Location: My house, the village of C., Romania, at 6pm on the 18th of September, 2010.
Yes, believe it or not, I am sitting quietly in my house! The past two weeks have been hectic with the commute into town and back, and frequently I am sleeping elsewhere, either at J's apartment or my place of work. But there is nothing like home sweet home!
As I often do, I will fill you in backwards. Today proved to be interesting. It was our first day of starting up the children's program in our village after the primary leader moved elsewhere last spring. Though I had not attended this "Little Explorers" group in the past, my opinion says that it was a stunning success. We sang songs, taught about Creation, and went on a hike to bring back pieces of nature, with nearly 30 children in attendance. I will not often be involved here because I normally will be involved in another children's program with my other job, but it was good to be here today for the kickoff to encourage the leaders who were a little unsure about doing it without their fearless leader from the past!
Do you ever feel that way? Like you cannot continue something if the gifted person who began a good work eventually has to move on? Please let me remind you that our God, from whom every good thing comes, will continue to be with you and lead you as long as you let Him! Trust Him if He puts His confidence in you, and continue to press on in obedience!
Even with teaching French and English this morning, our debut program, and other work I had today, the day proved slower than I expected. Thus I caught a needed nap (during which I had more dreams--please continue to pray for my understanding of these dreams), and now I have time to write and hopefully to catch up on my huge pile of emails from the past several weeks!
Yesterday found me visiting the community of V., the dear people of whom I worked with many times last year. (This is a different village than the one I plan to live in.) It was good to see the kids there, and to be able to tell them that we will be starting up our weekly programs there next week. I visited town by myself, but I was delighted to be so easily accepted into that rough area. In fact, I had a special victory.
You see, as I walked by some men putting a roof on a house, one started challenging me, asking me to come help for half an hour. I did not understand everything he said, and wondered if he might not be drunk, and politely declined, explaining that I still had a lot of houses to visit. He persisted, and I continued to decline, eventually walking away. After about three steps, though, I knew what I had to do. I did an about-face and walked up to him, asking him how I could help. It turns out they did not really need my help, and after we conversed for a while, they sent me merrily on my way asking for prayer and blessing me verbally. However, I heard him say, "I never dreamed he would actually come! I can't believe it!" He told me that he saw I had a good heart, and I told him maybe we could work together another time. In that brief delay, I won an enormous victory in front of several neighbors. I gained this man's respect; now I am more than a foreign do-gooder and child-worker who brings candy and leaves, who says nice things but does no real work to back up what he says. I won a victory that will result in that home being open to me anytime I need to enter, and I will have an advocate in that village--a man's voice--which is extremely valuable. May God get the glory, and may this man come to know Jesus intimately. Please pray for him. I asked him his Name, and he basically told me John, like John the Baptist. I had trouble understanding if he was telling me the truth, but if you pray for "John," the Lord will know who you mean. Please pray for the Lord to meet his every spiritual and physical need.
Yes, the life I live is often humbling, even humiliating, as my days unroll in the middle of a foreign culture. Through my weaknesses, failures, and mistakes, the Lord reveals His majesty, to the glory of His Name. Yet this week, not only did He lead me into the victory I described above, but He also permitted me the opportunity of saving a damsel in distress. For those of you who do not know, I enjoy being the knight in shining armor, and it is not often that I get to play the role in an appropriate setting.
Nevertheless, as I headed to our first-of-the-season rehearsal for our gospel choir, I stood outside the door a moment making an adjustment on my cell phone. I heard a bit of an odd knocking, but dismissed it as yet another unusal noise in an unfamiliar culture. However, when I entered the building, I realized there indeed was a frantic knocking, coming from behind the stairwell door. The stairs leading up to the choir room have a large door at the bottom, and it had been locked by a key. I spoke through the door to the distressed damsel, then hurried off to get the key. Soon the door was opened to reveal one of the newly-arrived American students I had recently met. Catastrophe averted!
Certainly, I had many frustrations and challenges this week, but I am trying to be more positive in my outlook. In fact, this week proved easier to be positive, because of these blessings. One of the best blessings turned out to be Little Miss Muffin. (Yes, I know the nursury rhyme actually tells of Little Miss Muffet...) However, last weekend, a friend and I were looking for a snack, and I commented how wonderful a good muffin sounded. To tell you the truth, though, I could not remember seeing any muffins in Romania. Thus, he and I went without. When Tuesday rolled around, though, I had to swing by a friend's place to deliver something for her. I conveniently arrived when she and her mom were making apple cinnamon muffins! You can imagine that I was not slow in explaining how they were an answered prayer!
So, yes, I agree, I have already written more than enough. Thanks for your prayers. Two weeks of transition into my new role in Sighisoara are over, and now we settle into the regular schedule. Thanks for your prayers; please do not stop praying. Please also pray for my dear brother J. and his wife, E., who along with their little N. headed to the ghettos of New York City for four months! I miss them, but it will be a great time of growing for them. It will be especially difficult for E., who has not experienced the like before. I am praying for you, and I must tell you that the Lord clearly answered many of my prayers last week--may we continue to praise His Name!
Before I close, I want to observe how clean my white socks became when I washed them in a laundry machine this week. Though I scrub them hard by hand and use bleach, they came out so much whiter when I simply throw them in a washing machine.
As I prepare a lesson about Everyone Struggles with Sin for our children here, let me remind you that sin is like that. You can try to scrub and bleach out the dark spots in your life, but you will never be completely clean. But the moment you surrender yourself to the grace of Jesus Christ, letting Him cleanse you to the glory of His Father, all those stains will be gone. Stop scrubbing frantically and let the Lord be lord of your life. He is better than a yearned-for muffin, He saves those in distress, and He has already won the victory.
