So, I'm at a point in my trip where all the fun and excitement that comes from the unfamiliar has drained and I'm left with a choice. Do I keep going, or do I give up. Obviously, I'm going to keep going because it is God's will, but I need prayer. I'm physically exhausted and emotionally feel like a whirlwind on the inside. I am learning to be patient and faithful as I continue to work here.
Physically, I am worn out...mostly because the girls at the orphanage think I am a jungle gym and they are not all small. I mean, I do have a blast playing with them, but right now as I type, I am hunched over the computer because I can barely sit up straight. However, I trust that God will give me the strength I need to get out of the bed tomorrow. He has been all week.
Emotionally, I am drained. I love it here, I really do. I know I'm going to come back, but right now, i feel like crawling back home. Pray for me that God will give me a new love for the people here, because His love is the only thing that can give me strength.
The events of the last few days have been crazy yet fun. We had a fourth of July party behind the coffee house. It was fun because we invited all of the staff at the orphanage and coffee house to it. Janet and I taught the girls how to play American football and it was awesome.
Yesterday, I didn't go play with the girls. Janet did while AJ and I did yard work. we trimmed bushes with oldfashioned shears FOREVER. My wrist were so swollen this morning that I couldn't move them. After doing yard work, we came back for lunch. Speaking of food, it just keeps getting better. Maybe, I'm getting used to it or maybe Buna has just been saving the best for last, but I've liked almost everything I've been given recently.
Anyways, things here are moving and I really am having fun. I know I'll get through this because the One who sent me here has equiped me to be here. Thanks to all of you who have supported me in prayer. that's really the only thing that can help me on the other side of the world. I love you all and can't wait to see what God has in store for me.
Later!
Elijah
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Alive!...barely
Hey, I'm back!
I figure before I launch into stories about my adventures here, I should tell you a little about each of the people that I am working with.
First is the Lucaciu family. Peter and Ana Lucaciu are the couple that manage and operate the ministry over here. They have four children, three of which are here for the summer. By the way, when I say children, I mean like all adults and one that is 16. Anca, the oldest here, is married and has two kids, Lucas and James. Lucas is three and James is still a baby. then there's Andrea, who is a little older than me. The youngest is AJ. Then there's Peter's parents, Buna and Cookie. (I don;t know their real names, thats just what everyone calls them) Buna I know is kind of like Nana or Grandmother. It's an affectionate term. Anyways, thats the whole family, and then there's of course Janet and myself.
So here's a summary of my week:
So this past week has been crazy awesome. Everyday we would go over to the orphanage, which is about a twenty ninute walk, and play with the 8 girls there. We play things like soccer, hide and seek, and other games like that. Then we would go back to the clinic where we are staying and eat lunch. Occasionaly we take the girls out to go different places. One day we took them to the coffee shop, which is owned by the Lucaciu's, to play in the back yard and jump on the trampoline. I think it was wednesday afternoon, we took them to a cabin that the Lucacius own at the foot of the mountain. That was fun because Peter and Ana took their van to get the girls from the orphanage and between the girls and the Anca, with her kids, there was no room for AJ, Andrea, Janet, or me. So, we set off on foot. That was the farthest I've walked so far while here. Imagine walking from Ringgold to East Ridge. It was actually pretty fun though. We got to cross this train bridge that had a lot of places where we could have fallen to our deaths. That was fun, and we almost got hit by a few cars that came drifting around corners really fast because they assumed the roads were empty. All in all it was fun. Once we got there, it was worth it. the view was absolutely gorgeous. We could see the whole town with the church steeples in the background in one direction and then the face of another mountain in the other with fields beneath it. Then we had to go back, this time though we managed to hitch a ride with someone we knew so didn't have to walk much.
We're planning another big event tommorow for the Fourth of July. The Lucacius are actually citizens of Romania and The United States so it's a big deal for them too. I'm excited because we're having American-ish food! Which brings me to my next subject.
