My friend Laura Brown is an amazing artist. I've always enjoyed seeing her art. I brought one of her prints with me to Romania and it hangs over my dining room table--a smile each morning.

This week I was enjoying her blog and this piece caught my eye. It sums up bits and pieces I've been thinking about recently.

As I think about the future, I realize in some ways that it's become easier to stay in Romania than to return to the US. I've become deeply connected with life here: my job/ministry and the many lives that intersect in that realm, friends at church and school, furniture and an apartment that feels like home, ability to function in a second language, and yet it seems strange to consider that this feels more comfortable than a return to the US.

Life in the US is full of unknowns...how do those self-service check-outs work? Where will I live? How will I deal with driving again after loving the freedom that public transportation brings? How will I stay connected with people there and here?

When you arrive in a foreign country, no one tells you that you might get to this point--that it will be easier to stay.

Story Time

After reading in The Cricket in Times Square about how there came to be crickets, I had my students write a tale about how something in the world came to be. Below are three of their stories (no favoritism...just the top three of the pile). The paragraphing didn't come through as intended, but you'll hopefully get the idea:)

Whose Nose Went Flat?
Once upon a time when animals still talked, there was a pig that loved to eat a lot. But he had a problem with smelling. The problem was that he didn’t have a nose. So he went all around the forest.
The first place that he went to was the doctor. The doctor said, “There is a way to get you a nose, but I need 5,000 beans.”
“But I don’t have that many beans to pay you.”
“Ok pig, there is a way for you to get money,” said the doctor.
“What’s the way?” asked the pig.
“Just get a job,” said the doctor.
“Can I get a job over here?” asked the pig.
“No, no, no, no, no, you cannot get any job over here, not even if you clean my room, give me a bath, make my lunch or my dinner, or do something else!”
“Okay, you want me to get a job somewhere else.”
So the pig went to work at a witch’s house for a month and he got 1,000 beans. Then he worked as a cleaner on a ship and got 500 beans. Next, he worked as a dish washer at a restaurant for 500 beans. He also earned 3,000 beans working at a bank.
He went to the doctor and got a nose. But there was a problem. The doctor and the pig didn’t know how to use the nose. They tried a lot of things, but it didn’t work. At last they tried using glue to attach the nose. It worked! He thanked the doctor and went home. When he got home, he realized something was wrong. He remembered that he forgot to give the beans to the doctor.
He went back to the doctor and paid the beans. On the way back, he feel down and his nose went flat.

By Wu Han

Spinning Class
Once upon a time there was a spider named Alice. Alice didn’t know how to spin a web. Her mother tried to teach her how. Instead of teaching Alice to spin a web, it turned out to be a big mess. Alice felt very sad that she couldn’t spin a web.
Then she had an idea. Her idea was to go outside to find her friends and ask them how to spin a web. The first friend she went to ask was the monkey. She asked, “Do you know how to spin a web?”
The monkey replied, “I don’t know how, but cat knows. Ask her.”
So Alice went to cat. Then she asked cat, “Do you know how to spin a web?”
“I don’t know how! Who told you that?”
“The monkey,” replied Alice.
“Go and ask the owl,” cat replied.
So Alice went to the owl. Then she asked the owl, “Owl, do you know how to spin a web?”
The owl replied, “I don’t know how. Who told you that?”
“The monkey said that that cat knew how and the cat said you knew how.”
“Go and ask the lion; he knows.”
So Alice went to the lion. Alice asked the lion, “Do you know how to spin a web?”
Then the lion said, “I don’t know how. Go and ask rat.”
So Alice went to the rat. She asked the rat, “Do you know how to spin a web?”
“Yes,” replied the rat.
“Can you teach me how?”
The rat said, “Yes.”
So the rat taught Alice. Then Alice knew how to spin a web.

By Grace

The Bad Fortune
One day there was a giraffe. He was a normal giraffe and was five feet tall. One day he was walking down the road and saw a fly.
The fly said, “Come with me and I will give you your fortune.”
The giraffe followed the fly to a very tall mountain. They climbed it and at the top there was a big box ten feet tall. The giraffe said, “I want to see in that box.”
Then the fly said, “I will give you a potion so that you can see your fortune. It will give you a long neck.”
The giraffe said, “Yes, whatever it takes to see my fortune.”
So the fly gave the giraffe the potion and he said, “Drink this and you can have a long neck.”
He took the potion and drank it. Suddenly, he had a long neck and he could see in the box. But his fortune was bad and he killed the fly because he was mad. Since he killed the fly, there was no one to give him a potion to make him not have a long neck. And that’s how giraffes got long necks.

By Jon

Smile for my Day

This past week, I came back to my classroom and found a small whiteboard on my desk with the following 'song'. (I'm guessing it was intended to be a song although I never heard it sung or found any music to accompany the words.)

I love Miss Westrum
She is so nice
I love Miss Westrum
I like her voice
She is not mean
She is as nice as a mouse
She is always clean

By: Your Student

Silence

It's been said that 'silence is golden'. As I spent hours sitting in silence on Saturday, I reflected on what silence means in my life. Sometimes silence can be a truly wonderful thing--space and time to think and pray and it means that everything is going well. At other times, silence can be terrifying. When you're waiting for news from a family member or hoping for a response about a job interview, silence can be deafening and paralyzing. Silence can be an indication that I've moved far from God and am not being sensitive to his voice. It can also indicate that there's an area of great pain in my life or the life of someone near me--something difficult to share. I think silence can be incredibly powerful in our lives if we let it.

ACT

One of my roles at BCA the past few years has been to proctor the ACT three times a year. It means getting up early Saturday morning for the trek down to school. As I took tests in the past, I always thought it would be so much better to be the one proctoring, but I've found (at least for me) that I would prefer to be taking the test.

As a proctor, I'm not supposed to engage in any activity (other than reading the testing handbook) during the entire test. That's 4 1/2 hours of sitting, walking around, and monitoring a handfull of students all set far enough apart so they couldn't possibly cheat. I've tried to make the best of it:) One of the things I've started doing is praying for the students taking the test.

This past Saturday, 4 of the 9 students were from BCA. I don't know them all well since two are new this year, but I prayed for God's provision and direction for their senior year and plans for college. I prayed along similar lines for the other students testing. During the break we talked a bit and from what I could gather, 8 of the 9 students are from Christian families living in Romania. What a neat conglomeration of students:)

Yes, I hope they did well on the ACT, but more importantly, I hope they do well in life--faithfully following God no matter what circumstances they may face.

The Pits

You're walking along, enjoying the scenery, feeling like things are going okay. The sky is blue, trees are green, a soft breeze is blowing. Suddenly, the ground beneath you disappears and you find yourself plummeting downward into a pit. It came out of nowhere and gave no warning.

I found myself in a pit this past week. I couldn't figure out how things had changed so rapidly. I'm thankful that God didn't leave me there, but helped me climb out through His presence, His Word, and the many people he's placed in my life.