I know I haven't written in a while. Sorry about that. Here's what's going on.
Things have been CRAZY lately. We are hoping to meet with the architect in a few weeks, but first, we have to go with the mayor and a topographer to mark the property lines next week. We will be building near the edge of our town. I'm very excited about it! There's a change in plans though. We've decided that while I continue to fund raise to finish the orphanage project, we will use the building as a day center for kids in our town. I'm looking forward to that because then it means things will be up and running sooner! We've also decided to shift the name around a little. As we are in a country where the Eastern rite of Catholicism is more prominent, not as many people know who St. John Bosco is (He's a Latin rite saint). So, in thinking and praying about it, we've decided to use the name "Our Lady of the Way" because it's more commonly known here in the East. It's cool because that icon is actually a variation of my all time favorite name of Our Lady: Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I'm thinking we will name the chapel after St. John Bosco or the Sacred Heart, but that's all technicality stuff that will be worked out later. St. John Bosco will definitely be one of our patrons.
We spent a week in Campia Turzii, which is near Cluj-Napoca (about 4 hours from Turt). We were taking a mini-vacation to Iulia's parents' house. It was nice to finally get to visit the city I always fly into and had never actually visited. In the center of Hero's Square, they have a huge Roman Catholic church. It was incredibly beautiful. It reminds me a lot of St. Stephen's in Vienna. It was stunning.
On August 8, I returned from a week-long pilgrimage in Medjugorje. I'm still trying to process everything that happened, but I'm hoping that writing about it will help. The first time I visited Medjugorje was 2 1/2 years ago when I was studying in Austria during my junior year of college. I actually was very against going because I didn't believe that the Blessed Mother appeared there because the Church hadn't approved it yet. My spiritual director actually begged me just to go. I very reluctantly agreed and ended up having a radically life-changing experience. After returning from my semester studying abroad, besides Romania, I found myself missing Medjugorje the most. I was extremely blessed to be able to spend a week there with Fr. Remus, 3 people from our parish, and 40 other Romanians from the Transylvanian area. It happened to be the annual Mladifest (International Youth Festival) while we were there and it was like a mini-World Youth Day. It was so cool!! While there, I met an amazing Australian priest, Fr. Stephen, who is currently living in Rome. I met him in Confession (and had the best/most intense Confession of my life) and had lunch with him the next day. It was during our lunch I found out that he is a Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's order) priest and he spent 9 years in India before being assigned to Rome about a year ago. Hearing his stories was amazing. In our conversations, my passion for missions was reignited. I'm so thankful to have met him and to have been able to spend time with him.
I'm very excited to be able to go visit the Kartause in Austria where I studied abroad in a week and a half. Fr. Remus studied there for 3 years and Iulia has never been to Gaming (pronounced GAH-ming), so we decided to take a long weekend to Austria before school starts up again in mid-September (Iulia is a teacher).
I'm pleading for your prayers for me in the near future. Sometimes being a missionary is exhausting physically, emotionally, and spiritually and I know that it is my prayer warriors all over the world that keep me going when things get tough. A quote was posted on the Missions of Hope Facebook page the other day and it was perfect: "If you are ever inclined to pray for a missionary, do it at once, where ever you are. Perhaps he may be in great peril at that moment." -Amy Carmichael, 1867-1951, missionary to India. Please keep me and all missionaries in your prayers. Also, please pray for rain. It hasn't rained here in over a month and the crops are being affected and the people here rely greatly on their crops.
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." -2 Corinthians 12:9
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