Flying Dutchman (more like driving)...

Alright, it's true...I'm overdue for a post full of pictures. I just don't think I have it in me to do that tonight. I spent a lot of today on my computer doing one of two things the whole time: 1) Making a video slideshow of Ott the troll in Rome for Hans (I'll add a link to it in my next post) 2) Re-booting repeatedly and scanning for viruses. It's true I could have been a lot more productive today, but something about the weather being halfway between snow and rain makes me feel sluggish. Then I spend time on this time-sucker of a computer and feel even more sluggish. It's sort of a continuous cycle that I hope to break tomorrow. I'm setting my alarm and getting up relatively early even though we are having a "home day" together. I will put on a thick layer of comfy clothing, my gloves, and a hat, then head outside to hit the road and bring myself back to Center. Something about a frozen morning mixed with a nice walk and good views over the town, just reminds me of who I am and what I'm here for. It reminds me of God's all-encompassing grace and his purpose for my life. It may sound crazy, but it really does bring everything back into perspective.
After that I'll be able to face a day full of fun in the Hopkins-Roorda household. We're looking forward to starting off the Christmas season right with gingerbread house construction, cookie baking, house decorating, craft making, and Christmas carols as background music all day long (at least until I go to Tsigmadru at 2). That is a day guaranteed for greatness right there.
The only thing holding it back from hall of fame status is the fact that tomorrow is the last day I will see Hans for a real long time. He's going back to the Netherlands with his girlfriend, Rhiann, to figure things out for an undetermined amount of time. It is definitely for the best, but I am really going to miss him. He gives so much to the programs out in Tsigmadru and without him it will feel completely different. I know that God has big plans for him and for Tsigmadru, I just wish that they were overlapping plans.
The first day I met Hans he made me put wood putty in screw holes at least four times, sanding back excess each time. I thought he was an obsessive control freak. When in reality he's just Dutch. (Being 50% Dutch makes it okay to say that.) And the truth is, he can make decisions and reach conclusions before I've even thought about the issue at hand. His initiative and willingness to put ideas out there (even if they're not openly welcomed) will be one of the many things I'll miss. It will be hard to say goodbye but I know that God will see us through. I hope you will join me in praying for the best for Hans and for Tsigmadru, whatever that may be.

Breaking new ground

The past twenty-four hours have been an exciting and joyful time for many people here in Romania. Today was the official opening and dedication of the Tsigmadru Nazarene Center, which means the "Tsgimadru church" is official! WOOT. It's been a long three years in many ways, yet short in others. It was four years ago that a group of teens sent from Pearce were priveleged to see the land where the church would be built. All that was there at that time were stakes in the ground. This was only the beginning of Pearce's ministry in Tsigmadru, which conincided with the new beginnings of the church. There have been several teams from Pearce in between then and now and the progress has been followed (and helped along!) year by year, but it is now that the final "product" stands. The church looks absolutely beautiful, it's long-time brick facade...now a beautiful smooth and creamy color. Inside is no different. The wooden floors are laid, sanded, and stained. The walls and trim painted. The balastrada up, stained, and functional. The computer room actually has computers in it! Same for the sewing room, it actually has sewing machines (and very little excess stuff) in it! The daycare room is as clear as I've ever seen it, it's walls freshly painted. So much work has gone into this church. So many people have put their heart into this church and today it showed. God's presence among us was so tangible it's hard to explain and the joy was almost too much to take in. Surely God has blessed this church, these people, and the work that they do and plan to do. It was a very cool thing to witness and be a part of, I wish you all could have been there with us.
Towards the end of our stay at the opening, we got to enjoy a meal of sarmale. Sarmale is steamed (pickled?) cabbage leaves stuffed with a mixture of rice, onion, meat (of some sort), and...who knows. It's a traditional Romanian meal and this was by far the best sarmale I've had yet! A fost delicios (It was delicious).
I was too excited to tell you about today to mention the fact that I spent the night out in Tsigmadru at the church last night. It was a teen sleepover thing because some teens from Bucharest and Sighisoara came and joined the teens from Tsigmadru for their evening club (and for the events of today). It was a lot of fun. We played games for the majority of the night, but it was topped off with a Russian movie (Romanian subtitles). I think I understood about 3/4 of it. It was actually pretty funny to watch without complete understanding, makes things a little more interesting. =]
So yet again we've had another incredible weekend and God has blessed us with being a part of something much anticipated and way bigger than ourselves (praise God). Again, I wish you all could have been there to see just how God is moving in this place. It truly is a miracle sometimes.

