Radio Maria and Blueprints

Last night, I was on Radio Maria, a worldwide Catholic radio station, talking about my time in Romania and what the plans are for the new orphanage. It was such a blessing to have met Mark Newman, the host of the radio show, this past summer at Franciscan. I was first on his show right before I left for Romania. He has been a huge support of my mission work and I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. Here is the link.

http://radiomaria.us/crossroads/2013/01/08/january-8-2013-catherine-england/

So, I'm excited to be able to share this with you. These are the blueprints for the orphanage. Fr. Remus and I met with the architect just before I came home to get an idea of what the new orphanage is going to be like. This is a building plan designed based off a house that the architect designed not too long before we met with her. This isn't the final design, but it will be similar. So, here you go :) Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Main Entrance - left side of the building

Front of the building

First Floor

Second Floor

We are still deciding on what to call it. We are trying to decide on whether to name it after St. John Bosco or the Blessed Mother. I prayed a novena to Our Lady promising that if she helped us, we'd name it after her. So, It's between John Bosco or Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception. We will see.

Talking about this new project makes me so ridiculously excited for what God has in store for the future of my mission in Romania. It's definitely not going to be easy, but I know that this is what He wants for the children. I'm humbled everyday that God called me to Romania and placed this project in my hands. It means that He trusts me with the care of his precious children.

The Experience

First of all, Merry Christmas. It's 7am here in Ohio and I'm still slightly jet lagged, so that's why I am awake. We agreed that we'd get up at 8:30 to do gifts, so I have to wait. Hahaha. May the newborn Christ child bring you hope, joy, and especially peace.

I want to share with you a blog post written by one of the WONDERFUL students that came on mission to Romania in October. Her name is Megan and I am so blessed to have been able to share my love of Romania with someone like her. She is a student at Belmont Abbey College and transferred to Franciscan just for the semester so that she could study abroad in Austria. She is someone with an amazing heart. Check out her blog post about her experience on mission in Romania:

http://createdforhim3.blogspot.com/2012/12/romania.html

Megan and Isabella

Megan had a similar experience to what I had, but it was in my experience that I found my calling to missionary life. I'd never been on a mission trip before and actually, I had no idea where Romania was. I agreed to go before I even looked at a map to find it. I cannot be more grateful to God for His leading me to Romania in April 2011 and His guidance in establishing a permanent mission in Romania and now - the new orphanage! It was while in Romania that I found my purpose in life. I knew God created me to love on these babies for more than just a week while on a mission trip. He has called me to this for at least the next few years.

You can have "The Experience" if you want to. This summer, Missions of Hope is having a 2 week or 4 week trip to Romania. If you are interested or know someone who may be, let me know or send the director of M.O.H. (Kevin Kacvinsky) an e-mail at kevin@bringhope.org. 

Update

So, I haven't written in over a month...my bad. No, I didn't die. We've just been super busy doing awesome things!

We had another group of 8 American students come from Austria, 2 of whom had been here with the first group. It has been such a blessing for me to have had 14 Americans come during my first long-term stay here. It was the revamp I needed.

I now teach English to 60 kids at the community school. On Tuesdays, I teach 5th and 6th grade and on Thursdays, I teach 7th and 8th grade. It's good time - but crazy. The younger kids like to play "Simon Says" A LOT. It's hard to get them to work sometimes. Hahaha.

I was extremely blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving at Franciscan University's Austrian campus. It was so great to be able to be with some Americans for the holiday (although, Fr. Remus did offer to grab one of the turkeys from a farm near Satu Mare so that we could have our own Thanksgiving here, but I told him no. Hahahaha). It was amazing to be back where I grew up a lot both emotionally and spiritually.

The Kartause in Gaming, Austria that houses Franciscan's Austria program

This past Saturday was Romania National Day. That day memorializes the unification of the 10 small countries into Romania. Nothing big happened in Turt, but we watched the huge military parade in Bucharest (the capital of Romania) on tv. It was cool to watch because I realized that I really don't know all that much about Romania as a whole.

