In Other Words---No Evil Will Befall You

No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
Psalm 91:10-11

Without going into details, lest they come back to haunt me someday, we have occassion where we must do business with someone that I feel is lacking in integrity. I know that given the opportunity he would take advantage of a situation with no regard to others involved. I know this, because I have witnessed it of him more than once. But, because of his position, dealing with him is not optional. We have been attempting to get an answer on a question from him for some time. He is not responding. I've made the comment that he was going to try and harm us. I've fretted about it and worried about it and dwelt upon it. Then, Loni gave us the 'quote' for this week. Today, I heard my answer. Not from the unscrupulous person who is plotting, but from God, my Father. And HE reminds me that HE is in control. He will protect our family and our dwelling space.

In that, I'm able to rest. Praying that you, too, are resting in God's protection today.

Be blessed. To read other interpretations and thoughts on this Psalm, please join Loni at Writing Canvas.

In Other Words--Honestly Accountable

“Friends, if we be honest with ourselves,
we shall be honest with each other.”

~ George MacDonald ~

Accountability to one another. Accountability is a theme that is occassionally talked about in the church, but is alot more difficult to actually implement. It is hard to do, because it involves much honesty and openness.

I have an accountability partner. She is "allowed" (or requested) to ask the hard questions. She has been given the right to ask how my quiet time is going, if I'm praying more than grace-at-the-table prayers, if I've yelled at my kids today, whether I'm staying on my diet, and if I'm honoring my husband in all aspects of our marriage, just for starters. As we have built up a relationship, we have encouraged each other to ask the hard questions. We've learned the weak points, and we have learned that we are stronger when we share those weaknesses.

The funny thing is, she rarely asks the questions. Somedays I wished she would...because then I would have to answer the questions aloud and truly confront some of the ugliness in my life. But, more often, she doesn't need to ask the question. Because I know that we will be meeting, I evaluate where I'm at in those areas. Just knowing that she could ask forces me to be honest with myself. Then in the course of our conversation and prayer time, I am more apt to be honest with her about prayer support I need. It is a circle: having someone to whom I'm accountable leads me to honestly look at my walk with God, which inevitably reveals the ugliness and weakness of me, leading me to honestly share with that person for prayer.

The honesty, whether in private reflection on my life or in poignant conversation with a friend, always draws me into deeper relationship with Jesus. Isn't that the goal of accountability?

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
~Ecclesiastes 4:9-10~

Lynnette Kraft is our hostess this week for IOW. Please join us at her blog. I'm sure you will be blessed!

Romania--Sightseeing

We did actually get to see quite a lot of the area while we were there. Here are a few of the place we visited.

The Roman Ruins. Ok, my Roman empire history is not so great, but even I should have connected that Rome went all the way to Romania. But I didn't. The ruins were great. And since we will be studying Ancient Rome this year, I took a few educative moments as well.



The Densus Church. This is one of the oldest churches in Romania. The frescos inside are incredible, but they would not allow me to take pictures. There is a fresco over the doorway, but it is by no means as vibrant as the others.



Sibiu. Sibiu was the "European City of Culture" last year. It is a delightful little town with great architecture!



The stairs to the clock tower did not seem so safe. I didn't even take the girls in. German took this picture.
It was in Sibiu that we discovered an lovely Hungarian pastry, Kurtos Kolacs.


The Castle in Huandora.



Deva
We actually went to Deva to see the fort on the top of the hill and take pictures of the area. But, for me the neatest part was being right beside the gym where Nadia trained for the Olympics. Now the team trains in Bucharest, but here is the gym. There are statues of many Romanian greats in gymnastics, including the Karoli's.


And, not exactly sight seeing, but this was our view out our hotel window the first night in Budapest. It was too pretty not to include.

Romania--The People and Way of Life

The greatest joy in traveling with Pastor S and Mr. K is to be with the people. The people are the framework of any church. Buildings are nice and I'm glad to be a part of the building and renonvating of facilities, but the real church is the people. And, it is so humbling to be amongst them. They have so little, and they give it so freely! There were days we would eat two or three lunches because everywhere we went they put out a spread.

Several of the church members fed us. This couple didn't even know we were coming, but went home right after church and made us a meal.


This was a special meal. We were really drawn to this family when we visited four years ago. Then two years ago, their daughter came to England for a fortnight and we were privileged to host her for an evening. On this night the mom made a Romanian specialty of minced meat wrapped in cabbage. I've had similar things in other parts of the world, but never as lovely as this. *sigh*


Another one of the sweet ladies from the church cooking another delicacy...tripe soup. (It was actually very good.)


On our first trip to Romania, Jewel was two. She took and immediate love to "Sister Maria" from the church. Maria would come get her and take her who knows where! Jewel was in many more homes than we were. While we were there, Maria was watching her granddaughter (also 2) while her daughter was having a baby. A boy. This trip, Maria was watching that baby boy, now 4, while her daugher had another baby! Here is a picture of my girls with Maria and the "baby". The girls loved playing with the grandson...but mostly they loved being doted on by Maria.

