Cold Spaghetti

Location: J's apartment, the 19th of March 2011 at about 7:45pm.

Probably cold spaghetti will taste about as good as it sounds, but I will have to tell you later. You see, I left it on the stove waiting for J., expecting him to walk in the door at any minute. Then I just got a call from M., who is with him leading a day-trip for the American students, and a "shortcut" put them an hour behind schedule.

Have you ever waited for something that seemed to never come? Or someone?

Today has been a productive day in the "office," but I still did not get everything done I hoped to--for instance, I never even touched my personal emails, just the work-related ones. I am planning out a bit of my summer when I will be hosting some visitors, and juggling all of our schedules and contacting people we hope to meet with takes a lot of time. In addition, I am planning a surprise trip to France for a friend of mine. I am blessed to be alone in J.'s apartment today, with a full day of internet access. Yet after a while, my eyes start to dream of yesteryear when they did not stare for hours at a computer screen!

What makes it worse is that I have come down with a cold, only days after answering my father's question with the truth that I was healthy. Still a bit tired from last week's tour to Germany and back, I guess my immune system could not withstand an invasion. So I am glad that I declined the invitation to join my friends in Hunedoara today, because I probably would have been miserable there!

You may wonder why I would not join my girlfriend and a good American buddy on a mostly-free day-trip. The main reason was the amount of work I had to do. Now before you begin to pity me, let me tell you that I pushed my workload back to today so that I could be spontaneous yesterday. I was in my village cutting wood and working on my bike and preparing to do this summer planning work when I received a call from my beautiful girlfriend saying that her neighbor had invited us out-of-the-blue to go to Odorhei, which is a Hungarian-populated area of Romania about an hour away. At first I said "no," then realized that it was from God and called back with an affirmative answer. So yesterday we visited Odorhei (my first time), and believe it or not, I found shoes in my large size (the first time I have found them in Romania!). Back in Sighisoara in the evening, I had the privilege of joining M. at a special worship service of a group of Christians who have a heart for the nation of Israel. We sang several songs in Hebrew and had a message and a prayer time.

I had a headache yesterday, but only today did the cold hit. But I count my blessings. I was able to sleep last night (and will again tonight) here at J.'s apartment, and to spend a working day alone here. I did not get to go to V. for the Bible Hour this week, for the first time in a long while, but I got to have some high-quality conversations with some of you on Wednesday instead. I am battling a cold, but people in Libya and Japan and New Zealand and other places are fighting for their lives. After my full day of computer work and a runny nose, I was looking forward to seeing my girlfriend an hour ago, and to serving my buddy J. with a meal of spaghetti I made him. But the blessing is that I have a girlfriend who calls again when she is running late so I will not worry, and that I have food that can get cold, meaning I have something to eat and something to make heat.

Life is about perspective. Today I fielded a call from a local missionary struggling with some interpersonal relationships. We talked about the idea of a rich man who has a lot of valuable property, and how he stresses himself out with fences and alarms and guards and dogs, trying to keep his property from being stolen (and not realizing that his joy and peace has been stolen!). Compare that to the poor man next door who has no fences, alarms, guards, nor dogs, but who neither has anything for someone to steal. And he does have joy and peace.

How do you look at your life? If you are a Christian, can you surrender yourself so completely to Jesus that you have nothing left for someone to steal or hurt. If so, you will have abundant joy and peace! Do you have friends who are worth waiting for, or do you always eat your spaghetti as soon as it gets hot? What is important to you?

Speaking of friends and blessings, my friend J. has been a special blessing to me. I have a key to his apartment and a standing invitation to sleep here. I have clothes here, and even my violin while I wait to find someone to repair it. He leads our Bible study, he has often served me dinner, and has gone out of his way to help me in other ways. I know I cannot repay him, and I do not want to cheapen his friendship by trying. However, I do want to bless him, and I never feel like I succeed in blessing him very well. Cold spaghetti: case in point.

So here is my idea. Will you please stop right now and pray a blessing over J. He is a single young American who serves as a long-term missionary with a discipleship focus. Sometimes he needs encouragement, rest, joy, friendship, and love. May the Lord hear our prayers and lavish His love on J., blessing him far more than I could ever do. I really do mean right now. Did you stop and pray?