Showing some birthday love to my new home with my 4ft. by 6 ft. Romanian flag

On Thursday, I will be going to Satu Mare with Fr. Remus and 2 other people from our church to deliver gifts to an orphanage for St. Nick's Day. It's a much bigger celebration here than it is in the States. I'm super excited :)

I am headed back to the United States on December 14 to spend Christmas with my family and to do some serious fundraising for our new project: a Catholic orphanage in Turt that I am going to be the director of! I am so excited for this. It means I am going to be in Romania more long-term, but it also means I have the huge task of fundraising the costs: an estimated 50,000 euro, or about $65,000 for the building costs. The Blessed Mother, St. Padre Pio, and Blessed Mother Teresa have all been called upon to help me out with this, so I know we'll get there. If you would consider donating (and I'm not joking when I say that $5 goes a long way in Romania), little baby Jesus would be very happy ;)

Missions of Hope, the amazing organization that helped me start my mission in Romania, launched its new website last night and it's AWESOME. Check it out: www.bringhope.org

I just finished reading the book Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (phenomenal book, BTW. Everyone should read it) and at the end, she makes a statement that I am adopting as my new slogan of sorts: "I want to bring the truth to those trapped in lies and darkness, to tell them that God is there, He is real, and He loves them - no matter what." That's EXACTLY why I am here.

So, as I near the end of my first stay in Romania, please continue to pray for the mission. I can see the change in the children at the orphanage in Halmeu. I know (because I have been told) that my presence in Turt has given the older people hope and I have been a good influence in the lives of some of the local teens. I am looking forward to seeing my family, but I am going to miss Romania like crazy. I will be back at the end of February/beginning of March.

Also, if you or someone you know may be interested in the missionary life for at least 6 months (it's the best job EVER, fyi), just let me know. We can make that happen!!

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

P.S.- Happy Advent!!

P.P.S. - If you or someone you know has computer graphics skills, I'm looking for someone to design a logo for my mission. I'd be willing to pay a little something (I'm a poor missionary, so it won't be much, but something). Please e-mail me at catherine.e.england@gmail.com.

An Amazing Mission Team

I didn't post last week because nothing out of the ordinary really happened. This past week though, oh man. It's been so great. A group of students studying in Austria spent their 10-day break here in Romania. I was so happy to have some Americans around for a while. Fr. Remus and I took them to Maramures to some of the wood churches and to the Happy Cemetery, to Satu Mare for a little sightseeing, and to the castle in Carei.

It was so good for the kids at the orphanage to have 8 more people to play with. Sometimes it's really hard for me to be able to meet the attention needs of each kid every time I am there and it was so great to have extra help. At the orphanage yesterday, the kids were asking me when my friends were coming back. They miss them already. 

 

I am not even exaggerating when I say that the Lord sent me the most amazing mission team of all time. I know this is a short update, but no words can really describe the week. It was super blessed and the Lord definitely worked throughout their time here.

Lauren, Emily, Jake, Jimmy, Megan, Nicole, Mary, and Anna: I just want to thank you all for taking your 10-day here in Romania. You could have traveled around Europe, but instead, you chose to give of your time to serve the people of Romania. It was so amazing to have you all here and I am so grateful to have been able to share my love of Romania with you guys. I can't wait to see you all in Austria for Thanksgiving!

The Greatest Experience

On Monday, I think I can say that I had the best experience of my 22-year-old life (and I've done some pretty awesome things). I received a VERY generous donation of things for the kids at the orphanage from the U.S. and after what seemed like waiting forever (I only waited a little over a week but it felt like forever) it arrived here and I took everything to the orphanage.

Saying that the kids flipped out when I got there is the understatement of the year. When I pulled this huge box out of my back seat (it was so big that it didn't fit in my trunk), they were so excited. Then, I opened it and they started screaming with excitement. They couldn't believe it. The looks on their faces...oh my gosh. They all wanted to look in the box. It was precious. I've never had so many people screaming my name and I got a hug from every single one of the kids. It was so good. 

After things calmed down, it was getting late, so I helped put some of the little kids to bed. After that, I went outside to hang out with some of the older kids. This was the first night I really connected with some of them. The reason we have struggled to connect with one another is because of the language barrier. They're too old to play with. Hahaha. But through my broken Romanian and their broken English, we made it work. It was the answer to a couple weeks of prayer. 

