Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd tell the story of my Thanksgiving adventure. No doubt this will be a long post. Enter at your own peril.

This story begins a week earlier at the Friday staff meeting. It was your typical staff meeting with all of the usual updates. Then we switched topics to Thanksgiving. Yay, Thanksgiving! Everyone went around and volunteered for different food items. I like Thanksgiving, so it was fun to talk about it and build up the anticipation in my mind for my first Romanian Thanksgiving.

Then the following things were said:

Someone: "This is an American holiday."

Me: nodding.

Someone: "We should have an American be in charge of everything."

Me: nodding.

Everyone: Turning to look at me.

Someone: "Mike, you're in charge of everything."

Me: nodding......wait what??

It makes sense that an American should be in charge of an American holiday, but you have to be careful when you're one of only two Americans in the room. As a writer, I should have recognized the foreshadowing, but meetings kill my brain sometimes, so I was only partially paying attention.

My response: "Yeah, I could probably do that."

Someone: "Good. By the way, everyone should feel freedom to invite one or two people."

Me: nodding, not realizing that if 20 people all invite 2 people, that means I'm throwing a party for 60 people. Not everyone invited 2 people, but with the invitees and the Medias team being in town, it turned out to be about 60 people anyways.

So the meeting ended, and now I have this ticking time bomb in my head ticking away until it explodes on Thursday the 24th. Except instead of tick, tick, tick, it's going Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving... I did my best to ignore it for the weekend, especially considering that it was my birthday on Saturday. :) (I should do a birthday blog.)

Then Monday comes and I decide to jump in full swing. My tasks for the day include putting together a food list of everything that everyone is supposed to cook, putting together a guest list of everyone that is supposed to show up, and clearing out and cleaning the room we're going to use.

The food list was easy, we mostly decided all of that at the staff meeting. I just had to organize the notes that were taken. The clearing and cleaning was easy. A few people helped me move things out of the room, and then I vaccuumed the rest. Putting together the guest list was a little more...interesting.

I went around and talked to everyone to figure out if they were inviting anyone. I didn't keep a running total, but my note pad was becoming full of names and +1's. Finally someone asked me what the total was and I added it up. "Ummm, 57 people." The person I was talking with responded appropriately with, "Wow, that's a lot." Yes it is. It was decided that there was no more room at the inn, and if Mary and Joseph showed up on a donkey, we would be Biblical and tell them they had to stay outside with the animals.

Tuesday was a shopping day. I went around and gathered shopping lists. I had a list of things that I needed, a list of things that Emma needed, a list of things that Gabi needed, and a list of things that the base needed. Four lists. One trip. Efficiency!

We get to the mall and get everything we need, except when we get to the turkeys they are really expensive. Phone calls were made, questions were asked, the internet was searched. Decision: Turkeys are cheaper at a different store! We'll go there!

We grabbed the heavy groceries, piled into a taxi and went to a different store. I waited in the front of the store with the groceries while the girls went in and shopped for turkeys. It was fun to people watch as everyone walked by me. I was a fly on the wall, and even though I was surrounded by a pile of groceries at my feet, hanging out in the most heavily trafficked area of the store, nobody ever looked at me. Is that a cultural thing that you don't look at strangers in Romania? I stare at strangers all the time, and in California, sometimes they stare back.

I'm starting to get tired. At this point we've been shopping for a couple hours. The girls get back with one turkey. It was cheaper, but it was also the only turkey in the entire store. Back to the first store! Ug.

We find a cool taxi driver that will take us to the first store, and wait out front while we run in and get the first turkeys we were looking at. So we had three expensive turkeys and one cheap turkey (which was actually better quality than the expensive ones because it was all natural). Cost savings on the one cheaper turkey: about 24 lei. Cost of extra taxi rides used to get those savings: about 20 lei. So, we did save some money, but what was supposed to be an efficient, four list, one shop, trip, turned into a less than efficient, four list, three shops, trip.

Wednesday is cooking day for a few people. I'm in charge of making apple cider which takes all of 5 minutes to prepare the ingredients (read: take them out of the package and dump them into a pot), and 10 minutes to heat up. So I decide to procrastinate until Thursday with that.

