One More Chance For Hope

I'm sitting here in my apartment, super sore from helping move wood up in the forest today. It's the prime time to be moving wood from up in the mountains down here to town because we've got a lot of wood that needs to be moved. In the winter, this wood heats the houses of some of the parishioners, Fr. Remus, and the church. I only helped with 2 truck loads, but the guys estimated that it was going to take 7-8 truckloads of wood. But that's not why I'm writing. Haha.

I was sitting here listening to some music when the song "The One" by Brandon Heath came on and caught my attention. Listen to his acoustic version of it here. 

These lyrics seem to be ringing very true in my life right now:

If there's one thing that I'm sure of
If there's one thing that I know,
You could be one in a sea of faces
Or you can be one more chance for hope.

When I think of what could be
If we let our hearts believe
That it takes just one
Just one to turn this all around

And if we're living history
How will they think of you and me
If it takes just one, just one,
What if, what if, what if I'm the one?

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These lyrics, every time I hear them, are a bit of a reality check for me. Sometimes I get so used to being in Romania that I almost forget I'm here - I become complacent. Then, I'll be walking somewhere, like to the store or to the church and God will randomly hit me with a reality check. It happens in the simple things, like a simple (okay, VERY simple...I understand most Romanian, but my ability to respond in Romanian isn't all that great. I'm working on it!) conversation with someone on the street, looking at the mountains, or I just have this feeling. And I fall in love with this country all over again. It happened today when I was up in the mountains. I was sent to get water from the stream and as I got there, I stopped and took this picture, then closed my eyes, listened to the stream, and took a second to breathe in the fresh mountain air. In that moment, I fell in love with Romania all over again.

These lyrics aren't just true for people like me. They're true for all of us. We all have the chance to just blend into everyday life and just be regular people. Or, we can do something radical for God and be a witness to His glory each and every day. It's all about walking the walk and not just talking the talk. You can talk to someone about the Gospel until you're blue in the face, but if you're not living it out, what's the point? The person isn't going to listen.

In the 7 years since I came back to my faith, I've found that nothing brings me greater joy than living out the Gospel, specifically, the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). I named the mission after the concept of being a witness in everyday life simply by loving those I encounter each day, whether it's the kids at the orphanage, people from our parish, or just someone walking past on the street. I want to be (and I pray that I am) used by God each day to be someone's chance for hope in Him. His hope never disappoints (Romans 5:5).

I have the wonderful opportunity to return to Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina for a pilgrimage in 3 weeks. I first went when I was studying in Austria and my view of the Blessed Mother was never the same. I always thought she was kinda cool before I went, but it was there that I had what I call my "Marian Conversion" and I realized how freakin' awesome she is. Fr. Remus was asked to be the spiritual leader for a group in Baia Mare. But, here's the kicker. To go, I need 250 euro, or $320. Any chance you can help with that? Go to bringhope.org/catherine and donate. If you can't donate, please pray that I can get the money. There's a saying about Medjugorje that goes "If the Blessed Mother wants you there, she'll get you there, no matter what." I'm trusting in that.

Romanian Adventures

It's hard to believe I've been back almost a month already! It's flown by. Seriously. And now that I have internet in my apartment, here I am, blogging for ya!

First, I just want to tell you what an incredible blessing it was to have Ellen here for 3 weeks. She is a young woman who is amazing. We laughed (a lot), experienced the things that just don't happen anywhere else but in rural Romania, we were frustrated at the lack of internet together, and became friends very fast. I must say that I'm really happy knowing that there is someone who loves Romania the way that I do. Come back soon, Ellen! We all miss you. George keeps saying that he loves you and not me. Hahaha.

Look at Ellen rocking that Mission Romania shirt!

My first weekend back, I was very blessed to have my friend Jordan visit. He's been traversing the world for the last couple months, and he was in Budapest, which is only 4 hours from here, so he decided to come visit. I was ecstatic to have him here. He got to experience trying to drive through the cattle drive and me getting hit with a cowtail because my window was down. Jordan, Ellen, and I also went to Ukraine...without a Romanian...The border is just a 15 minute drive from here, so we were like YOLO! (this is an example of the phrase used properly. Hahaha) It was quite the adventure. Let me tell you that. The Romanian border police officer was joking with us asking why in the world we, 3 young Americans, wanted to go to Ukraine. We told him we wanted the stamps in our passports, to get some gas for Fr. Remus' Land Rover, and Jordan wanted a postcard. He laughed and said, "You Americans are crazy. Don't go." So, we got through the neutral space and then through the Ukrainian border and that's when the adventure really began. It all started when we had the old English license plates from the previous owner of the Land Rover in the trunk, which then caused the Ukrainian border police to ask to look at the registration and the VIN number on the car. Turns out there was a typo on the registration and that made them decide to send us back. It was quite an adventure because the border people spoke no English and only one of them spoke a little bit of Romanian. I'm pretty sure I spoke more Romanian than he did. So, we got like 10 feet into Ukraine and we got our stamps. And we have one heck of a story. So, we were happy. When we got back to the Romanian border station, the same guard was there and he was like "Back so fast?" and we told him we had issues with the license plates and without a second of hesitation, he goes, "Told you so" and start cracking up. So, we went to Ukraine and got our passport stamps. That was enough for me. Jordan, thank for an amazing weekend full of laughter and craziness :)

I was recently asked to start blogging for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's blog "Being Catholic" and I wrote my first post the other day. You can see it here. I hope to be writing for them a couple times a month.

Update on Casa de Copii Don Bosco: the town hall has offered us 3 buildings. They area all schools that are barely in use. We would have to make some major changes to all of them, but we can do it. We hope to find out soon which is the final building they are giving us. Money wise, we're at just over $32,000. So, if you can donate anything at all, even just $5, that helps. You can find a link to the donation page on the top right side of my blog.

As always, please continue to pray for the mission. Prayers are our driving force. I ask especially that you pray for a new missionary. We need another full-time person in the near future to help keep things going. If you know of anyone who would be interested in full time mission work, have them check out the Missions of Hope website (bringhope.org) and consider applying for the mission.

"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." -William Carey, missionary to India