It was completely dark as I began to drive back to my apartment and what I saw was amazing. The moon was so bright that it lit up the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. No pictures can do justice to the beauty of Romania. During my drive, I shut off the radio and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord. That's all I could do after the glorious day I had. 

Most of this week has been pretty chill. Nothing major going on in Romania at the moment. I actually got a little homesick for the first time since I got here. It comes from being the only American around. Next week, a group of Franciscan students studying in Austria are coming for a mission trip. I am pumped. Hahaha. I can't wait to have more Americans here for a while! It will be crazy and so great. I hope and pray that the students coming will fall in love with this beautiful country the way that I have.

Here are a couple pictures I've taken since being here just to show you the beauty of Romania:

When I went to the orphanage yesterday, I think I had the most fun since I've been here. The kids were so happy and they were crazy, just running around and wanting to be played with. The orphanage got a 1 week old puppy, so I got to hold her for a few minutes, which was great. She's the cutest little dog ever! There were some awesome pictures taken throughout the day:

I love my job so much :) I am constantly humbled by the love shown to me by the kids at the orphanage. It's in their love that I see the love of God.

Catholic vs. Orthodox

This week was an interesting one. I ended up getting a stomach bug from George and oh man. It was so bad. I was like REALLY sick for like 24 hours. But, finally, it passed. Fr. Remus and Iulia took good care of me. So, with that going on, I didn't get to go to the orphanage until Saturday. Nothing really any different happened than usual, so I'm going to write about what I've spent a lot of time thinking about...

So...Catholicism vs. Orthodoxy...I really don't know much about the beliefs of Orthodox Christians, but living in a country where 95% of the people consider themselves Orthodox Christians, I figured I probably should start learning. I know the break happened in 1054 with the Great Schism. I'm not going to go into all that because then this post will be the longest blog post ever. If you want to know what that is, Google it.

Living in a country that used to be part of the Eastern Block and under Communism until 1989 means that pretty much what happened was people were told to convert to Orthodox Christianity or die. Most people did so. Some did not and were killed. Some remained Catholic and went to underground churches and still others converted back to Catholicism after the fall of Communism.

My first question was about the liturgy of the Orthodox. It's called the Divine Liturgy just like it is in the Byzantine rite of Catholicism and Fr. Remus told me that because I don't speak too much Romanian yet, I wouldn't know the difference between the Byzantine liturgy and the Orthodox liturgy. There are VERY minor differences in some of the words of the liturgy and that's about it.

Something I have noticed though...I have been in Romania 6 weeks now and I have yet to see the Orthodox priests. Yes, I work with the Catholic priest, so I see him every day, but I asked him about it and he said that the Orthodox priests say the liturgy and then go back to their house and that's pretty much it. The Orthodox people will actually ask Fr. Remus questions because they don't see their own priests as much. Fr. Remus makes a conscious decision to walk to and from Liturgy in his cassock. He wants people to be able to approach him and they do. I've seen is countless times.

Fr. Remus said that each week, fewer and fewer people are going to the Orthodox Liturgy and they are going to the Pentecostal church. A few of them have come to the Catholic church and some have continued to come. But, here's where the hatred comes in. People in this town talk. Everyone knows everyone's business, even what you buy at the store. It's crazy. It's happened on multiple occasions where someone has come to our church and is seen by someone else. The Orthodox priests then get word and reprimand the person. It's not a physical reprimand like it used to be, but it's some very harsh words.

This is just something that I have been thinking about since I got here. The difference is so little and yet so much.

Today, we went to Mariapocs, Hungary to a Byzantine church with a miraculous icon held within it. It was a long day...I was up at 5:15am (ughhhhhhhh...) and we drove 3 hours with a bus full of Romanians to a humble little town of about 2,800 people. The church is BEAUTIFUL!

