Because They Were Happy

While growing up, I was that kid who LOVED new school supplies. Going "back-to-school" shopping was one of my favorite things to do. So when Gina (13), Flavio (11), Beni (9), and Codrut (6) were excited to show me their new school supplies, I knew where they were coming from. These 4 are siblings, and from what I was able to gather from Gina in the little bit of English that she knows, they have a mother, but not a father. I don't know the whole story, and honestly, I don't want to know it because I would be willing to bet everything I have that they were abandoned, which is the most common way kids end up in an orpahanage in Romania. The new school supplies were sent by their mom, and I can't even express how excited they were to show me. We were in the middle of playing a game when Beni turns to me and goes, "Kate, sus!" meaning that he wanted me to go up to the kids' bedrooms with him. When we got there, he and Flavio VERY excitedly showed me their new backpacks and they started pulling things out of their backpacks like crazy, getting more and more excited as they pulled out the next thing. It was adorable. Then we went to Gina's room, where her and Codrut's backpacks were (Gina had to keep Codrut's because he kept trying to use the stuff he needed to save for school. Typical Codrut. Hahaha). As she and Codrut were showing me their new things, Gina explained to me in her broken English that this was the first time they have had new school supplies. My heart broke. Every year before school started, my mom would take me to Target to get new school stuff and whenever I needed something new, I could easily get it. But, to see the joy that they had over their new things for school made me happy too just because THEY were happy. 

I spent most of my time at the orphanage on Wednesday with 15-year-old Larisa. I first met her 2 weeks ago. She and I have really clicked. She speaks a decent amount of English, so it works. We spent some time watching MTV (which over here, there is actually music on it. Hahaha). It was then that she tapped me on the shoulder and said "Friends." I was confused and she said "you and me. Friends?" I said "Absolutely" and she smiled bigger than I've ever seen. I see a lot of my 15-year-old self in Larisa. From what she's shared with me, she's been through some rough stuff, but knows that there is a reason for it. Larisa struggles with the same kind of stuff I did when i was 15. I ended up being just fine, but that came through the help of the Lord. She's struggling with how she feels about God, so i'm hoping to help her. I pray that in time, she can see the Lord the way I see Him. 

I spent time at the orphanage every day this week and it was great :)

So here is where I begin my new thing. I'm going to call them missionary problems. They're actually quite hilarious. It all began on Friday when I was asked by Vasile to help kill a bull on Saturday morning. I refused. I was like "Not a chance!" Needless to say, I wasn't there yesterday when they killed it. So, then after Divine Liturgy today, I went to Vasile's house to hang out with his daughter, Ioana. About halfway through lunch, I (VERY STUPIDLY) asked Ioana what we were eating. It turns out I was eating the brain of the bull they killed yesterday. I didn't have much of an appetite after that. After lunch, I took Ioana and her mom up into the mountains to see a relative and a rock punctured one of my tires and it is completely flat. So, my car is at that relative's house sitting there until we can get a new tire tomorrow. And those are my missionary problems of this week. Hahaha. 

My biggest struggle at this point is trying to remain in the moment. I've been here for a month, but for some reason, I keep thinking about when I'm leaving. I plan on coming back after a little "Christmas vacation" at home in Cincinnati, but I find myself having to remind myself that I have 3 more months here and A LOT can happen (and knowing how God likes to do crazy things in my life, I'm sure a lot will happen).

I am so in love with this country. It is SO beautiful and I am so blessed to be here. Everyday, I wake up and I think to myself "You are in Romania!" I waited for over a year to come back to Romania. Since the day our mission trip ended in April 2011, I knew I had to get back here. This place changed me as a person. When I was back in Austria, my friends said that they could actually see a change. They said I was smiling a lot more and I was a different person. I'm not going to lie when I say it was ridiculously hard to wait to get here. There were days I wanted to just quit school and come here and be a missionary. There were quite a few of those days this past year, but now that I am here, I know it's the perfect time for me to be here. I came here not in my time, but in God's time.

The Joy of a Child and the Lamb of God

This week has been much better than last week. Thank you for your prayers.

