Birthday Week

To begin every post with “It has been a busy week” would just get redundant, so just know that I am staying busy. 😀 This past week, I celebrated my 37th birthday in Timisoara, and was treated to 2 separate “surprise” parties. I say “surprise”, because I knew about both before going – either due to my wonderful grasp of the Romanian language or through friends slipping up on keeping the surprise – but they were both fun none-the-less. The first was with a group of students from OSCET, where we played games, had supper, and just enjoyed hanging out. The second was with my house church group, where we grilled out for supper, played games and enjoyed hanging out. 😀

Along with the parties, we did still have all the same regular meetings of the week, but there were a couple “special” meetings that took place this past week. The first was Wednesday night on the student complex when OSCET hosted a debate for students where they posed the question, “What would it look like if everyone was honest all the time?” The debate went well, and a lot of the regular OSCET members invited their non-Christian friends, who all seemed to get into the discussions – which lasted well past when we were planning to end. Fortunately, OSCET had already planned to have a follow-up meeting this coming week held at the church where the discussions could continue. Also, this week was a “celebration” Sunday for the multi-site locations of Vox Domini, where the Family Focused and Student Focused churches came together for a time of worship and teaching at the orchestra hall in the capitol.

Personally, this week, Relu & I went and bought a couple items for OSCET that could be used for events with the students that would hopefully help them reach out to more students in the coming months. As you can tell from my surprise parties, one of the favorite past times here is fellowship while eating and playing games, and students will come to activities with a student ministry for the fellowship even when they will not come to a regularly scheduled weekly meeting. So, the focus this year with OSCET has been more about the students in the ministry taking their faith to their friends and trying to be more focused on their conversations. So, in an attempt to help open some opportunities up for them to invite their friends to different activities, we bought OSCET some new ping pong paddles and balls, a couple tennis rackets and balls, as well as a couple small portable grills for when they head out to a park for volleyball, etc. I know these may seem like simple things, but we were trying to think of ways we could provide simple tools to encourage students to invite their friends out for a game of tennis or ping pong and then to continue to hang out and share what God is currently doing in their lives.

Also, I spent 3 days with different students in OSCET’s office helping clean and organize. Again, this does not seem like a big thing, but one of my goals while I am here is to encourage students to get involved, volunteer, and take ownership of all areas within their student ministry. I recall one student telling me that I should not be cleaning up this mess – it was the responsibility of the person who created it to keep clean up. To which, I smiled and just reminded him of what Jesus had done for us – He was not the one who had sinned, but he chose to clean up our mess anyway. I still think he felt like I should let someone else clean this up, but he eventually joined in while he could. Now, the office is well organized, camp items are ready for the planning to begin for the Adventure Camp this summer, sports equipment is ready for warmer weather, and games are organized and ready for students when they come by Vox for game nights. We even took some time to reorganize OSCET’s library, so that books on certain subjects were together, and all the ones in Romanian were together so students who did not speak English well did not have to search for specific ones in Romanian. We even found several resources buried in their library that we could use for small groups, camps, and language lessons that the current leadership was not aware was in there. So again, something as simple as a little spring cleaning, has provided resources and ideas – as well as renewed enthusiasm – for the remainder of the semester and the upcoming camps this summer.

Finally, just one more item I wanted to share from this past week . . . Wednesdays is generally the day I help a couple students with their English skills, and this week, I began with one of the students more confident in her understanding of English having her read from the English translation of the New Testament they had in OSCET’s office. She was excited to do this, because she had never thought about this as a tool to learn English, but knew the stories and was looking forward to discussing them in English as a practice for her conversational skills. She left that afternoon ready to read a chapter per day out loud in English to her roommate as her roommate followed along in the Romanian translation. She said that they had both been wanting to work on their English, and now, she could incorporate a Bible study into their practice in their dorm.

Please continue to pray that God would open doors for me with the students, and that He would continue to be lifted up through the student ministry.

The End of a Busy Week

I have really gotten into the swing of things this week and packed my schedule as full as I can, so that I can quickly get involved with the different aspects of the ministries here at Vox and with OSCET. However, I still have a nice “slide” into the start of the week, because Monday mornings are my laundry day, and it is also generally the day I plan to get some grocery shopping done – if possible. I say “if possible”, because without a car, I am at the mercy of others’ schedules . . . unless I take the 20 minute walk to the closest grocery store (or at least the closest with the most selections). If I walk, then that means that whatever I buy is limited to what I can carry, and what I want to manage carrying for 20 minutes on the way back to my room. Either way, I am managing to get what I need when I need it, and have been able to share some tasty meals with friends during the process.

