FIRSTS!

I've officially been in Romania for four weeks now! I can't believe it! I'm really not homesick yet, but on several occasions I HAVE missed the convenience of living in the States. Especially when it comes to cooking. No brownie mixes here! Canned soups are just a memory now. And edible frozen food is no longer a part of my life. All of this is probably for the better, but I admit I have had to adapt. I've also had to sort through my recipes and find ones that I can actually get ingredients for. Hmmm...it is almost dinnertime, can you tell? I didn't intend to sit down and write about food. Moving on!

I thought I'd share with you a few of my "firsts" in the last week or so.

FIRST time on the Metro by myself! I went to a new friend's birthday party and managed to find my way there and back by myself! I also met an interesting man with a snowboard who told me I had a beautiful face (in Romanian), which I suppose counts as my FIRST time getting hit on here! Yessss! Actually, I was pleased that he said this in Romanian first, because the bigger compliment for me was that it meant he thought I looked Romanian. That's what I'm going for! :-)

FIRST time getting lost came the very next day. :-) I was headed to church, and though I've ridden with teammates every other week, the weather was nice so I thought it would be a good time for me to figure out how to take the tram. It should have been easy. Just go three stops, get off and walk. But for me...well...not so much. I got off at the right stop, but then thought it didn't look right, so I got back ON the tram and went two MORE stops. By that time I knew I'd been right the first time. I couldn't figure out how to get back on the tram going the opposite direction (the stops aren't always marked well), so I started walking...in my nice Sunday church shoes, of course! I knew I had to turn down a side street, but I couldn't tell which one because although I had a map, the streets don't always have signs (or at least signs that I can see!) and I'm directionally challenged anyway! :-) Eventually I saw a group of women wearing skirts and decided to follow them. And guess what? They went right to the church! I'm not sure if they knew I was following them or not. But God certainly heard my prayer for help and I was only five minutes late! It was actually an amusing experience, and I'm glad I've been lost once now so I don't have to be concerned when (not if!) it happens again.

FIRST time teaching a class here! I had nine kids on Sunday night for my "English" Jr. Church. What a fun group of kids! We talked about being examples with our words, and they especially enjoyed singing "Keep Your Tongue From Evil", by Steve Green. The hardest thing is keeping the wide variety of ages (pre-school to fifth grade) all interested and engaged. This week I should have twelve kids, so we're already talking about finding some help for me. That'd be good! :-)

FIRST time paying a bill (other than rent) by myself! My very kind doorman (who speaks a decent amount of English), volunteered to walk me to the office of the building administrator where I had to pay it. As it turns out, the building administrator is the man who had come to read my water meter last week (which is a whole OTHER story), so we'd met already and he was well aware that I couldn't speak much Romanian. I paid the bill, and he tried to set me up with his sons. Oh Romania! It sounds much more flattering than it actually is. Everyone wants a green card. Ha!

FIRST Romanian dinner! I've made a new friend, I think, and the dinner was just the icing on the cake for the evening! She took me to a traditional restaurant and ordered me a traditional meal. I enjoyed it and especially LOVED the dessert! It was like donut/funnel cake covered in cream cheese and jelly. YUM!!! Let's not talk about calories! :-) It was a fun night, full of good food and laughter! Thanks to those of you who are praying I'll find friends. It IS happening...slowly. Please keep praying.

So those are some of my firsts! If your life seems dull, book a ticket to come visit me! Cause I can promise you...it NEVER is here!! :-)

The Land of Randomness

This last weekend I had a couple of guests! It was a blast and I was sorry to see them go. Becky is part of the Romania North Team, and Jenny is part of the South Team with me, but is still raising support back in the States, so she was only here for a visit. (Hopefully she'll be here for good soon...I'm really excited to have her here. Her goal is next January. Please pray that she comes quickly...for my own sanity!) I'd met them both before and was excited to have them come. We laughed ALOT. Jenny has lived here before and calls Romania the "Land of Randomness", which really IS a great description. I'm starting to love this country but man, does it make me laugh! Just in case you don't believe me, this is a video we took the other night on our way home from the Graefs. Romanian elevators are notoriously sketchy. This one, however, should win a prize. Not only has the light been burned out since I got here, the "Push for Help" button isn't exactly helpful. Listen and find out!

NOTE: Before this video was taken, David had to run down to the bottom floor to send the elevator up because it was stuck. Which made us feel even better.



Don't you love it?? When you all come visit, I'll be sure to take you in the laughing elevator! :-)

The View From Here

I thought a few pictures might be nice...so here they are!

The view from my window






And my apartment building



Inside my apartment building



And the building's dog. The doorman lets him in and the women put food on their doorsteps for him. I speak nicely to him and pet him...but when I do he tries to follow me in the apartment! :-) I think I need to name him...suggestions??