On Moday, Fr. Remus and I went to the house of one of the parishoners to get some water from the well (best water I've ever had, by the way). Up until 4 years ago, everyone in town had to go to this well or the one on the other side of town for water. Can you believe that? This town didn't have running water until 2008! But after we got the water from the well, we sat outside and talked with the family. It was an elderly couple and their 50-year-old son, Aurel, who takes care of them. Aurel speaks some English, so that helped a lot. But as we sat there and talked, I looked over the hill and I could see the fields on the outskirts of town and the mountains in the background. The beauty of this country just constantly leaves me speechless. I never could really find God in nature until I studied in Austria and to now be surrounded by the beauty of the mountains that are the border between Romania and the Ukraine, oh man. It just leaves me speechless. So, after I took in the beauty I was seeing from the hill, I closed my eyes and all I could say was "Thank You, Lord." 

On Tuesday, I went to the orphanage and took 3 soccer balls which were a HIT! The joy on their faces when I pulled the rainbow soccer balls out of my trunk just made my heart explode with happiness. It was so great. For about an hour, we played with the balls, everything from the kids seeing how high they could kick it to just regular old soccer. A window actually got broken by Iourri, who is 9. It was kinda funny. I had to try so hard not to laugh. But do you want to know what made me the most happy? The little kids wanted me to color with them, so I sat down and before I knew it, I had 7 pictures colored for me with my name written on them and things like flowers drawn on them. My favorite one? The one drawn by 5-year-old Joseph. It's literally just a bunch of scribbles. It's so cute. I will treasure those pictures forever.

On Wednesday, a group of 4 people came from the "Churches in Need" Foundation based in Germany. The Foundation donated a lot of money to the building of Fr. Remus' new house. One of the people that came was a Jesuit brother who works under the bishop of the diocese here in Romania. He told me that he was so glad I am here and just the fact that I am here is a witness to the live of God. It was an encouraging word that came at the right moment. 

Later in the week, I took 3 of the teens from the church to the orphanage with me. We spent 3 hours just hanging out with the kids. I taught the little kids some English and they taught me some Romanian. It's a good system. Hahaha. I have been asked to teach a few of the parishioners English, so that should start up in the next couple weeks. 

I was thrown into Romanian countryside culture pretty harshly yesterday. That makes it sound so much worse than it actually was. Hahaha. But yesterday, I helped Vasile, one of the most active parishioners in the church, kill and skin a sheep. It was an experience to say the least. He asked me if I wanted to cut the sheep's throat. I politely declined. Hahaha. So, I held the sheep's horns while Vasile cut it's throat. It was kinda gross. Okay, it was really gross, but not nearly as gross as when I was here last year and his family killed a pig for us. That was just...ugh. Yuck is the only word I can think of to describe it. Okay. Back to the sheep. After it was dead, Vasilie hung it up on a tree and started skinning it. I watched for a while and then he handed me the knife. I was hesitant, but then I thought about my senior year of high school anatomy class. If I can skin and disect a cat, I can skin a sheep. So, I did it from the sheep's back hips to halfway up its rib cage. I then gladly handed the knife back to Vasile. After it was skinned, he gutted it. Here's where things got really funny. As he is pulling organs out of the sheep, he is teaching me the names for them in Romanian. It was hilarious. When there was an organ I couldn't tell what it was and didn't understand the Romanian, Vasile proceeded to blow air into what turned out to be the sheep's lungs. Yes, he put his mouth on the trachea and blew up the lungs. I was so grossed out by that and a huge chill went down my spine. I shivered, which then caused Vasile to start laughing hysterically. Vasile is this like HUGE 6'5 guy in his late 40s. Imagine him on the ground laughing because he grossed me out so bad. It was great :)

Now to make the whole sheep-killing experience theological. I wouldn't be a Franciscan University alum if I couldn't somehow tie it all into God. Hahaha. So, they call Jesus "The Lamb of God" right? Well, at His crucifixion, Jesus didn't put up a fight. It is said that He was like a lamb for slaughter. For the first time, I truly understood that. When Vasile brought up the sheep, it was quiet and as I held its horns, it didn't put up a fight. It was silent. The pig that they killed for us last year? Not so much. It made so much noise and fought so hard. That's part of what made it so much worse than the sheep. I now totally understand why they said Jesus was like a lamb being led to slaughter. 

I absolutely love it here and at this point, I am seriously considering sticking around Romania for a long time. I'm praying a lot about it and ask that you would keep my decision in your prayers as well. 

