Father, where shall I work today?
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed out a tiny spot,
And said, "Tend that for Me."
I answered quickly, "Oh no, not that.
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done,
Not that little place for me!"
And the word He spoke, it was not stern,
He answered me tenderly,
"Ah little one, search that heart of thine;
At thou working for them or me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee."
~Author Unknown~
Living day to day trying to keep Christ as the focus
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Cross-cultural interview
I had to interview someone from another country for my Cross-Cultural Evangelism class. Here are the results. I hope you enjoy!
Svitlana Rozsokha is a single, twenty three year old Ukrainian lady who is finishing her first year at Southern Seminary. While she has enjoyed her eight months in the United States, she is looking forward to going back to Ukraine for the summer to use what she has learned in the classroom to bless several ministries she works with in her home country. Svitlana, or Sveta as she likes to be called, speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English, and has studied French and German in High School.
Sveta and I have gotten to know each other slowly over the last two semesters and began visiting in her dorm room earlier this year. She has shared bits and pieces of her story with me slowly over our friendship, and allowed me to ‘officially’ interview her twice in her room at the end of March and the end of April. Our interviews usually lasted for a few hours and we talked not only about her culture and experiences but also my own personal experiences, both on campus at Southern Seminary, in the U.S.A in general, and living overseas. Sometime during the interviews I was usually offered some form of chocolate or sweet, unhealthy morsel and we almost always ended up sitting comfortably on different ends of her bed with the window open, trying hard to stay on task as we enjoyed the other’s company.
Svitlana’s story of the Lord’s hand in her life is truly a testimony to the faithfulness of God. Her parents divorced when she was very young, leavning her mother with four children, of whom Sveta was the oldest. When Sveta was eleven, her mother remarried an abusive man who eventually killed her and then dissapeared. Svitlana and two of her siblings were put in the same orphanage, but the youngest child, a brother which Sveta had been the primary caretaker of, was placed in another orphanage. To this day Svitlana does not know where he is or how he is doing. Despite being told repeatedly to forget him, she prays for him and trusts God to be as good to him as He has been to her.
Not long after Sveta and her two siblings were put in the orphanage, an American short-term mission team visited the orphanage. An older American couple met Sveta and the three soon fell in love with each other. Despite the three desperately wanting to become part of the same family, the court system had not declared Sveta adoptable, and it is usually extremely hard for Americans to adopt out of Ukraine even under the best of circumstances. The American team left, and Svitlana again thought she had lost people she loved and cared about. Surprisingly, however, the next year when the American team returned, Svitlana’s friends were amongst the team members. Sveta ran to Carrie, the wife of the couple and held her hand and refused to let go.
The American couple were not content to leave Svitlana in the orphanage again, and so began searching for a Ukrainian couple who would adopt her. God raised up a godly Ukrainain family with two daughters of their own to adopt not only Sveta but her two younger siblings. She has been living with this new godly family since then and daily praises God for the blessings He has given her.
The American couple kept in touch with Sveta and after she graduated from the undergraduate program in Ukraine asked her if she would be interested in studying in the United States. She confesses that the thought was not attractive to her at all at first, and was tempted to refuse them. However her adoptive parents and others spoke with her and eventually she agreed, as she saw that going to Seminary would help prepare her for the ministry she felt the Lord calling her to. The American couple, whom Sveta refers to as her American parents, have paid, with their church’s help, for all her travel expenses and Seminary costs. 
This summer Sveta is going to be traveling to several orphanages in her home country and hopes the Lord will use her to touch other lives the way her American and Ukrainian parents have blessed hers. She feels torn about returning to Seminary in the fall. While she knows it is a good thing and training will be helpful, she sees the immediate needs in her adoptive father’s ministry and knows how hard it is to do ministry in her native land. She feels an urgency to get about the Lord’s work that is inspiring and commendable.
Brother Anton Rozsokha, Sveta’s adoptive father, has a small church in their home village of Kaniv, in the region of Cherkassy in Ukraine. He has been working there for several years and yet still his church consists of only eight old women who faithfully attend. He is happy that his daughter has the opportunity to learn but misses her bight encouraging spirit and sharp wit in the ministry.
Ukrainian culture is a very task oriented, indirect, private culture with a high priority on how one addresses people of different social status and social etiquette. The Ukrainian language itself has different levels used for people, similar to the Russian formal and informal voices. Tonal inflection is very important. Since the culture is indirect, it is important to pay attention to how a phrase is said. The implications of how or when a word was said can communicate many things that the overall sentence did not in any way indicate. Eye contact is important, as a lack of it communicates distrust or suspicion. The Ukrainians believe that you can ‘see the soul through the eyes.” Ignoring a person verbally is not always a warning signal, however if no response is given, verbal or non-verbal, then it is a good bet that something is wrong.
Svitlana said one of the greatest culture shocks came when she experienced the warm, friendly hospitable southern charm that is a trademark of Kentucky and the American South. She said it was a wonderfully pleasant surprise to have so many offers of care and consideration that were heartfelt and not said merely out of politeness. Apparently even in the churches in Ukraine, such offers are mere formality and not really meant. However, in the States Svitlana feels free to take people at their word when they offer to take her to the store or give her needed items. The Ukrainians see the need to care for their own family members, and within the family circle there is a sense of community, of open fellowship, “what’s yours is mine” mentalities. However, while there is a strong sense of hospitality, there is also a sense of family honor that permeates everything a Ukrainian does. This is very obvious when one is attempting to do evangelism. To be Ukrainian is to be a member of an Eastern Orthodox church. The evangelical church is seen as eccentric and a money-making scheme. There is even a saying, “Don’t talk to the Christians because they will pull you into the church.” Svitlana sees Eastern Orthodoxy as a mere shell of religion, however it is hard for Ukrainians to see the difference between a Baptist missionary and a legalistic, overbearing Orthodox priest. In the past, there had been a good deal of persecution of those outside the Orthodox church. In recent years the persecution has not been nearly as bad. However, Ukrainians will tell there children, “it is better to drink and become a workaholic than join that cult!” when referring to Baptists or other Evangelical Protestants. Family honor is tied to the Orthodox church, and to leave it is to shame one’s family.
