What I've Been Up To

Nothing really exciting to update about lately...been working a lot of hours. Finishing these...

This is book number 4 in the series of 12. Translators are working on 5 & 6 right now, which means they'll be coming back to me in the next couple of weeks for page layout and all that good stuff. In the meantime, I've been working on 7 & 8 so that they are ready when translators finish 5 & 6. Don't want good translators to get bored & start looking for more work elsewhere! I've started the first steps of preparing book 9, too. So I guess that means there are 5 teacher's manuals currently in progress. And two student manuals (1 at the printer & 1 being translated). And student notebooks for three different courses next month are in progress. So...10 different projects in various states of completion. That could explain why I can't always even remember my own name. And why I have nothing "fun" to write about here!

Fun Times

My living room right now (clean & quiet)...


...and my living room an hour ago.

Note the piles of dishes and such on the table. All gone now. (No, not cleaned yet...but scraped, stacked neatly and in the kitchen waiting to be washed tomorrow. I may be obsessive/compulsive, but I'm also dead tired and don't really care if the dishes are clean before I go to bed tonight.)

I finally took the plunge and invited all of the young adults over this evening. I cooked mici (pronounced "meech"; it's something like spicy grilled sausage and traditionally eaten with mustard) and my favorite rosemary-garlic roasted potatoes. I also made Lemon Chiffon Dessert Squares - another favorite that I rarely make (a Pampered Chef recipe). Yum, yum!

I love having people in my home...need to do it more often! Beyond dinner, I really had no plan. I intended to rent a movie, but just didn't have time to get to the store. But it all worked out fine...the basket of kid stuff in the living room kept everyone entertained. What more could you want than fairy tale books & a puzzle? I have crayons in the basket, too, but no coloring book right now; what's wrong with me?

Dina had collected all of our pictures from the retreat a couple of weeks ago & put them on a CD, so we stuck that in my DVD player and watched all of the pictures S...L...O...W...L...Y flash up on the screen.

Fun times!

Life on a speeding-out-of-control train

That's how my life feels often, but last weekend I jumped off the train for a couple of days in the mountains with the young adults from my church. I didn't take a lot of pictures because my batteries were dead most of the weekend (and did I think to bring along a charger...of course not; I was trying to pack light!). But, here are a few of the pictures I did manage to get.


Because every "youth group" trip must include at least one waterfall (I learned that from our youth pastor when I was in high school...thanks, Pastor Steve!). The "youth group" in a Romanian church is the equivalent of the college & career/singles' class in most American churches.

Ce mare esti Tu! How great Thou art! One of the things I love most about the mountains is being reminded of the greatness of God through His creation. The mountains that we were in this weekend are in the "earthquake zone" of Romania, and that was very obvious from many of the rock formations that we saw. And I'm always a sucker for a beautiful colored sky!

Just because it caught my eye & I like the picture. Maybe I'll print it and frame it someday.

Old news...

...but still worth writing about, I suppose.

I arrived home from my quick trip to Brasov last Thursday to find mail in my mailbox. Real mail...honest! Whew, it really needed dusting out (seriously). Then I opened it...my first Christmas card of the year! The last day of August, and I'm getting Christmas cards already :-)



The backstory...My home church has done "missionary Christmas" for as long as I can remember (probably as long as I've been alive). In July, they put up a poster with every missionary's name, including the kids. Then, people from the church sign up to send a Christmas card & a gift of $20. The cards are all "turned in" by the end of July, checks are sent to the mission agencies (much easier for them to send it to our bank accounts in random countries around the world), and the cards are forwarded to the missionaries. When they first started doing it, I think it took several months for overseas mail to reach its destination - thus the July collection date. I contemplated letting them know that there are now VERY few places in the world where mail takes longer than 2 weeks on average...but then I decided, nah, it's more fun to get Christmas cards in August.

Last year I got a birthday card & a Christmas card on the same day (again, at the end of August; my birthday's at the beginning of August). That was even more fun! The perks of being a missionary...

For your amusement

Yesterday, they painted nice white lines on the fresh blacktop on my street.

Today, they ground the white lines off of the road.

Gotta' love Romania!

I'm waiting...

...for my landlord to come pick up the rent $. Then I can go to sleep. Yes, I know it's only 7:15, but I'm exhausted & I have a headache that won't quit. Again. Maybe if I go to sleep soon, I can actually get a full night's sleep before the jackhammers, tile cutters and other loud-noise-makers start again. I don't remember the last time I had a full night's sleep. And the loud-noise vibrations have now penetrated to my bone marrow. Road construction at home & someone renovating their apartment above the office. Maybe I should go sleep in my car somewhere quiet for a few hours. Ummm...maybe not. I am in Romania. Guess I'll stick to trying to sleep from 8 pm til 4 am, when the road construction workers are gone.

Slow Picture Week...

...but here's one to tide you over until I get something better. One of the Orthodox churches in Brasov; I think it has recently been redone, because the colors are amazingly vivid and fresh! If the weather's good tomorrow, I might venture out into town & try to get some stock shots of people & places in TgM.

I've got issues...

Yeah, I know it. The ones that seem the most glaring right now are my trust issues. I really don't trust anyone. In my more honest moments, I will even admit that I don't trust God - at least not like I should.

If I really trusted Him, I would never struggle with discontent, worry or impatience. I would recognize that, no matter how frustrating my situation might seem at this very moment, it is a part of His sovereign plan to bring me the very best. I would be confident that, no matter how impossible the situation seems, He is bigger than every obstacle. I would rest.

The last couple months have been one "trust test" after another, and I've failed over and over again. My support level is low, so I dread going to the mailbox and finding another bill that I can't pay. In October, our entire team is required to go to Turkey for a conference. How will I afford a $500 plane ticket? My car will be paid off right around the same time...which means paying all of the registration fees, road taxes, parking taxes, etc. when I put the car in my own name. How much will that cost, and where will it come from?

Being in Romania & facing these things has shown me just how little I really trust - how little I've developed the habit of absolute dependence on God. From the time I was very young, if I needed something, I did something. Thanks to the wonders of the bottle deposit & living across the street from the football field, I could always go scrounge around & collect cans (of course, my "needs" rarely cost more than a dollar to fulfill at that stage of life!). When I got older, I could work longer hours or pick up some outside jobs if I needed more than my paycheck provided. If I encountered an obstacle, I figured out a way around, through, or over it. Now, I'm in a position where - a little late in life - I need to learn absolute dependence. There's nothing I can do to increase my income - I can't pick up another job & working extra hours doesn't increase my salary (actually, the Board just did that - but I have to raise my raise before I actually get it!). All I can do is trust.

When I read the biographies of men like George Mueller, I'm shamed by my lack of faith. He stepped out and did huge things for God, never knowing how those ventures would be provided for. He never publicized his needs, just taking them to God in prayer and trusting in His provision. My prayer is that I will learn to trust as He did, to trust as the apostles did when their lives were threatened if they continued to preach the truth, to trust the Father just as Christ Himself did when He faced the cross saying "Not my will, but Thine be done." There's a life goal.