Isaiah 55:5

We went to a wedding yesterday!! Katie and I were wedding crashers. We had actually met the groom once before in the church at Reghin and we knew his brother from the Reghin church, but we had never met the bride. So we really didn’t know the couple at all. But that didn’t stop us from driving four hours with a bunch of the family members, performing in the wedding and taking part in all of the traditions. In fact, we were so successful in our crashing endeavor, that we actually got a picture of just the two of us with the bride and groom. Here is my proof:

I am very glad that we got to experience a wedding here in Romania. I am all about cultural experiences, and this was one of the most rewarding I’ve ever had. After a four hour in an extremely unreliable 30 year old minibus, we arrived at the church. From there, all of the family( including us of course) went to the bride’s house. It is tradition for the groom, groomsmen, and the best man to ask her father if she can get married that day, and then they asked the bride. The groom picks out the bouquet beforehand, and takes it to her house to present to her. I’m guessing at one point that was probably used as some kind of bribery to get her to come. After some speaking they all came out of the house and got in the cars that had been decorated by the bridal party with balloons and tissue paper. They’re much more considerate with their car decorating than we are. Then we drove our happy procession to a couple of places around the city, amidst much honking, to take pictures. After that, we went back to the church and had the ceremony. We sang some traditional hymns, and the choir sang a few of their own arrangements, and then there was a sermon. After that were some short vows, another kind of mini-sermon mainly directed towards the bride and groom( I’m guessing it was some kind of exhortation about the importance of what they were doing – unfortunately we didn’t have a translator) and then we went downstairs for the reception to eat the first course of the meal. Did I mention that weddings are an ALL DAY ordeal? The eating goes on for six hours. Yes, that’s right, six. Our appetizer alone was like a meal. That was followed by coffee, and while we were eating we sang a bunch of hymns.

After about an hour and a half, we went back upstairs and people gave the bride and groom their greetings, and sang a song or two, or put on a skit or read a Bible passage or something of that sort. The problem with being an amateur at wedding crashing, is that I didn’t realize if people find out that you have a talent, especially a musical one, that comes in really handy for free entertainment. I ended up learning a song by ear in 15 mintues because the bridesmaids didn’t bother to find an accompanist beforehand. After listening to it once, they informed me that they wanted to sing it…get ready, a fourth lower. For those of you who know anything about music, this is like the ultimate horror story. I also had to come up with an arrangement to a love song for the Reghin Youth group to sing, and oh yes, I had a mic thrust on me, and I had to play AND sing on that one. THEN, Katie and I had to sing and give our greetings. Like I said, I’m an amateur at this, so next wedding I crash, nobody is going to know I have any musical ability. I’m going to pretend to be tone deaf.

We ended up having four more courses of our meal, more hymns, and then the best part. The cake. Wedding cakes here are AMAZING. To bring in the cake, they turned off all of the lights, and brought in the cake which was covered in sparklers!!! It was so dramatic and AWESOME. in Romania, people give gifts at the reception, and Attila said it is tradition at most weddings that after you give the couple your gift, they give you a piece of cake. But he said it depends on the village, and at this wedding, everyone received a piece of cake, whether they gave a gift or not. Most people gave gifts of money, but some people did give household items.

At about 9:45 pm, we started home, and we got back to Reghin shortly after 2:30 am. I’m not going to lie, I’m thankful for American weddings after this experience because I’m EXHAUSTED, but I can’t even begin to express how incredible it was to be able to share in the occasion of a wedding here. I crossed one more thing off of my life goals list today.

Attila is really interested in starting a ministry with some of the children from Peris, that came to our English classes in Gornesti, so we spent Thursday afternoon with them playing soccer and English games. We mainly are just establishing relationships with them right now because although we had them in class, Attila had never met any of them before, so he really wants to begin to work with them like he does with the children in Gornesti and Apalina. They really are sweet children – we taught them how to play “Wink ‘Em” and they LOVED it.

