Day 35 and 36: Wedding crashers

We went to a wedding yesterday!! Katie and I were wedding crashers. We had actually met the groom once before in the church at Reghin and we knew his brother from the Reghin church, but we had never met the bride. So we really didn't know the couple at all. But that didn't stop us from driving four hours with a bunch of the family members, performing in the wedding and taking part in all of the traditions. In fact, we were so successful in our crashing endeavor, that we actually got a picture of just the two of us with the bride and groom. Here is my proof:














I am very glad that we got to experience a wedding here in Romania. I am all about cultural experiences, and this was one of the most rewarding I've ever had. After a four hour in an extremely unreliable 30 year old minibus, we arrived at the church. From there, all of the family( including us of course) went to the bride's house. It is tradition for the groom, groomsmen, and the best man to ask her father if she can get married that day, and then they asked the bride. The groom picks out the bouquet beforehand, and takes it to her house to present to her. I'm guessing at one point that was probably used as some kind of bribery to get her to come. :) After some speaking they all came out of the house and got in the cars that had been decorated by the bridal party with balloons and tissue paper. They're much more considerate with their car decorating than we are. Then we drove our happy procession to a couple of places around the city, amidst much honking, to take pictures. After that, we went back to the church and had the ceremony. We sang some traditional hymns, and the choir sang a few of their own arrangements, and then there was a sermon. After that were some short vows, another kind of mini-sermon mainly directed towards the bride and groom( I'm guessing it was some kind of exhortation about the importance of what they were doing - unfortunately we didn't have a translator) and then we went downstairs for the reception to eat the first course of the meal. Did I mention that weddings are an ALL DAY ordeal? The eating goes on for six hours. Yes, that's right, six. Our appetizer alone was like a meal. That was followed by coffee, and while we were eating we sang a bunch of hymns.

After about an hour and a half, we went back upstairs and people gave the bride and groom their greetings, and sang a song or two, or put on a skit or read a Bible passage or something of that sort. The problem with being an amateur at wedding crashing, is that I didn't realize if people find out that you have a talent, especially a musical one, that comes in really handy for free entertainment. I ended up learning a song by ear in 15 mintues because the bridesmaids didn't bother to find an accompanist beforehand. After listening to it once, they informed me that they wanted to sing it...get ready, a fourth lower. For those of you who know anything about music, this is like the ultimate horror story. I also had to come up with an arrangement to a love song for the Reghin Youth group to sing, and oh yes, I had a mic thrust on me, and I had to play AND sing on that one. THEN, Katie and I had to sing and give our greetings. Like I said, I'm an amateur at this, so next wedding I crash, nobody is going to know I have any musical ability. I'm going to pretend to be tone deaf.

We ended up having four more courses of our meal, more hymns, and then the best part. The cake. Wedding cakes here are AMAZING. To bring in the cake, they turned off all of the lights, and brought in the cake which was covered in sparklers!!! It was so dramatic and AWESOME. in Romania, people give gifts at the reception, and Attila said it is tradition at most weddings that after you give the couple your gift, they give you a piece of cake. But he said it depends on the village, and at this wedding, everyone received a piece of cake, whether they gave a gift or not. Most people gave gifts of money, but some people did give household items.

At about 9:45 pm, we started home, and we got back to Reghin shortly after 2:30 am. I'm not going to lie, I'm thankful for American weddings after this experience because I'm EXHAUSTED, but I can't even begin to express how incredible it was to be able to share in the occasion of a wedding here. I crossed one more thing off of my life goals list today.

Day 33 and 34: Friends, barátok, prieteni

Attila is really interested in starting a ministry with some of the children from Peris, that came to our English classes in Gornesti, so we spent Thursday afternoon with them playing soccer and English games. We mainly are just establishing relationships with them right now because although we had them in class, Attila had never met any of them before, so he really wants to begin to work with them like he does with the children in Gornesti and Apalina. They really are sweet children - we taught them how to play "Wink 'Em" and they LOVED it.

We came home from Harghita this week to a problem in Apalina. The church members are undergoing quite a bit of difficulty right now. Apparently, there was a misunderstanding between one of the members and his wife(who is not a believer) and it turned into a huge ordeal that now involves many people. On Tuesday night, church was very emotional. Every member was crying, and there was a lot of arguing and accusations flying around the room. It was very tense. Please pray for this church. If this problem is not resolved, it could destroy the church. Nobody wants to take the blame for anything, and they are too proud to admit that they are wrong, or to apologuze to anyone. One of the big problems as well, is that because they all live so close together, there really isn't any way to avoid each other, so if one member sees another member talking with someone, they are automatically assuming it's about them etc... It is just not a good situation.

