Normal

Today I realized that things happen in my day that seem perfectly normal to me, but that most people would find rather odd. For example, it is not unusual for someone to say to me, "Look! My teeth fell off!" Or, "Oh, my arms are so dizzy." (meaning tired) And of course, there is the recurring, "Miss S, you're beautiful." I like that one. ;) There's also the one finger wave, the tying of "choose," dancing with a man who comes up to my hip, singing to a puppet...

What made me come to this realization? It was the boy standing in line who slowly narrowed one eye while focusing in with the other and raised his upturned Spidey wrist to shoot some web at a target only he could see. Instead of giving him a funny look, I thought to myself, "That looked like a good shot!" It's ok, I happen to like my standard of normal.

I have been wondering for a while now what will be normal while I am in Romania. There are still lots of unknowns, but the pieces are coming together. Over the weekend I found out the names of the family I will be staying with and was approved to volunteer with the group that works in the hospital. (Hence the need for the shot records.)

I will be staying with the Cerlinca family. In the house will be husband and wife, along with their late teens son. The room I stay in has two beds, so if another volunteer is there at the same time I might have a roommate. I will eat most of my meals with them and am hoping to help in the kitchen and learn about Romanian cuisine.

The hospital I have been hearing so much about is called Brasov Children Hospital and my supervisor's name is Sarah Berchtold. I have gotten an email from her and found out the organization she works for (well, actually she is the president and one of the founders) is called Firm Foundation. Please look at their website! (listed to the right) I am so excited to be working with this ministry! These girls started out by purchasing diapers with their own money for the babies at this hospital and now have a full volunteer program. They chose their name from a hymn written by Robert Keene. The lyrics are below. Oh, and they speak English!

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say than to you He hath said,

To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus still leans for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no never forsake!

And the results are in...

My shot records are in hand and complete! Immunity attained.

I had them by 9:00am the day after posting my last blog. You cannot tell me there is no power in prayer. Well, you can tell me, but I won't believe you! :)

Immunity

There are a couple of TV shows that I watch regularly. One is Biggest Loser, and there is usually some kind of challenge on the show where someone gets the chance to win immunity so that they cannot be kicked off that week. Immunity is something very valuable. I need immunity! But in a different way.

I do not have a copy of my shot records, and the hospital I will be working at requires an immunization record. Oh dear! I have been calling around this afternoon to previous doctors and finally one lady told me to call the school I attended because they usually keep records for a while. So tomorrow I will make some more calls and hope for the best.

Here is the other thing- I hope all my shots are current. I am pretty certain that I had my Hep A and B shots when I went to college, but I have no proof. And if I did not have them, they are a series of shots that must be taken over a few months. I leave in exactly one month!!!!

Needless to say, I am a little bit nervous about what is going to happen. If you are reading, please pray that I will find copies and that everything is current. I think the Lord teaches us things when we think we can't handle them. I have been convicted lately of needing to work on the discipline of prayer, and you can be certain that this will send me to my knees!

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

(Please ordain for me to speak boldly about You)

You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high, I cannot attain it.

(Thank you for knowing all the details)

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

(If I go to Romania, you are there!)

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,"

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

(I understand and believe this now)

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are our thoughts, O God!

(Truly precious to me)

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O men of blood, depart from me!

They speak against you with malicious intent;

your enemies take your name in vain!

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

(I struggle with this hatred part)

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!

(Remove the grievous ways)

Psalm 139

(Plus some of my thoughts)

It is incredible how living and active the Word of God is. (Hebrews 4:12) This psalm has been fresh and new to me in the last couple of days, even though I can't begin to count how many times I've read it before. This morning, our pastor challenged us to memorize scripture. Did you know that in the Jewish culture of Jesus' time children memorized the entire Old Testament?! We have so many excuses as to why we cannot commit even small portions of scripture to memory. None of them are any good. We are to hide God's word in our hearts. (Psalm 119:11) His word is truth and how we learn His character. So, one of my goals for this summer is to memorize Psalm 139 by the time I return from Romania. Please hold me accountable to this! Ask me when I get back. And, I would encourage you to do the same. I just might ask what you have memorized. :)

Beautiful Details

"you will be working with babies in the hospital doing the following type of things: feeding them, changing them, holding them in your arms, singing to them, playing with them. Many of them spend in the hospital more time than in their homes because of the problems of their families (poverty, neglect) and we are there for them to offer them the love they need to develop normally."

This is a portion of my most recent email from Romania. I cried. :)

Worship

Good news! I received an email from Daniela, who is the Care Projects supervisor in Romania. She said that I will be working in the hospital, which is where I had requested to work because there are babies there! I am so excited! I'm also thankful that they were able to honor my request. Why do I always seem to be surprised when the Lord provides?

It has been quite a while since I blogged, but not much concerning Romania has happened. I am still working on learning the language. This morning I found a great little coffee shop and had some time so I decided I would do a language lesson. This may sound like a good idea, but what you must realize is that the lessons are audio and require you to speak out loud. So, there I sat with my headphones on, randomly speaking phrases in a foreign language. I didn't feel like a total crazy person, though, because there was a guy across the room who was speaking French to his computer. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was on Skype. :)

Where everyday life is concerned:

1) There are only 23 days of school left until summer. I cannot believe my 2nd year of teaching is coming to a close! I still love my job, coworkers, and students. I must confess that I have been feeling a little inadequate of late. I guess when you get to the end of a season you start to look back and ask what you accomplished. At least I do. I hope that my students have learned- that they have gained life lessons as well as music knowledge. And that they feel safe and loved in my classroom. I hope that my coworkers know me and are able to see Christ in me. I see so many areas where I need to improve and continue to learn. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Colossians 3:23)

2) I am currently going through a video series about doctrine with my small group from church. This past week was about worship. I have been thinking about several of the things that Driscoll taught. He used Romans 12:1 which says,

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship."

What do you know about sacrifices? In the Old Testament, before Jesus had come, the people of God had to follow very specific laws and offer very specific sacrifices (animals and food) as atonement (amends) for their sins (mistakes). But when Jesus Christ died for us, He gave Himself as a sacrifice that covers all sin, so we no longer are bound by the laws of sacrificing. This is an amazing and undeserved gift, but it is completely free and does not require anything of us.

So, when the Bible tells us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice as an act of worship, it kind of redefines worship. Many times we think that worship is going to church and singing songs, even if we don't like the music. But this says everything we do is worship. Sadly, our worship is not always for God and we begin to sacrifice to other things. Like work- it becomes god because we sacrifice time for family to it. Like relationships- it becomes god because we sacrifice honor, obedience, and pure bodies to it. Like money- it becomes god because we sacrifice giving and debt to it. We will sacrifice to whatever we worship. It is so easy to let good things become god. Satan deals in subtlety. He doesn't want us to realize that he is taking over. Idols creep in and before we know it, our idolatry becomes the "opposite of worship." We put people in the place of judge instead of recognizing God as judge.

Driscoll suggests that as we struggle with sin that we actually have worship problems. That our priorities are out of order. This really made me think about the areas where I put other things before God. How I long for my life to be worship. To be holy and pleasing to God. And how thankful I am for His grace, for I will fail. I will make mistakes. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)