Part of the problem Svitlana sees amongst Evangelical churches is their lack of vision for mission. The pastors care for their congregation but do not emphasize evangelism or even inviting new members to churches. There is an overbearing sense of discouragement amongst the churches, as the cultural attitude has historically been against them and they need reminded of who they are and what their mission on earth is.
The holiness of the Sanctuary of Church amongst Orthodox and Evangelicals is not taken flippantly at all, and this can be seen in the dress code of the attendees. The women must always wear skirts and the men nice suits with collared shirts and ties. Jeans, T-shirts, or casual wear in general is unacceptable and highly inappropriate. Make up and jewelry is also discouraged amongst women in the Church. Svitlana sees the Church of all denominations as too formal, as the attitude communicated is that it is a sin to laugh, to be carefree or light hearted. There is a weight and sobriety to faith that has become burdensome. The pastors are expected to do everything in the church with barely any help but also blamed for any problems. There is hardly any lay leadership or volunteer workers to help in the pastor’s many roles, nor do many see the need for this. Recently some pastors have seen the wisdom in recruiting help, but the problem now is that church goers have become apathetic and see no need to get up and help. There is little to no discipleship in the church, which only exacerbates the feelings of oppression, lack of vision, dysfunction and apathy in the church.
Another area that frustrates Svitlana is the roles of men and women in her culture. A man is free to wed or remain single as he chooses, although he is encouraged to marry. Or he can get a job and work, or not, as he chooses. However, if a woman does not marry, respect towards her is lowered and she is not seen as fulfilling her role as a woman. Once she is married, she must serve the husband, even if he does nothing to contribute to the home and family. If a man is to be respected or seen as fulfilling his role, he should provide for his family financially and be able to “. . .fix everything in the house. Don’t call the plumber or something” as Sveta says. A Christian woman should be submissive, quiet and humble in public to her husband. However Sveta sees a lot of hypocrisy in this area. She knows many women in the church who give the impression of a submissive wife in public but are sharp tongued in the home and very opinionated. She believes that this is an area in which the church needs to train the women and disciple the men, as there is a lack of respect from both parties. In Ukraine, a woman should gently disagree once and if the husband remains firm, she should let the issue go. However Sveta views men in her church as deaf to their wives’ wisdom. However she also sees that the wives do not present their feedback in a way that is effective or conducive to gaining their husbands’ trust and respect.
Ukrainians, like many Eastern Europeans, are incredibly intrigued by Americans. In Sveta’s experience, if a Ukrainian pastor wants to get new arrivals to come to his church, a good outreach strategy would be to invite an American short-term missions team to visit. The pastor will have no problem getting people to visit his church. However, the drawback is that the visitors rarely return. When the celebrity Americans leave, there is no further attraction or entertainment to be found at the church. Unfortunately, for native Ukrainians, there is neither the resources nor the inclination to begin ministering to their fellow countrymen. It is often much easier for a foreigner to travel to Ukraine and begin a ministry than for a Ukrainian. Yet a foreigner cannot accomplish what needs doing in the small time frame a short-term mission trip allows.
Svitlana believes that Americans are greatly needed to partner alongside Ukrainian pastors. Americans have the material resources, the training, and the grit needed to reach out to Ukrainians. It is important that Americans wanting to reach out to Ukrainians realize what they are getting themselves into, and not enter this difficult ministry with naïve expectations or over -optimistic hopes. Ukrainians find personal and familial identity in their Orthodox heritage and faith. While it is very obvious that the Orthodox “faith” has become a legalistic club of tradition, it is hard for a Ukrainian to see the benefits of a personal relationship with an invisible Christ when their personal relationships with their visible, tight knit families will be destroyed or ripped apart with their conversion.
Another issue with American or other Western cultures ministering in Ukraine is what Svitlana described as “liberalism.” In Ukraine, loud laughter, dancing, music, carefree dress, and intimate attitudes upon first acquaintance threatens Ukrainians. A major complaint that many Eastern Europeans have voiced is that Americans do not realize the need to adjust to the culture they are visiting. “You should realize that not everybody is an American.” Oftentimes, the majority of the participants in short term mission trips are teenagers who are young and excited about their faith. This is a good thing, however they need to be taught maturity and responsibility with their energy and exuberance.
Svitlana has had very negative experiences with short term American teams going to Ukraine and immediately “coupling off,” or in other words beginning dating relationships with team members or with Ukrainians they have met. While she is happy that they feel so at home in her country and have met people they want to become good friends with, it is very detrimental to their ministry if they are focusing on one another instead of those they are trying to reach. “You didn’t come here to get a boyfriend, you came to teach about Christ. You are not coming to Ukraine to fall in love with a boy, you came to love Jesus and tell others about Him, so just put your focus there.”
Svitlana was also surprised by the expectations American youth had upon arriving in Ukraine. The facilities are bad as it is a poor country, and many times “bathrooms” are outhouses built apart from the main building. This and the fact that the nearest McDonalds is several hundred miles away seems to shock many mission trip goers. In Sveta’s eyes, they must realize that Ukraine is a simple country that does not have much of the technology, facilities, comforts or resources that the United States has, and if they are going to be effective they need to leave that kind of lifestyle behind them when they leave the United States boarder.