Thanks!

I bless you, too, in the Name of Jesus. Pofta buna! Enjoy your cold spaghetti!

Back from Germany

Location: M.'s living room in Sighisoara, Romania (4pm on the 15th of March)

It is hard to explain how it feels to be "home" after our weekend trip to Germany with our Gospel Choir. I arrived at my house at 3:30 this morning, had trouble getting the fire started for some reason, and finally went to bed at 6:00am. I woke up at 8:00am, did a load of laundry (yes, by hand), and taught French and English lessons. Then I caught the last bus to town, where I came to M.'s house (even though she is at work) to take a catnap. Soon I will head over to Bible study.

I just found out that one of my beloved mentors in Indiana had a serious heart attack and is in the hospital. He has been sending Bible study lessons to me via email, and M. and I read them together. Please pray for Pastor B. and his family. That comes on top of the news that I learned last week when I called my former small group leader in Indiana, having heard he was battling health problems: his wife had died the day before I called. Please also pray for T.

Spiritually speaking, the atmosphere seems unusual. I have faced my share of spiritual attacks lately, and I am hearing of them in the lives of other dear Christians, too. Plus, there have continued to be international crises and tragedies. To some extent, all this is normal; nevertheless, we need to be waiting upon the Lord to see what He has in mind!

Our trip to Germany and Austria resulted in many blessings; sorry I did not get to update you from there. There were many frustrating surprises, but the Lord has taught me to watch for the blessings. Some of the blessings were in the people we met, and the conversation we had. I did a lot of the driving, too. Unofficially, I served as a chaperone for the younger members of our group. We were an odd mix, singing and juggling (!) at every rest stop!

Now I am catching up on "normal"! Oh, and I have some pictures for you, I just have to figure out how to get them to you. A friend pointed out that I can purchase more space; I just hate to on principle. I will do a little research, and then I will show you life through my eyes again! Thanks for being a part of it! I pray that you are being richly blessed! I bless you in the Name of Jesus!

My Heart Broke Twice

(Location: In D.'s house, sitting next to him while he takes his French test. It is Women's Day here in Romania, the 8th of March, about 9:00am.)

(Would you believe that in the evening, after I wrote this, when hitch-hiking to my men's group, I caught a ride on a horse cart? How great is that!?)

After I posted my previous blog post, a lot happened quickly. First of all, I discovered that I cannot post any more photos because I used up all of the memory space for photos. When I have time, I will figure out how to resolve the problem; sorry I cannot post pictures right now.

Sunday's sermon was powerful! A visiting American pastor told a story about loosing his five-year-old daughter in a foreign crowd for an hour, and then the three years of trauma that followed. He preached about the difference of demanding that Jesus come into our mess and fix it (i.e. Come heal my daughter!) versus Jesus inviting us to come out of the mess and come to Him (after all, He has already borne the weight of all the mess and sins and has conquered!). He gave the examples of Zacchaeus, Peter, and Lazarus, who were called to come out of the tree, the boat, and the grave to come to Jesus. In the end, during prayer, the little girl recalled that Jesus had been in the scary situation like a "cloud by day," and that she had been so busy looking for her parents that she had not come to Him. That begin the healing change that restored her to being a joyful little girl. I can attest to the power of God's Word and Spirit that reached into our lives as we worshipped on Sunday. I was so glad I had gone to church with M. that day!

After church, I ran into a former collegue on the street, and she had something for me--my blue fleece sweater that I was certain I had left on a train a couple of months ago! I had left it where I was working at the time, and someone found it and recognized it! Not only that, but I also received back a special pen I lost! I was so excited, I wanted to call my friends and have a party like the people in the Bible that celebrated finding their lost coin and lost sheep!

It has really been a great week so far, and now I am trying to ready for a day in V., and then a trip to Germany. However, my heart was broken yesterday.

I took the garbage out to the dumpster for a friend, only to find to little girls digging through the dumpster. It is always hard to know how to best love beggars on the street, how to help them in a way that really helps them and respects them. It is often tempting to just brush them off. However, I cannot tell you how many times I see the same beggars on the street digging through dumpsters for anything they can find. It shows their desparation, and it shows that they are not just living easy off of someone else's dime.