We came home from Harghita this week to a problem in Apalina. The church members are undergoing quite a bit of difficulty right now. Apparently, there was a misunderstanding between one of the members and his wife(who is not a believer) and it turned into a huge ordeal that now involves many people. On Tuesday night, church was very emotional. Every member was crying, and there was a lot of arguing and accusations flying around the room. It was very tense. Please pray for this church. If this problem is not resolved, it could destroy the church. Nobody wants to take the blame for anything, and they are too proud to admit that they are wrong, or to apologuze to anyone. One of the big problems as well, is that because they all live so close together, there really isn’t any way to avoid each other, so if one member sees another member talking with someone, they are automatically assuming it’s about them etc… It is just not a good situation.

Eight of our older children from Apalina also went to the Adventist camp this week. However, they were not few very well aparently, and several of them went climbing on the rocks near the camp to pick berries because they were hungry, and Bianca fell and hit her head and had to be taken to the Targu Mures hospital by helicopter. Last I heard, they think she is going to be just fine, but the parents in Apalina are VERY angry at the Adventist because of this incident. Attila said that unfortunately for us, Bianca probably will not come to our camp, and we may have some problems with other parents. Hopefully everything will be fine, and no one will be injured at our camp so that we can maintain the trust of the people.

We had our halfway party on Thursday instead of Friday because if worked better for some of the people coming, and we were able to play Phase 10, finally! Attila won and he was ecstatic. I didn’t realize just how LONG of a card game that was until we played it with 6 people. It takes FOREVER. But we loved it. We made grilled cheese for dinner, and served that cake we bought with the rum flavor in it so we didn’t have to eat it haha – it was a really fun night. It is so amazing to be able to call people up when we have free nights and invite them over to the apartment – just like we would do back home. We live here. We live in Romania.

Katie and I briefly talked today about how much it is going to hurt when we leave. Neither one of us is really ready to talk about it, I think. We are homesick sometimes, and we want to see our families, but this week, both of us experienced that first pain of the thought of leaving. We have friends here. Real friends that we know well and love. Not only have we been completely immersed in a culture vastly different from our own, we’ve been given the opportunity to live a new life here. To share in experiences with new people, and to grow with and be involved with lives that will soon be a world away from us. When we go home we will have best friends on the other side of the world. And that is why it hurt this week to think about leaving. But I know that if God wills for me to return, that my friends will be here waiting, because they tell me all the time, “I wait you. I wait you when you come back.”

We are back in Reghin now. We returned to our apartment yesterday, and were greeted with the most horrible banging, drilling, and construction noises that one could possibly make into our wall. Apparently our neighbor is doing some “home repair” or destroying everything in his flat because the noise has been going on for a full day now. It’s enough to drive us crazy, but I will admit, our washing machine is abnormally loud, so maybe this is payback and we’re getting a taste of our own medicine.

This week is our halfway week. Katie and I couldn’t remember exactly what day would be our halfway mark, so we decided that we would celebrate this whole week. We will fly home exactly a month from today, actually. A new market opened right beside our apartment building, so we went grocery shopping yesterday, and bought some Snickers and Peanut M&M’s to celebrate. We also got some kind of cake thing that we thought would be good, but like everything here, it was flavored with Rum. I don’t know what it is with this country, but they put Rum flavoring in EVERYTHING that has chocolate. It’s sold alongside vanilla here, but I think they use it way more often than vanilla. Katie and I are sick of chocolate that isn’t just chocolate, so we’re going to serve our “rum cake thing” at our halfway party this weekend so we don’t have to eat it haha. (We decided to invite some people over to play Phase 10 on Friday.)

I had goulash(is that really how you spell it?) finally yesterday! Apparently there’s more than one kind, shows how much I know, but we had potato and sausage goulash. It was amazing. I definitely want to take that back home to America and have it again. There really haven’t been THAT many things that I’ve eaten here that I am set on making once I get home; maybe two or three things, but goulash is now definitely one of them.

