Well, this is my attempt to keep everyone happy - so I'm going to try to be much better at letting you all know what I'm up to and where I've been...not sure how successful it will be, but hey - worth a shot :-)
We've had 150 or so YouthCompass kids with us in March and April, that was a load of fun - they really moved the work forward and a lot of them met with God in some really spectacular ways. They built chicken coops, painted fences, dug gardens, threw poo at walls (it's mud and poo mixed and then used to cover the walls (sort of like adobe))...and generally had a really good time - they got to stay in our houses this year, which meant that we got to know them in a really different way.
I made an attempt to go to Sweden after YC left, but a volcano had other plans for me, so I got to spend some time with a really lovely lady and her son (Agnes and Robert) in Budapest - which was fun - they have an apartment just at the bottom of the castle district, so I spent a lot of time walking up and down hills (didn't really realize that Budapest was that hilly)...ate a lot of street food and drank WAY too much coffee (strong and sweet) and spent a couple of days riding the trams and sleeping in parks (good sunshine) - and saw a lot of the city. Really nice place and I'm glad I got to go.
Work is pretty much the same as usual, I do a lot of emails, coordinate transport for teams and help keep track of budgets - nothing too spectacular :-) but all necessary work.
We're a really big team right now, but a few people have left - Mike and Alli are gone until June, Steve, Julie and Aaron are on vacation and are due back soon. Lee will leave tomorrow for a short vacation and the rest of the girls from Covasint will be heading off soon, but most of them say they'll be back in September.
The micro-enterprise project (Dece hats) is going really well - Rob has been an amazing manager, he just keeps things spinning away. We're trying out a lot of different products right now, crocheted hats, fabric hats, t-shirts, gloves, etc...we've got one woman sewing hats, and 3 or 4 crocheting hats - we've got distributors making orders right and left - which is great, because it provides income for women who otherwise wouldn't be able to work at all...
We've plowed and disked all the gardens in Siria - Andreas and the girls gave out bunches of seeds and plants, (potatoes, onions, corn, peas, etc) and also put up some greenhouses and started flower seedlings again for the micro-enterprise garden projects...they've also built a bunch of chicken coops in gardens and are in the process of giving chickens to everyone - they hope is that they will have eggs for sale and for food and then can have chicks and food as well...
Everyone here is being moved and stirred - God is doing some amazing work. He's especially been working on my character issues (no big surprise there :-) ) and we've been having some really good teaching on leadership and stepping up - the hope is that the returning missions students (as well as some of us) will step up into more leadership roles in the course of the next year - so prayer that we can embrace the challenges - and it's all good.
Summer has finally made it here - the skies are beautiful blue - all the trees are in bloom, flowers are popping up everywhere and the heat is on - it's been warm enough that everyone is wearing shorts and t-shirts, but still cool enough in the evenings that you need a jacket. Yesterday evening, Liz and I sat on the steps outside the office (after Bible study) and watched the moon come over the hill - it started out as this glow just behind the hill and in the course of the next 15 minutes, became this huge golden ball of light in the sky - just a spectacular sight.
I am so priveleged to be allowed to be here in Romania - there are so many challenges, and things that shake me out of my "zone" that it's just unbelievable....but on the other-hand, it's just so ordinary sometimes - I mean, I go to work, I spend all day writing emails, talking to people who come into the office, calling people on the phone, creating spreadsheets and doing ordinary boring things - but then God breaks into it all and it's just so not ordinary - can't really describe what that means or what it really looks like -but it is a real privilege to know that I am His daughter and that He loves me so much and that I get to work for Him - knowing that He doesn't really need me to DO anything...just awe-struck and awe-inspired...
Anyway, like I keep telling people, I don't do much that's exciting - but I'll try to be better at keeping people up to speed.
Thanks to all of you who support me, both financially and in prayer - I love you all very much and keep in touch