And finally, this is for those of you in Columbus who have had all the snow. You're not alone. And at least in the US they shovel sidewalks! :-)

Two Weeks In!

It is hard to believe I’m entering my third week in Bucharest. In some ways it seems like I’ve been here for months, and in other ways I feel like I got here yesterday. I hit a point early last week when I just kind of looked around and thought “Ok…now what?”! I was settled, my visa process was well under way, and I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself! Thankfully, in the last week or so God has begun to fill up my schedule.

I’m so thankful for the teammates God has given me! They’ve gone out of their way to make me feel welcome and comfortable, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time at all of their apartments in the last few weeks. It has been important, especially as I’m starting out, to build good relationships with them. They are my lifelines here, and I depend on them so much! They’ve been very helpful and patient as I learn all the things I need to know to live here. So getting to know all of them has been a big part of my last couple of weeks.

The visa process has taken quite a bit of time as well. It is pretty much like a giant, international scavenger hunt. You have to run all over the city, getting different places to fill out forms for you, collecting them all and eventually turning them in for the prize: a five year visa! Woohoo! I’m ALMOST ready to turn everything in to the government, and Scotte (my team leader) tells me having it all ready this quick is some kind of a record! I can be in the country for 90 days before I need the visa, so it should be done in plenty of time. Should be! ☺

Starting next Sunday, I’ll be taking over the Sunday night children’s program at church! It is done completely in English and mostly just MKs come, but it is still a good opportunity for me and I’m looking forward to it! My co-workers have been taking turns doing this, so I’m glad to be able to give them a break. Once I’ve gotten my feet wet a little bit, I think we may begin advertising it as an opportunity for OTHER children to work on their English, too. I’m excited about the potential and glad to be doing something so worthwhile!

I’ve also been observing the Sunday School program at the church I’m attending. I’ve especially “clicked” with one teacher, and have decided to start helping in her class. I’ll teach some, try a few ideas, and just try to get a feel for what’s going on.

I’m also going to be traveling quite a bit in the next couple of months! ABWE is doing three teacher training seminars in three different cities in March, and I have the opportunity to go and observe all of them, and have been asked to share a brief devotional at each one. In April, we’ll be doing a seminar in Moldova (a tiny country east of Romania), and they’ve asked me to actually teach a whole session! WOW! It is really intimidating, but as I prayed about it, I felt God telling me to stretch myself. So I’ll give it a shot! I’ll get my topic in the next few weeks and start working on it. What a cool opportunity!

In April, the Romania North and Romania South teams will be meeting in Transylvania for four days to do some planning. While all the grown-ups sit in meetings all day, I get to entertain the kids, which should be fun! I’m looking forward to it, and am glad to be able to help in this way.

The summer is also coming quickly, so planning is well under way for camp! I attended a meeting last week and am excited to be a part of this ministry! My specific role is still being discussed, but I’m glad to help however I can. Counselor applications and training will begin soon! I’m loving learning about the process of running a camp!

TOMORROW I will start my language lessons! I’m looking forward to finally being able to get into it because I want so badly to be able to communicate better. As an AMP missionary, I’m not required to take language classes, but I think it is important and really want to do it. I’ll be taking four hours a week and will have lots of homework, too, from what I hear! So today is my last day of freedom, I guess! ☺

Would you please pray specifically that I’d make some Romanian friends here? I’m trying, but it is HARD and it just takes time. I keep being told to “invite some girls over”…but that’s a little hard when I don’t know many girls, or even how to meet them! I love working with kids, but since I’m with them Sunday AM and PM, it makes it hard to meet people at church. I AM attending a Bible study on Friday nights, which has been good, but because it is English speaking, most of the people I’ve met have been from the US! So please pray that I meet people and am able to build relationships. That really is what I want!

Small Victories and Setbacks

Well I must say, I'm glad it is not LAST week!
And I'm also thankful that THIS week is coming to a close. It has been a good week, but the learning curve is huge and I'm glad I'll never have to have a first week in Bucharest again! I'm able to find my way around my neighborhood now, shop, go to the bank, and walk to all of my teammate's apartments. Good things to know how to do, yes? Let me share some of my victories with you. They may seem small to you, but they were causes of great rejoicing to me!

1. I learned how to work the washer and dryer! They're quite different here, but thankfully my time in Germany in 2006 helped, and I DID remember what to do.

2. I hooked up a printer! This has nothing to do with Romania being difficult...this is just my own idiocy when it comes to computers. I won!

3. I paid my rent for February all by myself! Thanks to instructions from teammates, I was able to deposit the money into my landlord's account. This meant going from US dollars, to Romanian lei, to Euros...but I did it, and I was quite pleased with myself and thankful for the kind girl at the bank who spoke English.

4. I figured out how to light (yes, light) my stove! Actually, having an oven I had to light at my apartment in Columbus made this a lot less scary. Isn't it funny how God prepares us?? I haven't figured out the oven here, yet. A goal for next week...

