Letting Go

I have never been very good at letting go. Instead, I like to hold on to things for as long as I can. Perhaps it is a sense of security that comes from the known instead of the unknown. I've been reading recently about letting go. I can't say that I am excited about it yet, but I want to change my perspective from arranging for life here to looking forward to life in heaven. This isn't it-there's more and I keep being told it's better than here. At our spring music program one of the choruses illustrated the grandeur of heaven: In six days you created everything, but you've been working on heaven for two thousand years. How amazing it must be!

Dear Jesus, help me to dream of heaven, to have great expectations of what you are preparing. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on the prize instead of life here. Thank you for your patience with me as I hold more tightly than I should to things here. Help me to let go and trust you.

Thunder

Do you know how I know God loves me?

Today his reassurance came by way of a thunderstorm. Just this morning I was commenting to my roommmate about how much I missed thunderstorms. This evening while out with some ladies from my Bible study for some time away with God at a small church tucked away in Bucharest, God showered me (quite literally) with his love. Amazing!

Walking Blind

I have been walking the same path to school for the last two years. Yesterday I saw a door that I hadn't ever really paid any attention to. Today, I stopped to actually think about the people that I pass many mornings.

Usually I see:
-a dad and his son on their way to work and school
-a woman who walks slowly with a crutch
-a man who seems to always be dressed in a black suit
-a police officer
-an older man always wearing a suit
-a woman and her young son-generally she is carrying his backpack

It amazes me at how "for granted" I take the "sidewalk" and the people I encounter on my way to school. I don't stop to talk. I wonder if they would remember seeing me.

Quick Changes

Yesterday offered me the opportunity to truly appreciate the many who worked backstage at Northwestern College with me-especially those who did quickchanges:)

Last night was our elementary spring music program. I was responsible for making sure the first and second graders were on stage at the right time (and wearing the right things). There were ten of them that Whitney and I did our best to get dressed and ready on time. Occupying them during rehearsals involved running laps outside, doing jumping jacks, and learning how to make snakes and ducks with my hands. I couldn't make them today if I wanted to:)

Our changes involved getting Mary off stage only to take her "smock" and put it on Jesus with some embellishments-all within three lines. Another fun change was getting all ten off the stage only to get them signs with plagues and back on stage after the other grades sang through the chorus once. Needless to say the plagues weren't in order and they weren't holding the right ones, but they were on stage:)

It was fun, but I am glad that it is over-a weight lifted off my shoulders. A funny thing to mention too is that all of these quick changes were visible to about half of the audience:)

Technical Difficulties

Yesterday at church, the projector wasn't working. This meant a complete lack of words for the majority of the songs we sang. I mentioned to the woman sitting beside me that it would be a great chance to sing in English. In fact, it became a great opportunity to see how God has placed Romanian on my heart-the words came more easily than I could have imagined. It was a blessing to be able to worship with my brothers and sisters here-in the same language!

Dust

Would you believe it if I told you that Bucharest has more dust than any other European capital. Would that explain why there is such a need to water the streets each morning? Or perhaps why right after you dust, there is a nice layer coating everything? As I am sure you can imagine there are other impacts of this excessive level of dust as well! Oh for clean air:)


Excerpt from article in Bucharest Daily News:
Bucharest has ten times more dust than other European capitals
There is ten times more dust in Bucharest than in any other European capital and the main cause is the disappearance of green areas in the capital in the last 16 years, according to the vice president of the Environment Experts Association, Florin Vasiliu yesterday."The amount of dust in Bucharest reaches 260-280 tons per square kilometer. This cannot be found in any European capital, where the average amount is less than 20 tons per square kilometer," Vasiliu said.

Recently I have started reading a new book, Revolution Within. It has been a wonderful challenge to the way that I have viewed my life and relationship with Jesus Christ. Something that stood out to me recently was the idea of the difference between “giving our lives to Christ” and accepting what Christ has done for us. The difference is the emphasis on who is doing the “work”. Faith isn’t about what we do, but what we receive.

How often I get that turned around-am so focused on what "I" can do that I lose sight of what Jesus did for me-and it was enough. I don't need to add anything to it.

Apartment

Recently a friend reminded me of the importance of praying specifically. So, in thinking about my apartment for this coming year (and perhaps beyond), these are the things that came to mind-things that an ideal apartment would have:
-hot water (even early in the morning)
-heat in the winter
-be within 30 min of school (walking or public) and in a good neighborhood
-near public transportation and a grocery store/market
-kind and gracious landlord who would be willing to move things out of the apartment as I purchase things to make it feel more like my home
-within my budget for rent
wishful thinking category:
-be higher up so I can see out around the city
-colorful

Thank you for praying specifically for my apartment for me:) I look forward to sharing with you how God provides!

Technology

Isn't it amazing what you can do these days! I love my family and it was wonderful to talk online tonight in a conference call. It was great to hear their vocies and laughter-to catch ourselves interrupting one another and to not feel like we had to tell the same story three times. What fun!

Taxis

Sometimes you just have to wonder about where companies come up with their names? For example take these great companies recently seen in Bucharest...

-Quite Pretty Taxi-and yet all of the cars I have seen are still yellow (not the prettiest color in the world) and don't seem to be in the greatest shape
-Taxi Occident-I think that along with the rest of the American population in Bucharest, this reads Accident (especially with the flowing script lettering)-why would anyone want to select a taxi company apparently more prone to accidents than others
-Taxi 2000-perhaps this seemed appropriate during the new year, but it feels a bit outdated-perhaps Taxi 2006-just doesn't have the same flow.

There are certainly others-new companies spring up weekly. What variety!