| | Hello all of you faithful readers. Unfortunately, we are not faithful bloggers. Have no fear; Bryan (and Janet) are here. We are going to fill you in on the many wonders and wonderful-ness that we have been blessed to partake in on the past few days. Our humblest apologies on behalf of our team, nevertheless.
Let's begin with Sunday. According to Janet, "'up and at 'em (atom ant), eggs are up' begins the morning." We ate breakfast and went to Church. I thought that this week's message was particularly delightful, but I must admit my own bias--the people speaking were from the U.K. There is something different about their sermons. The seem to be a bit more intellectual or something; i.e. the person speaking suggested a shift in Christ's thought towards the Samaritans. I would need to take a look at it myself, but the idea of Christ changing his mind is a bit unorthodox in my humble opinion. After church we got ready to lead church at Jackie's church that afternoon. This started at 3:30. It included flanelgraph, a wonderful presentation of the change purse by Matt (according to Anita and Mama Rose, he is the best one in all their years using it), songs (directed by Janet--and my we sounded delightful), and also some 3-5 minute sermons by Janet, Paige, and myself. The church itself was pretty interesting. It just got "completed" that week. When I say completed I mean it could hold a service in it. It was basically bricks and drywall, with a roof put in--but it was full. I counted at least 60 individuals, about 40 of which were children. One guy was playing the accordian and singing loudly in Romanian. It didn't take long to discover that pretty much all Romanian songs have 7-8 verses, or so they seem. Anyways, church went well. Afterwards, we were honored by one of the families in the congregation by a homecooked meal. Towards the end of the meal, the man of the family put his arm on my shoulder and announced that the message that I had given was special for him.
I had given a sermon on a song that I had happened to stumble across that morning. The song was 'All Are Welcome', which had been tucked away in my Bible from my church and I about which I had totally forgotten about. Anyways, I felt lead to discuss it albeit I felt it would be awkward. The awkwardness involved me encouraging them to be more welcoming as a community to others. This was especially awkward as I had not been there before and had no clue what they were like. I only knew that they were Gypsies. Gypsies are basically looked down upon, so it seemed really bizarre for me to tell the group at the bottom of the totem pole to reach out to others. I did it anyways and hoped for the best. Returning to the specialness that my sermon had for the man, he said that he hadn't heard that song in a long time but had wanted to share it with the congregation, but they didn't know it. More significantly however, he said that he had dreamt about that song that very night. Weird. Now I felt even more awkward, because I am only too aware of how unspecial I am, especially in the sense of religion. I feel like I want to tear it down so much, questioning what's what. But yeah, for me to have been used by God felt awkward at best. I also wasn't sure as if I believed him. I do now, having talked with Jackie since. Essentially, all I can say is that even if he was lying, albeit I'm not sure what he would have gained by doing so, Jackie described how she was similiarly used. Thus, even if mine wasn't legit, I don't want to say that it cannot happen in general.
Enough of that though. I don't like to hijack this blog with my own life and thoughts, but I thought that event was especially meaningful.
Monday:
Woke up. Went to Bed. It was a fulfilling day.
ha. fooled you. On monday we went to a drop-in center for street people early in the morning. I will let Janet discuss her thoughts on this... The center is run by a couple from Scotland. We came up on the center and it looked more like a secret garden. I walked through the iron gate coming off the quaint little street into a flowered courtyard covered in ivy. The house was covered in ivy and there were freshly planted marigolds in the windowboxes.
If I had kept my thoughts on these things I might not have been so disturbed by what happened next. Inside the house was painted a daffodil yellow and there were tables and chairs all around and in the front room there were bigger tables with coloring books on them. We were there for the mother and children drop-in time. (This was for mothers and children who lived on the street to come in and have a cup of coffee, have a shower, etc.) Then a woman walks in covered in bright colored clothing from head to toe. She has 2 older girls with her, a younger girl and a new baby. We were then told by Katie that this was Nando, Bobo and TsuTsu's mother (note from Bryan: Nando, Bobo and TsuTsu are orphans at Oaza that we have gotten to know and love). This was the woman who doesnt want those children. I couldnt believe it. I knew that they were practically orphaned, but to see the woman standing there in such a cheery little room knowing that her 3 children are waiting at Oaza (a children's home), hoping for her to come back for them. It broke my heart in a way that I find hard to put into words.
Thanks Janet. After this, I was privileged to go visit two older women who are pretty much isolated in their communist bloc-style apartments. The one, who's name I cannot remember due to it, was such a sweetheart. I really enjoy opportunities to help older people. The other one, Katrina, was also nice. Essentially, Jackie has been helping these two women (probably others as well, I didn't really inquire, although I probably will tomorrow). The first of which almost died of starvation. Brief note, since it came to mind. Jackie was telling us on the ride over to the widow's apartment of some six year old that had gotten syphilus. Just breaks ones heart. I'm sorry this seems really tangential and what not, but these past days have been a whir. Later that day we hung out with 4 other orphans and just did crafts and jump-roped and played frisbee.
Today (Tuesday): Today we went to play with some mentally challenged children. I believe there were about 20 in all. It was uncomfortable at first but then I got into the swing of things. On one level it really isn't too difficult to bring some joy into their lives. I basically spent the first half an hour making animal noises and saying "whee"--apparently that's a universal phrase--to one girl as she swang on a swing. In case you were wondering I am quite proficient at meowing- meows were her favorite, mooing, quacking, and making chicken noises. Basicaly like the cadbury bunny does. I also danced with the kids. Oh my goodness, you would be surprised how good some of them are. It's quite uncanny. One was even showing me dance moves!!!!!!! But yeah, the awesomeness sorta began to wear off as the hours moved on--we were there over 6--and were outside in the sunshine (it's about 80 degrees here). I got sunburned on the top of my feet. Go figure. :( After that, some of us went swimming. I forgot to bring my swimsuit so I naturally just followed the old adage, when in Rome do what the romans do. I went swimming in the nude it was pretty good. And for any of you who have yet to discover the enjoyment of skinning dipping, I highly recommend it. I jest (slightly) on all parts of this swimming discussion. However, I did swim and I did forget my suit.
After the swimming we went out to a missionary's house for an awesome BBQ. The chicken was delicious after todays long work with the children. We all climbed a mountain, well Janet didn't climb it. I had to carry her up it and then she sorta fell down it. Don't worry. She's as pretty as ever. I promise this will get updated tomorrow. We love you all. Please pray that we will continue to keep on trucking. I think many of our bodies are starting to feel the effects of this hard work in the sun we are doing. (I accidentally overslept a 20 minute nap yesterday night, it turned into about a 10 hour nap!!!).
But yes, Later taters. Have a good one and God bless. |
| | Posted 6/3/2008 5:54 PM - 17 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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