week 4.

buna dimineatza!

I’m starting to think I should write more than weekly because every week brings so many things that I want to share with y’all… so this will probably be long but I just can’t leave out some things!

This past week we had a short-term team from Gainesville, GA. They were a lot of fun, really passionate, and really great with the kids. We had Sancrai and Miercurea Nirajului kids – they are all in group homes now but most of them were at the Ludus orphanage less than 5 years ago. In the morning we had kids from 5-16 then in the afternoon we had mostly 15- early twenties with a few little kids mixed in. I knew it was going to be a fun week because I knew so many of the kids already and there was one girl I was really hoping to see again. God knew exactly what he was doing this week – like always! As they got off the bus – I recognized so many faces from 2005 and 2007 and I was happy to here them come up to me and say “Rebekah…right?” ☺ ☺ In the morning I was searching the kids to see if Ileana, a girl who never seemed to leave my side in 2007, was there. After about 20 minutes I saw her from a distance and she saw me and we ran to each other and I hugged her – one of the best moments of my life so far. Seriously. She has become quite the teenager since I last saw her, so sometimes it was challenging but so worth it. She was in my morning group along with Lehel, a little boy that was really close to my friend Austin in ’07, and 5 other kids. In the afternoon I had a great group that totally challenged me. Two of the kids were awesome and always willing to talk in small group time – while a couple seemed to always be talking (inappropriately) or walking away. I prayed a lot about our small group times and on Wednesday we had 2 really great meetings. It was a calm atmosphere only explained by God.

On Friday all of the kids from Sancrai came in the morning because they were not allowed to go to the “water park” in the afternoon with the MN kids. So, we had 11 kids on our team in the am which made me pretty nervous. However, once we got to team time Ileana and Tunde told the 3 other leaders and me to sit in a circle. They then went on perform a skit for us and sing us “We are Family” and “Glory to God” in English. It was one of the greatest moments of the week, if not the summer by far. Then they prayed for us like we had prayed for them the day before. Fantastic – really.
The we went to the weekend – a bunch of pools and a couple of slides on one property. : ) It was a great afternoon of getting to hang out with a lot of the older kids that I knew a little but that remember and love my dad!
One sad thing about this week was that many of the kids could not be in pictures due to CPS rules and such – and the pictures we did take cannot be put on facebook or here. However, I can print them out and send them in personal emails.

Yesterday, Samantha (another intern) and I went with Jeff and the new team to tour Sighi Soara – where Count Dracula once lived. I ‘d been there five years ago but it was fun to be there again. Then we went to the baby hospital. It was a great afternoon of loving on babies. I spent most of my time with 2 different kids- Calin, a toddler who was probably about 2, and Georgiana, a baby almost one. My hair got pulled and my face got scratched but I don’t care. They are so innocent right now and I love spending time with them and singing to them in Romanian (the few songs that I know).

This past week God has made me realize how much “easier” it is for me to come here and love on these kids and share the gospel with them than to love people that are so similar to me. He’s convicted me of not sharing the gospel and really talking to lost people when I’m at school or at home. So, you all can be praying for me about that – that I will continually see my school and my group of close friends as a mission field and I won’t think that it is time for me to only focus on myself to prepare for what God wants me to do later. I don’t want to waste time. He has also been working to show me how selfish I am and how I tend to get caught up in what God can/will do for me instead of what I can do for him.

Ecclesiastes 3:14-15.

This coming week we have camp with kids from Tarnaveni and Patalea in the morning – kids I’ve never worked with before. Then in the afternoon we have the Livada kids. Please pray that all of the other interns and I will continue to rely on God and seek him more this week when we are joyful, frustrated, or exhausted.

I would also like to publicly thank Justin for helping Caitlin and me get rid of the enormous grasshopper that was in our bathroom this morning.

Love y’all! Sorry this was like a book…