Isaiah 55:5

Yesterday was Sunday, and our first church service that we attended was also a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for a couple in the church. It was such an honor to get to be a part of that celebration, and even though I couldn’t understand what people were saying, it was still beautiful to see the children of this couple get up and speak about their parents. I could only imagine their words, but I’m sure that the couples lives had been extremely influential, as everyone there was very emotional.

Later on that day we went to Targu Mures with some of our friends from Gornesti and Reghin to see a concert(Attila had to preach). The group was called The Messengers, and Attila was really sad that he didn’t get to go because they’re one of his favorites. Imagine a Romanian version of the Gaither Homecoming. But, it was actually really fun and Katie and I were excited because we realized that we actually have friends here – comparable to our friends at home. I know that sounds strange, and I guess it’s really not the same, but it was just so exciting for us to have people call us here and invite us to do things with them. We both thrive off of what little independence that we have, and our free time is so limited that we get excited about doing small things that are unplanned or by ourselves.

I have a prayer request that I would like to bring to your attention. The Seventh-Day Adventist group here are constantly doing everything they can to start conflicts with Attila and the gypsies in Apalina – sometimes it is worse than others, but they hate Attila and the ministry that he is doing with the people. This past week when we were teaching in Gornesti, he wasn’t able to spend as much time in Apalina with the gypsies, and the Adventists apparently took note of this and took advantage of his absence. They targeted about ten of our older children in the village, namely the ones who are within a year or two of being considered adults by the village standards(12 and 13 year olds). They told the children that if they would come to the Adventist church, and quit spending time with Attila, then they would pay for these ten to go to an Adventist camp. And if the children would be baptized into the Adventist church they would take them to camp every year. The problem here is that they are using the children to deliberately hurt Attila. If paying for these kids to go to camp was just a gift, then that would be one thing, but manipulating them into the church is completely different. These children don’t know the difference between the two groups and don’t understand anything about doctrine; they simply see an opportunity to go to a camp about Jesus every year and have fun. They don’t understand what they’re doing. I don’t want it to sound like we just want the the children to come to our camp because it’s ours so it’s better; I know I am biased, obviously I would rather the children came to our camp. It is just the way that the Adventists are going about manipulating the children that is upsetting, but there really is nothing that any of us can do about it and like Katie said in her blog, “This battle isn’t against flesh.” I’m asking for your prayers on behalf of these children, because thankfully God is in charge of their salvation, regardless of the decisions that they make this summer, however, I ask you to join us praying that all will end well.

Today we started our teaching in Reghin. We only have two classes, Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced. Katie and I are so excited though. Both of are classes are wonderful – and my “son” Alex from Apalina is in my Beginner/Intermediate class. Attila was surprised that he came, because he didn’t even tell Alex about the English classes. He’s the only child there! All of my students are either in their late teens or twenties, and Alex is 9. He is so precious – he didn’t have any paper yesterday, so I gave him some, and that boy took a page and a half of notes, front and back! I went to the Billa and bought him a notebook, so he can take notes in that from now on. I want so much for everyone to enjoy them, but especially Alex because Katie and I long to be able to speak with our children in Apalina more than just a few words here and there.

Attila has informed Katie and I that we are to learn a new song every week to sing for the churces…we decided on Hosanna from Hillsong this week – I apologize for the length of this blog, but I’d like to share the lyrics with you because they I think they’re so beautiful:

I see the King of Glory
Coming down the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

I see His love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

Hosanna Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Staring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees
We’re on our knees

Hosanna Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you
Have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into
Eternity

Today we had to wake up at 3:00 in the morning because we had to drive an hour to go fishing at a huge lake. It was amazing. The sun rises really early here; about 5:00 I would say and I was just in time to catch the tail end of it. Isn’t that incredible? I am never up early enough to catch the sunrise here, so I was so excited to finally see it.

