I HAVE ARRIVED! After a very long flight, I have arrived at my destination.  Somehow, I lost a day while in transit.  I left at 8:30 Thursday morning and arrived 4:30 Friday afternoon.  I never saw the sunset during the entire time I was in the air.  Surprisingly, I haven't been adversely affected by jet lag and I have adjusted to the 12-hour time change quite well. I spent five days in Beijing touring around the impressive capital city.  While I was there I was able to see the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Giant Pandas, and the Olympic Park.  China is nothing like what I imagined it would be and I am glad I had the opportunity to visit.

THE MAIN STORY (details have been changed for security purposes) I am volunteering with Mission Nannys, a group formed to help overseas missionary families through stressful situations by sending a Mission Nanny to serve alongside them.  We provide "extra hands" to help wherever necessary, doing whatever is needed to free up the missionaries time so that they can invest more time in their mission endeavors.  I am now at my destination and am staying with the family that I am serving.  It has been a wonderful transition and I am learning their daily routine.  It is safe to walk through the neighborhoods and everything that I may need is within walking distance.  Like most people here, we live in a tall apartment with no elevator.   There are over 100 stairs to reach our apartment floor level.  Needless to say, I will be fit as a fiddle by the time I leave this assignment! The food is quite delicious and bears little resemblance to Chinese food back home.  It has been fun sampling all of the different fruits and vegetables that are grown here.   Going to the markets and seeing all of the fresh produce displayed beautifully is one of my favorite things to do.  The vendors take the time to describe the vegetables and fruits that I am unfamiliar with.  My new favorite vegetable is lotus root, which is crunchy and used widely in Chinese dishes.  I also tasted pitahaya (dragon fruit) for the first time and it was delicious.  Most of the fruits have a squishy, unusual texture that I haven't become accustomed to yet.

WHAT DOES "CHURCH" LOOK LIKE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA? UNDERGROUND CHURCHES These are located in scattered apartments all throughout the neighborhoods.  Generally, up to thirty people attend each underground church.  On designated days a member of the church will host a service.  People casually drop by their apartment and a worship service is held.  They sing a few songs of worship....quietly....so they don't alert the neighbors about their activity.  A message is then preached followed by some fellowship time.  Basically, it's a small group meeting secretly in various apartments. I really enjoy the small group interaction.  If we happen to see a member in public, we never acknowledge that we know them and we keep walking past them.  People are being watched all of the time. "PUBLIC" CHURCHES There are a few churches which are able to rent out rooms for Sunday worship.  Others rent out ballrooms in hotels to host their services.  It is difficult to find landlords willing to rent to Christian churches.  There is a lot of pressure on them to NOT rent their properties to churches.  I attended an Easter service which was held in a ballroom of a major hotel.  This particular church has about 500 members and rents out a large room on Christmas and Easter to accommodate everyone who wants to attend.  Upon arrival, police are in the parking lot observing everyone who attends. Only foreigners are allowed into the church. Everyone must have their passports checked before entering the room.  During the Christmas service, police walked up and down the aisles and photographed everyone who was in attendance.  As we left, we had to pass through a gauntlet of official representatives from the government. Despite all of the hassle involved with attending the Easter service, it was one of the most wonderful experiences I've had.  It was a beautiful mix of nationalities coming together to praise and worship God.  In my opinion, it was a small glimpse of what heaven will look and sound like.

REASONS FOR PRAISE:   1.  Arriving safely and not getting lost during my week in Beijing! 2.  No lost luggage. 3.  Internet coverage.      (most of the time)

CHALLENGES One of the biggest challenges I face is keeping up with several energetic children who love to run and play soccer 24/7. The other challenge is learning the language.  I am beginning to think that I will never master even the basic words of conversation.  Maybe in time, with lots of immersion....this will change.

PRAYER REQUESTS Please pray that we all will continue to remain healthy and that I will have the endurance to keep up with three active little ones. Please pray that hot water will once again return to our apartment.  We don't know where it has gone, but it certainly isn't anywhere to be found in our apartment's faucets.

