My heart wanders...

This world is fairly small.  I know it takes 14-16 hours to travel to Budapest from California and about 24 hours to go to Ethiopia from California but when you think about it; the world is fairly small.  I was in Romania all last week…we had Korean, Hungarian, American, and Romanian folks around all week long and I loved the diversity!  The Romanian language made me feel a bit more ‘at home’ since it is considered one of the Romantic languages…so some words were very Spanish like!  The Roman Empire ruled that area early on so thus the whole Italian/Roman (as in Romanian) influenceJ. 

We visited villages…they were very poor villages.  The kids found refuge at the church with a lady that cared for them.  She has green houses and an aqua-ponics system so she can grow enough food to feed all these kids each week.  For some of the kids; that is their only meal of the week.  They come on Fridays and eat several bowls of soup and bread – and receive love for their hearts and food for their souls as well.   There was a little girl that didn’t say a word and her name is Andrea (see side picture).  She is probably 3 or 4 and her father is an alcoholic as well as part of the mafia/gang in town…and he does not treat her nicely.  She has something wrong with her; perhaps a little slow in learning, nobody really knows.  And more than that; nobody really knows how to deal with her.  So she comes to the church where she is loved, can play with other kids and not worry about being hurt or mocked. 

There was a boy in one of the villages that showed up and knew the songs we were singing – so he wanted to sing a song for us.  He did – and when it was translated he had said:  ‘I am Roma, I am proud of that, I know Jesus loves me and I love Him!’  Now Roma means Roma-Gypsy…poor, looked down upon by most and certainly not given many chances in life.  I want to see this boy as he grows up; he will take any chance he can find and he will be a leader – for good and not for harm.

It was an amazing week; people that lead there were inspirations to me.  I still can’t really wrap my head around what amazing people they are.  One of the ladies named Roberta retired from being a professor and doing research for NASA at the age of 55 and moved to Romania.  Now almost 20 years later she is going strong and is loved by MANY and has made a tangible difference in so many lives.  I want to be like that.  Her job description at the time she came to Romania?...Teach, preach and a boat load of other things!  Awesome.

So I am full of experiences that touched me, people that inspired me, and questions of where all this is leading.  I come back to California and Idaho for a quick 10 days in May to celebrate my nephew’s high school graduation.  I’m soooo looking forward to seeing friends and family – those whom I know and love.  Will it be hard to leave here?  I don’t know.  Will it be hard to leave the U.S. again?  I don’t know….my heart is wandering these days.  So in the meantime; I’m quite sure that life is good and certainly God is waaaaay betterJ.  Have a great weekend.