Well, I have so much to write about and catch up on but I'm afraid I don't have regular internet access yet. It's been a blast so far though and I can't wait to tell all kinds of crazy stories. I have one involving a bloody ankle and shoe from the second day and even have pictures, but I'm wanting to wait until I can post the pictures to tell the story. But don't worry, it doesn't involve vampires or wild dogs.
Oh goodness, so much I want to say so far. And I could even tell some of it in Romanian--good thing it's easier to learn jumping in than from a book, oh man.
So I'll be gone again beginning tomorrow for a week and a half, but after that I hope to play catch up on here. But it's been wonderful, people and God. This city is beautiful--sometimes in the way you'd expect I mean, and in other ways too. Excited and thankful, and can't wait to write about it all.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
family
It's an hour and a half now till we leave for the airport, and I hardly know what to write. The last week has been non-stop, no time to write or process, just packing and errands. And spending time with people--the thing is I never thought it would be difficult to move to another country. I mean that in the sense of being nomadic. And while I can't rightly say exactly how I feel about it now because it's so many things, I do understand how much I'll miss everyone here, these people who became my family. I suppose that's normal, but it was a surprise to me.
But I'm excited, although what's more accurate to call it is disbelief. It took so long and then it went so quickly, and here we go. My best friend in the world is in the room next to me and we drove to her mother's yesterday, driving all around like we've always done. We went to a town I used to live in to visit my brother and I told him one day we'd ride trains together in Romania, and then I prayed with him for the first time ever. After that we drove around the town and saw the apartment I used to live in. From the road you could see the third-story balcony I fell from when I was twelve. And we drove by the place where she and her mother visited family on Saturdays for three years. It's funny to think how big a part one town played in our lives six or seven years before we met, not being from the same place or even, in some ways, the same continent (depending on whether you consider North and South America separate continents).
And this time last week, the girl whose family was my own came and picked me up and I saw the strange and familiar world I grew up in. Who knew people you haven't seen in years could love you so much? That's what I'm coming to, though. All these years separating us and lines crisscrossed in between and you begin to see how God planned things, how it was all being worked together. Not in order to be torn apart, but for good.
So it's only that those crisscrossing lines are reaching further and farther. And what family God has for me here he will also have for me there, lines that trace both ways.
We're about to eat now. Something really southern like lamb chop and butter cream potatoes. My itinerary has me connecting in Frankfurt, and then on to Bucuresti. And then we'll see.
But I'm excited, although what's more accurate to call it is disbelief. It took so long and then it went so quickly, and here we go. My best friend in the world is in the room next to me and we drove to her mother's yesterday, driving all around like we've always done. We went to a town I used to live in to visit my brother and I told him one day we'd ride trains together in Romania, and then I prayed with him for the first time ever. After that we drove around the town and saw the apartment I used to live in. From the road you could see the third-story balcony I fell from when I was twelve. And we drove by the place where she and her mother visited family on Saturdays for three years. It's funny to think how big a part one town played in our lives six or seven years before we met, not being from the same place or even, in some ways, the same continent (depending on whether you consider North and South America separate continents).
And this time last week, the girl whose family was my own came and picked me up and I saw the strange and familiar world I grew up in. Who knew people you haven't seen in years could love you so much? That's what I'm coming to, though. All these years separating us and lines crisscrossed in between and you begin to see how God planned things, how it was all being worked together. Not in order to be torn apart, but for good.
So it's only that those crisscrossing lines are reaching further and farther. And what family God has for me here he will also have for me there, lines that trace both ways.
We're about to eat now. Something really southern like lamb chop and butter cream potatoes. My itinerary has me connecting in Frankfurt, and then on to Bucuresti. And then we'll see.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
corinthians and fathers
Reading through 1 Corinthians today, I came across these verses (4:15-17): "Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church."
Been thinking about that all day, about how the Corinthians had a reputation for being wild, living immorally and without any shame. And among the many reasons for this, I wonder what effect not having 'many fathers' had, what part it played among the people in Corinth. I can think of no more apt example than my brother. Don Miller's Father Fiction is good. And then there's all of those with our varying degrees of absent fathers and as many stories as there are mouths to tell them, hands to write them.
This is still mostly a string of questions and thoughts, all of which I intend to be thinking through, but Paul seems to know the importance of fathers and their role in leading spiritually. I'm wondering what guardians in Christ is referring to--does anyone know? And how is it different than being one's father through the gospel and what Paul is to them?
However, it also seems clear that, while this absence of fathers is (and has been) a big problem, it's one that God is fully at work in in many ways, not least of which being that one of his persons is God the Father. I don't mean that who he is is a response to it, but that these things are deeply connected. Not to mention, he's using us! God sent Paul and Paul is sending Timothy. Interesting observation: just as God sent his son, Paul sends Timothy, "my son whom I love." Sounds familiar, no?
Hrmm. Definitely one to come back to.
Been thinking about that all day, about how the Corinthians had a reputation for being wild, living immorally and without any shame. And among the many reasons for this, I wonder what effect not having 'many fathers' had, what part it played among the people in Corinth. I can think of no more apt example than my brother. Don Miller's Father Fiction is good. And then there's all of those with our varying degrees of absent fathers and as many stories as there are mouths to tell them, hands to write them.
This is still mostly a string of questions and thoughts, all of which I intend to be thinking through, but Paul seems to know the importance of fathers and their role in leading spiritually. I'm wondering what guardians in Christ is referring to--does anyone know? And how is it different than being one's father through the gospel and what Paul is to them?
However, it also seems clear that, while this absence of fathers is (and has been) a big problem, it's one that God is fully at work in in many ways, not least of which being that one of his persons is God the Father. I don't mean that who he is is a response to it, but that these things are deeply connected. Not to mention, he's using us! God sent Paul and Paul is sending Timothy. Interesting observation: just as God sent his son, Paul sends Timothy, "my son whom I love." Sounds familiar, no?
Hrmm. Definitely one to come back to.
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