It’s been a few days since arriving back in the U.S. and although I’m tired I’m starting to process this past month of being in Romania. Here are just a few things this month has been to me. 1) COMING ALIVE. One of my biggest passions is watching people come alive in Christ. I love the process of dying to yourself and risking it all for Christ. Our team of 6 high school students and 3 leaders did just that. They risked big things for the Lord by leaving there families, friends and comforts behind and got to go on a trek to Romania. In these risks Christ broke of parts...

So, this trip isn’t exactly playing out as I was expecting. Given, I didn’t have that many expectations to begin with because it was all so vague of what we were actually going to be doing here. But I expected it to be easier, since like, I was already in love with Romania and gypsies before I got here. I thought that I was ready for this trip, until about the day before I left. Then I realized just how absolutely unprepared I was. I don’t like being unprepared. At all. I like being in control of situations and sure in my abilities. But I wasn’t, well, I’m not.  ...

                                Last week, we had the pleasure of taking a bunch of kids from a nearby orphanage to the zoo. After seeing all the animals, we had a few hours to kill. Instead of chilling in the shade, I ended up playing soccer tennis with some of the kids. I don’t remember the boy’s name but the two girls I played with were Amalia and Andrea.       I grew up playing soccer but I quit recently because it wasn’t fun anymore; it got too competitive....

“But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”. And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother,” Matthew 12:48-50 Family has always played a huge role in my life. That really goes without saying when people find out I am the oldest of four and graduated high school having been home schooled my entire life. But my family has never been strictly the people that share my DNA. I’ve given...

A snapshot of my life right now:  My team is upstairs; Bryan is messing around on his accoustic guitar, playing some Jack Johnson song, and occasionally whooping loud enough for me to hear from downstairs. Someone’s singing and someone else is snapping their fingers. Most of our Romanian family are outside working on the pig pen, except for Sanda and Laura who are playing with their children on the bed as Beni (a little five year old boy) repeats, “Google-y goo! Google-y goo!” We’ve just got back from playing with a group of very poor gypsy children and the day is...

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comforts, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”  2 Corinthians 1:3-4          This Wednesday will mark two weeks here in Romania. I have really fallen in love with the people, the culture, and the overall beauty of the country. During this past week God has been teaching me that I need to fully rely on Him for my comfort not on other people. I have...