Eight of our older children from Apalina also went to the Adventist camp this week. However, they were not few very well aparently, and several of them went climbing on the rocks near the camp to pick berries because they were hungry, and Bianca fell and hit her head and had to be taken to the Targu Mures hospital by helicopter. Last I heard, they think she is going to be just fine, but the parents in Apalina are VERY angry at the Adventist because of this incident. Attila said that unfortunately for us, Bianca probably will not come to our camp, and we may have some problems with other parents. Hopefully everything will be fine, and no one will be injured at our camp so that we can maintain the trust of the people.

We had our halfway party on Thursday instead of Friday because if worked better for some of the people coming, and we were able to play Phase 10, finally! Attila won and he was ecstatic. :) I didn't realize just how LONG of a card game that was until we played it with 6 people. It takes FOREVER. But we loved it. We made grilled cheese for dinner, and served that cake we bought with the rum flavor in it so we didn't have to eat it haha - it was a really fun night. It is so amazing to be able to call people up when we have free nights and invite them over to the apartment - just like we would do back home. We live here. We live in Romania.

Katie and I briefly talked today about how much it is going to hurt when we leave. Neither one of us is really ready to talk about it, I think. We are homesick sometimes, and we want to see our families, but this week, both of us experienced that first pain of the thought of leaving. We have friends here. Real friends that we know well and love. Not only have we been completely immersed in a culture vastly different from our own, we've been given the opportunity to live a new life here. To share in experiences with new people, and to grow with and be involved with lives that will soon be a world away from us. When we go home we will have best friends on the other side of the world. And that is why it hurt this week to think about leaving. But I know that if God wills for me to return, that my friends will be here waiting, because they tell me all the time, "I wait you. I wait you when you come back."

Day 31 and 32: Our halfway week

We are back in Reghin now. We returned to our apartment yesterday, and were greeted with the most horrible banging, drilling, and construction noises that one could possibly make into our wall. Apparently our neighbor is doing some "home repair" or destroying everything in his flat because the noise has been going on for a full day now. It's enough to drive us crazy, but I will admit, our washing machine is abnormally loud, so maybe this is payback and we're getting a taste of our own medicine. :)

This week is our halfway week. Katie and I couldn't remember exactly what day would be our halfway mark, so we decided that we would celebrate this whole week. We will fly home exactly a month from today, actually. A new market opened right beside our apartment building, so we went grocery shopping yesterday, and bought some Snickers and Peanut M&M's to celebrate. We also got some kind of cake thing that we thought would be good, but like everything here, it was flavored with Rum. I don't know what it is with this country, but they put Rum flavoring in EVERYTHING that has chocolate. It's sold alongside vanilla here, but I think they use it way more often than vanilla. Katie and I are sick of chocolate that isn't just chocolate, so we're going to serve our "rum cake thing" at our halfway party this weekend so we don't have to eat it haha. (We decided to invite some people over to play Phase 10 on Friday.)

I had goulash(is that really how you spell it?) finally yesterday! Apparently there's more than one kind, shows how much I know, but we had potato and sausage goulash. It was amazing. I definitely want to take that back home to America and have it again. There really haven't been THAT many things that I've eaten here that I am set on making once I get home; maybe two or three things, but goulash is now definitely one of them.

While Katie and I were at Harghita, we had the opportunity to talk to an amazing woman named Margaret. She is from England, and moved to Romania back in 1990, but she has been coming to Romania since 1973, I think. She's a full time nurse now at Harghita, but when she started coming to Romania, it was to smuggle Bibles and Christian literature in during the communist era. I cannot even begin to express how incredible it was to sit and listen to some of her stories. Katie and I were kicking ourselves for not bringing a recorder or something, but of course we didn't know beforehand. She is the epitome of someone who has lived a full life, and a life of service for the Lord. It is so different to read or learn stories in school about communism than it is to actually get stories from the mouth of someone who experienced it firsthand, and who knew people who were killed for their beliefs or suffered greatly at the hands of Ceausescu. Katie and I were so blessed by meeting her, and getting to hear about her life. As cliche as it sounds, she is probably one of the greatest people that I've ever met. I'm sure there are a lot of people like her in the world who have even more incredible stories; I'm just so extremely grateful that Katie and I had the opportunity to speak with her. I think she has made a lot of sacrifices in her life, but if you mentioned it, she would probably disagree that they were sacrifices. Margaret's life has been so fulfilling; one day I hope to say that my life has had a third of the servitude that hers has.

