How can I, after being home for only a week, change to this new way of living? This life of continual surrender to God in every aspect of life and also of humbleness to live with Him without all of the spoilings and riches that this world offers. How can I simply desire Him and let Him satisfy me completely?
How can I keep myself from slipping into the old routine and way of life? God has challenged me to a new way of life and that is what I want to do, what I want to be. My sister Kristen once said, "If you keep doing what you have always done, you will be what you have always been." If I keep saying the things that I have always said, if I keep thinking the things that I have always thought, If I keep getting defeated by the same lies, I will stay the same. But, sometimes that is the easy road. It is way easier to stay in step with the world, to do what they do, to say what they say then to stop and go it "alone" without any other human to go along. Because, ultimately, it is God who I desire to please and not man and He is the one that I must follow.
If I want to be different, I need to constantly keep renewing my mind. The remind myself of who I want to be and what I must do to get there.
One day, I was talking with Ioana (one of the tranlators) as we walked the 20 minute walk to church. We were talking about travelling and she said, "I do not want to go to America. I do not want to live somewhere where I have everything that I need."
I thought about it, and I realized that it is so easy to get and get and get. As far as having my needs met, I rarely lack anything. One of the things that God has challenged me of from this trip is that of being satisfied with Him only. In the end it is not going to matter what kind of car I drove and how nice it was, it will matter if I used that car well, or if I was selfish and wanted it to please me. It will not matter what kind of clothes I wore and how stylish I was, it will matter if I let those things become more important to me than the people that God placed around me for me to minister to.
"...For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." God has challenged me to let go of the material things and to trust Him. He will supply what I need. And the things that I don't need, well, I can survive without them.
Echipa Rosu
Echipa Rosu
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
Coming to a Close
Well, my time in Romania is now over. The emotions are so varied and I don't even know where to start in putting them all down. I want to tell the world what a great time it was and express to them in full detail everything that happened while there. In reality I cannot begin to share in the fullness what happened, there are not the words for me to express them. So I will do my best.
The greatest thing that I gleaned from this month of my life is the goodness of God. Time and time again He would show up and bless me. The days that I was feeling like I was not doing anything for the kids, God would softly encourage me to continue loving them because that was why He had brought me there. "For whatever you have done unto the least of these you have done unto me." So it does not matter how useful I feel, but if I am allowing myself to be used.
The last week in Romania we took 50 kids from 6 group homes to camp. It was one of the most amazing experiences that I have had. I worked with the "Rosu(red) group" and we had a group of 9 boys aged 5-11. I must say that we were the #1 team. We beat everyone else in points, although, I think we got most of our points because they were the cutest campers and the rest of the points were earned by our amazing hula-hooping skills! It was definately the hardest goodbye. I loved all of our times of playing basketball, eating our dinners of bread loaded with margerine all topped off with a ton of homemade jam, breaking up fights during recreation, learning the bible verses in Romanian and doing the hokey pokey around the campfire. What great memories.
One of the highlights of the week when Gutsa walked up to me and handed me a heart shaped card that he had made out of red construction paper. On the inside of the card he said thanks for spending time with him and for always eating dinner with him. It was one of the sweetest moments all week.
Another highlight was on Tuesday afternoon, the children received a snack and all the boys were trying to give theirs to me. They were afraid that the snacks were going to run out and that I would not get one. No matter how often I insisted that they eat their own snack they all denied and began to rip off pieces of the cakes, set them in front of me and then run away.
So, this month in Romania is now complete physically, but I know that God will continue to use this experience in my life spiritually. May He continue to bless the children of Romania and use them to bless the interns, their caretakers and the other children that they live with.
The greatest thing that I gleaned from this month of my life is the goodness of God. Time and time again He would show up and bless me. The days that I was feeling like I was not doing anything for the kids, God would softly encourage me to continue loving them because that was why He had brought me there. "For whatever you have done unto the least of these you have done unto me." So it does not matter how useful I feel, but if I am allowing myself to be used.
The last week in Romania we took 50 kids from 6 group homes to camp. It was one of the most amazing experiences that I have had. I worked with the "Rosu(red) group" and we had a group of 9 boys aged 5-11. I must say that we were the #1 team. We beat everyone else in points, although, I think we got most of our points because they were the cutest campers and the rest of the points were earned by our amazing hula-hooping skills! It was definately the hardest goodbye. I loved all of our times of playing basketball, eating our dinners of bread loaded with margerine all topped off with a ton of homemade jam, breaking up fights during recreation, learning the bible verses in Romanian and doing the hokey pokey around the campfire. What great memories.
One of the highlights of the week when Gutsa walked up to me and handed me a heart shaped card that he had made out of red construction paper. On the inside of the card he said thanks for spending time with him and for always eating dinner with him. It was one of the sweetest moments all week.
Another highlight was on Tuesday afternoon, the children received a snack and all the boys were trying to give theirs to me. They were afraid that the snacks were going to run out and that I would not get one. No matter how often I insisted that they eat their own snack they all denied and began to rip off pieces of the cakes, set them in front of me and then run away.
So, this month in Romania is now complete physically, but I know that God will continue to use this experience in my life spiritually. May He continue to bless the children of Romania and use them to bless the interns, their caretakers and the other children that they live with.
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