I began my day thinking about all the ways I have been
selfish in the past, how I have used people, took advantage of people’s
kindness and have just been a lousy friend sometimes because of my tendency to
put myself above others.
These thoughts were triggered by our team time this morning.
Because of our new, tight budget, we all have to make some sacrifices this
month. So, Lauren pushed us to think about how we can prefer others on our team
as well as the people we will be coming in contact with this entire month.
Since we are working in gypsy villages this month, it is hard to overlook how
much we really do have even with this new budget. The first house we walked
into had one table and a bed for two kids and their grandfather to share. Even
though it was freezing inside the house, they only had a couple blankets to
keep them warm. This kind of put things into perspective for me, especially
since our house has heated towel racks and heated tiles…nicer than my house
back in the states.
After seeing that family, we are all now pushing ourselves
to just be a little more conservative with money and food.
Today was our free day so we decided to go out and buy as
much food as we could buy with the money we had and plan out how to get the most
for our money. But, on the way to the grocery store, we had a reminder of just
how much God provides.
Once we got into town, we realized that there was not an ATM
for us to get out money or enough food in the little markets for us to buy what
we had planned out. So, Kaitlyn and Amanda went to a grocery store in the city
and the rest of us stayed behind to explore the town.
Lauren suggested we check out this Catholic church but once
we got inside the gate and found out that the church was locked, we just
decided to continue exploring. We were all about to walk out of the gate when a
man came running up yelling something that sounded like “wait.” I yelled to the
rest of the girls that the man wanted us to stay so they all came back.
The man only spoke Hungarian and Romanian and a little bit
of broken English but from the little words he knew, we discovered he was the
Pope of the church and wanted to show us around. After spending about twenty
minutes in the church and an intense charades game, we figured out he wanted us
to come to his house (which was right around the corner of the church) At first
we were a little hesitant (watching Taken will do that to you) But, we decided
to follow him.
When we arrived at his house, he held his finger up to me, motioning
for me to stay and then he balled his hand up into a fist and acted as if he
was going to eat it. I didn’t know what he was trying to say, but I figured it
had something to do with food. I told the girls to wait while he went into his
basement. When he came back, not only did he have a box of apples for us, he
took us into his home where his mother lived with him and made us the biggest
lunch I have eaten in the past three months.
Our first course was a round of apples, followed by bread
and some kind of pastries that tasted like cookie dough covered in
coffee…fabulous! The second course was potato and vegetable soup served with a
side of peppers. Then, for dessert, we had more pastries, bread and juice. His
mother, Elizabeth was more than happy to serve us more than we were even
prepared for. She reminded me a lot of my grandmother in the sense that even if
we said we were full, she still kept bringing us food and would not sit down
until we all had already started eating and she could tell we liked what she
served us.
When we were finished, we sang them a couple songs and then
they sang us a song, we washed some dishes and got a grand tour of their
property, chickens and everything. On our way to leave, Elizabeth brought us a bucket of
walnuts and acorns to eat. She showed us how to crack them with a hammer and
then let us crack some for ourselves.
When we were done, she still continued
cracking them until we literally had to take the bucket away from her. I’m sure
if we hadn’t, she would have given us the whole bucket. She made sure to stuff
our pockets full of walnuts to take with us before we left, even the butt
pocket of Alysa’s pants were stuffed with walnuts.
It was just one great example of how God provides just what
we need at just the right time. Obviously, we are not starving, but cutting
down on our budget is requiring us to eat less so we are hungry more often. We
had eaten a little bit for breakfast and now did not have to worry about what
we would eat for lunch because God had already provided lunch for us. So, even
when you might be struggling to get by, God will always provide you with your
own pocket full of walnuts.