I run around and confirm the entire guest list with everyone and make sure that all unconfirmed guests are actually going to show up. Of course you know that they all are. I'm not that lucky that this project would suddenly get easier by having people not show up.

Another shopping trip also happened. I know we bought bread, but I don't remember what else we bought on that trip. We had so many shopping trips that they are all blurred together in my head. I think we also bought some food for Dan, and some decorative napkins and ribbon. I had to do some convincing about the color choice of the decorative napkins.

Me: "Let's get orange and brown."

Someone with better taste than me: "How about blue?"

Me: "I understand that blue is prettier, but orange and brown are the traditional colors. I'm the American, you have to agree with me."

Then we stopped by the decorative ribbon place. The plan was to put the ribbon on the tables to add some color and design. It turned out really nice, but I think we bought too much ribbon.

Someone with better taste than me: "How much ribbon should we get?"

Me: "Well, we have 6 tables to decorate."

Someone with better taste, but less math skills than me: "How about 40 meters?"

Me: "Wait, how big is a meter? Isn't that going to be a lot?"

Someone with better taste, but less math skills than me: "It'll be fine, and it's only 5 lei."

Me: "Okay, if it's that cheap, let's go for it."

She hands me the money, and goes off to do something while I wait for the poor girl running the decorative ribbon booth to count out 40 meters of ribbon. She gets back about five minutes later and the poor girl is still counting out lengths of ribbon a meter long each. A small pile of ribbon grows at her feet.

Poor decorative ribbon girl: "That'll be 20 lei."

Someone with better taste than me, but less math skills than me: "20? Can you check your math?"

Poor decorative ribbon girl: Pulls out a calculator, and double checks the result with her coworker. "20 lei."

Someone with better taste than me, but less math skills: pulls out an extra 15 lei and pays for the ribbon. "Woops, I guess .5 lei per meter times 40 meters is not 5 lei."

Me: "Yeah, it's not."

If I had known that that was the price per meter, I could have corrected her when she first handed me the money, but ribbon discussion conversational skills aren't addressed in my "Learn Romanian" book until chapter 5, and I didn't understand what they were saying.

We head out of the mall deciding that our red ribbon, which was intended to go along with our orange napkins and brown napkins, will also go along nicely with every green thing we have when Christmas comes around. So it's okay that we have too much because we can use it later.

When we get back, I start devoting some brain power to solve the query: "How will everyone fit in the room we planned to use?" I scour the area and find three tables and six dts desks. The six desks will turn into three tables when you put two of them together. So that means we have six tables. If I put ten chairs at each table that will be enough seating for everyone. I reenacted my scouring, except for this sequel instead of tables, I searched for chairs. Adding up every chair I could find, we had 60 chairs. Success! And for the thrilling conclusion to this scouring trilogy, I did some more scouring for a few more tables to put the food and drinks on. I picked out three good ones, and considered the problem solved.

Thursday came. The party officially starts at 4.

I get up, eat a quick breakfast and head to Thursday worship. Someone tells me that it's cancelled today. I'm thankful for the extra time, but I wonder why I don't get these memos. Instead I read my Bible, I answer some emails, and I post on Facebook what I'm thankful for.

Okay, it's 10am and it's time to start getting ready. I have 6 hours so it shouldn't be a problem to set up the classroom, and get everything done in that time. I start bringing over chairs to the classroom, and have some people help me bring tables over.

Problem #1: Some of the chairs I selected are not good enough. I need to take them all out and replace them with the chairs that have been sitting outside, and all have a thick layer of dirt on them.

Solution #1: I do it. I remove all of the bad chairs, about 12, and clean off 12 chairs from outside, and bring them in.

Problem #2: The chairs from outside are not all set to the same height. Alex needs to help me adjust them with a mysterious chair adjusting tool that only he knows about, apparently.

Problem #3: Alex is gone. He went with Oana to her class, and he won't be back until 5.