5. I picked up paperwork from a government agency on my own! I dropped it off with Scotte the day before to be processed, and then managed (miraculously!)to find my way back to the building, into the right room, and to the right woman to pick it back up. A small victory, but one that goes a long way toward building my confidence in my new home town.

6. The internet is WORKING!! This is really only a half victory because (a) I didn't fix it, and (b) it isn't COMPLETELY fixed yet...but I'll take it! The internet was cutting out generally every 2 minutes, which wasn't good since this is my only form of communication to the world OUTSIDE of Bucharest. I still don't have wireless, but the internet stays connected (after Scotte and Tom worked on it for a while!) so I'm pretty content with THAT!

Each of these victories were accomplish while talking with my Heavenly Father. I depend on Him even more these days, and am always amazed at the way He cares even about silly, insignificant things...like lighting an oven.

Thankfully, He ALSO cares about my defeats, and what week wouldn't have a few of those??

1. My lost luggage. You know the story by now. Resolved in the end!

2. Sinus infection! I couldn't do much Sunday and Monday and was pretty miserable. BUT, I'm so thankful I had antibiotics with me, and I feel MUCH better now, though my sinuses are still draining. Yuck!

3. Frustrating internet. We've covered that already. I prayed over my computer, but it didn't cast the demons out. :-( I had to call in the professional missionaries! ;-)

4. Stolen debit card number. Sometime before I left the States, my card number got stolen, and we discovered this on Wednesday. I've been racking my brain to try to figure out where it happened, but I just have no idea! Anyhow, the bank had to deactivate my card so they wouldn't drain my account, which meant I had no way to access my account or withdraw money in a country that runs on virtually only cash. Yeah....I had a few moments of panic. But that is why God put me in a TEAM here in Bucharest, and they were able to loan me money from the team account until I have access to my own again.

Those were my biggest defeats this week. Nothing too horrible. But of course everything seems more horrible in a new place, with new people. I've asked God "why now?" a few times (especially with the debit card situation!), but was reminded that these things really AREN'T big deals and I need to trust Him.

Next up? Well, I'm headed to an (English) Bible study at the Graefs for tonight with some other young people. Now that I have reliable internet, however, I'll write again soon about the ministry opportunities God is already giving me here.

La revedere!

Well...It IS Romania!

I am safely in Bucharest! And so is my luggage! I'm actually home tonight because I'm not feeling well. I'm fairly certain I have a sinus infection, but thankfully I felt it coming on before I left and was able to get antibiotics. (Thank you Dr. Steve!) Flying, however, didn't help, and I woke up this morning with a sore throat, too, so I'm taking it easy tonight in hopes that I'll be able to do what I need to do for the rest of the week. BUT, this does give me the chance to share with you how God showed me He was with me on my trip here.

Friday was a GOOD day, spent with family and friends...plus, I had Thai food for lunch! :-) My bags all zipped (a miracle itself!) and I checked in at Port Columbus without incident. Goodbyes (which I had been dreading since I made this decision a year and a half ago) were hard, but not unbearable, and I have to tell you, it was really nice to finally DO IT and not have it hanging over my head anymore. I flew to Detroit and had to wait only a few minutes to board my plane to Amsterdam.

I got on the plane and started to hope that the seat next to me would be empty so I could stretch out a little for the eight-hour flight. It hadn't happened to me on any other international flight before, but I started to pray that, maybe, just maybe, God would take pity on me and give me a little space. People kept getting on the plane...but the seat next to me was still empty! Yessss!!! Oh wait...the last person getting on? Are you serious? Not funny, Lord! So I ended up with a seatmate. Despite my disappointment, I smiled and made small talk and soon discovered that he was a believer and attended a Baptist church in Alabama! What an unexpected blessings! Even more "random" was the fact that he had a friend who is director of Campus Crusade for Christ for Eastern Europe. So he was super excited that I was going to Romania! So instead of feeling completely distraught as I watched the last bit of US soil fade out of view, I was sharing my journey with a fellow believer and being encouraged. Thank you, Lord!

We didn't talk much after the initial conversation. He took a sleeping pill and offered me one, but I don't make a habit of taking pills from men on airplanes, soooo I was awake the whole flight, and unable to get comfortable. I never sleep on planes, so I wasn't surprised, but goodness is that a miserable feeling! Eight hours, two (bad) meals and one (bad) movie later, we landed in Amsterdam on time. Yes, that's right, we LANDED on time. Unfortunately, we didn't pull up to the gate for another fifty minutes because the plane already AT the gate had to be de-iced and there was a sudden lack of de-icers at the airport. Thanks to the kind reassurances of the gentleman next to me that "all of the flights are probably delayed now", I didn't panic during those looooooong fifty minutes. If you woke up praying for me, THANK YOU! I could feel it!