Camping trip somewhere deep in the Romanian mountains

I have just spent a week in the mountains of Romania camping with 17 children.  There were 11 girls in our room and 7 boys in the other room.  Each room had one toilet, one shower, and two sinks.  Hot water was available for two hours in the morning and three hours at night.  The water was heated by burning logs.

The invitation to eat each meal was made over the loudspeakers by playing First Call.  This is the song played by a bugle at horse races to call the horses to the starting line.  The food served there was EXACTLY the same as the food served here in the care home.  Breakfast was salami, bread, tomatoes, cheese, tea, and Nutella.  Lunch was soup with bread, followed by rice or boiled potatoes and a cookie snack. Depending on the day, dinner was one of the following:   Sarmales (stuffed cabbage rolls), sauerkraut with sausage, corn mush, schnitzel, or boiled potatoes.  Pickles and bread were always on the table.

There is a river that flows next to the camp.  These Romanian children simply stripped down to their underwear and jumped in and nobody thought twice about it.  Some Romanian children were taking sticks and prices of string and making bows and fishing poles out of them.  These were young kids, maybe six or seven years old.  The best part was that their creations were functional and they had no help from their parents while they were making them.   I was quite impressed with their workmanship.

A couple of times, swept-wing military planes flew overhead and I began to wonder if there was something going on outside of our little corner of the world.  There wasn’t any internet signal available during the entire week so I was very out of touch with the rest of the world.  And then I began to wonder if Romania even had an air force…they do, as well as an army and a navy.  I’m always a little uneasy when I am in Eastern Europe when I see the military in action. 

During the week, the children were kept busy with crafts, Bible study, riding zip lines, playing in the river, learning new songs, playing new games, playing on swings, and climbing on an actual rock wall.  We finished the week with a nine foot tall bonfire.  Some of the children were singing and playing guitars, while others were watching the fire.  Some of our group slipped away to watch the night sky which was crystal clear and filled with stars.  We even saw several shooting stars.  The best part for me was being used as a pillow by several children who were eagerly searching for shooting stars.  It was incredibly peaceful just laying there on the ground contemplating and enjoying God’s magnificent creation. 

It was a fantastic week filled with children being children (fighting one moment and laughing the next), bug bites, scraped knees, stickiness, cold coffee, ice-cold rivers, and new friendships.  It was a great experience for me.  It was a privilege for these children to be able to escape to the mountains and forget everyday life for a week and I have been blessed to have been a part of their summer.

Romania Assignment

Romania is filled with stunningly beautiful scenery full of majestic mountains and blue lakes. Unfortunately, the part where I am staying is not one of those places. Here the landscape consists of mostly flat farmland filled with corn, wheat, and sunflower crops with a backdrop of a major highway. We are in a little village fairly close to the Hungarian border.

The compound where I am staying is huge! On the site there are 7 two-story bunkhouses with 10 beds in each bunk house, a two-story church building, a gymnasium which is still being built, a massive two-story woodshed / shop building, the owner's tiny home, and a rather large, two-story home for at-risk mothers. The at-risk mother's home contains a kitchen and a dining room that serves the entire property. Between the church and the mother's home is a delightful play yard for the children.  There is also a soccer pitch and an old airplane landing strip on the rear of the property.  All that has been created on this property simply amazes me.

The dozens of residents (mothers and children) who reside here are survivors of a living hell on Earth.  They are all broken, hurting individuals at different stages of recovery. There is a sullen, angry teenage girl who has been involved in the sex trade, probably from age 6 onwards.  There are bubbly babies who have known no other life than life within a group home because their mothers have abandoned them here.  There are 8 year-olds who are struggling to learn that they will be fed regularly and that they don't have to eat all they can in fear of not having another meal.  Some children share freely; others refuse to give up whatever treasure they may be holding.  There is a beautiful 6 year-old who runs to get hugs every chance she can and she holds on tight and long before she is ready to be released.  I don't know her background, but I hold her for as long as she wants me to.  All of the children are survivors of some kind of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.  Not surprisingly, there is also a lot of mental illness interspersed among the residents.