Maria also made the most amazing pastries, cookies and doughnuts for us!


Here are all the little kids (and one big kid) playing in the church yard!


This pastor hitchhikes 15 miles to his churches every week in addition to working in the prison during the week.


One of the families that touched my heart the first trip lived in part of a railroad building. They are actually squatters in the building, and have been for five years. They live in hope that they will someday be allowed to rent it legally, but it is unlikely. Here is the building.

They do not live in the entire building. They live in the two rooms that make up the front, single story level. The rest of the building is condemned. The two rooms would easily fit inside my living room. There is no toilet, running water, etc in the building. SEVEN people live in these two rooms. And I complain about what I have!



We had so many "only in Romania" moments. On this evening, we were traveling home about 10:30 p.m. We saw what looked like a light on a bicycle coming toward us. It was flashing for us to stop. Jeep or bicycle? Who should have the right away? But then we got closer. This is what we saw.

They were moving sheep from pasture to pasture. There were probably 50 of them on the road, with a shepherd leading and a shepherd at the back. They had us turn off the jeep so as not to scare the sheep and then they herded them around us and on down the road. The rest of the trip, the girls job was to watch for sheep!

Some more animals on the road!


Most of the people around this area buy second hand clothing. It is brought in by the truckload from Germany and other surrounding countries. A common morning sight was watching the ladies sort through the clothes.


Here are a few images of rural life as well!

selling onions and garlic by the road


grapes in the garden, notice the well for water


pumpkin growing on trellis


haystacks




transportation (that is a car that the cow is in!)


feeding animals


four generations living together



cows going home at the end of the day

The Roma, or gypsies, have a very definitive caste system which amazed me. "Rich" gypsies and "poor" gypsies would live side-by-side, and apparently have nothing to do with one another because of social standing. Here are some of their homes. Can you tell which is rich and which is poor?

Romania---Ministry Opportunities

Much of our ministry in Romania was simply to be with people. But there were a couple of things that were specifically outreach.

One day we went to a mental hospital that the charity assists with things like laundry detergent and sanitizers. We called ahead to find out how many people were there so we could take something to each person. It was decided to take chocolate biscuits to everyone plus a large bottle of hand cleanser for each room. They sleep three to a room.

This is the lady who is our contact at the home. She is a semi-retired dentist who serves the hospital. Her son-in-law is a pastor in the area.
Actually, before I go on, I want to tell you the story of our getting to go here, because it was such a God-thing. We were chatting around the dinner table about the places we had gone four years ago. This hospital was brought up. Pastor S said that since the dentist had retired, we had no real means of getting in there. We were disappointed because this place and a school for developmentally challenged kids were two places we wanted to go. The school was still on summer break and now no access to the hospital! Anyway, Pastor S is working on his doctorate and had a paper due, so we decided to walk into town center with his wife to give him some quiet to get some work done. We were a block from their house when we met...the dentist and her daughter the preacher's wife! S's wife mentioned that we were just talking about them. By the next morning, the dentist had arranged a visit for us. Isn't God good?!

The girls took the soap and the chocolates into the rooms where people were in bed.


I was really proud of the girls. Some of the people at this hospital were really quite disturbed. Not dangerous disturbed, but talking to voices and very low ability challenged. I've worked in that kind of setting and many of these people were lower functioning than I've been with. The girls could have easily been afraid. But instead they just jumped right in passing things out. They allowed themselves to be hugged and have pictures taken and with an amazing attitude. We didn't push them to do anything---more just wanted them to be exposed to what helping the hurting could be like. And help we did. I must admit that my first thoughts were, "chocolates and soap don't mean much" but I was amazed at how much they meant. You can see from the pictures, the rooms are sparse. Everything is common. They have nothing of their own. They cradled those bottles of soap as if we had given them gold bars. Roommates bickered over who got to hold the bottle. It was soap. And they argued over who got it. It made me want to go back and get more for everyone. We really have no idea how blessed we are!

We spent the majority of a day at the House of Hope Children's home, the first one that this ministry founded. It houses ten kids and is a home for life. Some of the kids have been there 7+ years and are now older teens with jobs. They can stay until they are able to support themselves. While we were there, there was one extra child who is the sibling of a girl there. The hope is to bring him into the home as well. We spent the day playing football, making conversation in broken English and hand gestures, singing praises, sharing some of our pictures of the last time we were there, playing computer games, etc. We had a lovely time. The kids were genuine and loving and really took to the girls.




Finally, German was able to attend a Pator's Conference with Pastor S and see first hand some of the work that is going on in Romania. The speaker at the conference was from Atlanta, so he could even understand the message!


I'll do another post of some of the people we met, but these three areas are some of the more formal work that is happening. We have learned since we returned that they are starting a new work along the lines of crisis pregnancy counseling to take in young girls who have been thrown out of their homes and giving them practical help as they look to what decisions to make. There is a pilot program being developed to use a couple of flats that have become available. There is some great hands on and realistic ministry opportunities. I am thankful for the chance to see some of it first hand.