Darin, Isaac, Aaron, Daniel and Abigail on a beautiful 6 hour hike we took as a team last Saturday. The "Greening of Magura" was how we described it, with trees budding, flowers blooming and green grass contrasting with the leftover grey of winter.
Just as we rounded the bend, we could see 3 different mountains, and below them lonely houses perched on the hilltops. What a view these people wake up to each morning! Ed ran into a lady on the top of a cliff that he and the kids climbed who apparently had escaped to find a quiet place to read. Needless to say, it was no longer quiet with our arrival! This lady was probably in her 60s and nimbly managed to traverse the same path some of us were struggling down. I guess when you live in the middle of nowhere and live off the land, you tend to be a bit more fit than we city dwellers.
My favorite touch of Spring is the splash of color that the tulips bring to the front of our house. I smile each time we drive in the driveway.
The hikers, which included teammates, Elena and Anushka, our Romanian friends, and Rebecca, who is a potential teacher for next year.
So, it's been a really long time since I've written anything...again, and after reading Katy's college application essays, I'm wondering why I'm writing at all. I should really turn this over to her, except that it probably gives her pleasure to know that she can out-write her mom. So...my feeble attempts at telling the tales of the last month are as follows...
We were in the States for a couple of weeks over Easter (American Easter, that is. Romanian Easter is the 26th). Ed and I spoke at the MTW Ambassador's Weekend in Palm Coast, FL. It was one of those places where we really suffered for Jesus. Four days of visiting with really interesting people who shared a passion for missions, staying in a pretty lush place, eating more than enough gourmet meals, (My favorite was the bacon. It's funny what you miss and indulge in when you get it!) soaking up the much longed for sunshine, and worshipping in English. It was a sheer delight for all of us. I think our kids enjoyed it as much as we did. Katy's comment as we left was, "You know, this was a great time, but not just because of where it was. I think I enjoyed meeting different people more than anything." It didn't hurt that there were 5 or 6 pools, a beach nearby, and the warmth of summer in Romania!!
Michael was gracious enough to share his spring break with us the following week, unfortunately we shared more than that. We gathered in Destin for what was to be a relaxing week, only Ed spent about 1/2 of it handling mini-crises in Romania via Skype, communicating with potential recruits, and planning a vision trip for this summer. So much for rest! Another huge portion of our time was spent hugging toilets. A stomach bug from hell attacked 9 out of 13 of the people who were crammed into Mom and Dad's beach house, way too many people to be sharing a 3 bedroom/3 bathroom house. Over the few hours when people started dropping like flies, it was proven that 3 bathrooms weren't nearly enough. The worst part was that we were in Destin, where many of our memories are tied with the meals we've eaten, and none of us felt like eating for 4 days. Even those who didn't get sick didn't want to eat, for fear of just "renting it", as Ed put it. Nonetheless, it was a nice time, an unplanned and unexpected visit that we were most grateful for.
We returned home, from the Florida sunshine to snow covered dreary Romania. But now, even that has passed. We've got green grass, blooming trees, and have had some warm, sunshiny days over the last few weeks. I find that I value Spring much more now that winters are so long and cold. Maybe how we view God is sort of the same way. When we see the bleakness, coldness, and dreariness of our hearts left to ourselves, we value much more the new life, brightness, and color that Christ brings when he restores and renews us. I await with expectation the final restoration and the Spring that we've not yet begun to imagine, after the "winter" of life in a fallen world. I'm thankful for the taste of it that we enjoy each year.
So, in between our return home from the US and now, Ed officiated his first Romanian wedding...in Romanian. That deserves a blog entry of it's own! He went to Spain for a Team Leader's meeting. Katy decided on college: she'll be attending Ole Miss, enrolled in the Croft Institute for International Studies. (Maybe I can get her to fill in the details later.) We hosted the first of what we hope to be monthly meetings with the Romanian pastors with whom we work. Our teammates from Timisoara came for a visit. Katy went to Germany to visit her best friend from Romania, Miriana, who moved back to Germany last year. It gave us a taste of what life will be like next year without Katy. I don't like it! (I'll see if she'll write something about that, too.) And we hosted a prospective teacher for Kingstone Academy next year.
A lot going on that makes us tired most of the time. It also tends to make me anxious. All of the unknown. Who's going to teach our kids next year? How will we transition to a family of 4 at home? How can we encourage the Romanian pastors? How do we maintain our relationships here when we've got so much going on that pulls us away from them? When will we have a pastor for a church plant here? And that's just the beginning...
Easter is this weekend. It's the pinnacle of celebrations in Romania. Eggs are dyed red, symbolizing the blood of Christ; houses are cleaned and even remodeled, pointing us to the renewal that should take place in our lives; candles will be lit at midnight in the church cemetery on Easter morning and then taken back home, reminding us of the light that comes to us from Christ and should flow from every part of our lives illuminating the darkness around us; lamb is eaten (Only in Romania, they eat ALL of it: boiling parts to make salads and loafs and dips. Also, my friend Angela, said she couldn't eat a lamb after watching them scamper across the hillside behind our house. I have to agree.), reminding us of the Lamb who was slain; and people will be greeted with, "Hristos a inviat!" and the response will be, "Adevarat, a inviat!" (Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.) The sad part is, for most people around us, it's all empty. Tradition. Habit. Frumos. A nice thing to do. When I look at my own fears and anxieties, I realize, that I, too, lose sight of what Christ's death and resurrection means. Daily. It means, "He who spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also will him graciously give us all things?" Therefore, I have nothing to fear.
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