Dear Folks,
I sure am sorry about my delay in posting this blog. I have really been struggling with fatigue more than usual. It may be a function of the extreme heat I experienced along with the time zone change, jet lag, lack of solid sleep for 12 days, different diet, etc. Sounds like a pretty good explanation to me. Anyway, I’m here now and gettin’ ‘er done!
My final day there in Timisoara held such good things, and I am so thankful once again for God’s divine hand for directing my steps.
We went down to Liviu and Mary’s place just down the road, and we visited for a few minutes. There were still so many people there from the wedding that our time was limited. They were also preparing for a 40 container to arrive with goods for the distribution warehouse.
I found several boxes which they had been storing for me, and I was delighted to discover I had several hundred of the Portuguese booklets left there of Beth Moore’s “Discovering God’s Purpose For Your Life”. I also found the boxs of items left over from the October 2008 Women’s conference. They will come in handy for the next one in October 2009.
As soon as we got our boxes, we were picked up by my sweet friend, Simona Tutac. She chaired the conference planning committee for the Oct conference. I delivered a gift to her from some friends in the US and then we met with her husband, Samy, in his office at Betel Baptist Church. I wanted Scott to meet them, to tour the church and Christian school there at the church, and to visit about Solid Rock Youth Ranch. It was a multiple blessing day for both of us.
There were some American missionaries and another Romanian man named Coli there at the church preparing for VBS who were a great contact for Scott. Coli works with a ministry for young people at risk.
Also, Samy is head over the weekly youth meetings at the church and is also in leadership over all of the Baptist youth ministry in Romania. After discussing with Samy and Simona about the upcoming conference in October, we were able to see how we can work together and use the church van for transport of my team and the church missions apartment as well. I was so thankful for their offer of help. I am praying for God’s specific direction for all the details. I finally met a young woman I had heard about quite often. I know her Aunt and Uncle up in Denton, Texas. Ligia and I agreed to get together on my next trip to talk about our mutual ministry efforts for the women of Romania.
We headed over to Bistra for a last lunch, then headed to the mall for some last minute shopping. Chocolate for Charlie is always a necessity (I confess I like it too!!)
Once back at IBS, I finished packing and then blogged one last time there in Timisoara. Our hosts, Iosif and Lenuta, were so gracious in every way. Such a huge blessing for me to be able to stay there at the last minute. She made a wonderful meat and bean soup for our dinner.
Iosif has a recording studio in town which he has offered free of charge to me for two of my projects on “back burner”. We need to complete the translation of tow audio Bible studies.
Dani arrived from at 12:30 AM to pick me up for our journey to the Airport. However, we doubled back to Arad to pick up two more riders headed for Budapest. Turns out they were not only Americans, but TEXANS from Irving!! What a totally cool way to end my trip! Our time of fellowship was such a delight for me and made the trip go so quickly. We exchanged contact info, and I hope we can get together sometime when I am up in the DFW area.
Finally, when I didn’t think it could get any better, the Lord did something remarkable. The following story is what I had mentioned in an earlier blog. It is lengthy, but I promise you, it is worth reading to the very end. God just blows my mind sometimes. I am actually cutting and pasting the story from an email written earlier in the weekend to the Texas folks I met that last night.
So, here we go and THANK YOU so much for keeping up with me on this journey. I will post pictures in the next blog —
My second delight was my second leg of the journey. I had a fairly reasonable layover in Frankfurt (over 2 hours), but found that it was barely enough once I worked my way through the maze of check points, etc. I got to my gate with less than five minutes until boarding. Whew!! What a relief! I asked if there were any vacant aisle seats farther up the plane, but was told the plane was full with no empty aisle seats. No worries – just thought I would try. When I discovered the boarding time had been delayed, I breathed a sigh, and ran to the bathroom for another form of relief! This is where it gets interesting…
As I washed my hands, I noticed a blue fanny pack sitting on the sink ledge. Each of the ladies there said it wasn’t hers, but someone said she thought a lady had left it. I debated what to do, and decided to turn it in. I knew I was honest, and felt that it may contain a passport or something else of value. The desk attendant was thankful, and I turned to find a seat amongst the sea of people at the gate. After passing several rows, I finally found a seat. I plopped down to wait the boarding call. I glanced at the folks just to my right, and was amazed to sense some kind of recognition. Couldn’t place the faces, though. It was a group of seven travelers (four ladies and three teenagers). I was content to just watch them, but the Holy Spirit kept compelling me to ask if they were from Texas . Finally, I acquiesced and asked the question of a gal who turned out to be Karen. We were boarding at that point, so we walked and talked. Turns out they were not only from Texas , but West Houston area. I used to live in NW Houston back in the 90’s and moved to East Texas in 2000. As we attempted to find out how we knew each other, she finally said they were returning from a missions’ trip to Latvia and they attend a church called Calvary Community Church (formerly Calvary Baptist Church ). I almost fell over! That’s the church my parents help start back in the early 80’s, and which I also attended starting in 1989 when I moved to Houston . My two younger sisters still attend there. The pieces of the puzzle all fell into place, and we were so tickled! I then instantly recognized Karen and two of the other ladies. We honestly felt it was a divine appointment, but weren’t sure why. Yet…….
Well, as we finally boarded and headed for our seats, we discovered we were all on aisles 40, 41, 42. The cool part about it was that they had tried to change their seats, too, but to no avail. I was seated next to Karen with Mary behind me. How cool was that????!!! The plane was huge with over 400 occupants, and here we were sitting side by side! We proceeded to load our bags in the bins when Karen’s daughter realized she had lost her blue fanny pack. Hmmmmm… Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together????
I told her I had found it and turned it in, so she headed back off the plane slowly as she “swam against the current” of people. Karen quickly went after her, since the daughter is only 12. They both returned without the pack – no one could find it. It had contained her Ipod, but nothing else of value. We sat down, buckled up and then the most incredibly sweet flight attendant, Sandra, came up to our seats with the pack in hand. Needless to say, Karen’s daughter burst into tears after the ordeal. It was such a sweet visual picture of God’s wonderful mercy as He gives to us even if we have made mistakes and bad choices. The darling flight attendant then brought back two chocolate bars for her and grinning, she said she deserved chocolate after all that. I am in full agreement!! Chocolate fixes everything!! Sandra continued to bless us with great service throughout the flight, so both Karen and I completed Lufthansa comment cards about her. She deserves every accolade!
The flight went very quickly as we all visited about our perspective missions’ trips, and we saw that the Lord truly had given us this divine appointment for many reasons – some of which we may not yet see.