Most of the week is filled with meetings helping plan events or something similar. This upcoming week (actually tomorrow, Saturday, and this coming Wednesday), there are 2 outreaches in the student complex. The first is more direct sharing your faith with non-believers, and the 2nd is a debate put on by OSCET in conjunction with a Psychology professor. I think the topic for the debate is “What if everyone was honest”. The last time they held a similar event, the room was packed, so they are trying to find a larger location for this week.

Then, on Wednesday mornings at 7am, there is a prayer meeting with OSCET – if you would like to join us for prayer, it is actually at midnight EST, so you can always try to remember the student ministry Tuesday night before going to sleep. The rest of the day on Wednesday is involved with a couple English lessons with some students who wish to improve their vocabulary and communication skills. This week, there were only 2 students, but I think next week there may be 5 or 6 – if we can work the timing out.

This Wednesday was also a good friend’s birthday, so we all gather around him for a surprise party and a time of games and fellowship with the other members of our house church and other friends. It was a coca-cola themed party, so coke logos and beverages were everywhere. I made my grandmother’s banana pudding recipe (with a slight adjustment since we don’t have Nilla Wafers here), but it turned out very well and now, the recipe is being spread around Romania. 😉

In my “free time”, I am helping Vox organize their library and help make it easy for members to come in and check out books, pamphlets, etc., as well as meeting up with some of the pastors at Vox to catch up with them and find out what their vision is for the future of the multi-site church with one focus on families and the second on students. Still more meetings to follow, but everything is going well over here. Please continue to pray that God would open doors for me to be able to get more involved with the students and with Vox.

Wrapping Up Week Three & Getting Plugged In

There are always some necessary “chores” to do which are always boring but essential in our everyday lives, so Monday, after the ski camp, it was time to do the mundane tasks of living. As a result, I spent the day doing laundry and getting groceries – both of which are very entertaining when you are in a different country and not 100% sure of every word in the language. 😉

Laundry has never really been a big concern for me – you drop the clothes and detergent in, and hit start, and the clothes come out clean. However, I could never really understand why sometimes it only took 30 minutes and other times it took 3 hours. Fortunately, I met my neighbors (their apartment houses the washing machine for the upstairs here at Vox), and they easily interpreted the cycle images on the machine. Then there is the “drying” phase of the clothes – which is fun enough in the summer, but with the freezing temps outside, the clothes rack was set up in my room (and they took almost 3 days to completely dry). I used racks “similar” to these growing up, but those were small in comparison to the one I have as it will hold a little more than 2 loads of my laundry in a very small space. This week, due to the camp and other things, I had 3 loads to do, so I also summoned the inner Eagle Scout and set up a make-shift clothesline in the bathroom.

Then, there’s the grocery shopping. I know what I want, and I remember the general areas where they are located in the store, but not everything is as it would appear on the label and I sometimes have to guess. Fortunately, I do not have a car, so that means that one of my friends usually comes with me and can help me search for items. However, there are 2 down sides to this: 1. they may not exactly know what I am talking about if they have never used it before (or they may thing they know what I am looking for only to find out that it is completely a different thing – an example was last time I was here and wanted some “buttermilk”), and 2. I always feel like I am rushed when shopping, because I want to be considerate of my friends time. If I was at a store in the States for the first time, I would take my time checking the isles to see if there was something else I needed or just familiarizing myself with the store layout.

And then, there is the aspect that they do not carry everything here that we have in our stores in the States – or not every store has the same items. Tonight, I am fixing a Mexican dinner for some friends, and I wanted to make my salsa recipe (the salsa here is very similar to ketchup mixed with some hot sauce). One of my friends is allergic to vinegar (which is in a lot of stuff – in case you haven’t read the labels in a while), so I figured my homemade salsa would be fresh, fairly authentic, and vinegar free. And then there was “cilantro”! An essential ingredient (in my opinion), but no where to be found. I pulled out my handy translator device to see if they called it something different in Romanian, and they did – here it is called “coriandru”. I have heard of “coriander” before, so I thought this just might mean that they don’t have cilantro when I saw that they only had the seed version and I needed the leafy.

