Blessing and Being Blessed

The community and culture I am living in right now is very unique. The culture is rich and full of giving, loving, laughter and life but fiscally the people are very poor. The village I live in is small and most of the families live off of their land [milk from cows, eggs, vegetables from their garden, etc] although some have jobs in the city very few have cars or a way into the city. Some make money by doing odd jobs like cutting wood for the winter, etc. Even in those living in the city the income is minimal.

Yet despite this lack of financial wealth, I see the life here as rich and full. At least in the church community, but even outside the church fence the people are generous and giving. Neighbors bring grapes, fresh bread, tomatoes, eggs, milk and other prepared dishes for us, friends invite us in and share their coffee and goodies.

This weekend I was able to see this givingness in full. [yes I made up the word givingness] The Romanians celebrate Thanksgiving, they have somehow adapted our holiday into a version of their own. Their thanksgiving may be 2 months earlier than ours and not of course for the same reason, it still involves food and being thankful. Although the tradition is drastically different. The church brings in food, but not to stuff themselves to the point of pain {like so many Americans, often including myself, do} but they place it on a table and then the church distributes the flour, oil, sugar, vegetables, pasta, etc to the needy and the less fortunate. When I saw this, it was like a slap in the face. Look at this table and tell me who has the better Thanksgiving.

[and this table was double in size and I'm pretty sure there was stuff stacked behind it]

So. In saying all this, I am not trying to guilt trip anyone, or make us feel bad. I am simply laying down the facts. It is just amazing to see people who make less money, live in smaller houses, etc are giving to those who a less fortunate. But you know what, its not even about the money. Because even for Americans times are rough. Its about sharing the blessings that we have been given from our Lord. Instead of taking, spending, and consuming we need to be giving, sharing, and loving. But at the same time thanking God for blessing us immensely with life, shelter, food and most of all a saviour.

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On a lighter but similar note

I just want to preface this. God is amazing. Enough said.
But expanding on that let me just say how blessed I am by Him and through most of you. The support for this trip has been a blessing. For starters I have had plenty to make my budget and live off of for all these months. God provides and he is still providing. Canoe Creek Christian Church gave a special gift before I left and I have saved most of it. Now I am able to bless this community because of them.

The church that I am most involved in, is also my place of residence and work. There is a kindergarten [like Pre-K, see post below] that the church provides for the community. It is independently funded but the church for this village. The property that the church sits on is a nice size and is fenced in. The fence was never properly painted or sealed so over the years rain and snow has taken its toll. So I have used a portion of the money to help buy paint and supplies for painting the fence and repairing the parts that needed it, as well as some other odds and ends to help fix up the property. We collected an offering also to go towards this. Then the church family came out to repair and help paint!! Its been quite eventful around here this last week. We've had lost of mouths to cook for and plenty coffee to serve to those helping! Here are some pictures of the painters!!

Maria aka Machika smiling for the camera

Mom and son painting together

Madalina painting like a pro

You can see the difference in the paint quality
here in the picture with Simona's pretty smile!

Thats me!!

First day of school!!

So I just wanted to share a picture of my first day in the kindergarten!! It went well, we met the parents on Monday and had coffee with them while the kids played and then on Tuesday it really started!! Some of the kids are slow to adjust but I think it'll be a great group!! They are slightly nervous about me, mostly because I dont speak Romanian!! But I'm trying to learn!!

Here are some pictures of the kids!! They are working on puzzle type activities!!

Appreciation of Harvest

So tonight I was visiting a family from the church in the village I live in, Sendreni, and they were in the middle of shucking corn for animal feed from the corn stocks. So Simina and I (Simina is the woman I live with and work with), started to help them! The piles were huge!! We worked and worked pulling the ears from the stocks and  stacking the empty stocks. I probably only worked for 30 minutes because it was getting dark and goodness it was a lot of work!! They do all this by hand!! Crazy!! In return they gave us a beautiful pumpkin!! I'm so excited to carve it, bake the seeds and make pumpkin bread, cookies and other pumpkiny things from it!!! I love fall and I am glad I get to experience it in this village!! Needless to say I am grateful for the generosity and hard work of those who harvest their crops. I'm also in appreciation of the provision God gives us. All the varieties of fruit and vegetables that he provides us with. It really is amazing. I have been reading in Genesis lately and I read the creation story and this just puts it into perspective even more. I am so grateful we have a loving God who provides for us. He is the almighty.

[ps I will post pictures of my pumpkin creations]

Culture/Couture/Cover

So I've been warned from classes, conferences, books, organizations, you name it about cultural differences on the missionfield, denominational differences in other countries, etc. But its always an adjustment!

The churches that I'm serving with in Romania are Pentecostal. The team of people I'm working with who are affiliates of Kontaktmission have planted 5 churches in neighboring villages and there is a kindergarten in  Șendreni, the village I am living in.  The team are all Romanian, and consists of 3 couples and a single woman. The churches are ran differently here [as in most countries outside of the states]. There isnt a set paid pastor, instead the leaders take turns teaching. There is however a head pastor..  in the translation they call him bishop, but i think its just pastor/minister.

It had been interesting these last few weeks as I worship with these churches. I've observed and of course participated. Below are some interesting differneces from the churches most of us are familiar with: Because of the conservativeness of the villages the women always wear skirts to their knees or below. They also cover their heads, with a scarf or simialr material, becuase of a passage in the Bible. They spend more time in prayer and worship than actual teaching (its about 1/4 teaching and 3/4 prayer and worship). They have meetings on the week nights just for prayer and worship, in Sendreni alone they meet twice: tuesday for about 1.5 hours and then on friday for 3. Prayer is a very big part of their worship. Also they pray primarily on their knees. The majority of the scripture they read from and use in their teaching is from Psalms and Proverbs.

[I rock Vera Bradley for my head covering]

Of course I can't understand the majority of what they are saying [unless someone is translating], although I must say my Romanian is coming along quite nicely, so there is no way for me to know what they are teaching or how they teach it. But it is still interesting to note the differences, of course there are the other characteristicly pentacostal traditions like praying in a very loud voice, repititon, etc. I encountered such when I was serving in Costa Rica.  They also believe very strongly in the work of the Spirit, prayers of healing and such.

My main role in the next two months will be working with the kindergarten and I hope to act as a support to the team here, helping them when they make house visits and meet with people for prayer, things they need help with for meetings, etc. And of course living in community with them and the village to find out what life is like here.
School starts on the 12th and we have been preparing for this. Cleaning the rooms and gathering paperwork that needs to be completed. As well as visiting the homes of the children who will be attending.
For the past few weeks I've also had time to play with the kids and hang out with the youth. Two girls came to visit me one day when I was living in the other village and we went for a walk and then played cards outside. They barely spoke any English, but we still had a really good time!!

Rebecca and Magda playing cards with me

Playing outside

This is the family that helped me adjust
[lived with them while the water was out at my place]
Liviu- is one of the team members of Kontaktmission

Being silly

Check out this sunflower!! One of the main crops in this region
{and yes we ate those seeds}

Daily occurrence- they put their cows out in the pastures for the day
and then bring them home each night