Halfway to Heaven

Since today is Tuesday and we have teen club tonight, I thought I'd fill you in on "Halfway to Heaven." That is the name that the group of 12-15 year olds have chosen to call themselves, although it's still normally referred to as "teen club." Every Tuesday night Timmie Capusneanu watches Nolan and Liam while Karen, Maurice, and I head off to club. Usually we pick up Dragos and two of the American students (Courtney and Rebecca) and we all pile into our car and drive together to the Baragan apartment block school.
All of the times I have gone, there are already kids waiting outside the school doors for our arrival and once they spot our car, there are big smiles and some waving of hands exchanged. We greet them and as a whole we all file into the school and head straight for the Chemistry Lab. Moving the tables to the side, we grab all the chairs (which are really small stools) and sit in a circle-like form and wait for instructions on the games of the night. The games are always a riot and it's actually fun trying to come up with different ones to play. Some we've played include: "Shuffle your buns" (which does not translate well), body-part musical chairs, pickle spitting, snowball fight, the human knot, pass the tongue depressor (without hands), and more...
Many-a-time directions don't translate too well and we end up playing a "regular" game with a new twist on it, which is pretty funny.
This past weekend we had "gym day" and on Saturday, the whole family went over to play in the school gym with the group. Not very many showed up (about 5 "regulars" of 25ish...10 total), but we still had a blast playing soccer for two straight hours!
Over the past few weeks we've begun to have mini "talks" included with the club. Karen usually leads them and has led the group through some very interesting discussions already. Since all of the group, with the exception of two, are Orthodox...talk time is always interesting. The first week of talk-time the fact that we are Protestant came up (and that's usually not seen as a good thing here in Romania). We praise God that these kids are still interested and excited about coming to teen club and we are excited to spend the rest of the year building relationships and learning from them. The year with them is certainly unpredictable!
A specific prayer request for this group is our upcoming (well, I guess it's now!) "project". We want to do a food drive with the group and collect food from their neighboring apartments to give to the less fortunate. Since this is a foreign concept to Romanians, it has met some resistance and the kids are unsure that they can do it. We hope and pray that God will work through their doubts and build them up as a team through this project!
Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Procrastination doesn't make it happen...

I am such a procrastinator. Although I should be editing and revising the college essays I wrote yesterday, I'm loading good music to my iPod instead. Well actually, there's a plethora of things I've done today instead of doing that. In my defense, they were productive things. Things like: searching for decent wall material for a "gingerbread house", washing dishes, cleaning out the fridge, playing cards with the boys, and the list goes on. Meh. There's no way around it: I flat-out hate college essays and dread them like nobody's business. The truth is, I can write fairly well and once I suck it up and do it, it's good. It's the doing it that's key. My deadline is Friday though. And seeing as this is the only obligatory piece of writing I have for this entire year, I think I can manage. =] I know my college freshman friends are yelling at the screen right now...sorry guys, not trying to rub it in.
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to write a post that lists all of the ministries I am a part of (as of now) along with the days of the week. Then in the next few posts I'll pick one off the list and describe it for you. So here it is:
Sunday: Sometimes help out with worship (rarely) in Sighisoara
Usually some type of relationship building time (hanging out with friends)
Sometimes go out to Tsigmadru for evening service, when I don't the boys and I stay here in Sighisoara
Monday: Monday night Dinners @ Dorothy's with American students
Tuesday: Out to Tsigmadru for Kid's Club
Back to Sighisoara for Teen's Club (Halfway to Heaven)
Wednesday: Gospel Choir (not really "ministry" unless you count it as relationship building)
Thursday: Doctor's Clinic out in Tsigmadru
Friday: Devotions with Veritas Staff
Out to Tsigmadru for Kid's Club and Teen's Club
Saturday: Usually a day to myself =]

Monday-Friday: Walking the boys to school (Karen, Maurice, and I trade-off)
Elderly Club
Of course these aren't always consistent, but it's a general outline. Also, it's a given that living with the Hopkins is a 24/7 ministry for all of us. It's actually hard for me to categorize life here into "ministry" and "not ministry"- to me it's pretty much all ministry. I'd say watching the boys is ministry and I think hanging out with friends is ministry too...it just doesn't seem necessary to add them to a list titled "ministry" because they are so ingrained into my life. Like I said, separating life into "ministry" and "not ministry" just seems odd to me because shouldn't our lives be a constant ministry to those around us? Oy. Either way, I hope this helps you more clearly understand my day-to-day life here in Romania. Stay tuned for more details. =]

