For those of you wondering whether or not I am alive, I have just a few short minutes to write to you a frantic blog posts without the aid of pictures or video as my computer battery is running on reserve power and I have not seen an outlet in twenty four hours or more.
I am currently in Bucharest, having just spent the day in the city with my team. We are leaving for Arad in just over an hour. It is currently ten thirty here, and our train leaves Bucharest at 1145 and arrives in a town called Radna just before ten in the morning. We will be sleeping in the train car (hopefully!), and we have been praying for good rest and a relatively empty car except for us. The last couple days have not seen as much sleep as my body needs, but the Lord is sustaining us.
Last night, we slept in the airport in Bucharest after arriving at 1am. X Squad greeted us, having just come from doing their ministry in Romania. They were headed for India, and prepared the way for us beautifully.
The night before that was our international flight from JFK in New York to Warsaw, Poland. As you can imagine, the airport was busy and crowded with security personnel with the anniversary of 9/11 coming up, but God was so gracious to us and allowed us to pass through freely and even worship in song at the terminal, a beautiful reminder that even though America may not be living up to the dream that we want for it, it is still a free place where we can lift our voices to Jesus without persecution, and for that we gave thanks.
The flight, for me, was absolutely awful. I was airsick the whole time and was unable to sleep. But instead of sleeping in the airport afterward, I decided to go out into Warsaw and see the city, and I am so glad I did. The Lord gave me a special energy and took away my nausea, and I was able to spend some great bonding time with a bunch of guys from the whole squad. We went to a place and got kebobs and a delicious Polish beer, clinking our glasses together at the beauty of our surroundings and the graciousness of God to allow us to spend time with these beautiful people in Poland.
It is my hope that I will post a more thorough update soon, and I have a couple videos that I have filmed but not yet edited. They are in the style of "Thoughts from Places" (if you are unfamiliar with this concept, YouTube "thoughts from places vlogbrothers" and tell me if you like what you see). I will be writing little vignettes and delivering them over the footage I took because I want to give you all images of what I am seeing, and the people whose lives I will be changing.
Be looking for the videos soon, and I love all of you!
Peter