Ups and Downs

This past week has been one filled with ups and downs. I knew going into this that mission work wasn't going to be 100% dandy all the time, but I guess I didn't expect the "downs" so quick. The rush of being in a new place is gone and culture shock has hit pretty hard. I'm in a place that is completely different than everything I am used to. Thanks to an e-mail from the ever awesome Fr. Shawn, one of the friars at Franciscan, I was reminded that I must be patient with myself because I am in a new place and no one expects me to be fluent in Romanian or know every single thing about the culture here. I am a 22-year-old who was raised in a Cincinnati, Ohio now living in the countryside of Romania. It's COMPLETELY different.

This week, I spent so much time at the orphanage and it's been great. The kids are just so full of love. They are so funny. They always want me to stay and eat with them. So, I have stayed to eat dinner with them twice this past week. I have decided that next week, I am going to buy some soccer balls because the kids don't have any. I was shocked. We played soccer with a plastic wheel off a kids toy. That not only broke my heart, but also made me a little angry. People all over the world are so materialstic and that frustrates the crap out of me. They won't give up ONE Starbucks coffee to buy a soccer ball for kids who have to play soccer with a plastic wheel. These kids don't have shoes that fit correctly or are broken and play with empty shampoo bottles. Tell me that's fair. It's not. And that makes me SO angry. When I got back to my apartment on Thursday night, I cried because of it. But, what's so amazing about all this is that the kids still have so much joy. They get so excited when they see my car coming down the driveway. So, as frustrated as I get, when I see the smiles of the kids, I know why the Lord has called me back to Romania. There is a quote in the movie "Transsiberian" that says it all: "Is it not in the smiling face of a child that we find the true wonder of God's grace?"

I finding myself really missing the Roman rite of Catholicism. The nearest Roman Catholic church is pretty far away, so realistically, I can't get there without some serious strategic planning. I would do pretty much anything to go to Mass right now. The Byzantine rite is in full communion with the Holy See, so their Eucharist is the same as the Roman rite...if any of that makes any sense? I know what I mean, so that's all that matters. Hahaha. To put it simply, all of the Byzantine Sacraments are valid to the Roman rite of Catholicism. I am having a hard time with knowing really what is going on because I have only ever been to the Divine Liturgy in English once and it was a funeral that was when I was studying in Gaming, Austria. I have tried my best to do my research on the Liturgy, but because it's in Romanian, it makes it that much harder.

Yesterday, there was a party for George. He turned 2 :) Iulia's parents came in from Cluj-Napoca, which is about 4 hours from here. They brought a cake for George in the shape of a soccer ball and when he saw it, his face lit up and he started giggling. It was the cutest thing ever.Needless to say, it was a big party.

I know this post is all over the place, but hey. That's how things are right now.

Please keep praying for me. Your prayers are what's getting me through the hard times.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

Waterlemons and Schismatic Chickens

You may be wondering what in the world the title of this post means. Well, they are some of the ridiculous things said to me this week Hahaha. I will explain:

We eat A LOT of watermelon in Romania because it is the peak season. Oh man, it's so good :) But, the other day, I was sent to the market to get one and Iulia told me to get a waterlemon instead of a watermelon. I thought we were all going to fall off our chairs we were laughing so hard.

Now for the schismatic chickens. During the time that Communism controlled Romania, the Byzantine church and all the land it owned was given to the Orthodox church. A few years ago, the Orthodox priests built a house on some of the land that was previously the Byzantine church's land. So, we were joking the other day about the chickens that are at the Orthodox priests' house and I said I would steal one for us to eat since the Communists stole the land. Fr. Remus, without skipping a beat, goes, "NO!! They are schismatic chickens!!!" So, at least once a day, we joke about schismatic chickens. This morning I went to the market to get eggs and I told Fr. Remus that we couldn't eat them because they might be schismatic eggs. We've had a good time joking about schismatic chickens. (If you don't know what "schismatic" means, go look up the Great Schism on Google and edumicate yourself. Hahaha)

On Thursday, I bought myself a super cheap car. It's a teal-ish 1999 Volkswagon Passat. It's definitely a missionary car. Haha. The best part, it was brought here from England, so the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. It's not nearly as hard to become adjusted to driving on that side as I thought it was, so it's perfect. Now that I have a car, I can go to the orphanage whenever I want and don't have to rely on Fr. Remus to get me there.

