Interesting

Without giving too much details, yesterday was wierd. I'm still not entirely sure about what I think of all of it, but it included Ramona and I exhorting a brother in Christ to not give up during a hard season in his life, lots of mean gossip about 'that Gypsy" Ramona and her crazy friends, (I guess encouraging a Christian brother isn't cool with the neighbor) and trying to get that sorted with Ramona's mom who didn't have an issue but is trying to protect Ramona and Corina from gossip, and watching Ramona try and teach her classmate English.
I wish I had taken pictures of that whole "English lesson" or taken a video of it, because it was HYSTERICAL. But I was too busy laughing and translating to think of it at the time.
The boy, Dani, was a tall Gypsy who looked like a Hungarian Gypsy by his build. He hadn't studied the lesson worth beans, and kept trying to engage our friend who we will call the British Pest - Ramona's and my friend from the international church - and I so as to distract Ramona from realizing how much he hadn't studied.
The BP (British Pest) was about rolling on the floor as Dani was pulling all the Gypsy tricks he could when it came to begging for mercy and understanding and excuses for not studying, and Ramona wasn't buying any of it. The two of them made quite a pair as Dani pleaded and explained and rubbed his temples and said how much his head hurt, and Ramona snapped at him about how it was such a pity that such a smart boy could be so lazy. At one point she even smacked him upside the head playfully and yelled at him for wasting such a good brain on T.V.
"Ooooh... you don't understaaaaaand. It's so haaaard. My poor heeeead!" he whined in Romanian as only a Gypsy can do. The funny thing was that Ramona is ethnically a Gypsy, and has a fiery temper that reveals itself and then hides unexpectedly like other Gypsies, but the education and wisdom gained from being raised in a godly family. So she was fully equipped to make him see the ridiculousness of what he was saying.
"You said you wanted to learn English so learn English! You are wasting my time and yours by not studying."
"But-"
"No buts!! If (the british pest) can come all this way so far from his home and study medicine and survive in Romania than you can at least turn of the telivision and study how to spell F-A-M-I-L-Y in English!!!" At which point she slammed the notebook down in his direction, intentinally barely missing whacking his fingers.
I and the BP laughed and he asked nervously if Ramona was planning on ever being a teacher.
"No offense, but I think I'll skip that class, if you do teach." he grinned. I nodded in hearty agreement. The girl is frighteningly intelligent, discerning, and kind. But also is a hard task master!

I was actually able to translate quite a bit of what was said for the BP, which was again exciting for me to realize how much God was blessing me with giving me what I had studied when I needed it. But again after I was done, my head was aching, and there were a few points later on when I would say a word or sentance in English, Romanian AND Hungarian all at once. Joy.
The day ended with me getting online and finding a friend who was going through a really rough time. Something he said made me think of psalms, so I quoted it for him, and ended up giving him about half of psalm 73. My friend asked for a moment while he copied the whole psalm down and asked for some more.
I was so amazed. This friend has really struggled with his Christian walk in the past, and if I had quoted psalms when I first met him or even a year ago, he would have shrugged it off nicely. But here he was, asking for more and finding beauty and comfort from David's Psalms!
It was really convicting for me, because I haven't been in as many rough spots as this friend has been. I've had my mountain top experiances and my valleys, like everyone else, but I think he's gone through more. A lot of times I don't know what to say because I know that God's grace is sufficient, but who am I to say this who has never truly suffered?
I remember when my friend was chatting me praying, "Oh God, what do I say?"
And then a psalm just came to me. I hadn't ever really put a lot of effort into memorizing it. But it came, and it was what was needed.
I have always believed in the sufficiency of Scripture - theoretically. But often when it came to the point of using Scripture, I was at a loss for what to say. I often let others do the expository explanation or encouragement while I prayed or nodded. But this was the first time when God showed me what to say and how to say it and where in the Bible to go. It was SOOOOO COOL!

Then the other amazing thing was that I was still feeling upset about the gossip from earlier in the day, and I told him a little about it. He turned around and encouraged ME with examples of where Jesus was gossiped about in the Bible for hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors.
I was floored. And greatly encouraged.
So it was a wierd day but good.
Today Ramona and I are going to a small city called Salonta to visit a Romanian Baptist Gypsy church there. I've been to the Hungarian Baptist Gypsy church but not the Romanian one yet. So this should be interesting. :-)

God bless,

~PrincessOuch~

Pictures and stories

People leaving from the Evangelism service at the local Pentecostal church on Monday evening

Pump at the Gas Station on the way to Oradea


An old lady who is also a friend of mine :-)


My friend Ramona pozing on the street as we made our way to McDonalds to meet our friend after the Church service

Picturesque moment in Oradea


Doamna Caba, Corina Caba's mom, Ramona Caba's adoptive Mom/Grandma

Reformed/Lutheran Church with an orthodox church behind it.

