Monday, March 30, 2009

Prayer Update


Here's a sneak peek at our next prayer letter...

Last month we enjoyed our first trip to the beautiful mountains of Romania for our team retreat. We enjoyed getting to know our teammates, learning more about their ministries, and studying the Bible together.

Life is now settling down to its new ‘normal’. We are studying Romanian language and culture in and out of the classroom. Kara’s current favorite language learning method is watching Sesame Street in Romanian. Noemi and Isobel have no objections to this practice. We have been blessed with an experienced language teacher with a heart for serving missionaries. Our babysitter is also a blessing, kind and gentle with our children and very helpful with our language learning.

Outside of language study, Joshua has been attending a Kairos course at the OC office. Kairos is a missions education course that our team is sharing with churches around Romania. Attending the course gives us perspective on what OC is currently involved in as we look forward to our future ministry after language study. On Sundays we are attending a variety of churches around Bucharest before we choose a church and settle down.

Prayer Requests:

- Successful language study
- Wisdom in choosing a church
- Healthy adjustment for our children

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Update

God faithfully brought our boxes safely here last Friday and we've been settling into our new home even more as we unpack. The girls have been enjoying their books all the more for having lived without them for two months. It's fun to be surrounded by some familiar things again. I have to extend a big THANK YOU to the guys at Gruber Pallets for packing and wrapping our boxes. They made the trip on two boats and who-knows-how-many trucks unscathed.

This week we will take our first trip out of Bucharest and into the beautiful mountains of Romania. We have an OC team retreat in Sibiu. There will be snow. I would be more excited about this if I hadn't just moved from Minnesota. Snow aside, we are looking forward to seeing more of Romania and to getting to know our teammates.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Random Acts of Kindness

Romania is a country of extroverts. It is impossible for me to go anywhere with my children without interacting with strangers. To date these interactions are, almost without fail, positive. Today I took the girls on the Metro to a friends house and back. Here's a sample of my day.

- We travelled in rush hour on a packed train and I couldn't get off at the stop I needed because there were too many people between my stroller and the door. Everyone in the general vicinity was aware of my plight (probably because Isobel was shouting at the top of her lungs). When we reached the next stop people pushed back the crowd getting off the train, the crowd getting on the train, and lifted my stroller off the train for me. I'm not sure whether to chalk this up as an act of kindness or an act of desperation to escape the volume of Isobel's voice.

- A man helped me carry Isobel in her stroller up the stairs.

- A different man helped me lift Isobel in her stroller over the gate to exit the Metro and offered to help me with (more) stairs.

-On the way home Noemi was staring at the bag of an older woman because it was filled with soft pretzels ... so the woman gave Noemi a pretzel.

- A man offered his seat to Noemi on the train.

- A sweet older woman volunteered to walk Noemi off the train so I could steer the stroller and then walked Noemi up the stairs so I could carry the stroller. She was unaware of our newly perfected system of holding onto the scarf hanging from the stroller:)

- My babysitter volunteered to stay late this afternoon when she saw how busy we were.

I have been overwhelmed with the kindness of strangers lately, not so much because I can't carry a stroller up the stairs, but because it is an enourmous help with language learning. I can't learn to speak unless there's someone to speak with.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

TCKs


TCK stands for Third Culture Kids, which is what my children became the day we moved to Bucharest. It is an identity with its challenges and blessings. I read an encouraging post on the topic over at Simple Mom this week.

International Women's Day

Today is the International Women's Day! The flower stalls are in full swing again this weekend. From what I can tell it is celebrated like Mothers Day but including women without children. Flowers and chocolates seem to factor heavily. Here's a link to a little history about the holiday http://www.internationalwomensday.com/first.asp.