the Smith's, and ended up getting to Bible study pretty late, but half of the gang arrived at the same time.  


      Last night, I had another run in with a giant cockroach, who was in my bathroom right before I went to bed.  Out of habit, I ran and jumped on my bed, and wanted to call for someone like my daddy to come and kill it for me.  But I couldn't.  One of the huge downsides to living by yourself is that there's no one else to kill the bugs.  So I got brave, ran to the closet to get the bug spray, jumped in the bath tub, and sprayed the little bugger as he was running around my bathroom.  I coated him pretty good, then closed the door and stuck a towel at the crack so he couldn't get out (or at least to make me think that he couldn't get into my room while I was sleeping).  This morning, he was laying on his back in the middle of the floor dying, so I coated him some more, sprayed down the rest of the apartment, and left to do some homework and let the poison work.  I really really hope this stuff keeps them away, because I don't like living in fear walking around in my own apartment (and not being able to use my bathroom for fear of a cockroach lurking in the shadows)!  


      So on to the more serious stuff...I'm going into a different phase of my ministry in Romania.  Art class is over, short-term teams from the States make it too crowded in the baby hospital, people are busy with exams, my language teacher is going on vacation, and I'm left with not much of my "normal." So for the next month or so until camp starts, I really don't know what God's wanting me to do with my time.  One major thing I've been learning in my time here, is that God doesn't want people just doing "stuff" for Him to mark it off on our checklists and to measure up to peoples' standards of what we "should" be doing.  He just wants a relationship with me.  And out of the outflow of that relationship and my love for God and His people my ministry will come, but me & God have got to come first.  I'm reading a book that Rachel gave me that was written by a lady she worked with in Prague.  Her name is Karen Pearce and she 1st was a missionary in Bucharest, Romania before she relocated to Prague.  The book is called "Being an Aroma of Christ: How to Survive and Thrive while Ministering Cross-Culturally"  and is just what I've needed right now.  I can't even paraphrase what she wrote, so here are some quotes that have really spoken to me.


      "It's all about Him.  It is to Him that we smell sweet.  He is the recipient.  It is not our work, it is His work through us.  He leads us in triumphal procession in Christ.  It is His victory--His success.  Our most important task is absorbing Him and being transformed into His likeness, not doing great things for Him.  He can deal with the doing, but we are to love Him so much that we sit before Him, worship Him, adore Him, learn His ways, memorize His words, and dwell on His promises.  That is our task."


      "In the end He wants to see a heart that has been conformed and shaped into the image of Christ.  This is God's purpose for me and you.  We are not to abide in Christ so that we get results in our work.  We are to abide in Christ so that we being to be transformed into His image--we begin to look like Him, sound like Him, and yes, "smell" like Him.  This is enough.  This is the ultimate.  If we truly become mirrors of Christ--of His love, His compassion, His integrity, His perception--we will see God bring a world to Himself.  We will have the honor of being part of His work."


      "For many of us that call to missions was very personal; we want to see ourselves being used.  These desires, which begin as honest and true yearnings to obey God, often become the catalyst for doing things in our own strength and filling our time with tasks God has not given us to do.  If we will but wait on Him and learn of Him, He will bring us to the things we are to do.  We don't have to find a ministry to justify our presence.  God has brought you to that place for a reason.  If you wait on Him, He will show you what that reason is.  Your impact will be far greater if you are fragrant with the knowledge of Him in every situation than it will be if you frantically look for a way to be a blessing to these Christians you're there to serve and the lost you're there to see saved."


      Good stuff huh?  And all that's just in the 1st chapter!  God's really been growing me and taking me to a different level with my relationship with Him on this trip.  I'm not saying I don't have those "blah" times when I'm not desiring to get in the Word as much as I should be.  But I just know that He's using this time to teach me some lessons and prepare me for however He has decided to use my life in the future.  So thus, I'm not worrying about what I can do to fill my time right now, but I'm trying to focus on getting to know God better and being ready and able to listen when He reveals His work for me.