As always, there is one child that has absolutely stolen my heart.  This time it is a chubby little fellow who resembles a young Jason Bateman.  He is one of the food driven children.  He cries at the drop of a hat but he also smiles so very, very mischievously when he gets caught doing something wrong.

My main job here is to watch over three rambunctious little girls.  They look and act very much like the girls in the Minions movies.  It makes my job very challenging and I am not ashamed to admit that the tiny, little 3 year-old is kicking my butt daily.  Also, eyeglasses are no match in the hands of a 3 year-old.  Did I mention that the kids are really, really fast?  This will be the most difficult assignment that I have had so far, but I am blessed to be a part of the amazing work which is being accomplished here.

Forgiveness

Wow.  What a month, eh?  Obama out, Trump in, anger everywhere, and yet another school shooting.  Sadly, you probably didn’t hear about the school shooting because it occurred on Inauguration Day.  There are a couple reasons why I am bringing up the school shooting.  First, it happened at a high school which I attended in a very small community in rural Ohio.  The second reason centers on the actions of the victim of the shooting.  He is a young man named Logan Cole.  Logan took two 12 gauge shotgun blasts at point blank range.  While Logan was laying face down on the floor, he was talking to the shooter asking and begging him to not cause any further injury to anyone at the school or to himself.  Logan convinced the shooter not to hurt anyone else. 

Logan has approximately 70-80 pellets lodged in his body; one of them is in the right side of his heart.  Two are in his spinal canal.  There are multiple fractures and breaks in his backbone and his right lung is damaged form the pellets.  The risk of infection is of great concern.   As Logan was coming out of sedation in the ICU, one of the first things he did was to ask his parents to pray for the shooter.  Continually, from the first interview until now, the family of Logan Cole has called for prayers, not only for Logan, but also for the family of the shooter.  The donation funds to support Logan Cole will be divided between a college fund for Logan, the high school, and to support the family of the shooter.  Throughout this horrific event, the Cole family has chosen to be an example of how Christians are supposed to live.  Their forgiveness and concern for others have demonstrated their unshakable faith and have provided a model of true Christianity in action. 

I’ve spent some time in reflection of how I would probably react if this situation had happened in my family.  It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but I don’t think forgiveness would be the first option I would exercise.  Would I have immediate compassion for the shooter’s family?  Yes, definitely.  But would I have immediate forgiveness for the shooter?  In all honesty?  Probably not.  It would probably take me a while to decide to forgive the shooter.  As I have discovered over the past four years, it sure is easier to forgive the little things in life than it is to forgive the big ones. Some days immediate forgiveness comes easily and other days, I completely mess it up. Every day, I’m working on making my actions reflect how Christians are supposed to act.  Because in the end, it is our actions that matter; it's our actions that the world sees.  The Cole family, through their actions, have shown the world true Christianity in action. I want to aspire to follow their example of faith in action.

“Everything is easier said than done.  Wanting something is easy.  Saying something is easy.  The challenge and the reward are in the doing.”  Dr. Steve Maraboli

Birthday visit and a buffet

This week I was able to experience two events, Albanian style.  The first of these was a visit to an Albanian home to celebrate a birthday.  It is considered rude if you don’t stop by to visit someone on their birthday.  Phone calls and Facebook posts do not count in this culture; you are expected to visit in person.  The boys and I walked down into the village, bearing a gift for the six year old girl.  When we arrived, we were invited into the house (sans shoes) and led to the sitting area.  Because I was the oldest, I was given a certain chair to sit in.   The boys had to sit on the couch.  We were then given homemade plum juice to drink, as well as some berries in sugar water to eat.  While the birthday girl sat on a chair nearby, the adults engaged in small talk.  The hostess then brought out slices of cake for the boys and me to eat.  To my horror, the birthday girl had to sit there and watch us eat her cake.  Her birthday gift sat right in front of her on the coffee table, untouched.  We were expected to eat the birthday cake; but not all of it.  We had to leave a small bit uneaten on the plate.  I’m not sure of the reasoning behind this.  Not every guest who visits receives cake; the family was honoring us by allowing us to eat some of their cake.  After we had finished, we went outside where our hosts loaded up a bag full of fruit from their trees and grapevines for us to take home to enjoy.  We then left and walked back home.  Only after we were gone, was the little girl allowed to open her gift.  As we were walking home, the boys explained to me that there are a lot of established protocols concerning celebrations and visitations.  Hopefully, we didn’t do anything to cause insult while we were there. 