Once we finally arrived at the gate and got off the plane, I discovered that SOMEHOW my flight to Bucharest was still on time. I had thirty minutes to figure out what gate to go to, run (literally!) to another concourse, go through security, and board the plane. And guess what? I made it! I was praying all the way, but I made it and was surprisingly calm the whole time. CLEARLY, people were praying.

After boarding the plane, I discovered that my NEW seatmate had also been on my plane from Detroit and had been through the same oh-so-exciting rush that I had. We bonded over that and chatted some. I'm not sure that he was a believer (I shared what I was doing and he didn't have much to say), but he WAS a homeschool dad of seven kids, which gave us a connection. He looked out for me during that flight and even gave me a clementine orange after another (especially bad) airline meal. Let me tell you...I was VERY thankful for that orange! :-) Another unexpected blessing!

We arrived in Bucharest on time. I passed through customs without incident and headed for the baggage claim with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. If I had barely made it on the plane to Bucharest, was there any possible way that my luggage had? My seatmate and I stood watching the luggage going 'round and 'round. Never in my life have I wished for pink camo bags, but whoever had THOSE bags got their luggage that night, and unfortunately I did not. And neither did the nice man next to me, which was terrible for him, but really nice for me because I had someone to figure this out with. I told him I was pretty sure God had sent him to keep me calm through all this, which made him smile. We went to the office, filled out some forms, were given papers and told the next plane came in at midnight. Lovely.

If you listen to my prayer requests from my commissioning service (ibccares.org), you'll hear me say something about not thinking I could handle it if my bags didn't get to Bucharest. God proved once again that while I may not be capable of handling that, He certainly is...and the whole experience wasn't NEARLY as traumatic as it could have been. So I left the airport with only my carry on, but was greeted by my whole team as soon as I walked out the door! How wonderful to get fifteen "hello" hugs, including some from kids who had no idea who I was, but were excited to see me! :-) We all stopped at Burger King (and also Starbucks!) before I was taken back to the Staabs' (my team leaders!) apartment and given pajamas and shower stuff for the next day. Then we headed over to my apartment.

This apartment is a whole blessing in and of itself and story for another time. But an ADDED blessing is that I'm less than a 10-minute walk from all of my teammates. How cool is THAT! I managed to stay awake until 10pm before going to bed for the first time in over 30 hours. Unfortunately, the combination of new noises and wondering when my bags would show up meant that I didn't sleep very well.

I fell into a deep sleep somewhere around 6am, but woke up two hours later to hear my (borrowed) cell phone ringing. I was VERY groggy when I answered, but the man on the end only spoke Romanian, and got frustrated with me when I didn't understand, so he hung up on me! I had understood the words for "airport" and "home", and so I thought maybe he was waiting for me downstairs. I threw on socks, shoes, and a coat and ran downstairs...to find nothing. So I returned to my apartment and tried to wake myself up enough to decide what to do next, or wait for the man to make his next move. He called back and I STILL didn't understand what he was saying, so after he hung up on me again(!), I called a teammate and left a message, explaining the situation and praying that my bags weren't on their way BACK to the airport, never to be seen or heard from again! Thankfully, just as my teammate was returning my call, the doorbell rang, and there, outside my door, was a large, flustered looking Romanian man with my bags!! YESSS!!! He brought all three of them up to me (on the 4th floor!) which was so nice, and I thanked him (in Romanian, even!) profusely! I can't even tell you how happy I was to see those bags! Wooohooo!

I unpacked immediately and am as settled as I can be for now! I had a nice lunch with the Postemas and really enjoyed catching up with them. For now, though, I just don't feel good, and my body needs a good night of rest. Which is where I'm headed shortly.

I'm not sure about the plan for this week. There is so much to learn, so much to do. I DO know I'm going grocery shopping with Leah tomorrow, so I'll begin to figure THAT out. And I have dinner with the Graefs. Beyond that, I'm not sure, but hey! I'm flexible! I'm looking forward to the day when this new life is "normal" and I don't have to double check to make sure I'm going in the right apartment.

I know this is long, but I wanted to share the ways God showed me His hand over and over and over on this trip. I know I'm not alone and I'm so thankful for that! I'm thankful as well, for the many, many people I know were praying. I've felt people's prayers before, but never quite like this. So thank YOU!

Please PRAY that I feel better quickly and get over the jet lag, too. Pray that I would be flexible and patient in a country where hardly anything goes as planned. Pray that God gives me a deep love for Romania and the Romanian people. And pray that I would find "normal" soon.

I'll update again soon...and hopefully it won't be NEARLY so long! But it IS Romania...which I think is my new motto!

Commissioning Service Pictures

The commissioning service was so special...as was the meal afterwards. These are a few pictures from the day. More to come, I'm sure! :-)