Christmas in Romania

So, I have been in Romania since Thursday...

Got through jet lag mostly and have been spending time in a house with 4 boys plus 2 overnight visitors and two visitors from England, both named Susan! We are going to bake cookies tonight, polish off shopping tomorrow and wrap presents too at some point for the boys here.

We were originally going to have Romi, Mando, and Arnold here for Christmas...however, Arnold's brother Ervin will be joining us too now, so we have to scramble to get some things together for him...It is amazing how God can answer the cry of one's heart...

Through Romi, Mando and Arnold were all orphans at one time we feel they have been made to feel welcome here for some time...it is their home. My heart wanted to be able to share Christmas with someone in need...God had just placed it on my heart...in walks Ervin!

Ervin is 18 years old...He has been in a children's home for a long time and the children's home he was in decided to make him leave a couple of days ago. He is delayed mentally and not able to live without assistance. He is living in a sort of halfway house although he had nowhere to go for Christmas so we will get to have him join us! Our desire for the kids is that their Christmas is magical and that the love of Christ would shine above all else.

Please pray that Christ's love would be evident during the next few days!

Merry Christmas to you my friends! Craciun Fericit!

Thankful

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Maybe this post comes a little late than necessary but it is a culmination of events over the past 10 days.

So...

I explained that I lost my job. Well, I am thankful!

I am thankful for the time I have had to spend time with the youth last Sunday at the Toby Mac concert!





I am thankful for the time spent with family this week, which wouldn't have happened, had I not lost my job!!!











I am thankful for time spent with friends on a trip to Longaberger country (the Red Velvet cake at Popeyes in Dresden was the BEST!) and the fellowship at church today! (No pics for that one)

I am thankful that today I was able to use God's gift of photography to raise funds for Romania!







I am thankful that even when I am home and enjoying family, I have another family in Ohio now that I am missing! And of course Ryan, who I will THANKFULLY get to see in less than a month! (Lord willing)




"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Faithful God

So today I go to Starbucks (my place of employment) which is inside a mall...I walk in and they are packing everything...I mean everything into boxes and bags...I was like what in the heck?

So then I went to see my store manager at another store she manages...We are closed...and I don't have a job...nice right?

Well...thankfully God has purposed me for other things and I am completely confident that this move for me was not a decision made by Starbucks or anyone else but God Himself...They may think they made it but it was God...ha!

So, plans? Well, I have no clue how it will all work...but I will be raising prayer support and finances to move to Romania...Lord willing, that will be sooner rather than later so I don't have to search for a job then leave shortly after!

I DO know that this works out better in the short term because I was going to take 3 weeks off, unpaid, to go to Romania for Christmas...Well, now I will be receiving severance pay and unemployment and that was more than I would have gotten otherwise!

During my trip, I will not only celebrate Christmas and New Years. I will also be visiting apartments and investigating what living expenses will be that I will need to raise to live there. I will also be working on small projects at the house being built. Painting ceilings, maybe making curtains for the windows, helping to install light fixtures, etc. are all on the list of to do's while there.

After I return I plan on visiting churches and writing letters and working on taking photos for donations to the Romanian fund!

Pray that I would follow the Lord daily and that I will continue to recognize His faithfulness even when I get bogged down in my humanity...Cause He is ALWAYS faithful...


"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands."

--Deuteronomy 7:9

Christmas is coming!

So, needless to say for a while I was struggling...

I was struggling with being here in Ohio, missing my friends and family, and most of the struggle was because I felt trapped here. My store manager at Starbucks is not very lenient...That and she has the dates between black Friday and New Years Day completely blacked out for requests. We can't request so much as a minute off let alone enough time to visit home or family for a day or two...So that had me getting depressed.

So I was down but certainly not out and was praying and asking God to allow His will to be done but to know that I was not going to be very happy if I couldn't go home though my real desire was to travel to Romania...

So...I thought, I will ask Lee Ann, my store manager...Can't hurt right? Worst she can say is no, then I can apply for leave and see what happens there...

So, I mentioned it to her one day. She said what I thought...that I couldn't request it but to get her the dates in case I could apply for leave or something. So, I thought that it would be a no for sure...I thought, well I will just go home one day at a time when I have a day off...

Well...I got to thining I might just apply for leave and see what happened...I thought, I will apply for as close to Christmas as possible so that my chances maybe go up...Then one day when Lee Ann was in I told her the dates that I had in mind....December 21-January 13.

AMAZINGLY she said, THAT SHOULD BE FINE!

PRAISE THE LORD ABOVE! I mean seriously! I never dreamed she would say that!!!

God is so good and I believe with everything that He prepared her heart, the timing, and everything for it to work out...

I know that it would have been a super tough Christmas if I had not been able to spend it with Ryan or the family in Kentucky...but God worked it out as He usually does...Praise Him who is more than worthy!

More to come on what I will be doing while there...besides enjoying Christmas with my boyfriend! There WILL be work!

Joshua

God is sooo faithful! It is times like the time that I am in now that I stand in wonder and awe at how faithful He REALLY is!

There are times when I KNOW He will come through...times that He works when and how I think He should, based on His promises...

But at times like this, when He works in ways that I never could have imagined, I am in awe!

I have been studying Genesis on Monday nights with a set of ladies from my church...we are actually working our way completely through the Bible and are now in Exodus...however I was struck by the life of Joshua.

He is favored by his father, Jacob, because of the favoritism his brothers HATED him...he was thrown into a well by his brothers, sold by his brothers and eventually taken to Egypt, was blamed for things he didn't do, went to prison, stayed there for years, then lived in Egypt finding favor from the Pharoah...

It is quite a feat for me to make it through some DAYS without complaining...however Joseph, had such a difficult life...his BROTHERS treated him horribly.

