In case you are just joining me, all of my latest posts are now on another site, Wordpress. You can find the link to the right, or in the post below this one.
Thanks for taking time to follow my writing...
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Blog Change
Did you miss my blog address change? There is a link below to my WordPress blog. And there are exciting things happening there, even if I haven't figured it all out yet!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Choose Your Own Adventure!
Remember those adventure books where you come to a crossroads and you (the reader) get to choose which way to go? Well, welcome to that scenario once again.
Would you like to read the latest post? I am sure you noticed the face-lift I gave my blog, changing the background colors (but not the content!). To find the most recent entry, scroll down or search for "Overwhelmed."
Are you interested in more adventure? Then close your eyes and take the plunge! Brace yourself and go to this address: http://followtherabboni.wordpress.com/
Enjoy following the Rabboni!
Would you like to read the latest post? I am sure you noticed the face-lift I gave my blog, changing the background colors (but not the content!). To find the most recent entry, scroll down or search for "Overwhelmed."
Are you interested in more adventure? Then close your eyes and take the plunge! Brace yourself and go to this address: http://followtherabboni.wordpress.com/
Enjoy following the Rabboni!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Overwhelmed
I told someone today that if I did not have such a good God, today would have been terrible. Still now, though the day is over, I feel funny. There is part of me that wants to cry, overwhelmed and ready to cash in, and the rest of me is saying, "This is just starting to get good! God is great, so onward, ho!"
Location: J.'s apartment in Sighisoara, Romania, the 2nd of April.
The above is a quote from Yours Truly just earlier this week. I sat down to journal about the day, got interrupted by a phone call which was cut short by the Holy Spirit overwhelming me with His power, and I ended up spending time at the feet of Jesus before going directly to bed. So the post never got written.
Yes, I know it has been quite some time since I last updated my blog. I might add that I have not made much time to write lately either. It has been difficult to keep up with emails, too. Why? After all, these are all things I enjoy!
Well, as you know, life happens. Relationship is always my priority, because I see that it is God's priority. Everything in the Bible screams "relationship!" Everything in Christianity is founded upon relationship: Relationship with Jesus, relationship between Father and Son (and Spirit), relationship between Christians (the Church), relationship between believers and non-believers (the world) . . . Thus, the Christian's life is naturally focused on relationship. And relationship cannot be scheduled, tamed, controlled, organized, pacified, or faked, which means that it tends to "interrupt" schedules and plans and life in general--in a good way!
Maybe you, too, feel overwhelmed by the relationships around you. Maybe it seems like you are needed by too many people with too complicated problems. Maybe you cannot love all the people who love you, or you cannot minister to all the people who come to you. Maybe you have too many friends, or too many enemies. Maybe you cannot reciprocate the love God gives you. Relationships can certainly be overwhelming!
That is why I have not written so much. Often, I choose to spend time at the feet of Jesus instead of writing. I spend a lot of time with my wonderful girlfriend, enjoying the friendship God has given us. Several times a week, I lend a hand to a friend that needs something, happy to help even though it costs me time. Sometimes it is just work, plain and simple, that fills up my schedule.
For example, U. (whose family has blessed and helped me so much!) has been suffering from very bad back problems lately. Yesterday I joined him and a couple of his boys in some logging work in the forest. It was the first time I did something like that, dragging felled trees with the tractor and wench and with the horse, and then cutting them into meter-long sections. I enjoyed the hard work in the beautiful spring weather except for fighting a rotten headache, and I know U. appreciated the help. It was a good investement in his son, D.'s life, too. D. is the 15-year-old boy to whom I teach French and English, and I have become a bit of a mentor to him. He does not know Jesus, but I pray that he will someday!
Speaking of D., a lot of my time of late has gone into planning a special trip to France with him this summer. Shh...it is a surprise! I bought the plane tickets now, and things are falling into place.
Planning a trip takes a lot of organization time, and not only am I planning France, but also the visits of a couple of other Christians to Romania. I will be hosting them for a good bit of their time here, and I am planning our time together in July and August. I am getting excited about it, and about visiting different places in the area where my Father is at work!
Another friend helped me this week by lending me a car (yes, a Dacia!), and then I did him a favor by taking it to town for him, to pass it on to someone else who needed it. Unfortunately, as I was on my way, the gearshift broke clean off in my hand, while I was driving! We had to tow the car (another new experience for me as I sat in the back car--without a gearshift--fixated on the brakelights of the car in front of me so I would not rear-end it!).
Sadly, I am not the only one who had a mishap this week--my brother in America broke his ankle skiing. However, that resulted in an impromptu family reunion via Skype, which was a huge blessing in my week.
So you understand why have not written; thank you for forgiving me.
Do you know what the trick is to avoid being overwhelmed by our workloads, by misfortune, burdens, pain, and deadlines? We need to be overwhelmed by God's goodness, love, grace, and mercy. His peace is wide enough to hold us all, in every situation.
You see, this morning I was tempted to be overwhelmed by the future. It feels like I have a lot of decisions to make and things to work on and plan. Some of them seem impossible, and some of them seem like hopeless jigsaw puzzles. That is why I came to town today, to work on all of this. But as I stood by the road hitchhiking, the Lord reminded me very clearly, "Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own. Bring me glory today."
That is right: tomorrow might never come. So how am I glorifying my Father today? How are you glorifying Him today?