"He must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30

Day 29 and 30: Here I am, for you did call me

Today is Father's Day. I know my dad will read this, so I'd like to wish him a Happy Father's day. I love and am missing you very much today Papa. I wish I could be in two places at once...
If any other dads read this, the wishes for a great day extend to you too!

I promised pictures, so here are a few that I've taken this week:

They are such great students!
















This is Kati - She is one of my favorites.
She's so patient with my terrible attempts
at Hungarian. :)
















The Parachute was a big hit!!
















I've been thinking a lot lately about the responsibility involved in leadership. Katie and I have had some interesting conversations since we've been here about just that. We were discussing last night about how all of the children watch us very closely. I'm not sure if they are comparing us to the image that they have of Americans from television and movies etc... if it is because we are believers, and speak to them about it every day, or if it is simply because we are different from them. I was overwhelmed last night after realizing many times throughout the day that children were just staring at me - for seemingly no reason. What do they see? What are they thinking? Am I putting forth the person every day that I want them to see? I really think that I am; knowing that I am being watched so closely does put a different perspective on how I behave, even subconsciously sometimes. When I leave this camp, what do I want the children to remember about me? Namely, that I both told and showed them the love of Christ. I don't think that the little English that I've taught them this week really matters. But I want them to know in their hearts that they are loved. Will they remember that? Will they tell their families? Will they be impacted for the rest of their lives? My only desire is to say with the Psalmist, "You are loved. There is no reason to be afraid. In love God created your inmost self and knit you together in your mother's womb."(Psalm 139:13)
Responsibility. We have a responsibility not only as leaders of these children to proclaim this message, but also as children of God. This is the good news. There is a Love far greater than any love that I can offer - am I fulfilling my responsibility to share it with every one that I meet? It sounds so trite, "Love your neighbor", but do I really unconditionally love my neighbor? It seems easy to love these children, but after I go home, will it still be as easy to love those around me?

"Let me love you, my Lord and my God, and see myself as I really am: a pilgrim in this world, a Christian called to respect and love all whose lives I touch, those in authority over me, or those under my authority, my friends and my enemies."

Day 27 and 28: Hello, Goodbye

Today, Katie and I have officially been here a month. I know, I know, my blog says Day 28, but it really has been a month today since we flew into Romania. To celebrate, we took a nap, and bought some chocolate. This is pretty much the best day of our lives. :) Just kidding. But it has been a great day.

I think I am starting to get used to being cold here - being in the mountains is wonderful, but I'm still having to convince myself that it is the middle of June and not March. Also, as soon as I get home, I would like for someone with a scientific brain to please explain to me why it doesn't get dark until 10:00 pm here, but it is fully light out at 5:00 am? I would like a very simplified answer because I don't feel like thinking too hard about it. :) But I really do want to know.

Katie is teaching the English class today, and I will teach tomorrow, so I'm taking advantage of my limited free time to blog. On the first full day that we were here at camp, Katie taught the children how to say Hello and Goodbye. Unfortunately, the word they use most as a greeting, Szia, basically means Hi and Bye and of course they use it as both, so without fail, everytime we greet the children in the morning some of them say very energetically, "Goodbye!!" :)

Yesterday we went on a 7 mile trek to a mineral water spring, and I cannot believe how sore I am today! I would not have thought I was out of shape considering how much I ran before I came over here, but by the way that my legs feel today, I'm worried about myself haha. I think we wore all of the children out after the excursion. They were so quiet at dinner!! Like I've said before, they really are incredibly well behaved for the most part, but last night they were angels.

Katie and I were talking about the children the yesterday while we were walking back from the spring, and we came to a funny conclusion. I don't think a couple of the younger children have realized that we really don't understand about 90% of what they're saying. They know we speak another language, but many of them still come up to me and Katie and talk to us emphatically about something for about 10 minutes, and as many times as I try to explain in my very poor Hungarian that I don't understand, or ask them to speak slowly, they still keep going 90 miles an hour like we're natives haha. I've gotten to the point where I just nod, and smile and say "Ohhh...igen(yes)."

