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.

Pictures

Click here to see some updated pics

Prayer and fasting/Andy's pizza

Today we had prayer and fasting. It went really well. In the morning session we got to know the team from America a litle bit and worship together. Then later in the day we had some presentations from the local ministry teams and prayed a lot. Then the guys and girls split and had seperate messages. So ya it went really good.

At 6 the fast was done so we could go eat! A few of us hopped on the routiera and went to Andy's Pizza. I've heard everyone talking about Andy's pizza for days so it was awesome to go! haha. It was really good. They have corn here on their pizza. Its a little different. But it was really good.

It's a little louder and crouded with the U.S. team here so we're getting used to that. The pic above is Marcel(from Rezina), Christina(my roommate), me, and Esther(from Rezina). Off to movie/tv show night w/Christina! :)

Run for the world

This morning we had an event called Run for the World. The OM team got together and met in a forest/woods type place and had the choice to run 3 kilometers to raise money for kids in Africa for water, food, and missions there. So it was kind of neat to be connected to both moldova, where I am now, and Africa, where I've been. It makes things like this so different when you know names and faces of kids that live in Africa. I had all my baby center kiddos in my mind while we were doing this. After the run we just hung out in the woods for a few hours and had a moldovan BBQ. It was nice to have most of the OM Moldova team there to talk to and get to know a little.

After the picnick, my roomate and I went to the store, which doesn't sound like a big accomplishment but it was big for us! haha. We had to get on the right bus and tell the driver where to stop and shop strategically while trying to understand some Romanian to know what food was what. Pictures are our best friend while we shop. haha. Then we came back to the mission center to eat our last meal before 6. We are doing a prayer and fasting day from 6 tonight until 6 tomorrow night. A group from America is coming to stay at the mission center tonight so we're excited to have some company!

Pray for the prayer and fasting day that we've just entered into. As I sit here and think I dont really know how to say how you can pray for it, but just pray that God would move and work. Pray that we can have energy to last through the day. It will be good to come together as a big team and pray. So yeah, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it or what to expect but I think it will be good.

Last days in Rezina

I'm back in Chisinau (the capital) now after a few long bus rides from Rezina. But i'll recap the last few days I had in Rezina.

Thursday was the first day of the kids camp and I think I did 8 haircuts that day. It was very hard for me to interact with the kids because of the language barrier, so there was lots of smiling and gesturing. haha. The day flew by at the camp, and we went back to the appartment of plan out the last day of the camp. It was one of the guy's birthday on the team so we celebrated with ice cream and coke, some cards, and a movie.

Friday was the last day of the childrens camp, and I only did about 4 or 5 haircuts that day. The kids played lots of games and recited the memory verses they had learned that week for candy. The lunches we had been making were bread with mayo and cheese and meat but on friday it was "meat paste", meat, and cheese or mayo, sardines, and cheese. Nasty. haha. I had to force myself to eat lunch that day. But I survived the meat paste lol. I just couldn't do the sardines. We washed the car then went back to play some cards. Ligretto(I think? haha) is what we've been playing all week. I think it's called dutch blitz in America. very addicting game.

Saturday was my birthday. woot woot. haha. I'm so old. Goodness. 20. In the morning one of the girls took me on a walk to the river which is a border between Moldova and Transnistria. Its a very strict country ruled by Russia. Just to get over the bridge into the country, they search your car throughly and everything else you have including passports and visas. The river was very pretty though. The walk took 2 1/2 hours. I was so dead after it haha. the last half was all uphill. I'll try to put the pics up on my picasaweb album. Thankfully it stopped raining while we were on the walk, but it rained the rest of the day. Later that day we went over to one of the missionaries houses for a party for me and the other guy who had a birthday to celebrate. We had some cake and played ligretto until like 11.

This morning, we went to church. There was an American pastor that spoke so that was cool. He was from North Carolina, so he had a real strong accent but it was so nice to understand the message without a translator. Even only after 2 weeks of being away from my home church, I miss being able to understand the message. I dont think I will ever take that forgranted again when I get home. Todays service lasted 2 1/2 hours. Services at home will seem so short! haha. Then we bought our bus ticket and went back and ate lunch then packed everything up to leave. The bus ride took about 2 hours then we switched buses to get to the missions center. I'm glad to be back. I'll definitely miss hanging out with the team every night, but it's nice to be back in Chisinau.

This week I will stay in Chisinau. Tomorrow we are having a picnick with all the missionaries...everyone has driven to the capital for a big run for charity thing so that'll be neat. Tuesday we will have a prayer and fasting day all day. So I'm not quite sure what to expect...lots of praying haha. Not sure what else the rest of the week holds. I'm trying to see if I can visit a place that works with girls that have been trafficked to see if I can mmaybe cut hair or just to visit. I think that would be good. So just pray that God would lead and provide some awesome opportunities this week.