Brother Anton has repeatedly expressed the need for a partner in his work, and Sveta believes a long-term American missionary could be incredibly helpful. However, the American would have to be willing to integrate slowly amongst the Ukrainians. Immediate acceptance cannot be expected, and the American would have to make great sacrifices in lifestyle and personal expectations. Ukrainians do need to have religious and cultural reforms, but they have a saying that is very telling on their outlook: “Don’t tell me what to do because I’ll tell you where to go: away!” The implication is that overzealous foreigners can take their zeal and foreignness straight back to where they came from, and they can forget about evangelizing, too.
When an American first moves into a Ukrainian community, they will be treated as the local friendly rock star. Soon this will give way to bewilderment as the locals try to figure out why a person would leave the comfortable affluence of America to join them in their struggle out of a communistic oppressive economy to first world status. If the missionary truly seeks to be incarnational, they will discover the Ukrainians to be curious and eventually receptive to their message. However it will take a great deal of time, patience and prayer.
There is a great need for discipleship in Ukraine. Svitlana believes that, besides evangelism, discipleship is the most overlooked thing in the Church there. A good deal of legalism can be found amongst established Evangelical churches, and this needs to be addressed. A personal relationship with Christ is difficult to foster and multiply if it is steeped in legality.
It is important for missionaries from America to realize that they come from a low priority, direct culture. It is therefore very easy for people from places like Ukraine to misunderstand or be offended at something said or done, even when the missionary had nothing but the best intentions. The missionary must also realize that there are certain cultural aspects that, while they are very dysfunctional, are still an integral part of the culture. It is difficult to draw the fine line of knowing when to respect the culture and adjust, or work around it, and knowing when to hold one’s ground and not compromise. A Christian working with a lifeless church in a legalistic culture will face many challenges that must be met with prayer, a teachable spirit, and something beyond flexibility: fluidity. Ukraine is a challenging place for ministry, even for native Ukrainians. Cultural informants like Svitlana are invaluable in settings such as this. She is a very intelligent, compassionate person who can relate to Americans and help them realize their cultural blind spots and will not hesitate to respect the culture and person as she guides and teaches. It will be only a continuation of an already amazing story as God continues to write out her tale of glorifying Him in all that she does. 
Friday, April 17, 2009
Supposed to...
The list of "supposed to's" or "not supposed to's" have kind of been driving me nuts lately.
I'm at college. Therefore, I am supposed to do homework. I don't mind this one so much, as I like most of my homework. But on gorgeous days like today, where the grass is green and freshly cut, the birds are singing like there's no tomorrow, the sun is FINALLY shining and flowers are blooming, it seems rather sick and wrong to have to study inside. Yes, I COULD study outside. But there's the whole 'desperate seminarian' factor, which so far I have successfully avoided. But it means study INSIDE. Besides, if I study outside, no studying will happen. Drat it.
I'm at a Southern Baptist college, therefore I am supposed to be either Calvinist or Arminian. And IF I know what's good for me, I'll be a Calvinist. No middle-of-the-road-ness here. Yer either white or black. What, you grew up non-denominational where they don't put over-emphasis on this doctrine? Well, honey, that's why God in His sovereignty brought you here. Dang it.
It's preview weekend, and you never know when some curious potential student will go through the two heavier-than-heck-fire doors, down the looong hallway to the VERY END where my room is (it's the banished corner of the girl's dorm. NO ONE goes down there unless 1. they live there, such as myself or 2. they need to borrow a textbook or 3. they are inviting my room mate to a women's ministry major event) Therefore, we are supposed to keep our room perfectly clean for the next week. (this MIGHT be the biggest challenge of my college career)
You are supposed to write all essays in perfect compliance with the Style Manual. Which was invented by an Obsessive Compulsive Perfectionist who had way too much time on his hands, thought computers were type-writers, and thought Microsoft word would always do what it was supposed to. Microsoft Word, any version, by the way, is a direct result of the fall and proves that computers do indeed have minds of their own. Oppositional defiant minds of their own.
I, as a woman, am not supposed to venture out in ministry on my own. I am supposed to either pray really hard for Mr. Right to find me SOON or only minister to other women. Not really even teenage guys. Possibly children, but YOUNG boys if I HAVE to minister to boys.
Not that I'm pining away to be a pastor or youth minister, those are some of the LAST things I want to do. It's just the 'you can't do this 'cause your a girl' attitudes are starting to wear thin.
Just a few examples of supposed to's. I'm also supposed to turn the other cheek, respond with gentleness and patience, love the unloveable, be counter-cultural and follow what the Bible and the Lord tells me to (but be careful how you word that last part as you never know when a cessationist is going to jump out of the bushes and start sermonizing on the sufficiency of Scripture and the dangers of Charismatics or Penticostals)
And, to be honest, my very human self is throwing a fit. I would really like to throw all these 'supposed to's' out the window and be a free-spirited, non-denominational, independantly-minded Yank who grew up on a farm, opening doors for myself and fixing things and squashing bugs and not caring who saw me without makeup with my hair disheveled as I made mud-pies with my brother in the river down the road.
However, I am currently swamped with homework on a campus in the South (yes, we are in the south, people! I don't CARE if it's not as extreeme South as Alabama or Georgia, it's still the south!!) which places high value on women being southern belles and guys being the leader-gentlemen-somethings. Which is perfectly fine.
I'm just really looking forward to summer break!!!!
And then, by the end of summer break, I will most likely be really looking forward to diving back into acadamia where every comment on theology is an open-ended invitation to passionate debate, where guys feel guilty if a girl opens the door for them (unless they are moving her furniture for her), where sweet tea is a way of life and all outfits are coordinated and girls don't run around, but wear skirts and dainty flip-flops and always wear make-up. Oh, and were you fry EVERYTHING, including ice cream, cheese-cake and oreo's. Not just chicken.
BUT in the meantime, I have to finish reading my psychology book and write a report on it, finish reading my articles for Ancient Near Eastern History and write reports on THOSE, and book my plane ticket to Romania and find a camera I can afford.