Solution #2 & #3: I put the tall chairs at the adult tables and the small chairs at the kids table.

Problem #4: I can't move in all of the DTS desks until the DTS is done using them at 1:30.

Solution #4: I show up at 1:30 and have all of them help me carry all their desks (and chairs) over to the feast room in the white house.

Problem #5: I start arranging the desks and tables, but apparently I'm doing it all wrong. Instead of a perpendicular/parallel pattern I was going for, they all need to be angled.

Solution #5: I angle some tables, but I can't angle them all because they won't fit.

Problem #6: I have some tables angled and some not, and someone with better fashion sense, but less spacial reasoning tells me that my arrangement is ugly. They all need to be angled.

Solution #6: I angle them all in spite of the fact that there's not really room any more to walk between them.

Problem #7: It was suggested to me that I make seating arrangements for everyone so that the shy people that don't know many people will be able to sit with people they know.

Solution #7: Ignored that suggestion. People are smart enough to sit with their friends.

Problem #8: There's not room to walk in between the tables.

Solution #8: Ignore the suggestions that created problems #5 and #6 and go with my original design to have some tables parallel the wall and some perpendicular.

Problem #9: I'm squeezing too many chairs around each table. This meal needs to be one of extravagance and luxury where everyone has plenty of elbow room.

Solution #9: Ignored that problem. It's more important that people show up and have places to sit, than it is for them to have room for their precious elbows.

Problem #10: Hallway leading into the room is dirty.

Solution #10: Delegated to someone else.

Problem #11: Tables for food and drinks are not really working out.

Solution #11: Replace them with different tables.

By now the room is pretty much arranged. While I'm stressing over furniture, a team of skilled females were busy decorating the things that I wasn't moving around every five minutes. Now I can leave the room and go do other things. I head to the kitchen. Probably not a wise thing in hindsight, since the kitchen is the epicenter of all problems on Thanksgiving Day.

Problem #12: Turkey juices need to be collected from two different turkeys so that gravy can be made. It is suggested that I go talk to Twila.

Solution #12: I go talk to Twila.

Problem #13: She is locked out of the House of Joy, and also informs me that she isn't in charge of gravy. It is suggested that I talk to Gabi.

I run back to the kitchen, and find keys. By the way, you can always tell how stressed I am by how fast I'm walking. At this point I'm power walking and considering moving to a steady jog.

Problem #14: Dave needs me to check on his turkey in the House of Joy.

Solution #13 & #14: I run back to the House of Joy, give Twila the keys, and check on the turkey. It's been carved and is just warming up in the oven, but it's not quite warm yet. I tell this to Dave and also find Gabi.

Problem #15: Gabi tells me that it's not her job to do gravy. It is suggested I talk to Dave.

Solution #15: I talk to Dave.

Problem #16: Dave tells me that it's not his job to do gravy, and suggests I talk to Twila.

Solution #16: This thing has become recursive so I run away and ignore all gravy related issues for the rest of the night.

Problem #17: Sound system needs to be set up, with the projector and laptop. It is suggested that I find Ovi.

Solution #17: Find Ovi, and send him to go help set it up.

Problem #18: There's nothing to put the projector on.

Problem #19: There's no laptop to hook up to the projector.

Solution #18 & #19: Screw it, we won't use a projector and laptop.

Problem #20: I need to get dressed and make my cider.

Partial Solution #20: I get dressed. Cider will have to wait.

Problem #21: I don't know how to use a scarf.

Solution #21: Whatever, it's a scarf. You just wrap it around your neck a few times.

Problem #22: People are arriving and food needs to be taken over to the white house.

Solution #22: Delegated.

Problem #23: I need to stop running around like a mad man so that I can help introduce the meal.

Solution #23: Delegated.

It's time to start and everyone seems happy, and no one is complaining about the table set up, or a lack of elbow room. I take a picture with my camera of this successful moment and decide to stand at the back of the room and rest a bit while they go through indrocucing the guests and giving a bit of background to the history of Thanksgiving.

Problem #24: I don't think there's going to be enough food. There are six full tables of people and only one full table of food.

