A Year and a Half

It will be my first visit back home in the States since arriving in Romania a year and a half ago! It is hard to believe it has been that long. My flight takes off from Timisoara Saturday morning, and I arrive in Long Island Saturday afternoon...weird considering the many many hours I'll be traveling. Time zones are crazy.

The days following will be full of celebrating holidays with family, catching up with friends and supporting churches. I'll also be paying some visits to Long Island Youth Mentoring, to catch up with friends there but also to get myself updated on the current trends with Christian Youth Mentoring and freshen up a bit! Taking care of doctor appointments and some business stuff is also on the agenda but yucky...don't want to think about that right now.

I have 7 weeks for my US adventure and am praying that all will go well. Did you know that there is also reverse culture shock when people like me go back to their own home culture? It may not be long enough of a visit for it to really hit, but I do know for a fact I'll be facing a lot of changes since I left. I appreciate your prayers as always....


....and maybe I'll see YOU soon!!!
Blessings and Love, me

Good Fruit

Sorry for the delay. I needed some time after the retreat was over to relax myself, but I am so grateful to say that it was an amazing time. Feeling very unable to portray to you in words the extent of gratitude that was expressed to me by the women who came. Below is a link to some pictures - trying Picasa web albums now rather than webshots so we'll see how that goes:

LadiesRetreat09

It seems that everything was appreciated and went well. The main speaker, Ronah Francolino, brought a powerful message from John 15 bringing us all into a deeper understanding of what it means to be a branch abiding in Christ in the vineyard, tended by our Father the Vintner. Other messages from my fellow GEMers on keeping the Sabbath Holy and encouragement were equally well received, supportive and challenging.

Beyond the messages we had powerful prayer times together, as well as time alone with the Lord... and times to have fun and be pampered.

The craft materials send to me by my home church on Long Island, Grace Gospel Church, were devoured!!! The women loved it so much and could hardly be dragged away... although some finally did give in to setting the materials aside to allow themselves to be pampered with my friend Amanda's homemade beauty treatments!

You'll see from the pictures that the place itself is just a gorgeous place to be. At the end of the weekend I set out a bag for people to put suggestions in case I might be able to organize this again next year. I got a few but mostly the bag was full of "thank you's". It was an incredible blessing and privilege for me to be able to provide these ladies with a time of rest, encouragement and refueling.

It would not have been impossible without the team of lovely ladies you see with me in this picture:



OR without you all - your prayers - the special treats from the States. The Lord brought it all together to bring a tremendous blessing to a group of very special women.

Thank you and Praise God!!!

About Men and Women

:) First about the men... I need some!

Haa haaa... did that get your attention? There were 5 of us total going through the mentor training together last Friday. We only got a quarter of the way through instead of half way as I hoped, but that was because there were a lot of great suggestions for adapting or clarifying the course! Thing is, there was not a man among us! There had been a young man interested in the ministry but he realized he was involved in too much already (and just got married) so mentoring didn't make the cut on his schedule. Now I am praying not only about a solid Romanian partner in the mentoring ministry, but also, in addition, for a solid Romanian male partner for the ministry. Thanks for your prayers. In any case, I'm hoping we are going to continue working through the adaptation process on October 16th and November 13th.

And about the women... there are LOTS... coming to the retreat at the end of October! Praise God. It has been absolutely AMAZING to see the Lord bring this retreat together and answer SO MANY prayers!!! I have 20 women signed up and 1 maybe. The women who I had really had on my heart to come have signed up!!! There are 6 other helpers besides myself, three of them are speakers. The place is reserved and the schedule is coming along. Goodies are coming in from America to add some extra blessings, and I am convinced the Lord has a great plan for this weekend...stuff that I have no clue about yet!

Thank you so much for your support and prayers for these things. It feels good to be a small part of these works of God! Be blessed today...and thank you again for being a part of all of this too. With love...

Art Therapy and Freedom

Well, I sure tortured myself a bit before the big day of the seminar. My fears of inadequacy were nearly unbearable at times leading up to it. It's true that the other women participating were truly "experts" when it came to working with disabled children, and it is so wonderful they were able to come and impart their wisdom and loving ways with the 75+ participants of the conference.

To cope with my fears I convinced myself that the Lord had a reason for me being there and would give me something of value to share with the people. He of course was Faithful as always. The therapeutic principles of art therapy seemed well received and the practical hands-on task was enjoyed by them as well.