And between you and me, I REALLY wish that Calvin and Armenius had stuck to Farming and left the Reformation to Luther. I really think if they just left it at the 99 thesis, we'd all be a lot happier. Well, Wycliffe did some good things too. Okay Luther and Wycliffe. But that's it!!
~Princess Ouch~
I'm at college. Therefore, I am supposed to do homework. I don't mind this one so much, as I like most of my homework. But on gorgeous days like today, where the grass is green and freshly cut, the birds are singing like there's no tomorrow, the sun is FINALLY shining and flowers are blooming, it seems rather sick and wrong to have to study inside. Yes, I COULD study outside. But there's the whole 'desperate seminarian' factor, which so far I have successfully avoided. But it means study INSIDE. Besides, if I study outside, no studying will happen. Drat it.
I'm at a Southern Baptist college, therefore I am supposed to be either Calvinist or Arminian. And IF I know what's good for me, I'll be a Calvinist. No middle-of-the-road-ness here. Yer either white or black. What, you grew up non-denominational where they don't put over-emphasis on this doctrine? Well, honey, that's why God in His sovereignty brought you here. Dang it.
It's preview weekend, and you never know when some curious potential student will go through the two heavier-than-heck-fire doors, down the looong hallway to the VERY END where my room is (it's the banished corner of the girl's dorm. NO ONE goes down there unless 1. they live there, such as myself or 2. they need to borrow a textbook or 3. they are inviting my room mate to a women's ministry major event) Therefore, we are supposed to keep our room perfectly clean for the next week. (this MIGHT be the biggest challenge of my college career)
You are supposed to write all essays in perfect compliance with the Style Manual. Which was invented by an Obsessive Compulsive Perfectionist who had way too much time on his hands, thought computers were type-writers, and thought Microsoft word would always do what it was supposed to. Microsoft Word, any version, by the way, is a direct result of the fall and proves that computers do indeed have minds of their own. Oppositional defiant minds of their own.
I, as a woman, am not supposed to venture out in ministry on my own. I am supposed to either pray really hard for Mr. Right to find me SOON or only minister to other women. Not really even teenage guys. Possibly children, but YOUNG boys if I HAVE to minister to boys.
Not that I'm pining away to be a pastor or youth minister, those are some of the LAST things I want to do. It's just the 'you can't do this 'cause your a girl' attitudes are starting to wear thin.
Just a few examples of supposed to's. I'm also supposed to turn the other cheek, respond with gentleness and patience, love the unloveable, be counter-cultural and follow what the Bible and the Lord tells me to (but be careful how you word that last part as you never know when a cessationist is going to jump out of the bushes and start sermonizing on the sufficiency of Scripture and the dangers of Charismatics or Penticostals)
And, to be honest, my very human self is throwing a fit. I would really like to throw all these 'supposed to's' out the window and be a free-spirited, non-denominational, independantly-minded Yank who grew up on a farm, opening doors for myself and fixing things and squashing bugs and not caring who saw me without makeup with my hair disheveled as I made mud-pies with my brother in the river down the road.
However, I am currently swamped with homework on a campus in the South (yes, we are in the south, people! I don't CARE if it's not as extreeme South as Alabama or Georgia, it's still the south!!) which places high value on women being southern belles and guys being the leader-gentlemen-somethings. Which is perfectly fine.
I'm just really looking forward to summer break!!!!
And then, by the end of summer break, I will most likely be really looking forward to diving back into acadamia where every comment on theology is an open-ended invitation to passionate debate, where guys feel guilty if a girl opens the door for them (unless they are moving her furniture for her), where sweet tea is a way of life and all outfits are coordinated and girls don't run around, but wear skirts and dainty flip-flops and always wear make-up. Oh, and were you fry EVERYTHING, including ice cream, cheese-cake and oreo's. Not just chicken.
BUT in the meantime, I have to finish reading my psychology book and write a report on it, finish reading my articles for Ancient Near Eastern History and write reports on THOSE, and book my plane ticket to Romania and find a camera I can afford.
And between you and me, I REALLY wish that Calvin and Armenius had stuck to Farming and left the Reformation to Luther. I really think if they just left it at the 99 thesis, we'd all be a lot happier. Well, Wycliffe did some good things too. Okay Luther and Wycliffe. But that's it!!
~Princess Ouch~
Monday, April 13, 2009
Happy Easter! Or day after Easter...
Kristos Inviat! Or Hristos Anesti, or Happy Easter, or Jezus El. :-)
Well I guess it's a day late, but oh well.
The Lord really blessed me this Easter. I thought I was going to just go to Church and then go back to the dorm room and have nasty left-over dorm food (which my Mom strictly forbade me to do). But here's what happened instead:
Saturday I was kind of bummed because I'm officially an adult, and adults don't get Easter baskets. Silly, I know, but I like gifts. Well anyway, my parents sent me a really nice Easter package on Saturday, and on Sunday I woke up and a friend had left a chocolate easter bunny and some plastic eggs filled with candy, and a small card just outside my door.
My friend Angie took me to her Church, which is a African American/Black Southern Baptist Church with a rock-out Pastor who the members affectionately call "Doc".
Then I was invited to some friends house for lunch, so a girl from my hall and I went. Miss Pat's house is beeeautiful, and she is an on-fire Christian who loves missions, loves people and most importantly loves the Lord.
After I was STUFFED with delicious southern-cooking (complete with a desert that was almost bigger than the main course) and we talked and shared stories for a while. Miss Pat gave both my friend and I Easter bags filled with candy and veeeery cool little gifts like small jewlery and magnets from Korea.
