If you would like to help...
The cost of living in Bucharest is similar to that of living in one of the suburbs of Vancouver. Food is slightly cheaper but gas is more expensive. The Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) for a family of two in a large urban area in Canada is $22,000 a year after taxes (approx. $1833 per month). Currently, the school where Liviu works is offering him a take-home wage of $200 per month or $2,400 a year (after they deduct the rent for the dorm room where he and Ana live). I would like to supplement this income with ministry support and I am looking for partners who would like to help me. The money will be received and receipted by Eurovangelism (or their American counterpart, Partners International) and sent to our Romanian partner, Euro Christian Ministries, to give to Liviu and Ana. Liviu and I will be working together over the next few months to put into a place a process of reporting so that financial and prayer partners receive regular updates. If you are interested in joining us in this ministry, please contact me at cherylenns@gmail.com.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Back in Canada
Yesterday morning I woke up at 6:00 am, Bucharest time (8:00 pm the previous day in Vancouver) and waited outside for over an hour for Liviu to take me to the airport. When, at 7:10 am, he had still not arrived, the Administrator of the school where I was staying kindly phoned Liviu to yell at him. Apparently Liviu was still asleep...having slept through two alarms! Needless to say, he got up very quickly and did manage to get me to the airport in time to catch my 8:35 am flight to London! Thus ended my fourth trip to Romania. :)
The actual flights home went very smoothly - thank you to everyone who prayed for my journey. Today I am in the midst of laundry and putting things away and dealing with my photos and re-adjusting to my life in Vancouver. Tomorrow I go back to work. Over the next few weeks, I have reports to write about my trip and a website to develop and other such follow-up to do. I also need to set up a plan for learning how to read and write Romanian. If this trip taught me anything, it is that I must be able to speak Romanian the next time I go. Since learning to read and write languages is much easier for me, I will start there.
Amazingly enough, we actually [mostly] stuck to the "schedule" for the last few days of my time in Romania! The plan to work in the computer lab on Wednesday didn't materialize; instead I spent a lot of time that day in Liviu's car, running errands with him and having discussions. Just let me say that Bucuresti traffic is NOT recommended for anyone who suffers from any type of untreated anxiety disorder. Thank goodness for my meds! Liviu had hoped to leave on vacation by 5:00 pm (ha!) but we actually got on the road three hours later, which isn't that bad. What was bad was watching my life flash before my eyes as Liviu drove 170 km an hour down the freeway while talking on his cellphone and then passed lines of trucks with limited visibility. When we reached our destination (the seaside village of Jupiter), I actually got down on my knees and kissed the concrete. (Liviu also received a brief but very stern lecture from me about not doing that again with me in the car so on the way home he did slow down to 120 km an hour if he was on the phone!)
Our host in Jupiter was a friend of Liviu's from the Distance Learning Program. Ioan is an engineer and was on a company-sponsored course to learn more about building dams. He was getting a little bored in his room all by himself so he invited us to share it with him for a couple nights. Yep...one small hotel room, two single beds, three 20-somethings and me. Fortunately, I did get my own bed and I actually slept quite well. The weather wasn't great so we didn't go out much but I did get to the beach three times and was able to touch the Black Sea (check!). We spent the time arguing [mostly] amiably about theology (Ioan is a VERY fundamentalist Baptist) and playing games and eating Romanian food in the dining room and Ioan had homework to do and Liviu had work. I found the whole experience amusing, especially when it was all calm one minute and an absolute flurry of packing the very next minute because suddenly it was time to go RIGHT NOW! Thankfully, I'm in the know about this kind of Romanian 20-something behaviour so I was already packed and ready to go and could just sit on my bed and watch the maelstrom happen around me. :)
We did go back to Buturugeni on Saturday morning and 13 children showed up for the program. The youth of the Buturugeni church were also there and have agreed to take on this ministry. They will provide a Saturday morning program for the children as well as Sunday School. Please pray for Dorin who will be the leader and for Alex, David, Robert and Cristina who will work with him. Pray that they will grow into excellent leaders who really love the children to whom they are ministering. Pray that the church will see what God is doing and catch the vision to reach out to the children, who come with so much enthusiasm and hate to leave! Liviu is planning to supervise and encourage and mentor from a distance and show up (probably with all the girls!) every now and then for a special program. In the meantime, he and Ana and Andra are talking about starting a program in Mihai Voda, another village nearby. The church in Mihai Voda needs to be re-planted and Liviu's church has asked him to do it. More on that as it develops...
Saturday afternoon was spent shopping with Ana and then it was off to the Saturday night young adult service at church. After lots of singing, I was asked to give the Bible Study (Liviu had confirmed this with me three hours before church started!). We looked at the parable of the sower and the seeds from Matthew 13 and I "rocked their world" a bit by actually asking them to participate (usually they get a lecture). The Baptist churches in Romania continue to be quite traditional and legalistic and the youth and young adults feel like they are starving. Some leave, some get involved in outreach ministries and many just drift. This situation breaks my heart and was one of the reasons that I didn't want to go back. Please pray for me as I befriend these youth on my trips and try to stay in touch with them. There are many "Liviu's" out there who have much to give and only need some space and nourishment in order to grow into fabulous leaders. Liviu (at 25) is already beginning to mentor Ovidiu (age 16) with the hope that Ovidiu will be able to take on a village ministry in the not-too-distant future.