Katie and I sort of got to experience life as a gypsy today. I have only been fishing a couple of times before, and none of those trips were like this. These men are serious about fishing;they devote an entire day to it and they’re really good! I mean, they kind of HAVE to be, because for some of them, that’s what their family will be living off of for awhile. But even though they are intense about it, fishing today was actually incredibly relaxing. We started fishing at about 5:15 and were there until 4:30 in the afternoon, but we caught so many fish! I caught ten but three of them were too small so we had to throw them back, and Katie caught ten and we were able to keep 8 of hers. According to the gypsies, Katie and I are fishing champions. Haha yeah right, I think they were just surprised we caught anything at all.
Because Katie and I don’t like to eat fish, Attila gave what the three of us caught to some poor families in Apalina, and I think it made catching the fish so much more meaningful for us.

I was really thankful that the rain was minimal today. It rained for about an hour, and then we pretty much had beautiful sunny weather for the rest of the time. I think I got some more freckles on my nose; I’m so excited!

At about 1:00 we had a picnic and all of the food was prepared over a little fire! It was SO good. I would definitely define it as “man food” haha considering it was mainly meat, but it really was incredible. I think the french fries were my favorite, but there really wasn’t anything prepared that wasn’t fantastic.

Katie and I are both more than a little sleep deprived and exhausted from our week of teaching, but we have been looking so forward to this trip; I can’t begin to describe how happy we were to be able to do this. Plus we actually got home at around 6:30 tonight, so we might actually catch up on most of our sleep!

Yesterday Katie and I almost had a reenactment of the Office Space scene with the copy machine – except ours was with Attila’s computer. His printer has given us trouble from the start with at least three paper jams a night, but yesterday morning we woke up to find that his computer was refusing to cooperate and promptly froze as soon as I tried to open one of my documents. This was at about 8:40 and after spending a good twenty minutes trying to figure out what to do, Katie and I just had to go ahead and leave with absolutely no notes, and no idea what to do. I knew I wanted to teach prepositions in a new way because Wednesday I just didn’t feel like anything was getting through. So Katie and I improvised all four of our classes and I think it probably ended up being the best teaching day we’ve had so far.

I think God was trying to teach US a lesson in confidence, but apparently it didn’t take too well because this morning we were still without a printer and computer, but we saved a bunch of things on Katie’s computer. Unfortunately, Katie’s computer died as soon as we got to the church – so once again we were without any notes. And this time, I had absolutely NO IDEA what to try to teach. Katie and I both had spurts of genius for our classes and we ended up being just fine. I made up games today for my afternoon Intermediate class because it’s mostly children and I think this was the most fun that they have had in the entire two weeks. They begged us not to stop the games when it was time for class to end. It was really rewarding and such a good way to end our two week teaching period here.

We have fallen in love with the ice cream here. Attila informed us that he could live off of it haha. Yesterday during our break, we bought some at the store and ate it in a little park a couple of blocks from church. We were all three sitting in silence just enjoying the weather (it actually wasn’t raining!) when out of the blue, Attila turned to Katie and I and remarked, “If you ever don’t know something, just eat an ice cream!” Oh the wisdom of that man. I think that might have to be my new life credo.

Today Katie and I were able to take a nap outside during our break! It was incredible. As I’m sure I have mentioned more than once, I have been missing warm weather, and today really was the first day that we have had sunshine for a lengthy period of time. It was sunny for awhile yesterday, but then it rained later on. Today, however, was perfect. I think summer is finally on it’s way.

We ate lunch at Lala and Ester’s (Zozo’s brother and sister-in-law) house today, and Ester made the most amazing cake I have ever had in my entire life. I am not exaggerating. The closest thing I can compare it to is an ice cream cake, but it wasn’t. The filling was some kind of chocolate and vanilla mousse, and I think the cake part was a yellow cake, but the mousse was frozen. I don’t know – I really can’t describe it much better than that. It was incredible. Katie and I both made Ester promise she would teach us how to make it. She is precious. We have really enjoyed having her in our class. She and Lala are having a baby in November, and they plan to name her Katie. We were both so excited to hear that haha.