Then we went back to the dorm room. I had to clean my room 'cause it was reeeeeally messy. As I was cleaning my desk, I found a newsletter from my friend who is the director of the organization that funds the orphanage I volunteered at in Romania. (whew. That was a mouthful!) They are having to cut back on funds due to the economy, and there are a lot of kids in Romania being abandoned because their families can't afford to care for them anymore. Romania is going through a recession as well. The Lord started moving on my heart a lot. I read that each child costs $50 a month to sponser (go to www.rmromania.org for more information) and that you could give a one time gift.
"Lord, I'm supposed to go on a mission trip I don't have the funding for yet AND save money for college next semester. Now is REALLY not the time to be tugging on my heart strings!"
But the Holy Spirit doesn't really listen to our human reasoning, and kept nudging me. So with a lot of prayer and sighing, I pulled out my checkbook.
'Howabout $25. $25 is enough for half a month, and someone else can do the rest. Besides, this probably won't make a difference. I can't support a child regularly, so what will this one-time gift do?"
And yet, the numbers sort of formed them selves. Big 5 and big 0 on the blank check. I signed it and decided to put it aside and pray about it more. Then I found myself filling out the response form. Then I was addressing the envalope and putting the check in it. Suddenly I was sealing the envalope and putting it in my pile of stuff to be mailed!
And a very large wave of relief and peace washed over me.
"Okay FINE. Have it YOUR way!" I breathed in submission, although perhaps not complete humility and contriteness.
Well, I ate dinner with a friend and we watched "Stargate" (not quite your traditional Easter spirit entertainment, but whatever) and then my parents called to wish me Happy Easter.
I didn't tell them anything about my struggle earlier in the day but I did mention to my Mom that my church back home hadn't gotten back to me yet about the financial support that had or had not come in yet.
"Oh, they told me this morning." she said.
Now the thing is, the other day I was praying that the Lord would have there be $500 waiting for me when the Church called me back, otherwise I didn't know where the money would come from, how I would afford to go, and I would have to seriously reconsider my plans for the summer. I need $1,000 to go (I know my support letter said $1,500 to $1,700 but by God's grace the price drastically dropped) and $750 is for a plane ticket.
"You have either $660 or $680 waiting for you here." my mom continued.
Not $500!! Over $600!! Almost $700!!!
So I am going to go ahead and buy the tickets. :-) I was so jazzed. I did a little victory dance and whooped and yelled in my dorm room and my poor mom was like, "WHAT is your PROBLEM, calm down!!" I mean she was excited too, but wasn't quite sure why I was doing THAT exhuberant of a victory dance. :-)
So that was the best Easter present of all. :-) So the plan is, tentatively, for me to fly into Budapest, go to Debrecen to get over jet-lag and meet some Baptist Missionaries I could do an intership with after I graduate, then take the bus to Oradea, see the orphanage director who is in desperate need of encouragement, after a day or two take the train to the Romanian missionaries I know and spend 3 1/2 weeks with them learning and encouraging and being encouraged and helping to minister to the Gypsies.
Anyhoo. That was my Easter. How was yours? :-)
~Princess Ouch~
Well I guess it's a day late, but oh well.
The Lord really blessed me this Easter. I thought I was going to just go to Church and then go back to the dorm room and have nasty left-over dorm food (which my Mom strictly forbade me to do). But here's what happened instead:
Saturday I was kind of bummed because I'm officially an adult, and adults don't get Easter baskets. Silly, I know, but I like gifts. Well anyway, my parents sent me a really nice Easter package on Saturday, and on Sunday I woke up and a friend had left a chocolate easter bunny and some plastic eggs filled with candy, and a small card just outside my door.
My friend Angie took me to her Church, which is a African American/Black Southern Baptist Church with a rock-out Pastor who the members affectionately call "Doc".
Then I was invited to some friends house for lunch, so a girl from my hall and I went. Miss Pat's house is beeeautiful, and she is an on-fire Christian who loves missions, loves people and most importantly loves the Lord.
After I was STUFFED with delicious southern-cooking (complete with a desert that was almost bigger than the main course) and we talked and shared stories for a while. Miss Pat gave both my friend and I Easter bags filled with candy and veeeery cool little gifts like small jewlery and magnets from Korea.
Then we went back to the dorm room. I had to clean my room 'cause it was reeeeeally messy. As I was cleaning my desk, I found a newsletter from my friend who is the director of the organization that funds the orphanage I volunteered at in Romania. (whew. That was a mouthful!) They are having to cut back on funds due to the economy, and there are a lot of kids in Romania being abandoned because their families can't afford to care for them anymore. Romania is going through a recession as well. The Lord started moving on my heart a lot. I read that each child costs $50 a month to sponser (go to www.rmromania.org for more information) and that you could give a one time gift.
"Lord, I'm supposed to go on a mission trip I don't have the funding for yet AND save money for college next semester. Now is REALLY not the time to be tugging on my heart strings!"
But the Holy Spirit doesn't really listen to our human reasoning, and kept nudging me. So with a lot of prayer and sighing, I pulled out my checkbook.
'Howabout $25. $25 is enough for half a month, and someone else can do the rest. Besides, this probably won't make a difference. I can't support a child regularly, so what will this one-time gift do?"
And yet, the numbers sort of formed them selves. Big 5 and big 0 on the blank check. I signed it and decided to put it aside and pray about it more. Then I found myself filling out the response form. Then I was addressing the envalope and putting the check in it. Suddenly I was sealing the envalope and putting it in my pile of stuff to be mailed!
And a very large wave of relief and peace washed over me.
"Okay FINE. Have it YOUR way!" I breathed in submission, although perhaps not complete humility and contriteness.
Well, I ate dinner with a friend and we watched "Stargate" (not quite your traditional Easter spirit entertainment, but whatever) and then my parents called to wish me Happy Easter.
I didn't tell them anything about my struggle earlier in the day but I did mention to my Mom that my church back home hadn't gotten back to me yet about the financial support that had or had not come in yet.
"Oh, they told me this morning." she said.