While Katie and I were at Harghita, we had the opportunity to talk to an amazing woman named Margaret. She is from England, and moved to Romania back in 1990, but she has been coming to Romania since 1973, I think. She’s a full time nurse now at Harghita, but when she started coming to Romania, it was to smuggle Bibles and Christian literature in during the communist era. I cannot even begin to express how incredible it was to sit and listen to some of her stories. Katie and I were kicking ourselves for not bringing a recorder or something, but of course we didn’t know beforehand. She is the epitome of someone who has lived a full life, and a life of service for the Lord. It is so different to read or learn stories in school about communism than it is to actually get stories from the mouth of someone who experienced it firsthand, and who knew people who were killed for their beliefs or suffered greatly at the hands of Ceausescu. Katie and I were so blessed by meeting her, and getting to hear about her life. As cliche as it sounds, she is probably one of the greatest people that I’ve ever met. I’m sure there are a lot of people like her in the world who have even more incredible stories; I’m just so extremely grateful that Katie and I had the opportunity to speak with her. I think she has made a lot of sacrifices in her life, but if you mentioned it, she would probably disagree that they were sacrifices. Margaret’s life has been so fulfilling; one day I hope to say that my life has had a third of the servitude that hers has.

“He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:30

Today is Father’s Day. I know my dad will read this, so I’d like to wish him a Happy Father’s day. I love and am missing you very much today Papa. I wish I could be in two places at once…
If any other dads read this, the wishes for a great day extend to you too!

I promised pictures, so here are a few that I’ve taken this week:

They are such great students!

This is Kati – She is one of my favorites.
She’s so patient with my terrible attempts
at Hungarian.

The Parachute was a big hit!!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the responsibility involved in leadership. Katie and I have had some interesting conversations since we’ve been here about just that. We were discussing last night about how all of the children watch us very closely. I’m not sure if they are comparing us to the image that they have of Americans from television and movies etc… if it is because we are believers, and speak to them about it every day, or if it is simply because we are different from them. I was overwhelmed last night after realizing many times throughout the day that children were just staring at me – for seemingly no reason. What do they see? What are they thinking? Am I putting forth the person every day that I want them to see? I really think that I am; knowing that I am being watched so closely does put a different perspective on how I behave, even subconsciously sometimes. When I leave this camp, what do I want the children to remember about me? Namely, that I both told and showed them the love of Christ. I don’t think that the little English that I’ve taught them this week really matters. But I want them to know in their hearts that they are loved. Will they remember that? Will they tell their families? Will they be impacted for the rest of their lives? My only desire is to say with the Psalmist, “You are loved. There is no reason to be afraid. In love God created your inmost self and knit you together in your mother’s womb.”(Psalm 139:13)
Responsibility. We have a responsibility not only as leaders of these children to proclaim this message, but also as children of God. This is the good news. There is a Love far greater than any love that I can offer – am I fulfilling my responsibility to share it with every one that I meet? It sounds so trite, “Love your neighbor”, but do I really unconditionally love my neighbor? It seems easy to love these children, but after I go home, will it still be as easy to love those around me?

“Let me love you, my Lord and my God, and see myself as I really am: a pilgrim in this world, a Christian called to respect and love all whose lives I touch, those in authority over me, or those under my authority, my friends and my enemies.”

Today, Katie and I have officially been here a month. I know, I know, my blog says Day 28, but it really has been a month today since we flew into Romania. To celebrate, we took a nap, and bought some chocolate. This is pretty much the best day of our lives. Just kidding. But it has been a great day.

I think I am starting to get used to being cold here – being in the mountains is wonderful, but I’m still having to convince myself that it is the middle of June and not March. Also, as soon as I get home, I would like for someone with a scientific brain to please explain to me why it doesn’t get dark until 10:00 pm here, but it is fully light out at 5:00 am? I would like a very simplified answer because I don’t feel like thinking too hard about it. But I really do want to know.

Katie is teaching the English class today, and I will teach tomorrow, so I’m taking advantage of my limited free time to blog. On the first full day that we were here at camp, Katie taught the children how to say Hello and Goodbye. Unfortunately, the word they use most as a greeting, Szia, basically means Hi and Bye and of course they use it as both, so without fail, everytime we greet the children in the morning some of them say very energetically, “Goodbye!!”

Yesterday we went on a 7 mile trek to a mineral water spring, and I cannot believe how sore I am today! I would not have thought I was out of shape considering how much I ran before I came over here, but by the way that my legs feel today, I’m worried about myself haha. I think we wore all of the children out after the excursion. They were so quiet at dinner!! Like I’ve said before, they really are incredibly well behaved for the most part, but last night they were angels.