Yesterday morning I woke up at 6:00 am, Bucharest time (8:00 pm the previous day in Vancouver) and waited outside for over an hour for Liviu to take me to the airport. When, at 7:10 am, he had still not arrived, the Administrator of the school where I was staying kindly phoned Liviu to yell at him. Apparently Liviu was still asleep...having slept through two alarms! Needless to say, he got up very quickly and did manage to get me to the airport in time to catch my 8:35 am flight to London! Thus ended my fourth trip to Romania. :)
The actual flights home went very smoothly - thank you to everyone who prayed for my journey. Today I am in the midst of laundry and putting things away and dealing with my photos and re-adjusting to my life in Vancouver. Tomorrow I go back to work. Over the next few weeks, I have reports to write about my trip and a website to develop and other such follow-up to do. I also need to set up a plan for learning how to read and write Romanian. If this trip taught me anything, it is that I must be able to speak Romanian the next time I go. Since learning to read and write languages is much easier for me, I will start there.
Amazingly enough, we actually [mostly] stuck to the "schedule" for the last few days of my time in Romania! The plan to work in the computer lab on Wednesday didn't materialize; instead I spent a lot of time that day in Liviu's car, running errands with him and having discussions. Just let me say that Bucuresti traffic is NOT recommended for anyone who suffers from any type of untreated anxiety disorder. Thank goodness for my meds! Liviu had hoped to leave on vacation by 5:00 pm (ha!) but we actually got on the road three hours later, which isn't that bad. What was bad was watching my life flash before my eyes as Liviu drove 170 km an hour down the freeway while talking on his cellphone and then passed lines of trucks with limited visibility. When we reached our destination (the seaside village of Jupiter), I actually got down on my knees and kissed the concrete. (Liviu also received a brief but very stern lecture from me about not doing that again with me in the car so on the way home he did slow down to 120 km an hour if he was on the phone!)
Our host in Jupiter was a friend of Liviu's from the Distance Learning Program. Ioan is an engineer and was on a company-sponsored course to learn more about building dams. He was getting a little bored in his room all by himself so he invited us to share it with him for a couple nights. Yep...one small hotel room, two single beds, three 20-somethings and me. Fortunately, I did get my own bed and I actually slept quite well. The weather wasn't great so we didn't go out much but I did get to the beach three times and was able to touch the Black Sea (check!). We spent the time arguing [mostly] amiably about theology (Ioan is a VERY fundamentalist Baptist) and playing games and eating Romanian food in the dining room and Ioan had homework to do and Liviu had work. I found the whole experience amusing, especially when it was all calm one minute and an absolute flurry of packing the very next minute because suddenly it was time to go RIGHT NOW! Thankfully, I'm in the know about this kind of Romanian 20-something behaviour so I was already packed and ready to go and could just sit on my bed and watch the maelstrom happen around me. :)
We did go back to Buturugeni on Saturday morning and 13 children showed up for the program. The youth of the Buturugeni church were also there and have agreed to take on this ministry. They will provide a Saturday morning program for the children as well as Sunday School. Please pray for Dorin who will be the leader and for Alex, David, Robert and Cristina who will work with him. Pray that they will grow into excellent leaders who really love the children to whom they are ministering. Pray that the church will see what God is doing and catch the vision to reach out to the children, who come with so much enthusiasm and hate to leave! Liviu is planning to supervise and encourage and mentor from a distance and show up (probably with all the girls!) every now and then for a special program. In the meantime, he and Ana and Andra are talking about starting a program in Mihai Voda, another village nearby. The church in Mihai Voda needs to be re-planted and Liviu's church has asked him to do it. More on that as it develops...
Saturday afternoon was spent shopping with Ana and then it was off to the Saturday night young adult service at church. After lots of singing, I was asked to give the Bible Study (Liviu had confirmed this with me three hours before church started!). We looked at the parable of the sower and the seeds from Matthew 13 and I "rocked their world" a bit by actually asking them to participate (usually they get a lecture). The Baptist churches in Romania continue to be quite traditional and legalistic and the youth and young adults feel like they are starving. Some leave, some get involved in outreach ministries and many just drift. This situation breaks my heart and was one of the reasons that I didn't want to go back. Please pray for me as I befriend these youth on my trips and try to stay in touch with them. There are many "Liviu's" out there who have much to give and only need some space and nourishment in order to grow into fabulous leaders. Liviu (at 25) is already beginning to mentor Ovidiu (age 16) with the hope that Ovidiu will be able to take on a village ministry in the not-too-distant future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)