When I found these two little girls, one ran and gave me a hug and asked when I would be in her village again. I was in her village doing children's programs during the fall of the past two years. It talked to her for a bit, and then said goodbye with a broken heart, only to found out that I had been seen by a woman I know.

The woman chided me, "Why didn't you send those girls away!?" It broke my heart (again) that she could not see through their grime and poor manners to the desparate life that caused them to shamelessly dig through trash looking for scraps of food.

The woman is someone I care about, as are the little girls. But it is all too common here for people to hate and despise Gypsies, simply because they have been taught to hate for years, even for generations. Their compassion is not free to reach out, because they have believed satan's lies that "people like that" are at fault for the life they are living, so it is okay to hate them. Hardening your heart to someone else's problems is always easier than remembering how it feels to be hated.

Maybe where you live, you do not run into Gypsy beggars very often, but I am pretty sure you run into people groups that have been hated for little or no reason. The devil plays the same game all over the world. How do I know? I have been there all over the world. And I have recently been reminded through films. One was about William Wilburforce fighting the slave trade in the British Empire, and one was about Steve Biko fighting aparteid in South Africa.

Who do you hate?

Who hates you?

How does it feel?

Who does Jesus hate?

I bless you in the love of Jesus.

Another Winter's Day

(Location: My house in C., Romania, on Sunday morning at 9:30, the 6th of March)

Spring-like whispers and birdsongs have been teasing me with a few days of gorgeous sunshine, but now it is snowing again. I do not mind; I like both. Nonetheless, I will not complain when it warms up enough that my house stays above 10 degrees Celsius (50 F)when I am going for a day or two.

My life is more relaxed right now in the day-to-day routine, and I like that. Cutting wood, doing laundry by hand, and preparing food take a significant amount of my time, but I am still finding some time to write and sing and dance. You never dance while doing laundry or washing dishes? Where is your joy?

However, I must say that time in general seems to be flying. Monday begins Lent in the Orthodox Church, which will catapult us forward into Easter (the same day this year as the Western Church's Easter). So it is already March, and this week we will be leaving for our special choir concert at a music festival in Bavaria, Germany. Meanwhile, teaching French and English keeps me busy, along with Bible study and church involvement. Yesterday, I helped out again with the children's program in C. Each Wednesday, I continue to go to V. where we teach the weekly Bible Hour.

What has God been teaching me? So much that I cannot do it justice here. He continues to teach me about obedience, which I know will be a life-long lesson, as it is the Christian's number one job. He teaches me again and again to trust Him more, and to surrender myself and my plans and my doubts into His loving, capable hands. He shows me how to better enjoy Him, and how to let Him delight in me. And each day I am anticipating more and more Christ's return!

Last week, I was delighted to receive emails from several people I had not heard from in quite some time. Several people also emailed me good news, which is fun to receive. Thanks!

So what am I working on for the coming months? I am going to be hosting a couple of European friends who want to know more about ministry in Romania, and together we will visit several ministry sites in the area. The preparation is fun for me, and I am particularly excited to make the visits, because it will reveal to me in increasing clarity the big picture of what God is doing in this area of the world. At the same time, I am feeling the spiritual shaking in all parts of the world right now, and I am privileged to join you in prayer as God works in your areas of the world.

So, this does not seem like a very exciting post to me, but I wanted to update you. I have been spending more time with Jesus lately, more time with M., and more time writing other things, all of which equals less time to write a blog post. But I am also laughing more, smiling more, singing more, and rejoicing more. Isn't God good?

Oh, I wanted to tell you that after being sick several times this winter, I am pleased to announce that I went through the whole month of February without being sick once!

Ok, I am off to town for church and choir rehearsal. Have a wonderful day, and even better week, and a fantastic life (if you know Jesus, it will be!). I bless you in the Name of our Jesus!

Read On!

Location: M.'s apartment on the 1st of March, a little after 2:30pm.

Just a quick note to tell you there are three new posts below; enjoy!