Katie and I were talking about the children the yesterday while we were walking back from the spring, and we came to a funny conclusion. I don’t think a couple of the younger children have realized that we really don’t understand about 90% of what they’re saying. They know we speak another language, but many of them still come up to me and Katie and talk to us emphatically about something for about 10 minutes, and as many times as I try to explain in my very poor Hungarian that I don’t understand, or ask them to speak slowly, they still keep going 90 miles an hour like we’re natives haha. I’ve gotten to the point where I just nod, and smile and say “Ohhh…igen(yes).”

There is a tennis court here at camp, and I’ve started playing again. I didn’t realize that it’s been three years since I’ve been on the courts. Attila is pretty good, so we’ve been engaging in some hardcore playing – so far I’m losing, but I’m proud to say it’s really only because I can’t serve to save my life, and his serve is the only thing he’s consistent with. (Attila if you read this don’t be offended – you know it’s true.) I also played Volleyball for the first time Wednesday and LOVED it! Katie and I are really enjoying being so active with the children. It’s nice to be able to do something with them that doesn’t require a whole lot of conversation, but at the same time, there is a bonding of sorts involved in playing with them. I love seeing the personalities come out in the children when we’re playing games – some of them are SO competitive. I’ve taken quite a few pictures, but I haven’t had the chance to upload any, so hopefully soon I’ll be able to post some of the children. They are so PRECIOUS.

“I offer you, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on you;
my words: to have you for their theme;
my actions: to reflect my love for you;
my sufferings: to be endured for your greater glory.”

Well, here we are on our second full day here. The children have warmed up to us so much, and that is a blessing. We played a lot of sports with them yesterday; well Katie played volleyball, and I played something comparable to tennis, haha, but we had a lot of fun. I had a breakthrough yesterday when a boy asked me if I wanted to play basketball in Hungarian, and I knew what he was asking! I still haven’t learned as many verbs as I would like – but Orsi gave me homework on our last day in Reghin, so as soon as I get the chance, I will start to work on it.

Katie taught the English class yesterday, and I will teach today. It is a little more difficult than any of the other classes we’ve taught because these children learn very slowly. Although our children from Apalina have a terribly attention span, they do learn fairly quickly. Mirjam informed us that most of these children here quit going to school after fourth grade, so that causes difficulty in teaching them, but I think as long as there is a lot of interaction and they are having fun, they will learn something.

Yesterday I surprised myself. I haven’t eaten a banana in at least 12 years. Anyone who knows me knows that I pick bananas out of banana pudding because I hate them so much. Well, yesterday at lunch, they had bananas, and Katie was going on and on about how good they were…I was curious. So I tried one, and it was actually pretty good haha. I don’t think this is the start of a long-lasting relationship or anything, but at least my opinion has been improved of bananas. However, all of the fruit here is better than the fruit in the States, so I really doubt I’ll be eating any when I come home.

I went on a walk with a couple of the older girls yesterday and had a somewhat decent conversation in Hungarian until the end of the walk, when they started asking me a question that I didn’t know. They persisted for awhile, but then gave up, so I was a little discouraged, but I have to remind myself that I am learning. This is SUCH a learning process, and I’m finding so many things out about myself. For one thing, I have never felt so vulnerable for such a long period of time and it is taxing. But I think it is a good thing as well, because I am finding that some things are easier – like prayer, for example. And love. It is so easy to love these children when I feel that I have nothing else to offer them. And I think they are beginning to love us in return, which is comforting. God works in mysterious ways, and even when I feel that I will never learn this language, I am still able to establish relationships and see Him working through them.

‘I trust in your faithfulness. Grant my heart joy in your help, that I may sing of the Lord, “How good our God has been to me!” ‘
Psalm 13:6

We are finally here in Harghita. It is REALLY cold here. I’m glad I brought a hoodie, because we are up in the mountains, and Katie and I were freezing already today. It is beautiful here; I hope to post some pictures soon. This campground is very nice. Much nicer than any camps I went to growing up.

Katie and I absolutely love all of the flowers in this country. I swear, I have never seen flowers like the ones here in Romania. It must be something in the soil, or the climate or something, because I’m not kidding, you have not lived until you see the lilies and the roses. They’re HUGE. Gyula offered Katie and I some flowers from the chapel, and I don’t care if Customs pulls me aside on the way home, I may try to sneak some back in my suitcase.