Solution #24: Delegated to God.

People get up and get their food. I snap some photos. Everyone is happy.

Problem #25: I don't have a place to sit. I would find an empty chair and make some new friends, but there are literally no empty chairs. There were 55 chairs in the room, and it seems I was off by one chair.

Problem #26: We need knives to carve the uncarved turkeys.

Problem #27: We need matches to light the candles.

Solution #25 & #26 & #27: I go and find a chair, knives, and matches and bring them all back.

Problem #26: I need to get myself some food.

Partial Solution #26: I fill up a plate for myself and sit down to eat it, but I'm interrupted.

Problem #27: Someone hands me a plate with food and turkey bones and plastic forks on it and says that I need to find a "bag" for it.

Solution #27: I put the whole thing in a plastic bag assuming they want to save it for leftovers. I bring it back to the person and they tell me that when they said, "I need to find a bag for it" what they meant was, "I need to throw it all away." I toss the whole thing in the trash.

Solution #26: I eat my food.

Everyone else is finished with their food and moving on to desserts, but I'm just starting to enjoy my meal. That's okay though. I'm at the kids table, and they have all left to go play so I have lots of space.

Problem #28: Trash can is full.

Solution #28: I take out the trash and replace the bag.

I go back to finish my meal.

Problem #29: There is a giant crowd around the desserts and there might not be any left when I finally finish my meal.

Solution #29: Hahaha, not enough desserts. That's funny. By the time I got over to the desserts, there were tons left.

Problem #30: There's not a lot of room left in my stomach for dessert after filling a plate 12 inches in diameter with food and eating it all.

Solution #30: Delegated to my intestines.

After dessert, it was time to hang out and talk. I didn't do that. Instead, I sat in a chair and watched other people talk. I was tired.

Problem #31: Trash was full again.

Solution #31: Take out trash again.

Most people were gone by 8:30 with full stomachs and smiles on their faces. The few that were left kept chatting, and some were gathered around the food table to snack on some leftovers. I took a picture of the first official leftover turkey sandwich as someone was making it.

Problem #32: It's time to clean up, and I'm tired.

Solution #32: Ignore it until other people start cleaning.

Eventually we start mobilizing, and a good collective effort is made. First we have about ten people cleaning. I help move food and drinks into the kitchen where people are washing dishes and consolidating food into containers. Then we have about eight people cleaning. We finish moving all the food over to the kitchen.

Problem #33: What about all the tables and chairs? Should we move all of them back to their spots?

Solution #33: No. We'll do it tomorrow.

Then we have about four people cleaning. I help dry the dishes that people are washing. Then we have two people cleaning and me. I help put foil on all the leftovers.

Problem #34: There's not room in all of our 5 refridgerators for all the leftovers. (The space is already being used by people's personal, non-Thanksgiving food.)

Solution #34: Cram it in, even if it doesn't fit.

Problem #35: It's 9:30 and my brain finally dies from exhaustion.

I sit down on the steps leading into the kitchen and just sort of stare at Timmy and Coco, the wonder women, as they scrub every countertop, clean the entire stove, sweep everything, and mop everything. By 10pm, they're done and the kitchen is spotless.

Ovi walks in, "Want to watch a movie?"

Me: "pohgpjapomvwe"

Ovi: "Okay, we're starting in ten minutes."

I watched the movie, "Ghost Writer" and I'd like to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that the cause of this was a lack of a functioning brain, but I could not figure out why the movie was supposed to be interesting. At the end they revealed the big twist, and I couldn't figure out why it was important to the plot.

After the movie, I went up to my bedroom, and climbed into my bed. Ovi came in behind me apologizing for being loud and needing the lights on for a minute. I said it was okay because I planned on being asleep in approximately 5.78 seconds. He started walking over to the light switch to turn it off and I honestly don't remember him turning off the lights. I was asleep before he got there. It was 12:30am.

Overall, I think everything was a huge success! And I'm extremely thankful for everyone that helped me set up, helped cook food, helped clean up, and helped do things that I don't even know about.

PS, I never did make my apple cider.

