Awkward Moments

I'll never forget summer camp either my senior or junior year of high school. If we were sincere, Derry had us stand up in front of everyone and say that we had counted the cost and no matter what it took we would follow and seek after Christ. And I thought it was so strange that after I had done that, Derry asked me this question..."Even if it's awkward?" Well sure, even if it's awkward. 3 years later I've stayed true to that statement I made in front of the youth group and it's brought me to Moldova. Awkward moments pretty much define my life here. I now know why God brought that question to Derry's mind for me. haha.

The language barrier is awkward sometimes, most times. When I'm trying to figure out what people are saying to me in Romanian, there are so many awkward times where I either 1) have no idea what they are saying 2) have to act out stuff to figure out what we're talking about 3) or stand there awkwardly and hope that someone would come translate for me. haha. And when all else fails, smile and nod. In all seriousness, I feel like my Romanian is getting better every day. There will be more words I recognize or I can usually figure out what the sentence is generally about. Church services have become a little easier. And I mostly know my numbers! Very important in shopping. :)

I leave for the bus4life on Tuesday. As far as I know, I'm the only American on the team. One of the girls speaks good English and her husband does too so that's comforting that I wont be completely alone. I think it will be good for me though...hopefully I'll learn more Romanian!! Some of the challenge into missions people (moldovans who take a year to do missions) will be on the bus so I'm excited to get to know them! The weather is getting very warm here. 91 degrees today and they keep telling me that this is nothing compared to July so we'll see haha.

Thanks for praying. I'm doing really well here. I'm not homesick at all. haha. sorry Mom and Dad. But no, I love it here and have a family here at OM. I've grown close to my roommate and it's nice to have one American here with me that I can relate to. Continue to pray that God would use me to my full potential and that his will for me here would be accomplished. Pray that God would reveal to me what He has for me after July. Longer commitment here? Work in a salon back home? I don't know. I have no plans and am just praying that in His time God would reveal my next steps to me. So glad to be doing this WITH Him.

Cherries

In Moldova there are cherrie trees EVERYWHERE! And they're amazing. A lot of people sell them at markets but you can just as easily go out and pick them. Christina and I decided to go pick some cherries outside the mission center this afternoon. Here's some pics :)

Busy Weekend

Last night, Christina and I decided to venture out to the middle of the city to see what we could find. haha. We went to an underground shop place where there are tons of venders and different little shops underneath the street. So that was neat. We checked out another big shopping place. It was kind of like a flea market mixed with walmart. We walked around forever, then got a little turned around and had to call one of the girls at the mission center. A lady must have heard us speaking English because she came over and told us about 10 places she reccomended us to eat and where we can go to see things. She talked forever haha but she was so helpful! We took one of her reccomendations and went to a little restaurant. We successfully, mostly, ordered some food on our own and had a nice dinner. So needless to say we felt very accompished after we made it back to the mission center. haha. I think we've mostly figured out the routieras, where to get on them and which ones to take.

Everyone here is busy getting ready for Love Moldova A, which starts on Monday I think. There are a few people that will arrive today and the rest on saturday and sunday. The mission center is going to be madness with tons of people here. I've spent most of my day today putting together like 80 books for Love Moldova. I will go on the Bus4Life on Monday, I believe. I'm a little nervous as always just because I dont know what to expect, but I think it will be a good ministry and I will do lots of haircuts. I'm getting frustrated that I don't know the lanugage because I so badly want to talk to everyone. It's difficult to communicate, even in the office when they just need me to do something. But I have to remember I've only been here 2 weeks and can't possibly know the language yet. I'm learning a few new things every day, but I can't understand very well. Pray that this wouldn't be a discouragement to me, but that it would push me harder to try to learn as much as I can. I've done 57 haircuts since I've been here! Crazy crazy. Sometimes I feel insignificant here, and wonder if I'm actually making any difference being here or not. But God's used me to impact 57 people's lives so far. That's awesome. Even if it's just a little thing like a haircut. I'm excited for what he has in store and am so thankful for where he's brought me.