The Generosity and Beauty of Romania

As I said last week, I had a flat tire up in the mountains, so on Monday, Fr. Remus and a mechanic from town went up to fix the tire. It took a grand total of 4 1/2 hours to fix. Turt-Bai is about 6 miles from where I live, so it's not all that far, but the roads are the epitome of the word "awful." I've been on the dirt roads in Haiti which are horrible themselves, but these roads...oh my gosh. They can't even be compared. Fr. Remus bought his brother's Land Rover, so it was a lot easier to get up into the mountains in that than my little Volkswagon Passat. So, after we got there, it was a combination of the effort of 5 grown men to fix it. On Sunday when we were there and Fr. Remus came to my rescue, as we were trying to change the tire, we found that one of the bolts on the tire was an anti-theft bolt. Well, imagine 3 men with hammers and chisels trying to break it off. Well, they only messed it up, so on Monday, it took welding 2 bolts onto the anti-theft one to get it off (Can I just say THANK GOD for the generous spirit of Romanians. A guy who lived further up the mountain brought his welding machine down to where we were). Once we got it off, we had to drive back down the mountain to get the right size tire. Then, we went back up and put the new one on. I was so relieved.

Since we were most of the way up the mountain, Fr. Remus wanted to take me the rest of the way up the mountain where there is a monestary. At the top, you can see the town we live in at the bottom. The sun was beginning to set and I can honestly say that I have never in my entire life seen a sunset like that. Being in the fresh mountain air, looking over Turt, and seeing the sun set, I was left speechless. It was amazing. I took some pictures, but I was reminded of the lesson God taught me when I was studying in Austria: no picutres can ever catch the true beauty of things like that. The pictures are good, but they don't even begin to show the beauty. It was amazing.

Turt from the top of the mountain

On Wednesday I went to Satu Mare with Fr. Remus to pick up a van donated by a German foundation and to pick up the projector donated to us by the wonderful Newman family. On Thursday, we went to Baia Mare to do some shopping for George. Living out in the boonies of Romania means you can get all that much stuff out here. It's a pretty big city and I was definitely glad to get back out to the country after a long day there. Cities are too busy for me. I don't really like them. I enjoy my little country town where you can hear cows moo-ing in the distance.

I had been so busy that I hadn't been able to get to the orphanage until Friday and then, I ended up not even getting there. Long story. Haha.On Friday, I met a woman who during the time of Communism here was injured and ended up with a horrible infection in her leg and because of the strictness of the Communists, couldn't get the simple medicine that would have kept her out of the hell she went through. The infection got so bad that she had to have 4 surgeries to save her leg. Today, she walks normally, but she showed me the scars. Insane. Through her tears, she said "Isus este motivul pentru care sunt inca aici" which means "Jesus is why I am still here." Her faith was amazing and inspiring.

I FINALLY got to the orphanage yesterday and it was SO wonderful to be back. I pulled in and the kids came sprinting at the car. It was so good to hear the kids screaming "KATE!!" trying to get my attention. I absolutely love the sound of their laughter. It brings so much joy to my heart. I can't help but smile when they laugh. I think that the sound of their laughter is my favorite thing in the entire world right now.

Whenever I go to the orphanage, I take a few of the teens from the church with me. I love taking them with me and they must love going because they always want me to take them. One of them is 15-year-old Ioana. Vasile, the guy who is always trying to get me to help him kill animals, is her dad. I am so grateful for their family. Whenever I bring Ioana home, they feed me dinner and we just hang out for a little while. They always send me home with fruit they've grown. Right now, there are 2 huge shopping bags full of grapes and 1 full of apples on my counter. SO MUCH FRUIT!! Hahaha. But they are wonderful. They always want to take me to do things and they have made me feel so welcome and so loved here. Just another example of the Romanian spirit that I am so fond of.

Last night, I went outside and looked up and could see so many stars. It reminded me of laying on the roof of the orphanage in Haiti this past March when I was there on a mission trip. I couldn't see nearly that many stars, but I could see a lot more than in Cincinnati. It was amazing. I love this country so much and being here just feels so right :)

Missionary problems of the week:
-Seeing someone wearing a shirt with a completely inappropriate phrase in English on it and you're pretty sure they don't actually know what it says because no one who could read it would actually EVER wear it in public. Hahaha
-Being pulled over by the police for no apparent reason and the cop thinks your from England because that's your last name...(long story. expired license plates. no ticket)