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)

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.

My First Trip to Romania: April 2011

Thanks for checking out the blog for Evangelize through Love: Mission Romania. I am leaving for Romania on August 15, 2012, the feast of Our Lady's Assumption! I know she's got my back :)

This is where I will be keeping people updated on what is going on with the mission. Here is a little background on what will be going on as well as why I've decided to take up the missionary lifestyle. 

I never would have thought that God would call me back, or that he would decide that he wanted me there permanently as a missionary. I am so blessed that He has chosen me for this. 

As it says in John 15:16, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide..."

And as Oswald Chambers wrote, "The secret of the missionary is...I am His, and He is carrying out His work through me."

This is a post I wrote after my first trip to Romania on my blog from my semester abroad in Austria. I only spent a week there and it completely changed my life. 

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When I arrived in Romania, I had no idea what to expect, but I had absolutely no idea that my world was going to be rocked by a small Greek Catholic parish and by a 5-year-old boy named Codrutz and a 9-year-old boy named Bennie. My heart aches because we had to leave. We arrived in Romania hoping to lead people closer to Christ. In the process, they led us closer to Him. Turt, Romania and the Romanian people will always hold a special place in my heart.

It started out with me, Joe, Bill, and Katie arriving on Saturday night in Satu Mare, Romania. We walked out of the train station and were met by Fr. Remus. We drove about an hour and a half to the small farming town of Turt. We stayed in an apartment building near the center of town. On Sunday, we went to the Divine Liturgy (It was a Greek Catholic Church, so it’s not Mass. It’s a Byzantine Rite Liturgy) and then planned the Sunday night catechesis. Bill talked about the Holy Spirit and then the people asked us questions. On Sunday night, the two other members of our team arrived.

Each day began with our team praying Morning Prayer, going to Liturgy, and then having breakfast at Fr. Remus’. After those 3 things, we would talk about the schedule for the day and go out and take on the world. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we visited the orphanage in the next town over. It was amazing. These kids were so happy to see us. They had so much joy and were so much fun. There were 2 kids I really clicked with: Codrutz and Bennie. Even though we couldn’t understand each other, I was able to love them and they loved me. It changed my life forever.

On Wednesday and Friday evenings, we did prayer ministry after the Stations of the Cross. We first explained to the parishioners what prayer ministry was (thanks to translating by Fr. Remus) and surprisingly, we prayed over people for an hour and a half. Everyone in the church came up to be prayed over. It was awesome. The Lord definitely worked in peoples’ hearts that night. One woman told Fr. Remus that she would remember our prayers for the rest of her life. That moved us all to tears. Even though there was a HUGE language barrier, God is bigger than that and worked like crazy that night.

So much changed in my heart during our time in Romania. I’m going through withdrawal right now, which is apparently pretty common in people after mission trips. I don’t really want to be here in Austria or back home in the States right now. All I want is to be serving the incredible people of Romania. In talking to people on both my mission and the other Romanian mission team, we all miss it a lot. I’m still trying to process all that went on during our time in Romania and I’m sure that will continue to happen for a while. I’m asking for prayers for my heart. Right now, it’s 2 countries away in Romania.

If you want to know anything else about it, feel free to ask. I’m praying that one day, I can get back to Romania. That would make me so happy.