My Weekend

Friday I had my first staff meeting. It was long, but it was nice. At the staff meeting we did some planning for the House of Joy reunion that was happening on Saturday. 50 girls and 20 kids were planning on showing up. "So, who should be in charge of the kids?" "Mike's good with kids, sign him up." Well, yeah, but those are all English speaking kids. A few other people volunteered and we had a team of five. Five against 20 is not that bad. I used to do one against 10 when I was in charge of the 4 year olds at my church. I wasn't really nervous about that. The thing that made me nervous was that we had to entertain them for 6 hours. I don't know about you, but I can only handle so much of the "let's all dogpile on Mike" game.

Overall, it went pretty well. We had a bunch of stuff planned, but it basically boiled down to just letting them play outside. My favorite little girl, I think her name was Emma, played on the swings with me for an hour.

"Something in Romanian."

"You want to play on the swings?"

"Something in Romanian."

"Okay." I lifted her up into the swing.

"Something in Romanian."

"You want me to spin you?"

"Something in Romanian."

"And swing you at the same time?"

"Something in Romanian."

"Okay, here goes."

*Screams of elation.*

I don't know what she was saying, but I must have guessed correctly. Another game that one little girl decided to play was the "Tell Mike she loves him while she kisses whatever part of his arm is nearest her mouth." I like this game, and if more girls want to play it, I'm not opposed.

Then, once we were done with the kids it was time to head to the three hour conference. We set up our table and prepared to talk to anyone that might be interested in a DTS. Woops, we forgot chairs, so we had to stand the whole time. Sunday was day two of the conference with three more hours of standing.

I woke up Monday, and learned an interesting thing. 27 year old backs were not designed to do that much stuff without proper exercise. My back and legs were so sore, that I just stayed in bed until noon. I'm starting to feel better, but there was a period there where I was praying for the Rapture. "Just do it Jesus. My old body is broken. I need a new one."

Week Off

Today I learned why nobody has given me anything to do yet. They want to give me a week so that I can adjust to things. That's a pretty smart idea, except that it takes me about that long to get used to doing nothing. When they start giving me things to do, I'm going to be used to the nothing.

I also learned that according to a common Romanian phrase, if you really want to ingest the knowledge contained in a book, you should lie on it with your belly. Haha. :)

I made it!

I had zero issues with flights. My flight from LAX to Munich was spent watching Super 8, and trying to sleep. (It didn't happen.) Then I spent three hours in Munich sleeping on the chairs while I waited for my flight. Then I flew to Cluj where friends were waiting for me. I loved how uneventful it was.

Yesterday was more exciting. I went shopping by myself. I was surprised at how familiar everything felt. I found everything I needed, and even got a taxi for myself back to the base. Yay, I'm in Romania.

Everyone

Friend to me: "Everyone should do a DTS at some point in their lives."

Me, thinking to myself: "You're biased. People say that about lots of things."

...

Then I went to Romania to take part in the DTS in Cluj.

...

Me to everyone: "Everyone should do a DTS at some point in their lives."

How do I begin to explain this to you? Let's start with me. I grew up in the church. When I was five, I was in Sunday school, and the teacher marked out a circle on the floor in masking tape. "Step into the circle if you want to accept Jesus into your heart." I stepped in, and never looked back. I'll be 28 in a couple of months, which means I've been a Christian for 23 years. I've read my Bible cover to cover. I've heard thousands of sermons from dozens of pastors. I went to Westmont college, which very nearly requires all students to minor in religious studies. I walked into my DTS with the attitude saying, "I already know everything. What can they possibly teach me?" Maybe that's the attitude that you have.

Over the course of the twelve week lecture phase, 80-90% of the material covered was new to me! People say that you can spend a lifetime with God, and always be learning new things. Phrases like that don't really hit you until you experience them for yourself. Many times during the lecture phase I found myself asking questions like, "Why haven't I heard anyone preach the kingdom message before if Jesus talks about it more than anything else? Why haven't I studied the Holy Spirit that deeply before? Up to this point, why hasn't anyone been able to explain Jesus' authority in such a way that would make me shudder?"