Tomorrow we are going fishing!! I can’t wait. I really hope it doesn’t rain. The weather forecast has predicted it, but I’m hoping maybe it will be wrong. We have to wake up at 3:00 tomorrow morning! Aaaahhh. Oh well. I’m pretty sure it will be more than worth it; I’m just not looking forward to losing sleep. I am not sure at this point exactly who Attila has invited; I think some of the gypsy men from Apalina, and possibly Isti and his father. I’m sure tomorrow we’ll have a huge group because word gets around quickly here, and the men LOVE fishing.

I cannot believe that we have already been here for two weeks. It is going by so fast! I cannot even begin to express how much we have been blessed by this trip so far. Even when things have gone wrong, God has pulled us through in marvelous ways, and has sent us blessings we could never have imagined. Why is it so hard to just let go and trust Him sometimes? “I do believe, help my unbelief!” He is taking such incredible care of us here – every day I am being reminded of how His love is steadfast; it never wavers.

Today we had sunshine. Real honest to goodness sunshine that lasted more than 20 minutes. In fact, Katie and I sat outside today for about an hour during our break. It was AMAZING. It’s always really cold in the church, so getting to sit outside in the sun was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Attila and Katie have an UNO tournament going on – I don’t really understand the rules but they are intense about it. All I know is that the loser has to buy the winner a small gift. I think they decided on ice cream. I’m pretty sure Attila is winning right now, but they play every break that they have – I’m sure Katie will give him a run for his money.

Today I taught the Intermediate class some Prepositions and was caught completely off guard at just how confusing they are. I’m trying to find a slightly easier way to teach them tomorrow – possibly some visual aids would be helpful. Throughout this teaching process, Katie and I both have been finding out things about our language that we never knew before – or realizing that the way we say things doesn’t always have a rational answer. That is incredibly confusing to someone trying to learn our language. However, the Hungarians really can’t complain that much about English. Speaking as a student of the Hungarian language, I can safely say that this statement once made by a native is more than true, ” Do you know why Hungarian is the language of heaven? Because it takes an eternity to learn!”

Funny story: Attila came over last night to use our internet because apparently he lost a bet with his fiancee Adele, and he has to write her a love letter every day for a month! He claims that she picked this for him to do if he lost because he hates writing people, which I know is true, but I think he’s kind of tickled about having to compose love letters. Maybe a little clueless(he tried to get Katie and I to help him, but we adamantly refused haha) but as much as he pretends not to want to, I think he is enjoying it.

At almost every church service that we have been to while we’re here, everybody has asked us if we would sing a song, and Attila is making us prepare a new song every week. This has really been a struggle for me, because everywhere that we go if they have an organ I HAVE to play the organ, and Katie and I HAVE to sing. There have been times when I felt like a traveling performer, and I have really been wrestling with it. I have come to the conclusion that as much as I want to tend to feel guilty about seeing it as a performance and being afraid of showing off, it really is a blessing to these people. And if I can have my heart in the right place, and see that all I need to be doing is glorifying God and blessing the people around me, then it no longer becomes a performance but a ministry. Although I have thought about this many times while we’ve been here, tonight I finally felt okay because I could finally see that it really has nothing to do with me. My main goal here was for the people to see God, not me. And standing in front of people and singing is actually one of the best ways that I can do that. Katie and I both had a…well we’re going to call it a “moment” tonight where we literally didn’t see or look at anything but just sang for God, and I think that’s when I finally felt a peace about standing in front of the church and singing. If God has given me a voice, then I should use it for His glory and not be ashamed of what I have been given.
“For to whom much has been given, much will be required.”

I’m thinking of writing an Ode to Milka…seriously. What do you think? Katie and I were in a mood last night, and as only it can, Milka came to our rescue.

