We are about halfway through our stay in Romania and I think we are all feeling it. I am so tired. Like, more tired than I have ever been in my life. Spiritually, physically, and emotionally I am drained. We are tired but we are pushing on.
This week has definitely been the hardest for us. Monica, the woman who helps us translate to the kids and is the main Bible teacher, left for the week to go to a camp. So, the three of us got to plan the lesson time, which was really cool to be able to do that, but hard since the kids didn't want to listen to us. They are a sneaky bunch of kiddos and they think that since we don't understand them they can do whatever they want.
Today a family from Holland came with a bunch of shoes, stuffed animals, and a walker for Alex. This is a big blessing for him because it will help his legs get stronger so that he will be able to walk on his own soon. The girls made one of the visitors bleed so five of them got put in time-out and later they will have to do some kind of chore. After nap time, the kids who didn't get in trouble today will get to play in the water while the others have to just sit and watch. This is a new way of discipline for them because they are just used to getting knocked around at home.
But besides that one incident today, this is the best the kids have behaved all week. Which is a huge praise because they have been pretty bad this week. Please be praying for the kids. I can only imagine the kind of stuff they see at home which makes them act the way they do. It shouldn't be a first instinct for a little 4 year old girl to spit in her hand and slap another girl across the face. It just shouldn't. I know what we see here isn't even the worst that goes on at home. And that's what I think scares me the most.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Weekly Recap
Sunday we all loaded up in the van and headed to church in Oradea. It's so cool to hear songs that we sing in church in America but they are doing it in Romanian. They sang 'The Stand' which is a powerful song in itself but in Romanian it was just even more powerful. You could definitely feel God's presence there. There was a team from Chicago there so the sermon was in English and they translated it into Romanian. It was nice to hear a familiar accent and language. The message was very powerful and charismatic, which was very different for me. After the sermon they had a time of healing for anyone who wanted to be healed. They also said that if anyone was touched by the sermon to come up to the front to be prayed for and probably 3/4ths of the congregation went up to the front. It was pretty awesome to see.
After church we did our weekly McDonald's tradition. We traveled back to Tinca to go to a big baptism celebration. Rodica, the woman who cooks at the Center, had a daughter who was being baptized. There were about 12 altogether and hundreds of people came out to see the event. I think it was even broadcasted on the radio because they brought in a famous Romanian speaker. It was neat to see how they approach baptisms here. They make the people take a class and they are generally 16-20 years old when they make that decision. They take it very seriously over here.
This was about a 5 hour event. Afterwards we went to Rodica's house to celebrate with some sarmale, aka cabbage rolls.
Monday we went over to Rachel's to just hang out and help her get ready for her parents' arrival.
Tuesday we picked up the kiddos and got them dressed. The team from church on Sunday from Chicago came to the center for a few hours and do some skits hang out with the kids. They wanted to pray for all of the staff so we got in the middle of their circle and they began to pray. Then they started speaking in tongues. Now, I'm not saying that I don't believe that this stuff can happen, but as far as I have been taught there needs to be a translator or something to interpret. And there wasn't. I know they were doing it out of a good spirit and heart but honestly it just made us feel kind of uncomfortable. After a little bit we went with them to the village to pray for the kids' families. We stopped at Abel and Samuel's house first, then Alex's, and then David and Naomi's. David and Naomi's mom became paralyzed from the waist down after she gave birth to David. The team prayed for her but they were like, if you have faith then you will start walking right now. I looked at Jordan and Brandi like whaaaaaaaat? It was just really hard for me to not cry and I was fighting back tears because this woman was sobbing saying that she believed but she couldn't walk. It was just heartbreaking. The team left the room and Dave stayed and talked with her to tell her it was okay and basically just made sure that our relationship with this family wasn't ruined because they are one of the few Christian families of the kids. We went back and hung out with the kids for the rest of the day.
