Sorry for the very long delay in posts. Since it has been a while, I am going to be short about finishing the story from that day.
I was sitting outside the bathroom by the backdoor and infront of the stairs holding a garbage bag. I have bad acid reflux sometimes and I couldn't tell if this days was one of those or I actually was going to throw up. I was coughing a lot to see if anything would come up. About 15 minutes after me sitting, an older woman who I never seen showed up. My head was held down, so I didn't see her until I looked up but I did ear someone come from downstairs. I know she didn't come from outside so I assumed she lived there. I assume this because there also to Romanians girls that I think are around my age and a 33 year old man living in the house. Then there is a 21 year old living in the house in our backyard. Anyway, the older woman who people started calling her my Romanian grandmother had some Vick's vapor. We player charades to figure out what she wanted me to do, she finally found something to do the job she was trying to get me to do. I then sit on the bench outside letting this woman that I just met roughly rub my neck and chest. She pretty much thought I had a cold because she then charaded that I should put longsleeve shirt and long pants on to sweat off the tempature that I didn't have. She then offered tea which actually helped.
Ministry
I was going to combine things people from the pack have written on their blogs but I want share other stuff so I am just going to put a link to http://kaitlynallen.theworldrace.org/?filename=proclaiming-freedom
Living situation
This month my team [RADIANT] paired with team Perisseuo and we call all of us together a pack. I am so glad that we have get to work with them this first month. We mesh so well together. We have family style dinners together. We have pursued getting to know each other. When we split up, we don't try to keep team members together. We are here to serve Rual and his ministry. We usually are all over the place so it has been intersting trying to do feedback.
We have been so blessed this month. We have mattresses, showers, western toliets, a washer, and internet. The water is bipolar so when taking a shower, it will go from hot to cold and switch. We didn't have hot water this morning so I took a cold shower. I was thankful to the have shower head with the cord.
The grocery store is about a 15-20 minute walk and has pretty good selection. We have mainly been cooking our own meals. And when I say 'we are cooking' I mean the others because I don't know how to cook.
Marchel,the 33 year old, helps us out a lot. He is the one who told us we were eating sour cream for breakfest, turned the electricity back on after we blew the fuse several times, he put locks on our bedroom doors, got the guys out of their locked room, [twice] called to get the washer fixed, put a door on the second shower, and fix the light in the same shower, fixed the warm water, and he leaves tomorrow. Not sure what we are going to do without him. There is another church member that can fix things for us but does live in the same house. He showed us somethings so I think we will be fine.
A few funny things that has happened
- Having sour cream for breakfest.
- Craving milk so much that I try guessing what was milk and got milk but it was REALLY thick. I don't do textures well so I will not be drinking it.
- Having Romanians mock you while running in the morning.
- Cleaning tile four days in a row with different instructions each time. 1st-just wash/mop 2nd-get paint off floor 3rd-Let the guys scrub the inside of the cracks 4th-Getting the guys to try to get the tiles clean, they get better tools and get it done…kinda
- Explaining the reason for the need of painter's tape
- Communicating through charades.
- Buying 20 6L [I think] water bottles that last about a week.
- Guys being locked in their room'
For the ones who know me, know one of my spiritual gifts is serving. I've always enjoyed serving others other than this month. There have been moments but my heart wasn't in it for the first week and half. I didn't want to scrub paint of the floor for the twentith time when all they had to do is lay something down. I didn't want to scrub paint off windows because they could have taped the windows. All of these things would have been done that way I wanted in America but I am in Europe. I had a hard time putting my postive pants and I failed a quite a few times. I didn't enjoying walking and putting invitations in fence doors. I didn't want I to learn any Romanian phrases so that I could somewhat communicate with the people we met on the street while passing out invitations. I was being attacked in the area that I have always thrived. I never wanted recognition, I just wanted to serve. My heart would jump for joy to serve. Satan tried breaking me down, he cracked me but God healed me. Once I cried out to my papa, he came to pick me up and place me on his feet so that he could dance with me. With Him leading. He loves me that much and more. More than I could ever comprehend.
I was vulnerable with my team at our first feedback because I was challenged to explain something. They accepted me. They spoke truth over me. They spoke freedom over me. I become more open when I am with one or two people. I stay in the back and more of an observer when in bigger groups. My loud is not loud, it is at normal. Which is makes it difficult to jump when our pack is together or if some of us are just hanging out. My thoughts have become so jumbled over the years that when I do have something to say, it takes me a while to get it straight. Once that happens, they are talking about another subject and it is too late.
I'm obessed with the missionaries and their families that are invovled in Hope Church where Raul is pastor. I love how they met and got together. I love their testimones. I love how the church formed. One of the other Perisseuo girls designed a pamplet. She posted a blog about I am going to link you to another blog. http://briannadanese.theworldrace.org/?filename=brochure