Now the thing is, the other day I was praying that the Lord would have there be $500 waiting for me when the Church called me back, otherwise I didn't know where the money would come from, how I would afford to go, and I would have to seriously reconsider my plans for the summer. I need $1,000 to go (I know my support letter said $1,500 to $1,700 but by God's grace the price drastically dropped) and $750 is for a plane ticket.
"You have either $660 or $680 waiting for you here." my mom continued.
Not $500!! Over $600!! Almost $700!!!
So I am going to go ahead and buy the tickets. :-) I was so jazzed. I did a little victory dance and whooped and yelled in my dorm room and my poor mom was like, "WHAT is your PROBLEM, calm down!!" I mean she was excited too, but wasn't quite sure why I was doing THAT exhuberant of a victory dance. :-)
So that was the best Easter present of all. :-) So the plan is, tentatively, for me to fly into Budapest, go to Debrecen to get over jet-lag and meet some Baptist Missionaries I could do an intership with after I graduate, then take the bus to Oradea, see the orphanage director who is in desperate need of encouragement, after a day or two take the train to the Romanian missionaries I know and spend 3 1/2 weeks with them learning and encouraging and being encouraged and helping to minister to the Gypsies.
Anyhoo. That was my Easter. How was yours? :-)
~Princess Ouch~
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Mozel Tov and Shalom
You are probably wondering why I'm now speaking in Yiddish. :-)
Well, that's because it sounds a whole lot better than profanity, don'tcha know. (yes, Mrs. Omanson, I realize that I put the apostrophe on the wrong word and that 'don'tcha' is bad english and I may not get through the Pearly Gates committing such sins in blithe apathy and disregard. For those of you listening in on this conversation, this week in English 2 we have been going over apostrophe's and where they go or don't go, how to use them, the deterioration of the English language, etc.)
The first phrase, "Mozel Tov" is "congratulations" and is usually reserved for when people get married. However, some sort of matrimonial inducing chemical has been tossed into the water system. Therefore, 'reserved' is becoming not 'reserved for weddings' but more 'reserved for when there ISN'T a wedding' in my life. (did that make sense? Probably not)
Okay so that didn't make sense. To clarify, everyone is getting married, so I'm throwing around "mozel tov'' quite a bit.
Shalom means peace. :-)
Myself and a few other girls in my dorm have been experiencing extreeme frustration with guy friends of ours, and not just ONE particular guy friend but we each have several guy friends who are subconsciously trying to ruin the reputation of all unmarried men under the age of 30 for us. We have decided that they need to get married to a woman who will smack them from boyhood into mature manhood. We have also decided that we are not up for nomination for that job. :-)
Hence 'Mozel Tov" and the "Shalom" comes into play in the fact that we are proactively deciding to be okay with the situations and move on with life.
Fun times.
But it's frustrating, because we're girls, and so we have been allowing emotions to complicate things. Last night after my room mate and I decided that we were going to bed (but ended up talking at each other until about 1 am with the lights off) I said in frustration,
"It's not fair! We should KNOW by now to stop letting our emotions get in the way of our thinking! I mean I know we're girls and all but I wish we would stop 'being girls about it'!! I mean you know what Mary Poppins says. "Practically perfect people never allow sentiment to muddle their thinking." And dang it, I keep letting sentiment muddle my thinking!! It needs to stop!"
My room mate, who has her moments of sheer brilliance and wisdom, rolled over so that her head hung off the top bunk so she could better look at me lying on the bottom bunk and yell at me and proceeded to emphatically announce:
"Rachel! Mary Poppins is a DISNEY CHARACTER who flies around in unfashionable clothing with an ugly carpet bag and a stupid umbrella with an obnoxious talking parrot on the wrong end so that it's always upside down, and who jumps into sidewalks and sings silly songs! So whatever wisdom she thinks she has you can just throw out the window along with her stupid umbrella! It's okay to "be a girl about it," you ARE a girl! Stop feeling guilty for having emotions and not being a perfectly rational person!"
(and yes, it was all said in one breath. She's from Texas, and we all know how Texans are about their opinions. God bless 'em)
So we laughed for a good solid minute about that and she kept muttering about how a girl of my age going to the mission field needed to let go of stupid cartoons. Good point.
I still like the quote by Mary Poppins, but I also like the quote from my room mate. :-)
In other news, Dr. Albert Mohler walked into my work last night as we were closing. It had been a long night at the coffee shop and all three of us girls who were closing were more than ready to go home. Students kept popping in even after we had shut the door asking if they could PLEASE just buy ONE more soda and we actually had to chase some out. So after ten minutes of blessed peace thinking that we would FINALLY get to leave, I saw out of the corner of my eye two guys opening the door that CLEARLY said, "We're closed now". I was ready to politely ask them if they were lost or something and could I help them find something ('something' being the door back OUT of the coffee shop) when I realized that the one gentleman's profile looked rather like Dr. Mohler's. Then I realized not only did it look like Dr. Mohler, it WAS Dr. Mohler. My boss turned around and froze and my co worker turned 360 degrees once she saw who it was.
"Hi!" he said cheerfully.
"Good evening!" I answered, suprised that it didn't come out as a squawk. My boss just nodded.
(we're not used to seeing Dr. Mohler casually stroll in as if he's no one special)
"I'm just showing my guest speaker for chapel tomorrow what the campus looks like. That allright?" he asked. My boss nodded again and I smiled and nodded. Both of us were trying to stop acting like idiots but were - obviously - not succeeding. See, the thing was it was the WORST time to show off the coffee shop. We had bagged up the trash but the bags were all over the entry way, we were cleaning out the sandwhich and salad bars so food was here, there and everywhere, the oven was being cleaned out so charcoal was all over the floor, we had all worked a 6 to 8 hour shift so we felt and looked like crap, and we weren't expecting him so weren't composed for his saintly presence.
