A few more thoughts

So as our team was debriefing this week I thought of something else that was interesting and cool about my trip to Romania.  On the long journey south I had quite a bit of time to think and pray about the time in Romania.  There is this song that we sing here a lot called Hosanna and in it there is a line that says "break my heart for what breaks Yours." I was praying that on the way down. I had done a little bit of research before about the history of Romania and why there are so many orphans and what happened there while it was ruled my communism.  It was really interesting and so it gave me a little insight to what I would be stepping into.

I was just praying and asking God to show me while I was there what makes him sad and to see what breaks His heart, so that I could understand and relate to the people.  I didn't realize this until the end of the trip and while we were debriefing but from the minute we crossed the border from Hungary to Romania my heart was heavy.  

I remember so many days feeling almost lost and deaf to what God might be saying to me because I was so caught by the dreariness and pain all around me.  We would be praying together as a team and I would ask God to speak to my team mates because I felt like I couldn't grasp anything.  My mind was so quick to wander and I felt like I was on observant overload, I was always just watching things around me.  My team thinks I don't talk much, and I know sometimes I am really quiet but I feel like I was even more because I was constantly thinking about things around me.  

What is cool about that is that one of my team members who also happened to be the youngest was saying a lot of things that she felt God put on her heart and everything she said the rest of us totally agreed with her and just felt like God really was speaking through her.  It was cool because before we left Budapest one of the guys on their team said they had the impression that God would raise up one of the least expected of our team to be a leader. So I just feel like God was letting me really feel the pain there and maybe what He would have spoken to me, I think He told her :) 

But on the last day while we were in Sighisoara and then that last night at the base in Medias I feel like God lifted the heaviness away. The whole time we were at the base in Sighisoara I was overwhelmed with this feeling of hope.  We were praying for the staff there and then we were asked to share if God had put anything on our hearts for them. My heart was beating so hard and I knew He wanted me to share this vision/feeling I had with them. But I didn't speak up and then we moved on and I felt like I should have said something.  But this feeling I had was incredible, I could just see that base coming alive one day.  With so many staff and volunteers that they would be overflowing.  In my mind it was like Narnia.  It was still winter there and it was dark and cold, but I wanted them to know that spring is coming and soon the ice will melt and it will flourish.  I am still learning how to speak up when I need to.

While we were debriefing, Lucy our team leader said to Melody (my team member who said so many things that we agreed with) that she really felt that God spoke through her and that every time she said things they were right on. I was next to Melody and then Lucy looked at me and said in her brazilian accent "And you sista, you need to speak when you feel something."   :)

Overall I left there feeling free and lighter and changed. I really believe God let me feel the pain there but at the end He lifted that off so I could feel his love surround me and see His light shining.  So in the midst of all that darkness, we were a huge light. And where there is light, there is no darkness.

These are all from the day in Sighisoara

Romania

I got back late last night to snow! It is beautiful.

The train ride from Budapest was so so pretty, the further north we came the more snow there was.  It is still snowing outside :) I love it.

So in the past week I have been in 5 of the eastern European countries. The train took us from Dresden, Germany through Prague and a lot of the Czech Republic, then through the very west part of Slovakia. Finally down through Hungary ending in Budapest.  The train was 10 hours long, but so beautiful. 

Last Saturday night we stayed in a hostel in Budapest with the Hungary team, so there were around 23 of us. It was actually an ok one. The next morning 5 of our Romania team went to rent the cars and so the rest of us got to walk around Budapest a little. It is probably one of the coolest cities I have ever been to, the architecture is amazing.  After the others got back with out rental cars we had lunch and then began our drive to Romania. It took us forever to get there.

We got lost in Budapest because, well for starters everything is in Hungarian and none of us know anything about driving there. Plus road signs or street signs are so small and in the hardest place to read so by the time you read it (which most of the time you can't even say it) it was too late. At least they drive on the same side of the road. 

After we finally got out of Budapest we took wrong turns a few more times :) We didn't arrive at the ywam base where we were staying in Romania until 2:00 in the morning. 

Most of the drive through Romania it was dark and at first there was a full moon and it was so creepy. The trees were bare and most of the houses were really run down and there was fog. Add that to the fact that we were in Transilvania and well that's just creepy.

But we had so much fun. I loved my team. I would do my big outreach with them, we got along so well and there were no fights or anything like that we were all really easy going and just like, "ok, whatever" it was great. 

Romania was really cool, the language is kind of a mix between Italian, Spanish and French so some things I could understand. But the people were really fun, they are very similar to Greeks or Italians. Actually one of their favorite movies is My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and they quoted it all the time. So funny.  I kind of wish we could have gone in the summer. It looked really dreary while we were there, very brown and all the trees were bare and it was cold. I hear that it is very beautiful in the summer.  You can see that it is a poor country as well, all the houses are really run down and there were tons of apartment buildings that looked so cold and ugly and they were built during communism.  It was hard to think about the people who were crammed in there.  It definately opened my eyes but more while I was there

The base that we stayed at was in a town called Medias. It was pretty small, but it was nice. They didn't have any hot water, so we either had to take cold showers or boil water and take cup showers.  And last winter they didn't have heat. I do not know how they did it, it was so cold there.  We began to see why God led us there once we were there. The base was so small and they are in huge need of staff and finances. You could just feel it and see it on their faces that they were tired. So we prayed for them a lot. 