Fortunately, we tried a different store a couple nights later and found fresh cilantro in the leafy form – still labeled as coriandru, but unmistakable in its aroma and I happily purchased my little find. Afterwards, I googled the 2 words, and apparently, they are for the same spice – just at different stages in their cycle. Coriander refers to the seed stage (which is what I found more commonly here), and Cilantro refers to the leafy stage (however, still called coriandru here). I know you are all bored with my grocery stories, so I will wrap it up by just saying that there is going to be an amazing Mexican feast tonight in Romania!

On another note, I am getting plugged in to a couple more of the departments or ministries here with in the church, Vox, and the student ministry, OSCET. On Monday nights, there are meetings to help plan an outreach in a couple weeks on the local campuses, on Wednesdays, there is an early morning prayer meeting for OSCET and a leadership meeting that evening for them, Thursdays are for OSCET’s student meetings, and the discipleship department is planning a retreat in May to help encourage their leaders to multiply their groups at the end of the year so that they can get more students plugged in to these small groups where they can continue to grow spiritually. I know other meetings will be forthcoming, so please be praying for those mentioned above as well as the ones God will direct me to in the future.

In addition to these meetings, I have been asked to help some students with their English skills. It looks like Wednesday afternoons will be used for of these lessons, so please be praying for us as we try something new!

Ski Camp Summary

Be sure to check out my photo link on the right side of the blog – I have uploaded some pictures from the ski camp.

A week before the ski camp, I looked at the webcam and saw brown spots of dirt showing through the snow, and I e-mailed around to a few of you and requested specific prayer for snow. And God definitely answered your prayers! The mountain was full of fresh snow when we arrived last Sunday afternoon. Another friend of ours was on the same mountain just 3 days before us, and she said it was nothing but ice. The owners of the hotel where we had our camp commented on how they were always surprised we had sufficient snow to ski on every year we came to the mountain – especially since it is towards the end of the season. So, we shared with them that it was because we continually prayed that there would be snow! 🙂

This year’s camp was a little different than past years in that it was smaller – about 1/2 the size of last year’s camp. Part of that was due to it being a week later than the previous years, but it was also a little shorter than previous camps as well. I personally liked the smaller size this year, because I felt like I was able to get to know my team members a little better than previous camps, and it also gave me a better opportunity to get to know those in other teams as well. It also didn’t leave any room for a member to not participate in the discussions on the daily topics, which also seemed to go very well. Our group began right away opening up and sharing about some of the issues facing them on a daily and weekly basis, and throughout the week, everyone jumped right in to the topic of the day.

I also heard another story from a different team that I wanted to share. Alina, a student who had come to the summer camp this past year, shared with her team that it was the first time in her life where she really felt like she could relax and just have fun without drinking or dancing. She also shared that one of the biggest take-aways she had from the summer camp was that she needed to pray more. She was so impacted by the summer camp that she could not stop telling her parents and boyfriend about it, and she has been desiring more and more to study God’s word, pray, and share what she is learning with those around her. So, when it came time for the ski camp this year, she was excited to be able to come back and continue in her growing relationship with Jesus Christ, and even brought her boyfriend with her.

I am sure we will hear more stories from other groups as well when the leadership team gets together to discuss the impact of this camp, but I did want to at least share with you a little bit about what I have already heard. I know it is difficult in 1 weeks time to get into deep conversations with the students about their faith, but the focus of these camps are to introduce God to the non-Christian students and to help get them connected with the student ministry so that they can get into a discipleship group where they can study God’s word and continue to grow spiritually with others. So, please continue to pray for the students who were at this camp that God would continue to touch their lives and bring to their memory things that were discussed during the week.

On another note, we did have a couple students who were injured the last day at the camp – one only had a bad bruise, but the other received a bad cut on her knee when she ran into a tree and required stitches. Her name is Dona, and I would appreciate you praying for her recovery. It was a bad cut, but nothing was broken, and she was released from the hospital yesterday morning & appeared to be doing well. She heads back to her classes tomorrow, and I know that it will be a little difficult getting around on crutches (especially with the snow and ice here in Timisoara). Also, please be praying for her speedy recovery.