Having toured extensively throughout Europe and Nepal for the past two years, I understand about cultural differences, especially when it comes to personal space and standing in lines.  There is no concept of personal space in Albania.  Period.  When someone greets you, it is not a handshake or simple greeting that comes your way.  Nope.  You get warmly embraced and air-kissed on each side of your face and their hands linger on your arms as they make sure that you are “shum mir” (very well).  For introverts like me, it is quite shocking to have to carry on a conversation with someone else’s face just mere inches from yours.  Also, the concept of standing in lines is quite simply not understood in Albania.  It doesn’t matter where you are, if you want something, you go directly to the person that you want to talk to and you interrupt whatever they are doing----even if they are talking with or conducting a money transaction with someone else.  I cannot recount how many times I have been checking out groceries in the store and someone comes up and breaks in while the cashier is ringing my items up on the cash register.  There are no lines; you simply push your way towards the front until you get what you need.  Both of these things—no personal space and the incomprehension of lines---played out during the other event I was able to experience this week, which was a buffet held at my church.  

The Church held a lunch buffet to celebrate the opening of their new church building.  As I made my way to the end of the buffet table, everyone was grabbing at the plates at the same time.  Continually, men were wedging themselves between me and the person in front of me.  Mind you, I know how to close the gap and I was touching more of the person in front of me than I am comfortable admitting to touching.  I really have no idea how these men were shoving themselves between us.  The man who was behind me was pushing me even further into the person in front of me—which I didn’t think was even possible at first.  Finally when two teenage boys tried to “cut in”, the man behind me lost his patience and intervened by pushing the teenagers’ heads and telling them to wait.  After doing this, the man behind me helpfully pushed me down the buffet line.  He was trying to be helpful and I am grateful for his assistance in stopping the flow of men who were jamming themselves into the line.  I must say that this was the most physical experience I have ever had while attempting to get my lunch.  I think I shall beg off the next time I am invited to an Albanian buffet.  

The birthday girl!

The walk home from the village.

This is their courtyard.  It is one of the prettiest places I've seen in Albania.

Lightning, Oregano, and Sheep!

My first two weeks here have been quite interesting.  School has begun again and the boys are still enthusiastic about the new school year.  I’m hoping this feeling lasts more than a few weeks.  This year we are adding computer classes and German and Hebrew language class to the class schedule.  It looks like I’ll be adding German and Hebrew to the list of languages that I know a “little bit of”.  Soon I will be able to order food and barely converse in seven different languages.  

Last Thursday, the house took a direct hit from lightning again.  Yes, again.  This makes four times in the past two years that I have been in a house that has been struck by lightning.  We were working on the computer upstairs in the Papafingo (the upper level of the house where the schoolroom is located) and lightning struck the house directly above our heads.  When it hit, I jumped back and yelled and Nick started speaking in tongues!  When we saw debris on the balcony, we realized that the lightning had struck the chimney. The strike blew debris down the stovepipe and into my wood stove.  Our chimney is now slightly twisted and askew as well as missing a few bits and pieces.  Six feet away….that’s the new record for how close I’ve been to lightning.  I’m not anxious to break that record any time soon (or ever).  Fun fact:  I am currently writing this while a vigorous thunderstorm is passing overhead now. We’ve lost electricity but it will soon be back on again.  This is the new normal.