I have been very productive this week, and this morning I even successfully changed my rear bike tire, and put it back together so everything works! When you look at my busy little one-room house, maybe you see a simple life without plumbing or electric heat. I, on the other hand, see wealth! You never know how rich you are until everything you have is in one room!

Delight in the Lord today, and give thanks to Him, for He is good!

Ready?

Location: My little house in C., Romania, Sunday afternoon the 27th of February, about 4:30.

There are so many exciting things happening! I just returned from an 8-year-old's birthday party; today is also the birthday of an American missionary in our church. My computer was attacked by malware last night, but with the help of a lady from my church in Indianapolis, everything got sorted out. I had a great conversation with my parents via Skype, and I am so excited to see God at work in their lives, and in the Church in Indianapolis! I am also in conversation with a few people in Belgium and Switzerland about ministry visits this summer, as well as with some folks in Greece and France and America about working with adolescents and the fight against human trafficking. Meanwhile, the world seems to be unraveling as political riots and revolutions shake Africa, as American legislators act like toddlers, as New Zealand shakes after a devastating earthquake, and as religious violence burns through Asia.

Jesus was reminding me today to be ready. Is there any more that I need to be or do to be ready for Him to come back?

In light of that mindset and the Spirit's moving, we had a great worship service today. My buddy R. returned (I gave him his car back before I could destroy it!) and preached a powerful message on Genesis 1:1-5, God as Creator. I translated quietly in the corner of the congregation for a couple of ladies. We had several visitors in our midst today, including a group of street kids that I often encounter begging. Today when we met on the street, I did not give them anything, but I prayed with them. Then they wanted to come to church with me, and they were so well behaved! I had not planned to invite them, because we have already been challenged by people offending others by begging in our midst on Sunday mornings, but I am so glad that they came!

I am convinced that another reason worship was so powerful today was that I have been observing the Sabbath more carefully. The Lord had been convicting me about it for a while, but I wrestled with the idea, trying to figure out the freedom we have in Christ who is Lord of the Sabbath, and the idea that the day of rest is holy. But in the end, I elected to have a "date night" both of the last two Friday nights. Not with my beautiful girlfriend, but with my beautiful Lord. Each time, I turn my phone off at sundown, and just spend time with Jesus: in prayer, in the Word, in rest, in writing, in singing. I composed a simple poem the first Friday night (M. teases me that I took the main idea from one of her songs) and a song this past Friday. Then I go to bed very early and rest easy, not having anything I have to do on Saturday morning. Resting with the Lord on Saturday definitely prepares me for the Lord's Day on Sunday!

I have more to tell, but your attention span is probably about exhausted. There are some more pictures on my Picasa site (the link is to the right), but that site is almost full, so I need to look into new options. Maybe I will post the poem and song for those of you who are interested. So, I will tell the rest of my stories another time, like the one about the elderly hitchhiker who did not seem to plan to get out of my car after I prayed for her, or about helping with the children's program here in C. yesterday, about babies and orginal sin, or about February being the month of "giving." When you do have more of a desire to read, read the Book of Romans in the New Testament of the Bible. It is not about Romanians, nor Romans for that matter. It is about you.

Are you ready?

Steadfast Love (Psalm 33)

Your steadfast love never fails!
I will put my hope in You!


1. Rejoice, you Righteous! Rejoice!
Praise the LORD; sing a new song!

2. For His Word is upright, His work, faithful.
The earth is full of His steadfast love!

3. With His Word He made the heavens and the deep;
Let all the earth stand in awe of Him!

4. The counsel of the LORD stands forever;
Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD!

5. God is watching over us;
We are not saved by our strength!

6. The eye of the LORD is watching to deliver
The one who hopes in His steadfast love!

7. Our soul waits for the LORD!
We gladly trust in His holy Name!

You Listen to Me (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Wonderful Counselor, you are wonderful
You counsel me, you listen to me
With you I am safe

Mighty God, you are mighty
You are God, you listen to me
With you I am safe

Everlasting Father, you are everlasting
You are Father, you listen to me
With you I am safe

Prince of Peace, you are Prince
You bring peace, you listen to me
With you I am safe

Come, Lord Jesus, you are Lord,
You come, Jesus, you listen to me
By you I am loved
By you I am saved
With you I am safe