I cannot believe how well behaved these gypsy children are. It just doesn’t seem right somehow. I really miss our children in Apalina a lot – these children are very quiet, and don’t seem interested in getting to know us at all. I’m hoping maybe they are just shy, or intimidated, or something, and after a day or two will warm up to us. I had to work for a smile today from any of them – I mean WORK. I can count on one hand the amount of smiles I received in return. I’m sure that once we are able to be in classes with them and start playing games and doing crafts, it will be different. They are just unlike any of the other children that we have worked with so far. Please pray that we will be able to establish relationships with them, and that God will give us the wisdom to discern the individual needs of each child here. Katie and I want so badly to be able to love them the way that we are called to love them, so pray that we will be given the opportunity to form relationships with these children and show them God’s love.

I am way behind on my blogging! Hopefully this won’t be too long of a post…
Yesterday was our last day of teaching in Reghin – we enjoyed it so much! Plus getting some one-on-one tutoring in our languages was such an unexpected blessing! We decided to invite our older students to come over to the apartment to play Ligretto, which might just be the greatest card game ever(save UNO of course). I thought it would be fun to make them some cookies, and I figured since I wasn’t used to Attila’s oven, maybe a fool-proof recipe would be the best. Katie and I decided on Fudgy No-Bakes, because you don’t even have to cook them…how could anyone mess that up right? Well, I’m very sorry to say that they did not turn out as I hoped. However, it wasn’t necessarily my fault. Apparently, the oats here are not quite like our oats at home – and they never actually cooked. They just stayed REALLY hard. So, if you ignored the consistency; it was similar to little rocks – the cookies were very good haha, but we threw them out. We bought some pretzels and cookies instead. It was a really fun night – but in order to prove to myself that I wasn’t a failure at cooking, Katie and I bought some pasta and made it for our dinner.

Today, boys from Zolie and Zozo’s villages(unfortunately, I cannot remember the village names to save my life), Gornesti, and Apalina got together to play a soccer tournament of sorts. Two teams played, and then the other two played, then the two teams that lost played each other, and the two winning teams played each other. I’m not sure if that sentence made sense or not, but I’ll move on. Here is a picture of our boys from Apalina…aren’t they precious? They’re so serious.

The overall winners of the day were Zozo’s boys – which Attila informed us, is usually the case in these tournaments. Katie and I were, as we should be, pulling for Apalina, but unfortunately we came in last. Our boys played very well. All of these boys can PLAY. WOW. I don’t even want to talk about the comparison of American middle school soccer to the soccer over here. It was incredible. All of the boys were so serious about playing and they all played their hearts out. Some of course were much better than others, but they are all so passionate; it was a blast to watch them play. Because these boys know each other so well and play together all the time, it helps with their communication. More often than not, it was flawless, and I’m sure that comes with being able to practice together every day.

I started reading a book by Henri Nouwen called In the Name of Jesus, and one of the passages just jumped out at me yesterday. I was watching all of the boys during the soccer games, and noticing how the ones from Apalina were so much worse behaved than everyone else . After the games we went to Apalina to take them home and have the children’s Bible meeting, and I couldn’t help thinking, as bad as they are, they’re my favorite kids in the entire world. And I would rather spend an afternoon with them than anyone else. I came across this passage in my book: ” I discover that I am learning many new things, not just about the pains and struggles of wounded people, but also about their unique gifts and graces. They teach me about joy and peace, love and care and prayer – what I could never have learned in any academy. They also teach me what nobody else could have taught me, about grief and violence, fear and indifference. Most of all, they give me a glimpse of God’s first love.”
I couldn’t have put it better into words if I tried. These children are teaching me – I came here to teach, and I am being taught. I have learned more about prayer after listening to them pray, more about joy after playing with them for an hour, and more about peace every minute that I spend in their presence. Every day that I am with them, I love them all a little bit more.

