Every time I come home from a mission trip it takes me a while to get back to "normal." This time around was especially hard because of the jet lag caused by the 8 hour time difference between Romania and Kansas. But, 1+ week after being home I finally feel "normal" - whatever that is.
So, it's time to give a report of my trip to Romania. I could be brief and just say, "It was good, we worked hard, we were tired and very hot," and it would all be true. However, for the sake of those that don't get to go on these types of trips I feel compelled to be more specific.
Two years ago, when I returned from Haiti, the first thing Jaedon said to me was, "I missed you Mom. Please don't ever do that again!" Tears were running down his face and it broke my heart in a whole new way. And here I was, going to Romania for twice as long as the Haiti trip - and this time taking his dad with me. I was worried about how he'd handle us being gone. A few months ago when we first told him we might be going to Romania he said, "Can't you just stay here and tell people about Jesus?" But God answered our prayers concerning Jae. The night before we left I asked if he was okay with us leaving. He said, "I'm not worried because God is in control. He's bigger than anything." Thank you Lord for answered prayer.
We left the US on Thursday morning (7/5) and arrived in Budapest, Hungary on Friday morning (due to the time change and a 5 hour layover in Chicago). We flew into Hungary because it was a bit cheaper. Plus it saved us in the long run... 4 of our bags didn't make it to the airport at the same time we did. One contained all of Charlie's (one of the team members) clothes, and two others contained computer towers for Scott and Carolyn to use in their ministry (you'll hear more about them later on). The 4th one had some VBS supplies. We finally received the bags on Sunday and not a thing was missing. Had we flown into Bucharest (in Romania), it would have been a different story. Corruption is not uncommon, and likely, had our bags gone through security hands in the Romanian airport, the computers would have been gone along with anything else that looked good to them.
Friday night, Keith had the beginnings of an anxiety attack. The combination of having little to no sleep in the past 24 hours, being overheated, staying in a room where the windows opened right onto the street - with no screens to keep passers-by out, dogs barking, people talking in the street outside and being in a foreign country took it's toll on him. It has been a long time since his anxiety has caused him problems. I am so grateful that he has learned to handle it. I'm also grateful that God allowed us to take this trip together so I could be there for him. I felt compelled to pray that the blood of Christ would be a cover over him and empower him to control what was going on in his mind. I told him before hand that the prayer might sound weird, but that it is what I was feeling lead to pray. After I prayed for him, he prayed a prayer of confession - he told God that he had not been trusting in Him but in himself. After that he seemed to sleep okay and to my knowledge he didn't have any major anxiety issues the rest of the trip. Well... until we were flying through turbulence several times between Munich and Chicago on the way home - but that's a different type of anxiety.
The whole first week we stayed at Iosif's (pronounced Yosif) house in Timisoara. Having no a/c was definitely an adjustment. The day we got groceries we also bought some fans so we could at least circulate the air in our rooms. They helped, but it was still hot. It was over 100 F many of the days of our trip.
On Saturday we walked around Revolution Square in Timisoara. I don't have room to give all the information on the Revolution that took place, but here is a link if you'd like to learn more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_revolution. For the purposes of this post, all you need to know is that the Revolution that took Romania from Communism to a Democracy occurred in December of 1989 and a large part of of the protesting took place in Revolution Square in Timisoara. The bullet holes are still present in some of the buildings.
After our tour we drove about an hour to Gataia, a small village of about 3000, where we were going to hold VBS the following week. (My Romania friends - please correct me if I have any of my facts wrong!!!) Some of us stayed and helped Iosif set up some tents (so the kids would have some shade) and others went around the village with Iosif's youth leaders (aged 14-18) to tell the kids there would be VBS that week.
The church, Biserica Tabor, in Gataia is a blessing to the community. The pastor lives in Timisoara. He has a successful business there, but says that as long as God keeps blessing him he will keep giving back to the community. The church is not huge but it is beautiful. It is being finished in stages, but we were blessed to be able to use the only room with an air-conditioner to rest in during our breaks during VBS. They also have a well that is available for the whole village to use. Several times a day we saw people walk, drive, or bicycle up to the pump with their bottles to be refilled. It's not that they don't have running water, but not everyone has water that is safe to drink. Many people have wells in their own yards. But for those that don't have them, the church is able to provide clean water.
Sunday we were able to attend church at Biserica Tabor. I was surprised at how similar their service was to the one at Hope Community (where I attend). Though the songs were in Romanian, I recognized many of the tunes. The praise band that leads worship comes from Timisoara as well. They didn't have a drummer, so Keith jokingly told Iosif he could play. Iosif took him at his word so they tried tracking down some drum sticks. When they couldn't find them, Keith settled for a couple of short (but very thick) broom handles! (*side note* twice in our church, the drummer has not gotten back into the service on time for one of the songs so Keith has jumped up on stage to fill in - and he did it well! - I love this man!) Another similarity with Hope, they had their youth leaders who had just come back from a retreat/training camp with Iosif talk about their experience - JUST LIKE we have people talk about the mission trips they go on. Also, every time a missionary comes to Hope they always give a brief talk to the congregation. And just the same in Gataia. Randy Moss was elected to be our delegate to the congregation. The cool thing was that the verses he focused on were the same verses two other guests speakers had talked about in previous weeks. So, when the pastor (the youth Pastor - Raoul - gave the sermon) got up to speak he mentioned that and said that God must really want them to hear what he has to say.
This was the day I also stopped trusting Iosif. He is one ornery guy!!! He was introducing us to the pastor and he told me, "You say _______________." (I can't remember what the Romania words are). So I repeated after him. Then he looked at me in mock shock and said, "That wasn't nice!" Me:"Iosif! What did you tell me to say???" Iosif: "You just told him, 'You have an ugly church here in Gataia.'" From that day forward, I never repeated what he told me to say until I confirmed through one of the other translators. Though I do take comfort in the fact that I wasn't the only one he tricked. During VBS he had Keith tell the kids, "You are all bad children!" Oh Iosif!
Well, this is a long enough post for one day, and look - I made it through 4 days of the trip! Only 13 days to go! :) I'll try to be less long-winded in the days to come.
Thanks for praying for us while we were away. Even though you weren't with us physically, your prayers put you there with us spiritually.
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