Until I checked my emails yesterday I had completely forgotten that today is Mother's Day (sorry Mom!) and I am a little shocked to realize how thoroughly I am immersed in Romania. We celebrated May 1st which is a holiday that originated with the Communists and used to be a way to honor laborers. Now days, everyone heads for the mountains or parks for a picnic and/or a swim. Felix, a small community just a couple of kilometers south of Oradea is the chosen destination of many people who live in Oradea. It is attractive for its hot springs, swimming pools, and parks.
My days continue to start with a tutoring session with Vitalie, it is amazing to me how quickly he is becoming proficient in English though I really shouldn't be given the fact that he speaks three other languages. It seems as though the US is a bit behind many other countries where a second language is taught from grade school on. I am told that once a person learns one foreign language it is much easier for them to learn another and so many people who are bilingual add a third and fourth language.
A story told in chapel:
There once was a king who had a beautiful daughter. One day the king saw his daughter laughing and talking with a peasant boy. The king was not happy with the idea of his daughter having a peasant for a friend so he decided it was time for his daughter to get married.
The king made an announcement that there would be a race across the kingdom and that the man who won the race would become the husband of the princess and heir to the kingdom. On the day designated for the race, many young men came to participate. Before the race started the king announced that he had placed buckets of jewels and gold in the bushes and trees along the path of the race. He went on to say that any of the jewels and gold that were picked up by the participants would be theirs to keep when they crossed the finish line.
The race started and soon there were more men in the ditches than on the road and those who were on the road were moving more and more slowly as they struggled to run while carrying buckets of jewels and gold. In the end, only one participant finished the race because he set his eyes on the prize and never wavered. The peasant and the princess lived happily ever after.
The preacher used this story as a way to illustrate the need to keep our eyes on Jesus. That Jesus is the one and only target/prize that is worth striving for.
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This week has flown by! I knew that my last weeks here would go by quickly but wow! I underestimated the speed with which they would pass. I have been volunteering at Emanuel Hospice where I helped pack up boxes of food items that have been donated for the families who are struggling. Every month the Hospice receives groceries for the 40-50 families who are caring for a loved one who is dying of cancer. The social workers all pitch in to box up the food and then Maria spends a day or two delivering it. I was invited to go with her when she visited a woman who is in her 60s, is alone, and has 3rd stage cancer. She receives a disability payment of 2 million lie per month (about $65) out of which she must pay her rent, heat, water, and electric. She also must purchase all of her medications. She currently lives in one room where she shares a kitchen with two other women. She has to walk through one persons room to get to hers or to the kitchen. The groceries that Maria brought are a God send to this woman. Every time I work with the folks at the Hospice or at CASA I am amazed by their dedication and compassion for the least of Gods children, the ones that much of society overlooks or ignores.
Speaking of compassion, as I was leaving campus to go for a walk I ran into a student whom I knew and asked her if she would like to go for a walk with me. She said no thanks because she was meeting the students in her group and they were going to visit a young woman who had had an accident. As we chatted, she shared with me that the young woman they were going to see was a gypsy and that she was injured while rummaging through the trash at a garbage dump. Apparently something she moved blew up and the lower half of her body was severely damaged by fire and flying debris. This small group of students has been acting as the girls advocate, fighting with the doctors to ensure that she received treatment, raising money to pay for her surgeries, visiting her regularly in the hospital, and now visiting her at home where she awaits more surgery. What makes this group exceptional is that they are doing all of this for a young woman who belongs to the most despised and looked down upon people in Romania--the Gypsies. I have had the privilege of praying for this student and her group before when they went on a weekend mission trip. What an honor to be able to pray for them now as they go to minister to and be Jesus to this young Gypsy woman.
A Story
So, there was this American staying in Romania and she was really tired. So tired in fact that she was thinking about staying home and sleeping in on Sunday morning. After all, she reasoned, I haven't made arrangements to go with anyone and I don't understand anything when I go alone and sermons are REALLY long and boring when you don't understand them and I can have just as good a worship time in my room listening to praise music, reading the Bible, and praying so I will just sleep in. I just wish there was a church around here that had a service in English, then I wouldn't mind going.
8:00 a.m. Sunday morning finds our friend wide awake and thinking that it wasn't much of a sleep in. So here she is wide awake and thinking maybe she should think about going to church, there is plenty of time to get ready but then again, maybe it would be nice to just lie around and take it easy and have church here but then that would not be a very good witness to the students and it really isn't such a bad thing to sit and read the Bible during the sermon is it? Long story short, 9:50 a.m. finds our friend sitting and waiting for the service to start at 10. A student who comes in a little later recognizes our friend and comes and sits by her. There are announcements, praise music, prayer, a hymn or two and another announcement. After the announcement the student leans over and says "Linda, there is a guest preacher today and he is from Tennessee."
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is in me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits." Ps. 103.1-2
Happy Mother's Day!