This month was the beginning of MANY changes. I went ALL over Romania while being trained to be a squad leader. I spent about five days in each location and took four overnight trains in less than four weeks. For the first five days or so, the alumni squad leaders, Mac, Hope, and Caitlin, set time aside and poured into Q, Pris, and I. It was crazy, but so GOOD. I will share more of my heart regarding squad leading a little later, for now I will stick to my end of the month list!!!
Get excited.
Ready?
I spent the day in NEW YORK for the first time ever!
I saw a broadway play- The Phantom of the Opera!!!
Sat and had a gyro in Central Park
Slept in the JFK airport
( Me in Central Park)
Flew to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines- got free food, socks, toothepaste, and a million tv shows and movies to select from ( I ended up sleeping a ton but watched Ever After and Finding Forrester and ended the flight crying from watching Family Stone hehe)
Ate way too many schwarmas
Had squad leader training in the most beautiful square of brasov
Went to a beautiful castle
Went to a Romanian Orthodox Easter Service at midnight
Discovered I had a twin and a perfect travel companion in HOPE
Swept, built windows, sanded walls, plastered, and used a power saw to build a house for habitat for humanity
Went to a youth conference (TRIUMFATOR) which means triumphant, and a man from the ATL spoke, in English, and God rocked me and met me right there at the bottom of the altar
Had “church” with the squad leaders which consisted of jumping on the beds, worshipping, and dancing down the hall and in the kitchen like a parade
Watched How I Met Your Mother with Hope and a Romanian girl on an overnight train, got pretzels thrown at me insisting that I eat them- the old man was so sweet, he even made our beds and tucked the sheets in for us
Took a taxi, that had no sign for taxi, no meter…basically it was a guy using his car to make a little money hehe
Visited prisons in Pitesti from the communist reign and got a private tour of the insides
Had a wonderful birthday filled with cake, croissants, love and Romanian traditions like being tossed in the air 23 times
Went on a prayer walk for the first time
Went on a full fun day trip to Sibiu with Hope
Made a video for Capital Christian Elementary School- never thought I would be that girl who walked while caressing the white picket fence… hope you all enjoyed it, shout out to wesleeeey for being a genius
Stared into people’s eyes without talking for a minute, then prophesied over them, and vice versa- needless to say it was powerful and there were tears
Made another video with the squad leaders as we ended our time together and the transition occurred
Got broken and humbled on a whole other level during a session at debrief, made a fool of myself, but knew that I was caught by His grace and love
Had to have THE hardest conversation. Had to actually walk out the whole “living by faith” “dying to self” “obedience at any cost” sayings
Our squad had a talent show that involved karate moves, songs from “Wicked,” animal noises, spinning and glowing POI, and a juggler- who knew we were so talented…and weird!
Got transitioned into being a squad leader with prayer, prophecy, dancing, scripture, tears, honor, and joy
( Lindsay Q, Me, and Priscilla Gray-the new squad leaders of D squad, my new team!)
I forgot to mention that the Euro Cup was in Bucharest during debrief, so there were 120,000 Spanish men roaming the streets chanting, drinking, and celebrating. According to a restaurant owner, it was the event of the century! It provided great people watching and a delightful atmosphere 😀
Here are a few of my favorite views/shots from this month!
(Oradea on the dairy farm-could the clouds be any more beautiful?)
(A view from our hostel in Brasov, one of my favorites, it made me feel like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast was going to slide down the roof at any moment 🙂
(Beautiful Sibiu)
I am now currently on the last train heading to Rivne, Ukraine. A few hours ago Q, Pris, and I arrived to Kiev after taking a 27 hour overnight train from Romania. It was amazing, we did nothing but sleep, read, talk, eat, and laugh..all day! Romania was amazing and so crazy. This month in Ukraine is our first month being alone as squad leaders. Mac, Hope, and Caitlin are back living normal lives now. We are headed to our first two teams. And so it begins…
Shout out to Mac, Hope, and Caitlin- Miss you guys SOOOoooo much. Can’t believe you aren’t sitting here next to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know how I feel about you I love you so much and I am sue excited for your return at month 8 debrief. Keep in touch! Skype dates please!
Here is the video that I did for Capital Christian Elementary, it was filmed and edited and directed and perfected by Wes Vickers, a guy on my squad, check out his other videos on vimeo.com 🙂