And they had the nerve to walk up the counter to where I was cleaning, lean over, and look at the chaos that I was trying to wipe up!
"Mm. Nice coffee shop." The guest speaker said, genuinly.
"Please don't look TOO closely though, it's kind of..."
"Oh it doesn't matter." The two smiled and left.
My boss doubled over and mouthed a silent scream, blushing five shades of red and my co worker turned to me with eyes the size of saucers.
"NO!" They both said finally. I laughed.
"You guys, he's a human just like us." They both looked at me. "Okay so he's published a few... thousand more books than us and is slightly more famous. He sins too."
"Yeah! And he's only internationally FAMOUS too! And RUNS the freakin' school WE BOTH ATTEND!!" My co worker exploaded.
"Well... yeah."
"It's so messy! What must they think!" My boss exclaimed.
"Well it's not like they were visiting your house or anything."
The three of us stopped what we were doing and just looked at each other, then laughed.
So yeah. We decided that if Dr. Mohler wants to visit the coffee shop again, he needs to send a delegation ahead informing us so that we can make it look presentable and pristine. He's very down to earth, but still. Just kidding.
Alrighty well speaking of messy places, my dorm room is in disarray and I have two big papers/presentations due next week. Yipee.
Three more weeks of school! AUGH!
~Princess Ouch~
Well, that's because it sounds a whole lot better than profanity, don'tcha know. (yes, Mrs. Omanson, I realize that I put the apostrophe on the wrong word and that 'don'tcha' is bad english and I may not get through the Pearly Gates committing such sins in blithe apathy and disregard. For those of you listening in on this conversation, this week in English 2 we have been going over apostrophe's and where they go or don't go, how to use them, the deterioration of the English language, etc.)
The first phrase, "Mozel Tov" is "congratulations" and is usually reserved for when people get married. However, some sort of matrimonial inducing chemical has been tossed into the water system. Therefore, 'reserved' is becoming not 'reserved for weddings' but more 'reserved for when there ISN'T a wedding' in my life. (did that make sense? Probably not)
Okay so that didn't make sense. To clarify, everyone is getting married, so I'm throwing around "mozel tov'' quite a bit.
Shalom means peace. :-)
Myself and a few other girls in my dorm have been experiencing extreeme frustration with guy friends of ours, and not just ONE particular guy friend but we each have several guy friends who are subconsciously trying to ruin the reputation of all unmarried men under the age of 30 for us. We have decided that they need to get married to a woman who will smack them from boyhood into mature manhood. We have also decided that we are not up for nomination for that job. :-)
Hence 'Mozel Tov" and the "Shalom" comes into play in the fact that we are proactively deciding to be okay with the situations and move on with life.
Fun times.
But it's frustrating, because we're girls, and so we have been allowing emotions to complicate things. Last night after my room mate and I decided that we were going to bed (but ended up talking at each other until about 1 am with the lights off) I said in frustration,
"It's not fair! We should KNOW by now to stop letting our emotions get in the way of our thinking! I mean I know we're girls and all but I wish we would stop 'being girls about it'!! I mean you know what Mary Poppins says. "Practically perfect people never allow sentiment to muddle their thinking." And dang it, I keep letting sentiment muddle my thinking!! It needs to stop!"
My room mate, who has her moments of sheer brilliance and wisdom, rolled over so that her head hung off the top bunk so she could better look at me lying on the bottom bunk and yell at me and proceeded to emphatically announce:
"Rachel! Mary Poppins is a DISNEY CHARACTER who flies around in unfashionable clothing with an ugly carpet bag and a stupid umbrella with an obnoxious talking parrot on the wrong end so that it's always upside down, and who jumps into sidewalks and sings silly songs! So whatever wisdom she thinks she has you can just throw out the window along with her stupid umbrella! It's okay to "be a girl about it," you ARE a girl! Stop feeling guilty for having emotions and not being a perfectly rational person!"
(and yes, it was all said in one breath. She's from Texas, and we all know how Texans are about their opinions. God bless 'em)
So we laughed for a good solid minute about that and she kept muttering about how a girl of my age going to the mission field needed to let go of stupid cartoons. Good point.
I still like the quote by Mary Poppins, but I also like the quote from my room mate. :-)
In other news, Dr. Albert Mohler walked into my work last night as we were closing. It had been a long night at the coffee shop and all three of us girls who were closing were more than ready to go home. Students kept popping in even after we had shut the door asking if they could PLEASE just buy ONE more soda and we actually had to chase some out. So after ten minutes of blessed peace thinking that we would FINALLY get to leave, I saw out of the corner of my eye two guys opening the door that CLEARLY said, "We're closed now". I was ready to politely ask them if they were lost or something and could I help them find something ('something' being the door back OUT of the coffee shop) when I realized that the one gentleman's profile looked rather like Dr. Mohler's. Then I realized not only did it look like Dr. Mohler, it WAS Dr. Mohler. My boss turned around and froze and my co worker turned 360 degrees once she saw who it was.
"Hi!" he said cheerfully.
"Good evening!" I answered, suprised that it didn't come out as a squawk. My boss just nodded.
(we're not used to seeing Dr. Mohler casually stroll in as if he's no one special)
"I'm just showing my guest speaker for chapel tomorrow what the campus looks like. That allright?" he asked. My boss nodded again and I smiled and nodded. Both of us were trying to stop acting like idiots but were - obviously - not succeeding. See, the thing was it was the WORST time to show off the coffee shop. We had bagged up the trash but the bags were all over the entry way, we were cleaning out the sandwhich and salad bars so food was here, there and everywhere, the oven was being cleaned out so charcoal was all over the floor, we had all worked a 6 to 8 hour shift so we felt and looked like crap, and we weren't expecting him so weren't composed for his saintly presence.
And they had the nerve to walk up the counter to where I was cleaning, lean over, and look at the chaos that I was trying to wipe up!