It has been raining here for what seems like FOREVER, and I think it’s getting to everybody. I’m finally adjusting to it not getting dark until 9:30 pm, but it is JUNE. Where is my warm weather?? It’s freezing here. They tell me it is because of the rain – I need sunshine. How am I going to get as brown as a gypsy if it rains the entire time I’m here??? Ok, we all know that will never happen, but I can at least hope.

I think it was just especially hard today because our classes were much smaller than usual; in fact, none of my beginners even showed up(I only have four – two in the morning, and two in the afternoon) and those who did show up were so quiet. It was unusual because most of the students are usually so upbeat…I think we are all just ready for some good weather.

Before we left for class yesterday morning, Katie read me the headline about the plane that disappeared over the Atlantic. It was extremely sobering news for both of us, and I think it was probably on our minds all day – I know it was on mine. Katie knows more about planes than I do, and informed me that it was the same kind of plane that we flew on to get here. My heart goes out to all of the people who were on board and to their families, and will be remembering them in prayer. I really cannot imagine the hopelessness of such an experience, or the terror of being on that plane.

Katie took some pictures of our apartment last night. I’ll post one – this is the view from our balcony – I LOVE IT! I really wish you could all see how amazing this place is that we live in. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but it is the best one we’ve taken so far.

Yesterday was Pentecost. We spent the entire day visiting and speaking at different churches, and today we are still celebrating, so we went to three more churches for a day of worship and adoration for the great gift we have in the Holy Spirit.

I finally bought a dry erase board at the Selgros today for my beginner class(we have one for the intermediate and advanced classes), so I’m excited about finally getting to use that! I think it will make teaching a lot easier, especially now that the beginner classes are starting to form sentences and learn simple grammar.

Last night, we had Zolie and Abigail over for dinner, and it was so much fun! Katie and I love having people over here every once in a while, and it was a great opportunity to get to just sit and speak without having any time constraints. We were able to find out a good deal about life during the rule of communism here, and the changes that have taken place in the last twenty something years. It is still incredible to me, just how much has happened in such a short time, and how terrible things were about the time I was born. I am humbled when I think of the difference in my and Katie’s childhood versus Attila’s and he is only a few years older than us.

This is our last week to teach in Gornesti, and as Katie and I were walking to lunch today, we spoke about how much we will miss this village. Everyone here has been so good to us, and we feel at home in pretty much every house we have visited. Plus the students are a joy to teach, so I think it will be a little bit hard for us to leave, but we must. I am going to try to take a lot of pictures this week, so hopefully I can post some of our classes soon.

Next week we will begin in Reghin, but we only have one week there before we start camp at Harghita. I’m looking very forward to that because I have heard great things from everyone who has been; and Katie and I are looking forward to seeing the Borzasi families again.

Katie and I didn’t have to go to the third meeting at Peris tonight, so we stayed home and made our OWN dinner and started to work on our lesson plans for this week. We made grilled cheese sandwhiches and ate Pringles – such a typical college student dinner. It made me extraordinarily happy.

We actually went to the store by ourselves tonight before we made dinner because we needed some bread. We were pretty proud of ourselves because we didn’t have to have Attila with us. Katie and I both crave independence and it is pretty much nonexistent lately, so the little things we do by ourselves make us really happy haha.

It’s funny, Katie and I have mastered the art of nonverbal communication; we just realized this the other day though! It just cracks me up at how often we use it and we didn’t even know we were for the longest time. Sometimes we don’t even have to look at each other, we just know what the other is thinking. I am so thankful for her; I really don’t know what I’d do without her to keep me laughing. God has blessed me with such a beautiful friendship, and I will forever be grateful for this experience with her.

“Come, O Holy Spirit, come. Come as the wind and cleanse; come as the fire and burn; convert and consecrate our lives to our great good and your great glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”