A little Gypsy girl playing with a friend's bicycle. Her father is a church planter for the Adventist church. He and I had a very interesting conversation. :-)
Hymnal in a Baptist Church. :-) I thought the picture just came out cool. :-0D
Kids playing together.


Funny thing is that when people here first meet me, they think I'm Hungarian or something. If I keep my mouth shut and change how I dress and do my hair slightly, I can get by pretty easily. However once I disclose that I am an American, I start getting all sorts of interesting questions.
"Do you like it here?" "Is it nicer here than America?" "I would like to go to America. Can you get me a visa?" "What are you doing here?" "How did you first come to Romania?" "why do you keep coming back?"

So I explain that yes, I like Romania, but of course there is no place like home. I come here to work in ministry.
"Ooooh you work at an orphanage or something, right?"
Yes, I explain, I did a few years ago. But now I believe God has called me to work with Gypsies.
The exclamations of surprise, horror, and general flabergastation are usually somewhat humerous.
"Are you sick?" One guy asked and put his hand on my forehead. "WHY do you like the Gypsies? Don't you know that they stink? And worse, they lie and steal and are just not good people!" he explained after we had finished laughing at the fact that he literally put his hand on my forehead.

"Yes, I have a nose. I can smell them of course. Yes, I know they steal; I've had my wallet stolen by a Gypsy before. Yes, I know they lie, and are not nice people in general.
However, when I see a Gypsy, I see what I was before Christ came into my life, no? A Gypsy lies and steals and drinks and begs. What do we do without Christ in our life? We lie and steal and drink and even beg. It takes Christ to change us.
When a Gypsy is well educated, they are sooo smart. They excel in what they do. When they are loved, they are some of the most compassionate people you will meet. When they are well fed, they grow tall and strong. When they are taught instruments, their music and singing is incomparable to anyone else.
When a Gypsy makes a decision to follow God, you can see the change in their life clearly. And they are passionate about telling everyone about their faith. You know Gypsies are very convincing when they want to be, and when they are convincing for the Gospel, it is sooo amazing to see.
I love seeing the Change God does in a Gypsie's life. This is why I go to them. I see what God does and I see how God uses me in their lives. And I hope that they will go into the world, and even to America, and change it for Christ. And I will have been part of this thing God is doing!!"

It grows very quiet for a while as my German, British, Hungarian and Romanian friends listen to my explanation. Finally they nod and say,
"For sure. This is a good work."
Usually they add, "But I could never do it."

Hopefully God will use my testimony not just amongst the Gypsies, but amongst all the other cultures that I am encountering on this trip.

Okay it's 12:30. I'm going to bed. :-)

In Christ,

Princess Ouch.

Sunt in Oradea acuma

Well I am in Romania finally. :-) I can't write long as I am on the computer of the main office of the Orphanage I volunteered at a few years ago. It's nice to see old friends and familiar places - I lived here for six months a few years ago - but also wierd. All the kids that were at the orphanage have been adopted, and due to some problems with the building they are waiting for funding to remodel before they take more kids into the orphanage. But it's good.
Hopefully this evening I will be able to write more, as I have some interesting stories I want to share, and have taken some amazing pictures. :-)
It's been a little hard as my brain caught on to thinking in Hungarian very quickly, and now I have to switch gears and start thinking in Romanian. My best friend here - Ramona - speaks English very fluently, so I don't like talking Romanian around her very much because she corrects my grammar all the time and prefers to speak in English. But she and I met a friend at McDonald's last night (which costs an arm and a leg here btw, but at least we know the food is good) and she had to step out for a minute and I was able to translate for our friend as he was waiting to order. He's an international student at the Medical university, and the international classes are all in English, so a lot of times its harder for the international stuents to learn Romanian as they are studying and working in an English environment. Anyway it was cool that I was able to help him out linguistically. I think Universities are a really overlooked mission field that could yeild some amazing fruits for the Gospel. Ohhhh... the harvest is so ready. Where are the workers!!!!

I will be in Ordea until Thursday. Ramona is going to help me translate a book my mom gave me before I left that has the whole Bible and Gospel story in a children's book with beautiful pictures. The Gypsy kids speak Romanian, so Ramona is going to help me translate enough of the book for me to be able to lead a VBS for the kids. So we'll see how that goes.

Again, sorry if my language/grammar/choice of wording is wierd. My brain has been going through language over-drive. :-) And I'm not entirely over jetlag yet. :-D

Dana the social worker is writing reports for the Romanian government of the kids they have put in foster care, so I must yeild the computer to her now.

God bless,

¬PrincessOuch¬