Wednesday was Iza's 8th birthday. The girl loves Hunchback of Notre Dame because the main girl character is a gypsy. Rachel was talking about how Iza gets made fun of at school all the time because she is a gypsy and so it's pretty cool that she can find a strong female gypsy to look up to like Esmerelda. So Iza dressed up like Esmerelda, her grandpa dressed up as the jester, and Dave dressed up like Quasimodo. After the kids' nap they had a big party with chocolate cake from America, gypsy skirts, moustaches, and water guns. I was soaked and exhausted by the end of it.
Today the kids have varied from insane to cuddlebugs. They are napping right now and they probably will for about another hour. Today we taught Abel how to say "you cray-cray." He thinks it's hilarious and so do we. The team from Chicago came back to go into the gypsy village. Dave talked with the translator to have him tell that if any of them were planning on forcing miracles then they shouldn't go. Especially with all the superstition that the gypsy's believe in it probably would be a bad idea to tell a woman that it's basically her fault she can't walk. But one of the girls from the team came in and apologized for the other day so that was good.
Tonight we might go into Oradea with Rachel for a bit and then we'll probably all pass out for a good night's sleep.
After church we did our weekly McDonald's tradition. We traveled back to Tinca to go to a big baptism celebration. Rodica, the woman who cooks at the Center, had a daughter who was being baptized. There were about 12 altogether and hundreds of people came out to see the event. I think it was even broadcasted on the radio because they brought in a famous Romanian speaker. It was neat to see how they approach baptisms here. They make the people take a class and they are generally 16-20 years old when they make that decision. They take it very seriously over here.
This was about a 5 hour event. Afterwards we went to Rodica's house to celebrate with some sarmale, aka cabbage rolls.
Monday we went over to Rachel's to just hang out and help her get ready for her parents' arrival.
Tuesday we picked up the kiddos and got them dressed. The team from church on Sunday from Chicago came to the center for a few hours and do some skits hang out with the kids. They wanted to pray for all of the staff so we got in the middle of their circle and they began to pray. Then they started speaking in tongues. Now, I'm not saying that I don't believe that this stuff can happen, but as far as I have been taught there needs to be a translator or something to interpret. And there wasn't. I know they were doing it out of a good spirit and heart but honestly it just made us feel kind of uncomfortable. After a little bit we went with them to the village to pray for the kids' families. We stopped at Abel and Samuel's house first, then Alex's, and then David and Naomi's. David and Naomi's mom became paralyzed from the waist down after she gave birth to David. The team prayed for her but they were like, if you have faith then you will start walking right now. I looked at Jordan and Brandi like whaaaaaaaat? It was just really hard for me to not cry and I was fighting back tears because this woman was sobbing saying that she believed but she couldn't walk. It was just heartbreaking. The team left the room and Dave stayed and talked with her to tell her it was okay and basically just made sure that our relationship with this family wasn't ruined because they are one of the few Christian families of the kids. We went back and hung out with the kids for the rest of the day.
Wednesday was Iza's 8th birthday. The girl loves Hunchback of Notre Dame because the main girl character is a gypsy. Rachel was talking about how Iza gets made fun of at school all the time because she is a gypsy and so it's pretty cool that she can find a strong female gypsy to look up to like Esmerelda. So Iza dressed up like Esmerelda, her grandpa dressed up as the jester, and Dave dressed up like Quasimodo. After the kids' nap they had a big party with chocolate cake from America, gypsy skirts, moustaches, and water guns. I was soaked and exhausted by the end of it.
Today the kids have varied from insane to cuddlebugs. They are napping right now and they probably will for about another hour. Today we taught Abel how to say "you cray-cray." He thinks it's hilarious and so do we. The team from Chicago came back to go into the gypsy village. Dave talked with the translator to have him tell that if any of them were planning on forcing miracles then they shouldn't go. Especially with all the superstition that the gypsy's believe in it probably would be a bad idea to tell a woman that it's basically her fault she can't walk. But one of the girls from the team came in and apologized for the other day so that was good.
