Sunshine and Dirt

This morning I woke up feeling great and super excited to see the sun pouring in my window! It has been a while since I have seen the sun. Quickly I noticed all the dust and particles in the air and I was annoyed. I thought, "It wasn't this dusty yesterday!? What happened... how did it get so dirty in here?" and then I realized that the light pointed out all the filth that filled my room.

Isn't that the truth? We get annoyed so easily with the Light in our lives. The Lord points out the things in out hearts that are filthy and dirty. It's easier to live life not acknowledging their existence but what kind of life is that? The gospel is offensive... it points out the things in our hearts that we aren't proud of. "Jesus is the light of the world" is such a commonly used phrase and many people associate light with joy and neglect the responsibility it puts on us. We have to clean. We have to strive daily to purify our hearts not to gain salvation but to show our love for our savior! To show love to others.

In Matthew 5:14-15 we are told "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house." That's a tough job. Not only am I called to be bold and share this knowledge with everyone... I'm suppose to be the light... but the light reveals the filth.

Until we see our filthy and dirty hearts in the Light of Jesus Christ we won't see a need for a savior.

My friend James Barnett wrote, "I’m not so sure our symphony is a popular one. It won’t end up on the billboard top ten and it won’t be played on a stage in Central Park. It will be a lullaby sung within the hearts of the poor. It will be cried out by those who hunger and thirst for what is right. No, it may not be a popular song, but it will be a good one."

I'm going to Poland!

Well thank you for your prayers... apparently they worked! I'm feeling so much better today and I'm excited to hopefully have a normal day tomorrow.

Poland:

So in case you are unaware this summer my family opened up our home to three girls. One from France, one from Slovkia and one from Poland! Marta, from Poland, and I became good friends and I helped her deliver her books for about a week and a half. (They were in the states with a program selling books door to door). She said she would pay me but I declined. The night that they left she gave me a card... I opened it to find a note that read something along the lines of, "Congratulations you just won a trip to Poland!!!". She had left a $100 bill in the envelop and a sweet message. "Ok"- I thought "now I have to go to Poland"! (darn) haha.

Fast forward- The other day I was looking at airfare between Poland and Romania and I found a great deal. I bought the ticket and I am flying to Poland on the 16th of this month... in less than a week! I am very excited and grateful for the opportunity to see a different culture, meet her family and speak English for a whole week! Originally I thought this trip would be perfect for me to get my visa, seeing as I had to leave the country to acquire one. However I was told (after purchasing the ticket) that I will have to leave around Dec. 27th because that marks 90 days... maybe I will go to Hungry?!

Anyway, I leave Sunday on a bus to Timisoara where I will stay with my sweet friend Dea for the night... then I will get up SUPER early to catch my flight out of Timisoara. I will fly into Austria for a short layover and then board the plane for Krakow, Poland where Marta will meet me. Please pray that I will travel safely! I feel so independent... this is not like me you know. At least it was not like me! :)


This is me and Marta on her last day in Tallahassee!

42 Ceiling Tiles

Well I've been sick now for 5 days... which feels like a lifetime. I'm hoping tomorrow morning I will wake up feeling all better. If not and I wake up with a fever I have to go to the hospital. Apparently here they go to the hospital like it is a family doctor... so I guess it sounds worse than it is. Either way I really don't want to go.

I've pretty much been in my room since Thursday afternoon with the exception of walking to the pharmacy (in the rain), walking to the grocery store to buy my ingredients for mac and cheese and walking to church last night. Sooooo a grand total of about 3 hours outside of my room since Thursday afternoon.

Did you know I have 42 ceiling tiles in my room? I am thankful I have the internet now! I'm pretty sure I would have gone crazy by myself for nearly 5 days without it. I really miss the kids! I especially miss their hugs and kisses... and there is no way I'm letting them get near me before I know I'm not contagious. Well, that's it I guess. It's been a super uneventful weekend. Please pray I get better soon! Much love!

Hey Ya'll!

Well I've been sick the past few days and it's been raining pretty much non-stop. So today I decided at 6pm to finally leave the house. I headed over to the grocery store to purchase a few necessary items. I needed some comfort food! Proud of myself for finding everything I needed dispite it all being in romanian I headed home.

I made it home practically exhausted from my outing and started on Paula Deen's- Lady's Cheesy Mac! True southern comfort food and something you definitely don't find here in Romania. Here is the link to the recipe if you like:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/the-ladys-cheesy-mac-recipe/index.html

Again I had to use a coffee cup to measure out my ingredients. I also had to shred the cheese (they don't have shredded cheese here or cheddar cheese). Of course I had to keep an eye on the oven because I don't have any clue of the temperature.