As I reflected back on some of the comments of participants, I realized that there is a message of freedom integral in the practice of art as therapy and it is a message that is counter the communist ways they bared so long. As they reacted to the idea of making creative choices and using art work to develop a sense of identity, I realized that there is still a thick residue left behind from that era of oppression. The layers are being removed but the effects after all this time are still evident!

So thank you for your prayers. Some of the other ladies took pictures so I have some to share with you of my part in the conference.



You can see me up front with Andreea, my language teacher, friend and translator!



Here you only see the back of my head at the bottom of the picture as I re-explain the directions for the hands on task.



I set up four different stations; one with materials for construction,one for sculpting, another for drawing and the last of painting. They got to choose what medium to use. Overall, we had fun :)

I'm doing WHAT?

Some of you may know that I am helping out with a conference here in Timisoara this week. I am just a very small part of something that has grown beyond (I think) the expectations of the organizers which include my fellow GEMer Dawn in association with the Child Protective Services here. They are expecting over 100 people to participate. It is geared toward the workers and families of children with disabilities.

This has become such a huge thing that it has spontaneously gotten news coverage!


There are 4 professionals from the States giving seminars in their different disciplines; physical, occupational, drama and speech therapies. There are also us GEMers...coworkers Cal and Karen will be presenting something to help workers improve communications with one another and families...and I am the art therapist. For me as a professional, it is a little different because I never specialized in physical disabilities.

So I have several prayer points for this week: That the workers and participants be blessed and gain knowledge and inspiration; that all would have the grace and strength they need; that this would leave a great impression on the community; that God would be glorified in it and His part in it would come through; that the children would reap the benefits...and lastly for me, that I would have something of value to contribute (and that I would have confidence this is true).

I feel a bit of an odd ball because of the reasons mentioned, and find myself feeling badly that I don't have more to offer, though it isn't "my fault"...but I need to trust that there IS a reason I am a part of this and that the Lord would say something through me to them...even despite me.

God Bless you friends - thanks again for being there... can't thank you enough, especially at times like this.
Love me

Free to Be ME

Hey friends. Just wanted to put a quick note out there to let you know I am celebrating a new phase that I am calling the "free to be me" phase! I actually didn't realize how NOT me I was feeling this past year and three months until I suddenly felt me again. Want you also to know that I am SURE... while the simple factor of time may have something to do with it, I think that your prayers have a greater something to do with it!!!

I wish I could give a more concrete explanation of the difference, but just know I am feeling more optimistic than ever about the plans that the Lord has here in Romania... and feeling free to be me means feeling freer to live out those plans to His Glory!!!

Praying all is well with you!!!

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Eph 2:10

"Diving In" at Lake Buhui (Bu-hoo-e)

My head is spinning from all that has gone on this summer, including my last “major event” which was the youth camp at Lake Buhui (in a town called Anina).

Thank you so much for all the prayers which the Lord heard and answered (and is answering). It was a little overwhelming at first to be in such an “immersed” state, but of course it ended up being such a blessing. To start, over the course of the week, I realized just how much the high expectations I have of myself end up ironically blocking me from moving forward regarding language. I experienced a much greater freedom in my communication with others during the camp, speaking in Romanian, English or my favorite “Romglish” combination, depending on the situation (not being so rigid with myself – MUST SPEAK ROMANIAN). I tried, I made mistakes, got it right a few times… but I was relating and that was the key. AND the icing is that I actually did make quite a bit of progress in just the one week with the language!

The camp itself was such an interesting and fun time. We had 4 teams and did “Olympic” games that included things like balloons, blindfolds, straws and Frisbees (yes…VERY creative). I got to see the inside of a cave during a 4 hour hike one day. Each team created a funny film that we watched the last night… well actually the last morning, staying up until 5 am because that is when we had the most electricity available!

But this was a camp for spiritual growth, so besides all the activities, we had personal devotion times, time in pairs, and group discussions based on themes about God: His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience.

They did a great job putting the camp together and the most encouraging thing was seeing the few pre-Christian teens we had take a greater interest in the things of God as we went along.

I would call it a great success all around. What a blessing!

Here are some pics to give you an idea of the sort of place we enjoyed and the fun times we had.