I bless you in His Name, the Name of Jesus!
Yes, believe it or not, I am sitting quietly in my house! The past two weeks have been hectic with the commute into town and back, and frequently I am sleeping elsewhere, either at J's apartment or my place of work. But there is nothing like home sweet home!
As I often do, I will fill you in backwards. Today proved to be interesting. It was our first day of starting up the children's program in our village after the primary leader moved elsewhere last spring. Though I had not attended this "Little Explorers" group in the past, my opinion says that it was a stunning success. We sang songs, taught about Creation, and went on a hike to bring back pieces of nature, with nearly 30 children in attendance. I will not often be involved here because I normally will be involved in another children's program with my other job, but it was good to be here today for the kickoff to encourage the leaders who were a little unsure about doing it without their fearless leader from the past!
Do you ever feel that way? Like you cannot continue something if the gifted person who began a good work eventually has to move on? Please let me remind you that our God, from whom every good thing comes, will continue to be with you and lead you as long as you let Him! Trust Him if He puts His confidence in you, and continue to press on in obedience!
Even with teaching French and English this morning, our debut program, and other work I had today, the day proved slower than I expected. Thus I caught a needed nap (during which I had more dreams--please continue to pray for my understanding of these dreams), and now I have time to write and hopefully to catch up on my huge pile of emails from the past several weeks!
Yesterday found me visiting the community of V., the dear people of whom I worked with many times last year. (This is a different village than the one I plan to live in.) It was good to see the kids there, and to be able to tell them that we will be starting up our weekly programs there next week. I visited town by myself, but I was delighted to be so easily accepted into that rough area. In fact, I had a special victory.
You see, as I walked by some men putting a roof on a house, one started challenging me, asking me to come help for half an hour. I did not understand everything he said, and wondered if he might not be drunk, and politely declined, explaining that I still had a lot of houses to visit. He persisted, and I continued to decline, eventually walking away. After about three steps, though, I knew what I had to do. I did an about-face and walked up to him, asking him how I could help. It turns out they did not really need my help, and after we conversed for a while, they sent me merrily on my way asking for prayer and blessing me verbally. However, I heard him say, "I never dreamed he would actually come! I can't believe it!" He told me that he saw I had a good heart, and I told him maybe we could work together another time. In that brief delay, I won an enormous victory in front of several neighbors. I gained this man's respect; now I am more than a foreign do-gooder and child-worker who brings candy and leaves, who says nice things but does no real work to back up what he says. I won a victory that will result in that home being open to me anytime I need to enter, and I will have an advocate in that village--a man's voice--which is extremely valuable. May God get the glory, and may this man come to know Jesus intimately. Please pray for him. I asked him his Name, and he basically told me John, like John the Baptist. I had trouble understanding if he was telling me the truth, but if you pray for "John," the Lord will know who you mean. Please pray for the Lord to meet his every spiritual and physical need.
Yes, the life I live is often humbling, even humiliating, as my days unroll in the middle of a foreign culture. Through my weaknesses, failures, and mistakes, the Lord reveals His majesty, to the glory of His Name. Yet this week, not only did He lead me into the victory I described above, but He also permitted me the opportunity of saving a damsel in distress. For those of you who do not know, I enjoy being the knight in shining armor, and it is not often that I get to play the role in an appropriate setting.
Nevertheless, as I headed to our first-of-the-season rehearsal for our gospel choir, I stood outside the door a moment making an adjustment on my cell phone. I heard a bit of an odd knocking, but dismissed it as yet another unusal noise in an unfamiliar culture. However, when I entered the building, I realized there indeed was a frantic knocking, coming from behind the stairwell door. The stairs leading up to the choir room have a large door at the bottom, and it had been locked by a key. I spoke through the door to the distressed damsel, then hurried off to get the key. Soon the door was opened to reveal one of the newly-arrived American students I had recently met. Catastrophe averted!
Certainly, I had many frustrations and challenges this week, but I am trying to be more positive in my outlook. In fact, this week proved easier to be positive, because of these blessings. One of the best blessings turned out to be Little Miss Muffin. (Yes, I know the nursury rhyme actually tells of Little Miss Muffet...) However, last weekend, a friend and I were looking for a snack, and I commented how wonderful a good muffin sounded. To tell you the truth, though, I could not remember seeing any muffins in Romania. Thus, he and I went without. When Tuesday rolled around, though, I had to swing by a friend's place to deliver something for her. I conveniently arrived when she and her mom were making apple cinnamon muffins! You can imagine that I was not slow in explaining how they were an answered prayer!
So, yes, I agree, I have already written more than enough. Thanks for your prayers. Two weeks of transition into my new role in Sighisoara are over, and now we settle into the regular schedule. Thanks for your prayers; please do not stop praying. Please also pray for my dear brother J. and his wife, E., who along with their little N. headed to the ghettos of New York City for four months! I miss them, but it will be a great time of growing for them. It will be especially difficult for E., who has not experienced the like before. I am praying for you, and I must tell you that the Lord clearly answered many of my prayers last week--may we continue to praise His Name!
Before I close, I want to observe how clean my white socks became when I washed them in a laundry machine this week. Though I scrub them hard by hand and use bleach, they came out so much whiter when I simply throw them in a washing machine.
As I prepare a lesson about Everyone Struggles with Sin for our children here, let me remind you that sin is like that. You can try to scrub and bleach out the dark spots in your life, but you will never be completely clean. But the moment you surrender yourself to the grace of Jesus Christ, letting Him cleanse you to the glory of His Father, all those stains will be gone. Stop scrubbing frantically and let the Lord be lord of your life. He is better than a yearned-for muffin, He saves those in distress, and He has already won the victory.
I bless you in His Name, the Name of Jesus!