Yesterday morning we were able to go swimming at a pool here in Reghin. Well, I didn’t swim, but Katie did. You have to pay to swim, and they keep it VERY clean. I was really impressed with how sanitary everything was. It was much nicer than any of our public pools. I sat outside in the sun and read the only book I brought with me: C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces. I haven’t had the opportunity to read yet at all, so I was excited to have some down time. I put sunscreen on twice, but as usual I got extremely sunburned. I think my skin is just a magnet for pain. And to make things worse, it is NOT an even burn at all haha. It’s in weird splotches. I guess I should be happy that I got some color…

As I suspected, my class has been different sizes every day, because different children from Apalina are coming, and not all of them have the time(or want to come) every day. I have had about four consistently come to class, but yesterday I had about 14 students, and today I had 7, so I really just have to take my lesson planning one day at a time. I didn’t want to teach just vocabulary today, but that’s what ended up happening. I think because tomorrow is the last day, I’ll try to focus a lot on writing and forming sentences in simple present using the vocab that they have learned, and hopefully everyone will be able to keep up. I’m glad that we will have most of these children at Attila’s camp in July, because we can review some of this and make sure they all learn it.

This morning we went to an outdoor market. It was so much fun! This market was mostly vegetables and fruit, but there were people selling clothes, and men cooking sausages and whatever that meat is that sounds like “mitch” but I’m sure is probably spelled like “mics”. Anyway, Katie and I bought some strawberries because we have both been craving them. There really is nothing in this world like the smell of fresh strawberries. It reminded me of being home actually – when we were young and Mom would get us up at 5:00 in the morning to go to the strawberry farm…but I digress. These were the best strawberries I have ever had, hands down. We bought two kilos of them(we paid about $3.50!), and they are already halfway gone. I don’t know what it is about the produce here, but there is no comparison to the produce at home. I know everything is fresh and organic here, and that makes a huge difference, but wow. I didn’t even think I liked certain vegetables until I had them here – like cabbage, for example. I have always hated cabbage, but I am now a fan. Shocking I know. It must be something in the air, because we can’t drink the water.

Our English classes are going so well, but let me just freak out a little about my Hungarian class. I cannot BELIEVE how much work Orsi is putting into teaching me. That girl is incredible. I feel a little guilty, but she promises that she had time, and it wasn’t any extra work at all…I’m still not sure I believe her, but I think she really enjoys teaching, so maybe this good for her. I learned SO many verbs yesterday, and actually conjugated three correctly in front of her. She has also come up with more helpful vocabulary than I’ve learned all semester with my computer program. I’m really disappointed that we only have one day left teaching here in Reghin, because I am learning so much.

As much as the title of this blog sounds like a kindergarten show, we actually had a real adventure today. We decided to walk from our apartment to the church in Reghin. We knew approximately where it was, and we were pretty sure we could find it. We actually ended up taking the long way, but we definitely made it in about 20 minutes. We were so excited!

About four more of our children from Apalina came to my class today. I was so happy because they are all so incredibly eager to learn, and I’m better with children than with adults any day. I have the feeling that my class will be different kids from the village every day, which might make it a little hard to plan lessons, but I think as long as I make them enjoyable and they actually learn something then that is really what matters the most.

Katie and I are taking classes too! A couple of her Advanced students offered to help her with Romanian, and me with Hungarian after our English classes. I’m so excited. I have learned more in two days than I learned in a month with my computer program at home. I think if I can learn to really start forming sentences, I could be on my way to becoming somewhat proficient by the end of these nine weeks. I know a ton of vocabulary, but I can’t seem to conjugate verbs and put sentences together to save my life.

After class today we went to Apalina to spend some time with the children. We ended up playing on the hill, and for about an hour, engaged in the most intense game of Red Rover I have ever been a part of. I thought for sure someone’s arm was going to get broken. The children were extremely energetic today; more than usual, and Katie and I were worn out after a couple of hours, but it was wonderful to get to spend so much time with them.

I fell in love with a new child today. His name is Gyorgy, and he can’t be more than four years old. Attila had never met him before, and had to ask the other children who he was. They informed Attila that Gyorgy’s family is very poor, which by Apalina’s standards means his family is probably starving and possibly homeless. He stole my heart the minute I saw his little brown curls, and even though he didn’t say a word the whole time we were there, when we finished playing on the hill, he took my hand and smiled at me, and I was a goner. Look how precious he is!