Mark 4:41

And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the waves obey Him!"

So yeah, if you're thinking that a DTS is not for you, then stop thinking that! DTS's are for everyone! :)

Now comes the tricky part. How do you actually go and do a DTS? Five months is a long time to try and convince your boss that you need to take off. Maybe you have a new born and you can't exactly pick up and go to a foreign country so easily. There are DTS's all over the world, including some as local as Los Angeles, but that doesn't make it any easier for some people.

I was in that situation. I was working in a human resources job for two years. Our company had some major layoffs, but I survived all of that. I didn't feel very important, but it would seem they thought otherwise when they gave me a raise in the midst of a limping economy. There was really no way I could tell my boss that I needed to leave for five months to go to Romania for a discipleship training school. I also couldn't just outright quit my job because there was no telling when I'd find another one. I wanted to go, but it seemed I was stuck. So, I prayed.

My situation was different, but I prayed a prayer similar to the one King Jehoshaphat prayed in 2 Chronicles 20:12. "God, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you."

I forget how long it was before I heard an answer, but one day my boss called me into a meeting. He likes to have regular meetings with me to see how I'm doing, and hear about what I'm working on. They're generally a good thing, and the title of this meeting when I got the email about it was something like Redefining Job Description. I walked into the meeting feeling good. My mish mash job where I'm asked to do a little bit of everything will get a bit more focused. There will be less times when I have nothing to do followed by times when I have too much to do. It will be more even.

I sat down at the meeting. "We're going to have to let you go." Well God, that's certainly one way to answer my prayer. I guess I'm going to Romania.

Maybe you have both the time and money to do a DTS, maybe you have neither the time nor the money. Pray about it. If you're even a little interested, check out the website, or read through the questions on the application, or watch the video.

DTS's are for everyone, and since you are a subset of the group 'everyone', that means that DTS's are for you! :)

The day it started to rain

Metaphorically for myself, but literally for Noah.

(If you are into this sort of thing, check out the sermon on Noah that my pastor did when going through the Life of Faith series. http://realitycarpinteria.com/thelifeoffaith/)

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Noah? Everyone on Earth is partying and doing their own thing. There's no churches, or support groups, or small remnant of Christians. It's just Noah and his family. Then God tells him to do something crazy. At least, it would have sounded crazy to me. God was going to send this thing called rain, and He wanted him to build something called a boat? It had never rained before, and they were hundreds of miles from a body of water big enough for a boat that size, so no one had ever built a boat before. But he faithfully worked on that boat for 120 years. The things that people must have said to him.

I love the way my pastor describes it from the 39-41 minute mark in the video. If you don't want to watch a whole hour long sermon, check out that section.

I just imagine the day that it finally started to rain as a wonderful day. (Then later terrifying.) That was the day that God's word proved true. That was the day that all that hard work finally paid off.

A while back, I heard a call from God. I set out to start working towards that. Some days were good, but most were not. I'm a perfectionist, and I hate failure, and it was hard for me to deal with not being able to raise enough money to answer God's call. I started to wonder if I heard correctly. Did God really call me to Romania? When would God's promise to provide prove true? When would the rain come?

A friend of mine from Romania told me about how God blessed all her supporters. I wanted to believe her, but I didn't. Then last night, I was talking with some good friends of mine. They told me a quick story about when they bought their house. They borrowed some money from their family, and were working to pay them back. Somewhat unexpectedly, the person to whom the debt was owed decided to cancel the debt! I don't know how much it was, but my friends decided to use the extra room in their budget to support me very generously.

For the first time since I started fund raising, I can picture myself going to Romania. Once I sell my car I'll be nearly there. For the first time I can see God's promise to provide for me. I can see the rain.

The goal I'm about to reach is my minimum goal. With it I can eat, sleep, pay my bills, and do ministry. If I got more money, it would go towards, health/dental insurance, the occasional book to read, tithing, and likely supporting other missionaries that are trying to raise support to do exactly what I'm trying to do.