There is a tennis court here at camp, and I've started playing again. I didn't realize that it's been three years since I've been on the courts. Attila is pretty good, so we've been engaging in some hardcore playing - so far I'm losing, but I'm proud to say it's really only because I can't serve to save my life, and his serve is the only thing he's consistent with. :) (Attila if you read this don't be offended - you know it's true.) I also played Volleyball for the first time Wednesday and LOVED it! Katie and I are really enjoying being so active with the children. It's nice to be able to do something with them that doesn't require a whole lot of conversation, but at the same time, there is a bonding of sorts involved in playing with them. I love seeing the personalities come out in the children when we're playing games - some of them are SO competitive. I've taken quite a few pictures, but I haven't had the chance to upload any, so hopefully soon I'll be able to post some of the children. They are so PRECIOUS.

"I offer you, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on you;
my words: to have you for their theme;
my actions: to reflect my love for you;
my sufferings: to be endured for your greater glory."

Day 25 and 26: I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me.

Well, here we are on our second full day here. The children have warmed up to us so much, and that is a blessing. We played a lot of sports with them yesterday; well Katie played volleyball, and I played something comparable to tennis, haha, but we had a lot of fun. I had a breakthrough yesterday when a boy asked me if I wanted to play basketball in Hungarian, and I knew what he was asking! I still haven't learned as many verbs as I would like - but Orsi gave me homework on our last day in Reghin, so as soon as I get the chance, I will start to work on it. :)

Katie taught the English class yesterday, and I will teach today. It is a little more difficult than any of the other classes we've taught because these children learn very slowly. Although our children from Apalina have a terribly attention span, they do learn fairly quickly. Mirjam informed us that most of these children here quit going to school after fourth grade, so that causes difficulty in teaching them, but I think as long as there is a lot of interaction and they are having fun, they will learn something.

Yesterday I surprised myself. I haven't eaten a banana in at least 12 years. Anyone who knows me knows that I pick bananas out of banana pudding because I hate them so much. :) Well, yesterday at lunch, they had bananas, and Katie was going on and on about how good they were...I was curious. So I tried one, and it was actually pretty good haha. I don't think this is the start of a long-lasting relationship or anything, but at least my opinion has been improved of bananas. However, all of the fruit here is better than the fruit in the States, so I really doubt I'll be eating any when I come home.

I went on a walk with a couple of the older girls yesterday and had a somewhat decent conversation in Hungarian until the end of the walk, when they started asking me a question that I didn't know. They persisted for awhile, but then gave up, so I was a little discouraged, but I have to remind myself that I am learning. This is SUCH a learning process, and I'm finding so many things out about myself. For one thing, I have never felt so vulnerable for such a long period of time and it is taxing. :) But I think it is a good thing as well, because I am finding that some things are easier - like prayer, for example. And love. It is so easy to love these children when I feel that I have nothing else to offer them. And I think they are beginning to love us in return, which is comforting. God works in mysterious ways, and even when I feel that I will never learn this language, I am still able to establish relationships and see Him working through them.

'I trust in your faithfulness. Grant my heart joy in your help, that I may sing of the Lord, "How good our God has been to me!" '
Psalm 13:6

Day 23 and 24: Let me love you, my Lord and my God, and see myself as I really am

We are finally here in Harghita. It is REALLY cold here. I'm glad I brought a hoodie, because we are up in the mountains, and Katie and I were freezing already today. It is beautiful here; I hope to post some pictures soon. This campground is very nice. Much nicer than any camps I went to growing up.

Katie and I absolutely love all of the flowers in this country. I swear, I have never seen flowers like the ones here in Romania. It must be something in the soil, or the climate or something, because I'm not kidding, you have not lived until you see the lilies and the roses. They're HUGE. Gyula offered Katie and I some flowers from the chapel, and I don't care if Customs pulls me aside on the way home, I may try to sneak some back in my suitcase. :)

I cannot believe how well behaved these gypsy children are. It just doesn't seem right somehow. I really miss our children in Apalina a lot - these children are very quiet, and don't seem interested in getting to know us at all. I'm hoping maybe they are just shy, or intimidated, or something, and after a day or two will warm up to us. I had to work for a smile today from any of them - I mean WORK. I can count on one hand the amount of smiles I received in return. I'm sure that once we are able to be in classes with them and start playing games and doing crafts, it will be different. They are just unlike any of the other children that we have worked with so far. Please pray that we will be able to establish relationships with them, and that God will give us the wisdom to discern the individual needs of each child here. Katie and I want so badly to be able to love them the way that we are called to love them, so pray that we will be given the opportunity to form relationships with these children and show them God's love.