On Friday, I spent a couple hours at the orphanage. I introduced the kids to the iPhone game "Fruit Ninja" last week and oh my goodness, do they love that game. Everytime I arrive, they instantly start saying "Fruit Ninja" in their super cute little kid Romanian accents. But on a different note, what happened at the beginning of my time there on Friday broke my heart and reminded me why I am here. It's complicated, so bear with me. There are 3 siblings who are new since I was at the orphanage last year. Their parents are gypsies, so they were just left there. The middle one's name is Isabella. She is 4-years-old and she is just so precious. I was sitting on the grass and she came and sat on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her and just held her. After a few minutes, I let go and she looked at me with her big brown eyes and almost started to cry. I wrapped my arms around her again and she laid her head down on my chest. All Isabella wanted was to be held. My heart broke knowing that she probably hadn't been held in a very long time. There are 4 women taking care of 40 kids. The kids just don't get the love that they deserve. Each one of these kids deserves to be loved unconditionally and they have never experienced that. And that breaks my heart.I have been asked countless times both by people at home as well as a few Romanians as to why I love Romania and why I want to be here. Here's the answer: I chose to move 5,000 miles away to the countryside of Romania to show these kids that they are loved and wanted by not only me, but by the Lord.

My time here so far has been glorious and I am so blessed to be able to serve the incredible people of Romania as a permanent missionary.

Being a missionary is the COOLEST THING EVER!! :)

Keep praying for me and I will keep praying for you.

The First Days

Well, after waiting over a year, I am finally in Romania and getting adjusted to my new life. I am helping a Byzantine priest in his parish as well as helping out at the orphanage in the next town.

So, I'll start from the beginning. I flew from Cincinnati to Charlotte, NC to Munich, Germany to Cluj-Napoca, Romania and then drove 4 hours to Turt (pronounced Turts). Needless to say, it was a LONG 24 hours of traveling with about 10 minutes of sleep. When I arrived in Turt, I was shown my apartment and it's like ridiculously nice, but that's how Romanians are. They want the best for those who are visiting.

Most of my time so far has been spent helping Fr. Remus' wife, Iulia around the house and with their almost 2-year-old son, George. When some of you read the previous statement, I can imagine what is going through your head. Because Fr. Remus is not Roman Catholic, but an Eastern rite Catholic, he can be married. So, now that is cleared up, I can continue. Hahaha. I have been helping her cook and I've been playing with George. I have come to learn that he LOVES Snow White to the point that it's hilarious. He's always talking about it. When he says something about Snow White, either Fr. Remus or Iulia translates. He absolutely loves the dwarfs. Today, while he was eating lunch, he watched the movie. It was so cute. Iulia is an amazing woman who is SO full of incredible wisdom. Today, she was telling me how so many people here just see money as everything (Romanian culture is VERY materialistic). They work 20 hour days and do nothing else - they don't enjoy life. She says that it's because they don't know the Lord.

I've been to the market with Iulia twice and while we are there, she's pointed to things to tell me what they are (Tonight, I was sent to the market alone to get beer. I succeeded. Hahaha). She's been so great helping me with the language. I'm getting some of the very basics down. I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been here 5 days and no one expects me to know Romanian yet. I'm just having a hard time with it because I just want to talk to people instead of awkwardly standing by while Iulia or Fr. Remus explains that I am "Kate from America." I know I'll get there and soon be able to at least understand what's being said.  My name is too hard for George (and most Romanians, actually) to say, so I was quickly given the nickname Kate. So, that's what they call me at the orphanage too.

I FINALLY got to the orphanage today. It was so amazing to be reunited with the kids who so radically changed my life last April. At first, some of them were hesitant to be around me, but once some of them remembered who I was, it was like I had never left. They have all grown SO much that it's crazy!!

I am so blessed and humbled that God called me to by a missionary to His people in Romania. Please pray for me and I promise to pray for you. 

It's All About Love

I have found myself recently a huge fan of the band Mumford & Sons. I was listening to their song "Awake My Soul" recently and this line really jumped out at me:

"Where you invest your love, invest your life."