The food here has been an experience for me. I came knowing that I was going to be trying things I had never tried, but knowing that was not enough to prepare me for what I have experienced. I will say that I have been eating a lot healthier since I've been here so no complaints there. however something I have learned is that Romanians have very sensitive paletets when it comes to food. Many of the foods have been rather bland compared to mhy usual diet. I have been able to eat almost everything I've been given though...so far. I'll start taking pictures of my food from now on so I can share the joy of Romanian edibles with you all back home.
Anyways, that's all for now. I'm going to go see what everyone here is up to on our day off. Ceau! (Romanian for hi/bye...pronounced chow)
I figure before I launch into stories about my adventures here, I should tell you a little about each of the people that I am working with.
First is the Lucaciu family. Peter and Ana Lucaciu are the couple that manage and operate the ministry over here. They have four children, three of which are here for the summer. By the way, when I say children, I mean like all adults and one that is 16. Anca, the oldest here, is married and has two kids, Lucas and James. Lucas is three and James is still a baby. then there's Andrea, who is a little older than me. The youngest is AJ. Then there's Peter's parents, Buna and Cookie. (I don;t know their real names, thats just what everyone calls them) Buna I know is kind of like Nana or Grandmother. It's an affectionate term. Anyways, thats the whole family, and then there's of course Janet and myself.
So here's a summary of my week:
So this past week has been crazy awesome. Everyday we would go over to the orphanage, which is about a twenty ninute walk, and play with the 8 girls there. We play things like soccer, hide and seek, and other games like that. Then we would go back to the clinic where we are staying and eat lunch. Occasionaly we take the girls out to go different places. One day we took them to the coffee shop, which is owned by the Lucaciu's, to play in the back yard and jump on the trampoline. I think it was wednesday afternoon, we took them to a cabin that the Lucacius own at the foot of the mountain. That was fun because Peter and Ana took their van to get the girls from the orphanage and between the girls and the Anca, with her kids, there was no room for AJ, Andrea, Janet, or me. So, we set off on foot. That was the farthest I've walked so far while here. Imagine walking from Ringgold to East Ridge. It was actually pretty fun though. We got to cross this train bridge that had a lot of places where we could have fallen to our deaths. That was fun, and we almost got hit by a few cars that came drifting around corners really fast because they assumed the roads were empty. All in all it was fun. Once we got there, it was worth it. the view was absolutely gorgeous. We could see the whole town with the church steeples in the background in one direction and then the face of another mountain in the other with fields beneath it. Then we had to go back, this time though we managed to hitch a ride with someone we knew so didn't have to walk much.
We're planning another big event tommorow for the Fourth of July. The Lucacius are actually citizens of Romania and The United States so it's a big deal for them too. I'm excited because we're having American-ish food! Which brings me to my next subject.
The food here has been an experience for me. I came knowing that I was going to be trying things I had never tried, but knowing that was not enough to prepare me for what I have experienced. I will say that I have been eating a lot healthier since I've been here so no complaints there. however something I have learned is that Romanians have very sensitive paletets when it comes to food. Many of the foods have been rather bland compared to mhy usual diet. I have been able to eat almost everything I've been given though...so far. I'll start taking pictures of my food from now on so I can share the joy of Romanian edibles with you all back home.
Anyways, that's all for now. I'm going to go see what everyone here is up to on our day off. Ceau! (Romanian for hi/bye...pronounced chow)
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Wait for it, Wait for it...First Class!!!
So, I'm finally posting my first blog from Romania. On my last post I said I'd be leaving thursday and get there some time Friday. Well, things didn't exactly go as planned. At all really. Thursday morning, I woke up and got finished packing and with the whole family, went to the airport. Along the way we met up with Janet Brock, another short-term missionary to Romania. After our families ate lunch together we made it to the airport. There we found out that our first flight had been delayed 45 minutes. "No big deal" we thought, because we already had a two hour lay-over in New York. Well we boarded the plane around 3:15 and waited. Then the pilot came over the intercom and told us that there was weather delys and that JFK in New York didn't want us to take off yet, so we waited. And waited. And waited. Three hours later, we finally took off. Needless to say, we missed our connecting flight. So once we finally got off of the plane, we went inside and found the desk for rebooking flights and went to the end of the line and waited once more. Two hours later, we reached the fron of the line and went to check on our flights. When we reached the counter, we found out that our flights had been automatically rebooked. The funny thing was that Janet and I had been put on different flights. She had been booked on a flight in economy class to Amsterdam with a connecting flight to Budapest. I, however, had been booked in first class straight to Budapest. Lucky for us, the lady at the desk thought quickly and called to have Janet's flight changed to the same as mine. The whole process was quite hilarious though because in order for Janet's ticket to be changed to first class the lady had to tell the people on the phone that Janet and I were married! So apparently, I'm married to Janet now.