Tonight we might go into Oradea with Rachel for a bit and then we'll probably all pass out for a good night's sleep.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Week One
It's been a good week so far working with Forget-Me-Not Ministries. Every morning we walk/ride our bikes/ or get a ride to the Isaiah Center which is just about a mile down the road from where we are living. We ride in the van to the gypsy part of Tinca. It's amazing how in just a few blocks you can go from nice houses to extreme poverty. It's the norm for little kids to just run around naked and by themselves. When we picked up the kids on Tuesday you could tell they had a long weekend. Sweet little Simona just sat there and sucked her thumb. It really just makes you want to walk up to their parents and smack them in the face for all of the physical and sexual abuse that these kids go through, but you can't.
It's been a fun few days getting to know the kids' different personalities. They are a crazy, rowdy bunch. Friday and Saturday people are coming to the Center to talk to the staff about how to deal with these kids since they are all special needs. They all pretty much have reactive attachment disorder and they look for you to get angry and hit them because that's what it's like at home and that's what comforts them. It's really sad but it is amazing how every year the kids have improved. It just gives hope that maybe one day they will be the ones to end the cycle of abuse in the gypsy community.
It's been a fun few days getting to know the kids' different personalities. They are a crazy, rowdy bunch. Friday and Saturday people are coming to the Center to talk to the staff about how to deal with these kids since they are all special needs. They all pretty much have reactive attachment disorder and they look for you to get angry and hit them because that's what it's like at home and that's what comforts them. It's really sad but it is amazing how every year the kids have improved. It just gives hope that maybe one day they will be the ones to end the cycle of abuse in the gypsy community.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Salem, Selgros, & Sunshine
Yesterday the three of us got picked up by Rach, Dave, Iza, and Samuel and we went to Oradea to go to church at Salem. The church service was about 3 hours long which I know probably seems like a nightmare to some people, but it amazingly goes by pretty fast and is pretty awesome. Rachel translated a lot of service to us so we could understand what was going on. It's really cool how they do some of the same songs that we do in contemporary church services in America but in their language. It's a good reminder that we all worship the same God despite a different language and culture.
After church we stopped through McDonald's and got some lunch and then went to Selgros to go grocery shopping. I think this was a little more overwhelming than we thought it would be. Jordan, Brandi, and I exchanged some money and grabbed a shopping cart and started to explore. Selgros is like Wal-Mart on crack. The bad part was that we couldn't read any of the labels so it made shopping difficult. We got lots of fresh fruit & veggies, meat, and bread. We also got some huge 6L bottles of water for the week since we can't drink the water in Tinca without getting dysentery or something fun like that. We also found this stuff that's like Nutella but a different name and is super cheap and delicious.
We got home around 4:30 and took like a 3 hour nap. It was awesome. Then we just kinda hung out around the house. We noticed that there were a lot of people just kinda walking around in the house so that was kind of weird at first. Maria's family had come over to do a cookout type thing. One of her sons who spoke English came in our room and invited us to go outside and hang out with them. They were all super nice and hospitable. It's really hard to say no to people when they offer you things here.
This morning we were all pretty much wide awake around 7 AM so we went outside to go lay out in the sun. Maria gave us blankets and insisted we go lay out in the huge field next to the house that has a bunch of chickens, tires, and just random things. We laid out there for a little bit and then went inside to get ready for the day. Now we are at the Center just hanging out and will probably work on organizing some stuff. Tomorrow is our first day with the kids!
After church we stopped through McDonald's and got some lunch and then went to Selgros to go grocery shopping. I think this was a little more overwhelming than we thought it would be. Jordan, Brandi, and I exchanged some money and grabbed a shopping cart and started to explore. Selgros is like Wal-Mart on crack. The bad part was that we couldn't read any of the labels so it made shopping difficult. We got lots of fresh fruit & veggies, meat, and bread. We also got some huge 6L bottles of water for the week since we can't drink the water in Tinca without getting dysentery or something fun like that. We also found this stuff that's like Nutella but a different name and is super cheap and delicious.