I'm finding that to be so true in this mission. I am investing at least the next 4 months of my life into loving the people of Romania, especially the kids in the orphanage. I am investing my life into sharing the love of Christ with those who need it. The name of my mission means "Evangelize Through Love" in Romanian. This mission isn't about yelling the Gospel into people's faces. That doesn't work. And it's REALLY not going to work in a place that can be called almost spiritually dead like Romania. Actually, we'll call it in spiritual critical condition. It's all about walking the walk before talking the talk. It's about living everyday like Christ would and leading by example. It's about loving every single person I come in contact with, no matter how they respond to some American kid showing up to live in their town (I have been told by the priest I will be working for that I will not be welcomed all that warmly, but I'm okay with that). It's about loving the crap out of the kids at the orphanage. It's about loving that teenager who thinks I must be insane to leave the United States to live in his town. It's about loving the people who hate me solely because I am Catholic and not Orthodox Christian. 

In For King and Country's song "Proof of Your Love," there is a monologue based up 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 and it says "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, 'jump,' and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love."

All I want to do is love. In my 2 1/2 years as a student at Franciscan University, I received so much love from the Lord and from those around me. Now, it's time for me to go out and share that love. 

So, in just 9 days, on August 15, I will be getting on a plane and moving 5,000 miles away from my home in Cincinnati, Ohio to my new home in Turt, Romania. Most importantly though, I will be investing my life where I want to invest my love. 

Please, please, please pray for me. I'm ridiculously excited, but also nervous. I know the Lord is with me in this. He has made it VERY clear. I am taking Blessed John Paul II's advice of "Do not be afraid" to heart. 

The Loss of a Friend

Almost two weeks ago, on June 30, my friend and fellow missionary, Tyler Peltier, died unexpectedly while on family vacation. Tyler was scheduled to leave for Africa this coming week. He graduated with me from Franciscan University in May. It was a huge blow to our Missions of Hope family of 16, sadly now 15.

I, personally, am still struggling to come to grips with the fact that he is gone. I spoke to him 3 days before his death about his excitement to go to Africa. It still seems surreal. Please pray for his family.

This is from the homily given by Fr. Gregory Plow, TOR, at Tyler's memorial Mass on July 2 here at Franciscan. I am very glad I was able to be there and hear Fr. Gregory speak so highly of the man who I know was one after God's own heart:

“Jesus explains that the Son of man has no where to rest his head. Jesus is describing the law of an itinerant preacher as being homeless… homeless in the sense calling the world a home and going wherever the Lord calls you to preach to help people in need and preach the Gospel. Tyler Peltier answered this call. He was involved in many things at our University. He was very active not only in his own household, Disciples of the Word, but he was well-loved by many people in many households and by many students who are not in households. Tyler worked at the information desk answering phones as the first voice for many coming to the University in the fall. Tyler worked in the mail room and was cheerful in greeting everyone whom he served by bringing mail to their offices. Tyler also worked for the PR Office, the Public Relations as a photographer… But in just two weeks he was about to just leave everything behind to serve the poor. In just two weeks before he died he had purchased his plane tickets to Africa to engage in his sharing work. And ironically soon with his unexpected death, his last Facebook status post he made was something to the order of, 'I have my tickets in hand. There’s no turning back now.' Although of course he meant that for Africa, one can’t help but see that unbeknownst to him or any of us, this saying could be applied to his journey to heaven. 'I have my tickets in hand. There’s no turning back now.' Yes, Tyler was extremely kind. Tyler was not offensively funny. But more importantly he heeded the call of God in the Scriptures today and in many other places to see himself as not having a place to rest his head, to follow Christ among the poor. We pray for him and for his family. As we honor him in this, we are sad that so many other people will not have the opportunity to be a recipient of the great love he had in his heart. The life in his heart may have been weak, but his heart was very strong— to answer God’s call... In the light of the readings today and Tyler’s example, may we reexamine how we are living out the same divine command in our lives. Does God want you to engage in missionary work somehow on a local or a grander vocation scale? Or if you are already in a vocation and an occupation with a safer salary, do you tithe to those who are less fortunate? As we proceed in prayer today for Tyler and his family, may our challenge be to live by his example to grow in the values that we need to complete God's work today. May we repent of our sins to avoid God’s punishment and answer God’s loving call to follow Him in more profound ways especially to the poor.” 

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Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.