After we got our flights rebooked, we still had to wait until the following day so we did what tough people do...find a quiet corner and sleep. We camped out at gate 11 until the next day and after a sleepless night managed to stumble around until we reached our gate and boarded the plane. From that point out, our trip was awesome. In first class, each seat is more of a matress/recliner than a seat. The food was okay, but I guess it just wasn't my thing. It was way to fancy for me with food that was better to look at than eat. But other than that, it was incredible. Especially after sleeping on the airport floor! Once we landed in Budapest, two men picked us up and drove us the rest of the way to Beius, Romania. We arrived at the compound and there I met the Lucaciu family that own and operate the medical mission. Finally we had reached our destination. We hung out with them in their house for a long time and ended up staying and watching USA play in the World Cup. Then we went over to the compound, which is attached to their home, and went to sleep. it felt so good to be sleeping in a bed!
Then, this morning we got up and went to church, where we sat through the service, which was fun even though I couldn't understand any of it.After the service, we met with the pastor, whose name was actually Elijah. We eventually came back to the compoud for lunce before taking another nap to help adjust us to the current time zone, which is 7 hours ahead. Then we got up and walked over to the orphanage with two of Peter and Anna's children, Andrea and A.J. We were planning on getting the 8 girls there and going to play soccer, once we got ther, we realized that they had already left for evening church. So, we went back to the compound and waited on church to get out and then went back to the orphanage where we played soccer in the back yard. Now I'm back at the compound and ready to fall asleep, so goodbye until next time!
After we got our flights rebooked, we still had to wait until the following day so we did what tough people do...find a quiet corner and sleep. We camped out at gate 11 until the next day and after a sleepless night managed to stumble around until we reached our gate and boarded the plane. From that point out, our trip was awesome. In first class, each seat is more of a matress/recliner than a seat. The food was okay, but I guess it just wasn't my thing. It was way to fancy for me with food that was better to look at than eat. But other than that, it was incredible. Especially after sleeping on the airport floor! Once we landed in Budapest, two men picked us up and drove us the rest of the way to Beius, Romania. We arrived at the compound and there I met the Lucaciu family that own and operate the medical mission. Finally we had reached our destination. We hung out with them in their house for a long time and ended up staying and watching USA play in the World Cup. Then we went over to the compound, which is attached to their home, and went to sleep. it felt so good to be sleeping in a bed!
Then, this morning we got up and went to church, where we sat through the service, which was fun even though I couldn't understand any of it.After the service, we met with the pastor, whose name was actually Elijah. We eventually came back to the compoud for lunce before taking another nap to help adjust us to the current time zone, which is 7 hours ahead. Then we got up and walked over to the orphanage with two of Peter and Anna's children, Andrea and A.J. We were planning on getting the 8 girls there and going to play soccer, once we got ther, we realized that they had already left for evening church. So, we went back to the compound and waited on church to get out and then went back to the orphanage where we played soccer in the back yard. Now I'm back at the compound and ready to fall asleep, so goodbye until next time!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Depature
Hey everybody! I'm almost packed up and ready to go. My flight leaves at 3:00 tomorrow out of Atlanta where I will be flying to New York from. Once in New York, I should have a bit of a layover and then I'm off to the other side of the world! I fly into Budapest, Hungary many hours later and then all that's left is a six hour car ride over to Beius, Romania.
Please keep me in your prayers as I travel and serve the Lord overseas.
I'll keep this blog updated as I have internet access.
Please keep me in your prayers as I travel and serve the Lord overseas.
I'll keep this blog updated as I have internet access.
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