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~