Each day we went out and did stuff in different places. One day we went to the International House of Prayer in a nearby town, and the next to an orphanage, and the last full day we had there we went to another ywam base in a different nearby town called Sighisoara.  That was my favorite day. 

The ywam base there has only 3 full time staff. It is in a very dark area and they were so happy to have us there. The town Sighisoara is beautiful. But one huge thing they face there is that is apparently the city were dracula was born. There is a spiritual heaviness all around them. We prayed for them and then did a prayer walk around the neighbourhood where their base is. Their main ministry is running a kindergarten for the local gypsy children. They told us about how the gypsies are looked down upon by everyone and are often very poor and can't afford to pay the 1.50 Euro it costs for the kids to go there each month. That is like almost $2.00 US dollars for a month! They have nothing.  

Another huge problem is prostitution.  There are these two men in the area that are powerful and run a kind of business. The people call them fish. They are called this because they catch children, especially young girls and bring them to live with them as servants. When they are 16-18 they start selling them as prostitutes. It is hard because everyone is so poor that it is one way to make good money so they keep doing it.  But after a few years when the girls start to look used up, they get rid of them and bring in new ones, they always have some because they are always looking for them. They start looking or watching for them when they are little, like in the kindergarten and when they are 12 or 13 they take them. Actually a lot of times their parents sell them because they have no money.   It is a really awful system. While we were doing our prayer walk the yeam base leader would point out the houses of those men and girls. It was so close to them, like the next street over!

 There were these girls that followed us and they were so cute. They were little gypsy kids and were fascinated with out cameras and kept posing and wanting us to take their picture and then show them on the back :) They walked with us the whole time hugging us and holding our hands. It was so precious, but I couldn't help but think how long until they took them. They were so beautiful and I just wanted to take them home.

We walked up to the top of the hill that the base was on and it overlooked the city, we played with girls and just worshipped God and prayed for the city. It was so cool.

When we left we could just see the light and encouragement on the faces of the staff at the base, they were so nice and I think that some of our team will go back there someday. I don't know if I will, but I would love to go back and visit and stay longer than a day and do an more intensive outreach directed in that area.

I had such a good trip and it has been hard to adjust back at the castle. There is so much more that happened but it would take me forever to write it all, but this was what impacted me the most, so thats what I wanted to write about. It did make me really excited for my big outreach to Ethiopia.  Only a little more than a month.

I can't believe how fast time is going by, yet at the same time it feels like I've been here for a long long time.

If I think of anything else that touched my heart I will write about and I'll put up some pictures, but for now I am going out to play in the snow!

I leave today for my mini outreach to Romania. I am excited.

We are taking the train to Dresden and then from Dresden to Budapest. We will stay the night there and then rent cars in the morning and drive to Romania. 

Our team is really good, I think God will do great things through us. We will be staying in the Transylvania region at a YWAM base there. There is a house of prayer nearby and also an orphanage. So we will probably be spending a lot of time at those two places.

We don't really have concrete plans or anything, but we are going to go there and let God lead us while we are there. It is going to be cool to see what happens and God does through us.

A lot has happened these past 2 weeks.

I have found out my outreach location, I have experienced a real African preacher, I learned that my future is really in God's hands and I am seeing how He is leading me.

For my 10 week outreach I am going to Ethiopia, it is a long kind of crazy story how that came about and God revealed to me and taught me so many things.

Then this week we have been learning about laying down our rights.

That everything we own or have belongs to Jesus and He is the one who gave it to us.

When we let those things that He gave us become more important than him is when it becomes wrong.  I think He wants to bless us and gives us things but when we become so attached to them that we aren't willing to give them up, it makes Him sad.

I have realized living here with a bunch of other people who don't have jobs or regular income, that you really have to rely on God to provide for you. I love our community because no one cares if you have the latest fashion or the nicest pair of shoes. You could wear the ugliest old lady wool sweater and we would think its cool.

It is nice to escape from the materialistic North America with TV and ads everywhere telling you that you will be happy when you buy this or own this or wear that. That is all crap. The real way to be happy is to give thing away to people who need it more than you do and not let those things take control over you (which often happens without you knowing it). Its crazy because He will really set you free when you let go.

And it is not just stuff, it could be a relationship, your culture or tradition, or you country where it is comfortable.

So this week we wrote down the things that were holding us back and rights that we were hanging on to. It was really powerful and we all let go of them together in our worship time this morning. I really felt like Jesus was there with us and taking it all away as we would give it to Him.  It is so hard to comprehend His love for us. You think you understand or know, but I am seeing it is so incredibly deep and vast we will never understand completely.

I am learning so much and I am thankful to be here.

God has given me some amazing friends to go through these things with and I am so blessed.