We got home around 4:30 and took like a 3 hour nap. It was awesome. Then we just kinda hung out around the house. We noticed that there were a lot of people just kinda walking around in the house so that was kind of weird at first. Maria's family had come over to do a cookout type thing. One of her sons who spoke English came in our room and invited us to go outside and hang out with them. They were all super nice and hospitable. It's really hard to say no to people when they offer you things here.
This morning we were all pretty much wide awake around 7 AM so we went outside to go lay out in the sun. Maria gave us blankets and insisted we go lay out in the huge field next to the house that has a bunch of chickens, tires, and just random things. We laid out there for a little bit and then went inside to get ready for the day. Now we are at the Center just hanging out and will probably work on organizing some stuff. Tomorrow is our first day with the kids!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Our First Official Day
I woke up this morning wide awake at 3:30 AM. Good ol’ jetlag. Around 4:30 the roosters started crowing and cows started mooing. It seriously sounds like there is a cow like right outside our window. We moved into the house yesterday. It is HUGE! The house is right across from the river and down the road from Mihai’s old people home. The three of us are sharing a huge room and it is super cute. We are sharing the house with a Hungarian woman whose husband passed away about a year ago. She is super sweet. I just wish that the language barrier wasn’t so bad since she does not speak English and we only know a little Romanian. This morning once we all woke up we ate some Choco Chips cereal (a mix between chocolate frosted flakes and cocoa puffs). The woman we are sharing the house with came in our room with some delicious very strong coffee. After breakfast we all got ready for the day. We were a little worried if we could brush our teeth with the tap water or if we should use the bottled since we can’t drink the tap water. We all went ahead and took a risk to use the tap water...so hopefully nothing bad happens =]. We’ve already had some devo time this morning and now we are listening to praise music and just relaxing. Overall it’s been a great first morning in Romania!
Last night we went to the center for dinner and got to meet Michelle and Herb. They are awesome. Samuel and Iza were at the center and one of the first things Samuel asked Rachel was where our husbands were. Ha! He is a cutie pie. Rachel said that Samuel and Abel have been staying with her during the weekends lately because their grandparents were strongly considering putting them up for adoption. So she’s been trying to lighten their load a little.
We got to have our first Romanian meal of the trip with couscous. SOO good! After dinner we got to hang out with Iza and Samuel a little bit and then Michelle and Herb took us to a small store to get a few food items until we can go to a bigger grocery store on Sunday after church. We are really excited to be settled in and we can’t wait to start working with the kids!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
We have arrived!
We got to Rachel's house around 4:15 AM Romanian time, 8:15 PM Illinois time. We are staying here tonight and then moving into the house we will be staying at tomorrow. Between the 6 bags that the three of us checked we only lost one bag of shoes we were smuggling in for the gypsy's. Apparently there was some kind of strike with the Belgium workers who load baggage. We are just really thankful that we made it here in one piece and that we have somewhere to sleep instead of airport benches! Tomorrow is going to be a chill day for us and we will probably sleep a lot and get used to the time change. We are all about to pass out, so good night!!!
We are in Brussels yooo
I am sweaty. I want a shower. I want to sleep.
I think it's like....3:18 in the morning back home?? Maybe? I don't know. None of us slept on the plane because we were too hyped up/ uncomfortable/ just not tired. Right now we are paying for internet trying to figure out how to get checked-in and how to get our boarding passes. Hopefully we will figure everything out. We only have about...10 more hours of waiting in Brussels til our next flight to Budapest. Please pray that we don't get too lost =]
I think it's like....3:18 in the morning back home?? Maybe? I don't know. None of us slept on the plane because we were too hyped up/ uncomfortable/ just not tired. Right now we are paying for internet trying to figure out how to get checked-in and how to get our boarding passes. Hopefully we will figure everything out. We only have about...10 more hours of waiting in Brussels til our next flight to Budapest. Please pray that we don't get too lost =]
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