From the Mouths of Babes

What God's children in Romania are saying...

"I want to learn English because maybe, maybe that's what they speak in paradise...well, I think in paradise we will all understand each other; language won't matter."

"It's not enough to have good seed. You have to have good ground to grow a crop."

"I don't understand this. If Jesus did all of these miracles, then why did some peoples still not believe in him?"

"I think Jesus loves everybody. I think everybody needs to love Jesus."

"Who do you believe in--God, or Jesus?"

"Is the bible the most important book in your life?"

"[I would describe Jesus] with Holy, magic powers."

"I do believe God can do anything. Maybe we don't always understand, but that is because we are human and we have limits. God doesn't have limits, I think. He's bigger than us."

"My biggest worry is that God doesn't love me...if I don't love myself, how can he love me?...Where is God in me? I don't love people like He said to do. It's very difficult...Why does God love me?...I'll pray he helps me love myself and other people."

"The big things in life are loving God and loving others."

"I want to be like Jesus."

God Bless! 

Nikki, Jessica, & Parker 

Colossians 4:2-6

"How do you say...?"

-Everyone, in a shuffle of languages at our first party, accidentally themed as a comedy of errors

Whelp, when Plan A fails, move to Plan B. When Plan B fails, move to Plan C. When Plan C fails...praise Jesus anyway.

And that's exactly what we did. Yesterday's first party started out smoothly--Jess and Parker lead the group (what a great turn out we had!) in charades and another group game as people were arriving while I worked on preparing PB&J sandwiches and some other "American" snacks.

After the games and food is when we ran into trouble--due to a seemingly endless strand of miscommunication, we didn't actually have a DVD player at the church building with which to watch Jurassic Park as we had planned and many of our readers were looking forward to. Plan A? Failed. Plan B: Margrit drives Maria to get DVD player. Great! and what great leadership and teamwork from our readers to help the party move along. While we waited, what better way to spend time then to sing some worship songs in English and Romanian?

When Maria and Margrit returned, Plan B was soon defeated by the old church television that couldn't be hooked up to the DVD player. Okay, no big deal, there's a TV in the church house next door...which also failed to meet our needs. Never fear! We have a laptop! ...hopefully 20 people can figure out a way to sit so everyone can see....and be quiet enough to hear...

Oh! Parker and I can taxi back to the apartment to grab some larger speakers for the computer so hopefully more people can hear. Good thing we did; Jessica had left her cell phone in the taxi on the way to the church earlier. Whoops. Parker and I couldn't find the speakers after all (I mean really, what were you expecting?), so Parker hastily grabbed our apartment TV to bring--which would've been awesome, if he or I had grabbed the remote control to change the input so the TV would recognize the DVD player once hooked up. Awesome...gold stars for us in the COMPLETE FAIL department! Hahaha, so, if you're keeping track, 1 hour, 15 minutes, 3 TVs, 2 worship songs in 2 different languages, and a DVD player later, we watched the movie on a Mac. Guess what. That should have been Plan A.

All in all, despite the circus, everyone seemed to have a good time and our readers today have all told us they had a great time last night. Yay!

After the party was over and the church building was put back together (Maria, Rodica, and Adrianna insisted on cleaning despite our efforts to let them relax while we cleaned), Adrianna, Vlad, Pono, Thomas, Levi, Parker, Jess, and I went out for desert in the center of town.

The group! (Well, minus me--I had to take the picture. Haha) 

Jess, Parker, and Thomas. 

Hmm. Make what you will of this. 

Adrianna, Pono, Levi, Vlad, Nikki

The Lord has showered us with blessings! And they just keep flowing--this morning, Rodica came to the apartment and taught Parker and I how to make clătite (crepes). Yummmmmm

God Bless!
Nikki, Jessica, & Parker 
Colossians 4:2-6

"Romania is an awkward country."

-Adrianna, one of our readers, talking about her own country! Hahaha

Last night we were very blessed by one of Jessica's readers; Adrianna, along with her son, Vlad, her nephew, Andrew, Andrew's girlfriend Claudia, and there friend (her name I won't try to spell...) took us out to eat at an adorable little restaurant outside of town! Adrianna barely speaks any English at all; mostly, Vlad translates for her, but she treated us like her own children and took care of us. Despite language barriers, it was a dinner full of laughter from all, and we stayed until after dark. 

Jess and I failed to get a picture of the whole group, but we all want to get together again soon so hopefully we will remedy that soon. This is the best we got...

We did get some pictures of the drive, however.

We had to drive through a gypsy village, where cows were the high traffic! 

When we ordered dinner, Jess and I both ordered fish...we weren't totally expecting what we got...

However, I'm proud to say that I dominated! And it was delicious.

Tonight is our first party! We talked to several readers about what they would like to do, the consensus? Socialize and watch--you guessed it--Jurassic Park. Hahaha, apparently watching movies in English is something they've done before with LST workers and enjoyed very much. We'll let you bloggers know how it goes!

God Bless!

Nikki, Jessica, & Parker Colossians 4:2-6

"NOT SAFE NOT SAFE NOT SAFE!"

-Me, right about the time flaming masses of grass and wood were flying towards me.

Why are we making these faces?

Well...
Being in ministry can be an interesting and exciting thing. Being in a foreign country where you often don't understand what's being said can also be an interesting and exciting thing. Being in ministry in a foreign country...well, it's a whirlwind of wonderful, crazy, and often unexpected experiences. For instance, yesterday. At one point in time, Jess, Parker, and I were told we were being taken to a concert...well, I have no idea where the communication gap happened, but what was once a plan to spend the evening watching and listening to a local teenage celebrity perform became...uh, well, became "backstage passes" (aka standing on this thing)

and watching things much like this...

No warning, no English, no safety nets.

Well, we just didn't see it coming.

But hey, what better way to bond with new friends, right? Maria had invited us to come along with a group of students she studied with. After the show, we all goofed around and took pictures together. We may not speak any of their languages, but silliness translates just fine. :)

Texas. Whatever.

RUDE!

hahaha

This kid can flip. Holy cow.

*****

Today we went to the church here for the first time. It's a small congregation--there were roughly 11 people there today including us. Instead of having a structured, laid out service with a sermon, the group meets in their small building, sings songs, read scripture, and pray as they please for an hour and a half or so. Afterwards, we all hung around together for a while and ate from the church's garden; Parker, Jess, and I enjoyed some strawberries and were given some onion and dill to take back to the apartment.

The Agape Building

The church garden

Jess and her berries

Parker and his Dill

Yummmmy!

Tomorrow begins our first full week of reading sessions! 

Pray that God be glorified.

God Bless!
Nikki, Jessica, & Parker Colossians 4:2-6

"We took many pictures; I'll post a few here, but they're all in the slideshow."

-Me, about ten minutes ago. Before I knew that Picasa Web Albums and Blogger were going to refuse to communicate. So here are the rest of the pictures from this afternoon.