Now that I am back in Timisoara after the ski camp, I will be trying to get some groceries and do laundry – all the fun day-to-day type activities that are a little more difficult when you don’t have immediate access to a car or washing machine, but it is just a matter of getting back into a routine of how things are done here. 🙂 Tonight will be the student focused church meeting at Vox, and I am definitely excited to be able to attend that for the first time. Please continue to pray for this new church focused on the college students and that they will be able to create a church that reaches the college students here in Timisoara.

First Day at Ski Camp

We are winding down things today and getting ready for a full day tomorrow, but before I call it a night, I wanted to send a quick update.

Saturday, I spent the day with OSCET’s leadership taking care of all the last minute details for the camp. It was a fun day and a great opportunity to see all that goes into the camps before any of our teams from globalX arrives on scene. Today started very early and also came with a first for me – I got to drive in Romania! It was only a couple miles from Vox to the student complex, but it was great to have that opportunity. 🙂

The drive to camp was fairly uneventful, but we did start seeing snow on the ground about an hour in to our five hour drive. A little over a week ago, I saw the webcams from the mountain and it was mostly dirt showing, so we prayed hard for snow, and this was definitely an encouragement to us as we saw more and more snow the closer to camp we got.

Within eyesight of the chair lift, our van ran out of momentum on the snowy road, and after several attempts to get moving again, we decided to drop some luggage and carry it by foot to the lift so the van would have a better distribution of the weight.

As we made our way up the chair lift to the cabin, we could see God had provided a nice amount of snow for the camp, and we hear more is on the way!

We settled in to out rooms, and while some strapped on skis, others hung out and played games or got ready for the evening program. This year’s camp is about 1/2 the size of last year’s, but it just means we all get to know each other better and our small groups will be more intimate settings to discuss the topics for the week.

The evening session was light, and we spent a majority of the time getting to know our fellow small group members. I am the only native English speaker at the camp, but was put in the group where most members are not comfortable speaking a lot in English. I know this will not be an issue for me, because I already know most of them and can communicate well with them despite our language differences.

Well, it’s almost 1am here, and I do need to try and get some sleep before our busy day tomorrow, but I hope to update you again soon.

Busy Day Ahead

With the group departing early in the morning tomorrow for the ski camp, today looks to be a very busy day! We will get things started with a trek out to the 2nd hand market (from what I can tell, it sounds like a flee market) so some of the leaders can pick up some last minute winter clothing. It should be an interesting morning since I’ve never been before, and we are planning on taking the tram system to get there.

After that, the leaders are heading off to the store to pick up some snacks for the camp. As in years past, we will have just 2 meals at the camp (this helps keep the cost affordable for the students), and they supplement this with some snacks and tea during the normal lunch break.

And, if we wrap things up in time, then I am off to a meeting with the discipleship department for OSCET. The last time I was here for an extended stay, I helped them organize a leadership training weekend (which took place after I had to leave), and this time, they are also preparing for another training weekend (again – to take place after I have left). The focus of this upcoming training for them is growth within their discipleship groups. As some of you may have experienced, once you get comfortable in a small group, it is sometimes easier to stay put than to split and expand to bring in new people, and that is the problem that they are having with their groups.

Please pray that their discipleship group leaders would understand the need to train/apprentice a new leader and prepare their groups for multiplication to allow for new students to be able to get connected into groups.

And, after that meeting, I think some of us will probably go out for dinner and hopefully call it an early night (I have to leave Vox at 5:45am in order to make it to the bus on time).

We should have internet access at the camp, so hopefully I will be able to send an update or two during the camp.

Settling In . . .

Ok – So, I know that I just posted saying that I was “almost there”, but if you read it, then you know that I typed that yesterday on my way to Timisoara. 🙂

Well, I have arrived – safe & sound – and all my luggage made it too without any delays or issues. And, as is usually the case, I hit the ground running! Not literally, but just kept busy from the time we landed until it was time to turn in for the night.

Sami, Relu and Calin met me at the airport, and after arriving at Vox, I had about 1 hour to unpack (as much as I could) before heading over to Calin & Adina’s house for dinner. I had packed some Ghirardelli chocolate powder and miniature marshmallows, so I grabbed them so we could have a tasty hot chocolate after dinner. After dinner, we met up with some other leaders and students for coffee in the student complex and caught up on what had been going on in the past 6 months. And, when that wrapped up, I made it back to Vox in time to almost finish unpacking before calling it a night.

