Hello again, Dear friends!
We arrived in the gpsy village of Viilie Techii last Monday,
after a 10 hour bus ride. It’s beautiful here. I feel like we’ve stepped back
in time. There are horses, and carriages, and outhouses instead of indoor
plumbing, which has been interesting. Not nearly as interesting as trying to
bathe inside a bucket, while watching satelite t.v.
only team in this village. We do have a few teams from the K Squad here, and
the January Squad arrived a few days ago, so we’re not all alone, but I’ve
really enjoyed being separated from our squad. I miss them, but it’s been great for us to build our team
identity. I have also loved talking to the January racers about their race so
far.I’ve found myself getting
excited about this crazy adventure that I’m going on. I still have random bouts
of homesickness, but I’ve chosen to press in. It’s amazing how powerful choice
is.
When I think of gypsies, I confess I definitely had
something else in mind. I pictured “I dream of Jennie” type dancers who wsore
outlandish outfits and maybe lived in the same boat that Johnny Depp did in
“Chocolat.” The gypsies here are normal people. They live in little houses,
with their sometimes large families. The family that we’re staying with is
really sweet. They’re a young couple- Adi and Sanda, both in their early
twenties, with a 2 year old boy named David. Sanda has really touched my heart.
She’s so beautiful and sweet, but seems so fragile. Women don’t have much of a
voice here, especially in the church. I’m super excited because we’re doing a
ladies night at the church this Thursday! I can’t wait to just get to speak to
all of the women here about God’s love for them, just the way they are.
Our ministry has been relational. We’ve been trying to build
relationships in any way we can, usually by doing service works like gardening,
cooking and cleaning for the people here. The language barrier has been pretty
interesting. We’re lucky because Adi and Sanda speak English very well, so we
always have translators.
So, life is pretty good here in Romania. People move at a
much slower pace than America, and I confess I’m much dirtier here, but life
could be worse. Church is pretty cool- one church saw gold dust fall last
night. I was so jealous.
Our team creed:
“We will be an open and vulnerable team, full of empathy and
grace. We will practice bold faith with the knowledge that it is okay t mess
up. We will be mindful of each other’s gifts and sensitive to opportunities for
growth. We will use these different gifts to work together as a body. We will
protect each other’s reputations. We will be committed to God and each other
and we will remain teachable all for the glory of God and the advance of the
Kingdom. And we will have fun doing it.”
Pray that we will live up to it!
I love all of you, and miss you all very much.