You probably do not have the same mentle struggle I have: I often struggle against the idea of being a professional missionary or minister. I do not feel called to be, nor do I want to be, a professional minister or missionary. Why? It goes back to the point about relationships. While it is true that God calls some to be professional ministers and missionaries, I believe that we often are better positioned to enter into relationship with our neighbors when we have a "normal," simmple life. Think about how powerful of a testimony to God's goodness it is to have the same life as your neighbor's except for one thing--your life is overwhelmed by God's grace and goodness.
Whatever your role is today, whether it seems meaningful or not, I want you to surrender yourself once more or for the first time to the grace of Jesus Christ. Then I want you to let that grace overwhelm you so much that every person you meet will know that we have an awesome God. Maybe your emails will not get read, nor your patio swept, nor your favorite program watched on T.V., but God will be glorified. And after all, isn't that your job?
Location: J.'s apartment in Sighisoara, Romania, the 2nd of April.
The above is a quote from Yours Truly just earlier this week. I sat down to journal about the day, got interrupted by a phone call which was cut short by the Holy Spirit overwhelming me with His power, and I ended up spending time at the feet of Jesus before going directly to bed. So the post never got written.
Yes, I know it has been quite some time since I last updated my blog. I might add that I have not made much time to write lately either. It has been difficult to keep up with emails, too. Why? After all, these are all things I enjoy!
Well, as you know, life happens. Relationship is always my priority, because I see that it is God's priority. Everything in the Bible screams "relationship!" Everything in Christianity is founded upon relationship: Relationship with Jesus, relationship between Father and Son (and Spirit), relationship between Christians (the Church), relationship between believers and non-believers (the world) . . . Thus, the Christian's life is naturally focused on relationship. And relationship cannot be scheduled, tamed, controlled, organized, pacified, or faked, which means that it tends to "interrupt" schedules and plans and life in general--in a good way!
Maybe you, too, feel overwhelmed by the relationships around you. Maybe it seems like you are needed by too many people with too complicated problems. Maybe you cannot love all the people who love you, or you cannot minister to all the people who come to you. Maybe you have too many friends, or too many enemies. Maybe you cannot reciprocate the love God gives you. Relationships can certainly be overwhelming!
That is why I have not written so much. Often, I choose to spend time at the feet of Jesus instead of writing. I spend a lot of time with my wonderful girlfriend, enjoying the friendship God has given us. Several times a week, I lend a hand to a friend that needs something, happy to help even though it costs me time. Sometimes it is just work, plain and simple, that fills up my schedule.
For example, U. (whose family has blessed and helped me so much!) has been suffering from very bad back problems lately. Yesterday I joined him and a couple of his boys in some logging work in the forest. It was the first time I did something like that, dragging felled trees with the tractor and wench and with the horse, and then cutting them into meter-long sections. I enjoyed the hard work in the beautiful spring weather except for fighting a rotten headache, and I know U. appreciated the help. It was a good investement in his son, D.'s life, too. D. is the 15-year-old boy to whom I teach French and English, and I have become a bit of a mentor to him. He does not know Jesus, but I pray that he will someday!
Speaking of D., a lot of my time of late has gone into planning a special trip to France with him this summer. Shh...it is a surprise! I bought the plane tickets now, and things are falling into place.
Planning a trip takes a lot of organization time, and not only am I planning France, but also the visits of a couple of other Christians to Romania. I will be hosting them for a good bit of their time here, and I am planning our time together in July and August. I am getting excited about it, and about visiting different places in the area where my Father is at work!
Another friend helped me this week by lending me a car (yes, a Dacia!), and then I did him a favor by taking it to town for him, to pass it on to someone else who needed it. Unfortunately, as I was on my way, the gearshift broke clean off in my hand, while I was driving! We had to tow the car (another new experience for me as I sat in the back car--without a gearshift--fixated on the brakelights of the car in front of me so I would not rear-end it!).
Sadly, I am not the only one who had a mishap this week--my brother in America broke his ankle skiing. However, that resulted in an impromptu family reunion via Skype, which was a huge blessing in my week.
So you understand why have not written; thank you for forgiving me.
Do you know what the trick is to avoid being overwhelmed by our workloads, by misfortune, burdens, pain, and deadlines? We need to be overwhelmed by God's goodness, love, grace, and mercy. His peace is wide enough to hold us all, in every situation.
You see, this morning I was tempted to be overwhelmed by the future. It feels like I have a lot of decisions to make and things to work on and plan. Some of them seem impossible, and some of them seem like hopeless jigsaw puzzles. That is why I came to town today, to work on all of this. But as I stood by the road hitchhiking, the Lord reminded me very clearly, "Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own. Bring me glory today."
That is right: tomorrow might never come. So how am I glorifying my Father today? How are you glorifying Him today?
You probably do not have the same mentle struggle I have: I often struggle against the idea of being a professional missionary or minister. I do not feel called to be, nor do I want to be, a professional minister or missionary. Why? It goes back to the point about relationships. While it is true that God calls some to be professional ministers and missionaries, I believe that we often are better positioned to enter into relationship with our neighbors when we have a "normal," simmple life. Think about how powerful of a testimony to God's goodness it is to have the same life as your neighbor's except for one thing--your life is overwhelmed by God's grace and goodness.
Whatever your role is today, whether it seems meaningful or not, I want you to surrender yourself once more or for the first time to the grace of Jesus Christ. Then I want you to let that grace overwhelm you so much that every person you meet will know that we have an awesome God. Maybe your emails will not get read, nor your patio swept, nor your favorite program watched on T.V., but God will be glorified. And after all, isn't that your job?
Saturday, March 19, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
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.
(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.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
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!
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!
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A Rose From Home