It is the harvest season for oregano in Albania.  All of the villagers have been in the mountains harvesting their cash crop.  It really is a case of “all hands on deck”.  This harvest will provide income for the entire year.  The rest of their crops are for subsistence living, meeting their daily food needs.  With the oregano harvest, they will have money to pay for electricity all year long.  After helping with our comparatively paltry harvest, I have a new-found respect for those who rely on this for their annual income.  It’s a lot of work to harvest oregano.  Once it is dry, the oregano has to be cleaned of everything that isn’t---well, that isn’t oregano.  I’ve spent the past week removing grass, seed pods, bird poop, spurs, feathers, prickly bits, stems, snails, rocks, weeds, and leaves.  It all has to be done by hand.  The mountain of oregano is slowly diminishing.  I figure I only have two days left before I am finished with the cleansing phase.  While we only had a small amount to harvest, the villagers have huge amounts to harvest and process.  My hat is off to them, lots of respect for all the hard work that they do

. 

On Sunday, we traveled into Tirana to attend a church there where Nick had been invited to preach.  It takes about an hour and a half to two hours to get to Tirana from our house.  The first half hour of the trip involves traveling over muddy, potholed, gravel goat paths disguised as “roads”.  We were nearing the end of this leg of our journey when we happened upon a shepherd and her small flock of sheep.  She had around twenty sheep and most of them were hesitantly veering off to the left while one sheep stood defiantly in the middle of the road.  Another sheep, seemingly intent on committing suicide, ran full speed towards the bumper of our van.  It disappeared from my view and then I heard the thump.  Luckily the sheep wasn’t hurt.  The shepherd told us that she would have been grateful if we had killed that sheep.  I guess there’s always that one sheep (or person) who is always causing trouble for the herd.  

 I’ll leave you with that.   I am off to find my flashlight again.

Here's the pile of oregano harvested off of our land.

Living Life out of a Suitcase

When I set off on this adventure, I wasn’t prepared for all of the ways my life would be changed.  Surprisingly, the most freeing of these changes was being forced to plan for a year abroad with a limit of one suitcase.  Imagine having to carry everything you will need for a year in a suitcase that cannot exceed fifty pounds. While condensing my life into a suitcase, I realized how intimidating this task was going to be.  Room had to be made for all of the following:  Shoes, sandals, boots, coat, rain coat, gloves, pants, shirts, socks, swimsuit, shorts, skirt, hat, scarves, pajamas, toiletries, journals, Bible, pens, tablet, notebook, phone, camera, and sunglasses.   There were some tough decisions that had to be made.  How many shirts are too many?  Did I really need a pair of walking shoes as well as a pair of sandals?  Could I survive with only an eight shirt rotation?  Oh, and let’s not forget about the medicines which I would need.  Medicines must be brought from home as overseas pharmacies are nothing like pharmacies in the US.  Some countries have common medicines like Aleve and Tylenol, but the dates are tremendously expired!  In other countries, the medicines are not even recognizable.  The chemist will look you and listen to your cough and you’ll walk away with a bag of herbs.  All medicines which I would possibly need had to be included in that fifty pound limit.  

So, I went through all of my clothes and I picked out what I thought would be the most appropriate for living away from home for an entire year.  Yes….four seasons worth of clothes that cannot exceed fifty pounds.  This was quite a daunting task.  Clothes suddenly became all about functionality and durability rather than fashion and brand names.  What I quickly came to realize is that I have a lot of clothes.  That’s shocking as I actually have the least amount of clothing of everyone that I know.  Spending an afternoon, I went through everything and kept what I could use on my trip and gave the rest of it to Goodwill.  After doing this, I looked further throughout my home and started going through the rest of my possessions.  It’s amazing how many bits and pieces that one can accumulate over a few decades.  I started getting rid of everything ….furniture, clothes, jewelry, books…basically all of my “stuff”.   The end result was a sparse collection of things that meant something to me such as photos, a few books, and yes…. my rock collection.  

 Living in remote areas of the world has changed me.  The things that mean the most to me now are good health, hot water, Western style toilets, daily food, and a bed with a blanket.  These are the things for which I am extremely thankful.  I’ve seen too many people without these basic necessities and I realize that I am one of the lucky ones.  Looking around, I realize that I have never been happier than I am right now, living an amazing life with only fifty pounds of “stuff” in a suitcase.