It turned out delicious and it's a good thing because it looks like I will be eating for the next week!

Close but no cigar...

I thought I would share this with you all because I found it is too funny to keep to myself:

The other morning I was offered some tea. She said to me in broken English "would you like some fornication tea?". Slightly taken aback I was confused but accepted. I later looked at the box and it read, "Organism Tea". I didn't want to correct her and run the risk of embarrassing them so I just laughed to myself and drank my "fornication tea". Oh man!

Doubt Creeps In...

Last night I attended church in Petrosani. Being that it was a Wednesday they didn't have their typical service; instead they had more of a Bible study type setting. I couldn't understand the lesson but I did read along with the scripture passages.

Honestly yesterday was kind of a tough day. It could be because I didn't feel well and I'm getting sick... but my patience with myself and my lack of understanding the language got to me more than usual. I started to feel like I was just in a different country and I wasn't being very useful. That I was wasting time. It's easy to let negative thoughts and doubt creep in. I was in prayer a good part of the day (it's easy to pray when you can't understand your surroundings!) just seeking God's direction for the next few months. OK.

So last night at "Bible study" Tabita Gall wanted to introduce me to the church. I got up and told them a little about me and what I am doing here. (Tabita of course translated!). After the study many people came up to me and introduced themselves to me... which was so nice to feel like part of the church. One woman in particular introduced herself and told me she ran an afterschool type program...hmmmmm right up my alley right?! Yes, exactly. She told me she would really love if I could help with their English club!

The best part is- I've been praying for an opportunity to teach English! The Lord is so reassuring. He always knows when I need that encouragement or a specific detail to unfold.

The center is in a very poor neighborhood in Petrosani. The English club meets on Saturday mornings which is awesome because I can spend the week with my kids here in Lupeni and then go to Petrosani on the weekends. God is so awesome and I don't know why I even begin to question Him!

I'm right where I'm suppose to be.

Cemetery Strolls

Well Halloween came and passed... I didn't see a single vampire here in Transylvania.

Let's see this weekend I went to Petrosani (it's becoming a habit... a good one though) and I got there on Saturday afternoon. We didn't do anything too exciting but it was nice to be in good company.

Sunday morning I woke up and made everyone pancakes or pan-uh-cakes (that's what I called them). We didn't have syrup, another luxury of America I guess, so we used honey and homemade jam. Everyone seemed to enjoy them! Then we all went to church.

Church was really neat because we were celebrating an engagement! The bride is from Romania and the groom is from India. They had a special speaker as well and he was from Holland! The common language used between all these different nationalities is English- praise God! So I was able to understand the entire sermon... which was such a nice change. I enjoyed the emphasis the church put on their engagement and how it was more about the body of Christ and Christ love rather than the couple and the couple's love.

After church Nelson and I decided to walk home. Being that it was November 1st (the day of the dead) Nelson wanted me to see the cemeteries full of people visiting their deceased loved ones. The first cemetery we went to was huge; it went all the way up the side of this mountain! There were a ton of people... mostly gypsies.
Nelson told me it was a pagan holiday where they celebrate the dead and eat and drink for them... I guess in their honor. The demographic there was so different. Most of the people were very poor and unkempt and some were trying to sell us candles to light for the dead. There was one guy who told us he had 4 kids... he was 17 years old.

Ok, enough. We sat down on a bench and enjoyed the GORGEOUS view. I mean rolling hills, mountains with snow, horses, little houses with chimneys and smoke coming out. It was/is beautiful. We continued to another cemetery where Nelson's grandma is buried. It was not nearly as crowded, but it was nice to go there and it made me miss my Papa.

We headed back home to get some hot soup to warm us up... but first we stopped and got hair dye. Nelson tried to get me to dye my hair purple but I told him my mother would kill me! haha... I went with red instead.

That night we stopped by the cemetery to see all the candles glowing. It was really neat and kind of creepy but definitely freezing... we didn't stay long.

Today (Monday) I went to the Orange store, kind of like an alltel or sprint, and got wireless internet! YAY. It only took 4 hours!! Apparently my windows vista is too advanced for their program, whatever it works now! I went to the orphanage and played twister with Sebe and David and also got my computer out for the kids! What a treat?! We played with the camera- taking silly pictures and making videos. Delia even made her own laptop! She climbed into my lap and put her laptop right in front of mine. She is doing so well and behaving much better. Thank you for the prayers!

Many blessings and much love-
I hope these pictures make you laugh as much as me! :)