When it came time for him to reveal himself to his brothers, as they did not recognize him when they approached him, the governor of the land, he forgave them by accounting all that happened to God being in control and having a plan.

To have faith like that is so commendable...I pray that faith that Joseph so readily had would be in me when the times come that aren't so easy.

I pray that I would see obstacles as stepping stones and trials as blessings...

Opportunity Knocking?

Hello friends...

SUPER sorry I haven't blogged for a while...I haven't had anything to say really...

Honduras was such a high...and coming down from such a high is sometimes overwhelming so I guess I have just not had the words to say and quite frankly I was still processing all that God was teaching me through the experience.

God is so good! Like, I can't even express the gratitude I feel toward Him in my life right now...and is gratitude even a strong enough word? Probably not! :)

So, I have a prayer request. I don't want to say too much here but I am really praying about a certain opportunity that has been knocking a little bit. One that I wasn't really expecting but I am not gonna lie I was kind of hoping for it, just not in the exact way it is forming...probably because God knows better than me!

So, please pray that God would lead me in the way HE wants me to go about taking advantage of the opportunity I speak of...I shall hopefully let yall know more later...until then enjoy some fall pics I took today!

Love ya!

When words fail...

Untitled

So, I have a story, again...

We were providing shoes for people without any...to be brought up to speed read the previous post. I was going along, tryig to offer a smile to everyone who entered, washing their feet, trying to not let them feel awkward, making as much conversation in my broken Spanish as possible. I would ask each of them if they know Jesus loves them. Many of them would answer with a firm yes...then many of them would answer yes, but not as firmly. So I would make sure I told them, "Cristo te ama MUCHO!" And look them in the eye and smile...

One man in particular grabbed my heart that day...I was going from one person to the next, my back was hurting from being bent over and I was trying to hurry while still getting their shoes on them and telling them Jesus loves them. This guy made me slow down...to REALLY make a connection and let him know his worth. Not the worth I place on him but the worth Christ places on him. He came in and sat in the seat in front of me and I literally had to stop, step back, and take a breath, get my mindset right (meaning I prayed) and then go back...now while I did this I was scoping out the shoes I would place on his feet and got a pair of socks...I didn't want him to feel bad or know that I was a little bit shocked by his appearance.

As I walked back to his chair I smiled and God enabled me to have a conversation. We talked about Jesus, church and his job. He does not have much work. Being a one armed man in Honduras where the jobs are mostly physical labor, makes working difficult. He walked for what I am guessing must have taken him at least 1-2 hours to get the shoes I placed on his feet. While washing his feet I took my time. We only had wipes and he is the first person that I literally thought, I wish I had pedicure supplies...I wanted so much to communicate my care and GOD'S care to him. Below are the pictures...below the pictures, the story continues...




So, the day of shoes came to an end and we were tired...afterward we drove for about 2 hours back to the mission where we were staying...my mind staying focused on this man many times throughout the evening.

The following morning we traveled to a hospital in Tegucigalpa that is for those with low income. We visited the orthopedic children's section and the children's oncology section. In the first room we visited there was a little boy. He was 5 years old and had his hand amputated. The thing about him was that he had such a light in his eyes and HUGE smile on his face! I gave him a dinosaur and Charlie, a fellow traveler, gave him a little boxcar to play with. The circumstances in which he lost his hand weren't important to me at the time because all I could think about was the man from the day prior. I pray for this little boy daily now. That God could provide a way in life for him to be able to make it. The road will be hard and knowing what I learned from the first man, I know that this little boy most certainly has his work cut out for him. Join me in praying for him as the Lord leads you...maybe it is a one sentence prayer right now and maybe God will place him on your heart more often. Whatever the situation, I know God will work in His life and His glory will come from it!



Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet,'" so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:12-14

Miracle in Honduras

I had so many amazing, blog worthy moments during my trip to Honduras last week...there are two or three moments that stand out though...the first being our trip into a village to deliver shoes to people who either don't have any, or their shoes were to small or worn out.

We had 300 pairs of shoes. The church that we visited to distribute the shoes had a list of about that many to deliver the shoes to....There were many more than that waiting for shoes...Though this picture is not the best in quality, it sort of shows the number of people outside the church waiting for shoes.


We began by sorting shoes into piles based on the sizes. We then brought children in, several at a time, washed their feet, and sized them, then placing a brand new pair of shoes on their feet. This, for many is the only pair of brand new pair of shoes they have ever had! It was humbling, amazing, fun, indescribable to be involved in this! The shoes were all donated by SAMARITAN'S PURSE as well!


After finishing handing out the children's shoes, we had some PB & Js then invited the adults in. God amazed me in how we all were just strengthened and enabled to do His will with the people He sent to us that day. Many of the men had been working, they don't wear socks, and their feet just didn't smell good. Not only that, but so many of them had very scrunched up toes and different things wrong with their feet as a result of wearing whatever shoes they could find throughout their life instead of shoes that fit. It felt fabulous to be able to wash their feet, pt a pair of socks on them, and then a pair of shoes that FIT! So many of them told us they were too big, but every time, they were just the right size, they just didn't know it...so we made them take them! HA!

Now...the amazing part that absolutely floored me...we arrived with 300 pairs of shoes...

MORE than 300 left with shoes on their feet and we had leftovers...

GOD IS SO AMAZING! I am NOT worthy, yet He allowed me to be a part of something I consider so special!

I will tell you more about a special man I met during this day in another blog, for now please Praise God with me...

" Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes."

Deutoronomy 10:20-21

BACK!

I am back from Honduras! It was a phenomenal trip for me...more to come soon, however...I am exhausted and have to work in the morn...till my first of several posts to come on Honduras...here are a few pics of the beautiful country!