"Mm. Nice coffee shop." The guest speaker said, genuinly.
"Please don't look TOO closely though, it's kind of..."
"Oh it doesn't matter." The two smiled and left.
My boss doubled over and mouthed a silent scream, blushing five shades of red and my co worker turned to me with eyes the size of saucers.
"NO!" They both said finally. I laughed.
"You guys, he's a human just like us." They both looked at me. "Okay so he's published a few... thousand more books than us and is slightly more famous. He sins too."
"Yeah! And he's only internationally FAMOUS too! And RUNS the freakin' school WE BOTH ATTEND!!" My co worker exploaded.
"Well... yeah."
"It's so messy! What must they think!" My boss exclaimed.
"Well it's not like they were visiting your house or anything."
The three of us stopped what we were doing and just looked at each other, then laughed.
So yeah. We decided that if Dr. Mohler wants to visit the coffee shop again, he needs to send a delegation ahead informing us so that we can make it look presentable and pristine. He's very down to earth, but still. Just kidding.
Alrighty well speaking of messy places, my dorm room is in disarray and I have two big papers/presentations due next week. Yipee.
Three more weeks of school! AUGH!
~Princess Ouch~
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
April Fools!
Well, I really don't have any April fool's day joke. Apparently a girl on my dorm is related to Barack Obama and is his second cousin, and she found this out on Facebook (a prank it is sending to more than one person so watch out). Youtube put everything upside down, and I am avoiding the guys dorms like the plague because who knows what will fall out of the windows or what horrible smell will be sneaking out from under the door!!
As I said before, the last two weeks have been rather interesting. You know when you work out really really really hard and have only been eating strictly healthy food for about a week? That night your body is screeeaming with aches, but you still feel good for excercising and you feel healthier and you know you'll be stronger for it.
Or how Eagle's teach their young to fly. They kick them out of the nest and then right before they hit the ground, the mom or dad eagle catches the baby on their back and carries them safely back to the nest.
Frustration has been hitting me rather hard the last week with some of the mentalities of college. I believe right now God has me in a time of singleness and preparation for the future. I'm open to a relationship if God wants me to be in one, just not holding my breath. However, every time I turn around, I'm hearing how to be a good wife, a supportive girlfriend, hearing my friend's plans for weddings or what their boyfriend told them. If I somehow make a whole day through without hearing SOMETHING about that, when I get home from work there are at least two couples sitting on benches outside my dorms acting all cute and in love and another couple standing at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the girls' rooms.
Last week a guy ran into the campus coffee shop where I work and breathlessly asked for a plastic cup. He held up three flowers he had picked, daffodils and lilies.
It was cute, rather irritating, and made me feel whimsical.
"God, I know You are with me and have me in this season for a reason. But I just wish there was someone to pick ME flowers. Oh well. You are faithful and provide all things, so just take this 'need' of mine away."
Well, God's ways are not our ways. Three days later I was at a Hungarian Baptist fellowship/outreach potluck. It was after dinner and I was washing dishes. Ibi, the wife of the fellowships's pastor, saw me and was apparently shocked and thrilled that I would voluntarily wash dishes for her.
A few minutes later she walked up to me holding a bouquet of five red roses. She had taken the petals of roses to sprinkle on the tables but hadn't needed these for decoration.
"Since you blessed me so much, I want you to take these. Thanks for you help and blessings!" she said, handing me the flowers.
Anywayz. Just gonna throw that all out there. Hopefully it will encourage you if you are in a time in your life when you need assurances of God's goodness and faithfulness. Or it will tug on your heartstrings and recruit more prayer for yours truly. I'm actually really fine with either outcome. :-)
Happy spring!
~Princess Ouch~
As I said before, the last two weeks have been rather interesting. You know when you work out really really really hard and have only been eating strictly healthy food for about a week? That night your body is screeeaming with aches, but you still feel good for excercising and you feel healthier and you know you'll be stronger for it.
Or how Eagle's teach their young to fly. They kick them out of the nest and then right before they hit the ground, the mom or dad eagle catches the baby on their back and carries them safely back to the nest.
Frustration has been hitting me rather hard the last week with some of the mentalities of college. I believe right now God has me in a time of singleness and preparation for the future. I'm open to a relationship if God wants me to be in one, just not holding my breath. However, every time I turn around, I'm hearing how to be a good wife, a supportive girlfriend, hearing my friend's plans for weddings or what their boyfriend told them. If I somehow make a whole day through without hearing SOMETHING about that, when I get home from work there are at least two couples sitting on benches outside my dorms acting all cute and in love and another couple standing at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the girls' rooms.
Last week a guy ran into the campus coffee shop where I work and breathlessly asked for a plastic cup. He held up three flowers he had picked, daffodils and lilies.
It was cute, rather irritating, and made me feel whimsical.
"God, I know You are with me and have me in this season for a reason. But I just wish there was someone to pick ME flowers. Oh well. You are faithful and provide all things, so just take this 'need' of mine away."
Well, God's ways are not our ways. Three days later I was at a Hungarian Baptist fellowship/outreach potluck. It was after dinner and I was washing dishes. Ibi, the wife of the fellowships's pastor, saw me and was apparently shocked and thrilled that I would voluntarily wash dishes for her.
A few minutes later she walked up to me holding a bouquet of five red roses. She had taken the petals of roses to sprinkle on the tables but hadn't needed these for decoration.
"Since you blessed me so much, I want you to take these. Thanks for you help and blessings!" she said, handing me the flowers.
Anywayz. Just gonna throw that all out there. Hopefully it will encourage you if you are in a time in your life when you need assurances of God's goodness and faithfulness. Or it will tug on your heartstrings and recruit more prayer for yours truly. I'm actually really fine with either outcome. :-)
Happy spring!
~Princess Ouch~
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