This morning, I woke up and noticed the sun was up, but I had not heard my alarm going off. When I checked my iTouch, the battery had gone out during the night, but I was still ok on time since Sami would not be by to pick me up for another hour. Today was house church Sunday here at Vox, so I went to the same house church I attended during the summer of 2009. It was great to see more familiar faces and to jump right into the discussions for the day.

Now, it is dinner time, and I have finally finished unpacking and getting settled in, and have been able to get my cel phone set up so I can reconnect with others whom I have not yet had a chance to see. This week is not packed with scheduled appointments or meetings, but I am sure it will be busy reconnecting with so many friends I have not seen since this summer.

Next week is the ski camp, so we are also making last minute decisions on the details, so please be praying for that as well as that God would provide a nice snow-covered mountain for the camp! 🙂

Almost There . . .

Well, I have not been able to find a wi-fi signal I can hop on here in Munich, so I won’t be able to post this until after I arrive in Timisoara, but I figured that since my flight from Atlanta arrived an hour early (making my 4 hour layover 5 hours), I would try and at least type this up so that I can just post it later 🙂

These past 3 weeks have been quite hectic, but at least they have flown by and I am already on my way. After only a minor delay in Atlanta – due to a ticketing issue – I was able to make it on the flight without any troubles. And, there were only about 80 passengers on a plane that could hold over 200, so we had some room to stretch out. Unfortunately, I did not get much sleep on the flight (which is pretty standard for me on that leg of the journey), but I did get to catch a couple great movies I had been wanting to see but hadn’t gotten around to it. I know it’s about a horse, but I think I am definitely going to recommend “Secretariat” to any students who have not seen it before!

And, as I said before, we arrived about an hour early here in Munich, so I have had some extra time where I have done what I can to keep from napping. Our 6:40am arrival here was 12:40am back in Atlanta, and our 11:50am departure will be 5:50am back there, so you can see that, even though my body wanted to sleep, it would not be the wise thing to do if I want to get on the right time zone upon my arrival in Timisoara in a couple hours. So, I have done what I could with some caffeine and games on my iTouch to keep my mind alert. I even saw an amazing “looking” chocolate covered donut that I decided to sample; however, it was like a lot of other desserts over here – lacking in the sugar that we have back in the states. This definitely makes me happy that I packed a “Betty Crocker” chocolate cake and icing that I will be fixing at some point during my stay in Timisoara!

Well, we’re about 1 hour away from our departure, so I am going to say “bye” for now. I will try and post another update sometime after my arrival.

Thank you all for your continued encouragement and support.

Enlarge My Territory!

“Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” 1 Chronicles 4:10

Some of you may recall a couple years back the book “The Prayer of Jabez”, and though I recall reading it and passing it along to a friend, I couldn’t go in to much detail today about all that was in it. However, this once again came to mind last night after listening to Andy’s sermon and wanted to include it here.

For those of you who have been on a trip with me to Romania, you know that I know a lot of the Romanian students – how could I not after being over there so many times and for so many different camps! And, it would be extremely easy for me to go back these 3 months and continue building on the relationships previously created and encouraging them in their faith. However, last night brought a challenge, and Jabez’s prayer of “enlarge my territory” is something that I desire to see happen. I pray that God would open doors for me to meet many more students while I am in Romania and share what He has been doing in my life. I pray that I will take advantage of “opportunities” God places before me, and that I would share God’s love to all those around me.

“. . . enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” Acts 4:29

The Call of the Natural Life

“When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . .” Galatians 1:15-16

The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any particular way. My contact with the nature of God will shape my understanding of His call and will help me realize what I truly desire to do for Him. The call of God is an expression of His nature; the service which results in my life is suited to me and is an expression of my nature. The call of the natural life was stated by the apostle Paul— “When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him [that is, purely and solemnly express Him] among the Gentiles . . . .”

Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God. Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and then I serve Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. Service to God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is an expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of His nature. Therefore, when I receive His nature and hear His call, His divine voice resounds throughout His nature and mine and the two become one in service. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and out of devotion to Him service becomes my everyday way of life.

From “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers (Jan. 17)