Thankful for Thanksgiving

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner at Roberta's house last night. It was a lot of fun and having a "traditional American" meal was great. The company included 3 "foreigners"...one Brit, Annie Mettie...one Scot, Morag...one Dutchman, Hans. So we laughed together about some of the strange traditions and phrases that make perfect sense in your own culture, but not in other cultures. We went around the table and took the time to say what we're thankful for (in short, I said support). We just spent time in one another's company. It was really a blessing to be able to have that. I almost had to be rolled home, but luckily I managed to walk. =]
I do miss my family (and friends), but as I say a lot, God is guiding me through and providing in ways I didn't know were possible. Each day I am amazed by his grace and remain thankful for the opportunities I encounter daily.

Unveiling the Truth

I have to say, it's incredible how much God can reveal to a single person in the span of 4 days. The conference was beyond what I could have even hoped for. Just when I think God can't possibly grow me anymore, he takes me by the hand and leads me onto new and unforeseen ground. Some things I can't even put into words, but I can tell you what the Conference was all about. There were Free Methodist people from all over Europe (not just Eastern) who came and gathered together each day. We had meals, morning service, workshops, fellowship groups, and evening service every day. Karen, Maurice , and I rotated schedules so that we could all go to some of everything.
I had heard most of what was taught before, but God has a way of making you see things through new eyes. A lot of the conference was about prayer. Some of it was way over my head, but I could also absorb some of what Europe's most faithful missionaries had to say and teach us. It was comforting to be reminded that prayer is a constant learning process (along with life in general, right?) and that even the disciples had to ask Jesus, "teach us how to pray". It was awesome to see that although we were people from all different places, different languages, different cultures, different ages (15 countries and 13 languages)...we could relate to one another through Christ! One major point that Jerry Coleman made throughout the weekend is that the kingdom of God is not just at hand, it's here. We should strive to live in the kingdom and bring kingdom aspects here on earth. That was a really interesting concept and I'm still contemplating what that means to me. But again, it made me realize that the people there are my brothers and sisters! It was really good to get to meet and talk with people who know me (and I kinda knew them), but I'd never met face-to-face. Prime example: Lynette and Josef Sykora (and baby Simon!). They are wonderful people. And I had the opportunity to spend quality time with Lydia and Stephen Dunn, which was really good. One of the worship times.
Another worship time, Karen helped lead! Along with many of the Romania delegation.
Liam in the "drinkbar", watching TV of course (heh heh).
Nolan and Liam had a lot of fun too. One of their favorite things was the elevator. Another was having their own room and building "forts" in it. =] They handle the 10 hour car ride there really well. Once there, they won the hearts of many of Europe's FM missionaries. Often we'd find them with candy in their mouth and ask "hey where'd that come from?", only to look up and watch a sneaky smile pass over their face. They also took it upon themselves to be "waterboys" at the first evening meal. It was pretty hilarious to watch unexpectant people approach the watercooler with the intent of a simple glass of water and leave with smiles on their faces after engaging in a conversation with Nolan or Liam as the boys filled their glass.
The one day we went out to do the "touristy" thing, it rained. It was still beautiful!
Another beautiful view.

So the trip was all-around great. It was definitely refreshing and rejuvenating. It really got me pumped up and excited about all of our ministries again. It made the briefness of a year come to mind again, but encouraged me in that. Since I know that this is what God has called me to, I can trust that he will do the work in and through the Hopkins and I that he intends to do.
The conference really challenged me to live for the Lord in a way that I have neglected to do, even though I am trying to listen to his call by living here in Romania. It unveiled several truths about myself that I had chosen to ignore and called me to reach deeper, listen longer, and live richer. I have taken another step in discovering and defining my relationship with God. I've left a part of myself behind this past weekend and I know that God will continue to guide the reconstruction. It's exhilirating and at the same time, a little scary. But I stand in the face of change, with God's hand in mine, and say "bring it on."

Here is a set of verses given to us upon departure that really served as great encouragement:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
Hebrews 12:1-3

Amen.
Thank you for your prayers and support!