I'm getting excited! I'll be around for at least another month or two, but I don't think much longer than that.

Rich Young Ruler

Matthew 19:16-30

Mark 10:17-31

Luke 18:18-30

When the staff in Romania first asked me to pray about joining them on staff, this story was the first one that caused me to start seriously considering it. (The story that finally convinced me was the one I mentioned in my support letter about the Titanic.) I went to church, and this story was preached. It was in english during an international service. I found myself relating so much to that rich young ruler.

Sometimes I'll even have that same conversation with Jesus. "I've been good. I haven't killed anyone lately. I haven't stolen any cars. What else do you want me to do, Jesus?" "Sell everything you own, and follow me." In my context the follow me refers to going to Romania. The trouble is, that even if I sell everything, it still won't get me there.

In order to reach my minimum monthly support goal I still need $685 per month in supporters, or $16,440 (2 years). Even if I sold my car, tv, surround sound system, gaming system, and games for twice what they're worth, it wouldn't cover it, and people aren't going to buy those things for twice what they're worth. The rest of my possessions aren't worth anything, just some old clothes and yearbooks. I really don't see how I can possibly raise enough money to get back to Romania...

If Jesus has a different perspective using His Heavenly wisdom that supersedes my Earthly wisdom, He certainly hasn't told me about it yet.

Fingertips in the Sand

Last night at around 12:30 in the morning I felt the need to go out for a walk. I needed to clear my head, or pray, or worship, or I don't know. I just needed to go for a walk. I grabbed my sweater and sandals and went outside. Hearing the waves, I walked down to the beach. I stood there on the shore for a while and talked to God, and to myself. "Praise You in this Storm" popped into my head so I worshipped for a few minutes with only the waves and stars as an audience. When I stopped singing they didn't request an encore, so I walked a little further down the beach.

After walking a couple hundred yards I stopped, knelt down, and wrote, "God, Help me." You see, I've been faking it these past few days. On the outside, I'm optimistic about my situation. This is God's calling, so He will provide for me like He has provided for countless others in the Bible and among my friends. Yet on the inside, I'm becoming cynical and jaded.

"Times are tough," "money is tight," or so people keep telling me. Times aren't that tough. It's not like anyone is like the widow in 1 Kings 17:12. "So she said, 'As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.' " I love that whole story in chapter 17.

Anyways, I'm becoming emotionally overwhelmed by my situation. Hope only fades, it never grows brighter. So I knelt down and wrote "God, Help me." in the sand, and just stared at it for a while...

I got up and walked a little further down the beach, but I stopped when I saw something else written in the sand. It was upside down from my perspective, so I walked around to the other side. There in big letters was "I heart U," with the word heart replaced by an actual heart. Someone must have been out with their girlfriend or boyfriend and felt the need to express their love, and yet they didn't write, "Tommy loves Jessica," just "I heart U."

Take a minute and put yourself in my shoes. What goes through your head if you were to write, "God, Help me" only to find "I heart U" less than a minute later? The thing that's in my head is that God still loves me.

Thank you Lord for this reminder of Your love. Help me to prioritize You above Your gifts. Help me to be content to serve You wherever I am. If you want me to stay in Carpinteria for a while longer, then open my eyes to the things You want to accomplish in and around me while I'm here.

Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHdcyue0bSw

"Praise You In This Storm"

I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

[Chorus:]
And I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
And every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to you
And you raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find You

But as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

[Chorus]

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth

[Chorus x2]

My Fourth of July Weekend Adventure

I've been wanting to do some writing, but I haven't exactly done anything worth writing about. Solution: go do stuff!

On Friday I went to the beach and played some volleyball with some fun people with some fun accents. I like playing with this group. They make me feel like I'm the best volleyball player ever.

On Saturday, Carpinteria had a car show, and a parade, and an outdoor movie night in the local park. My roommate was in the car show with his 72 Maverick. It was really cool to listen to him talk to local car nuts about car things that I know nothing about. After the car show was the parade. It wasn't fancy or anything, but it was nice. There were kids, and tractors, and fire trucks. Just your typical small town USA parade made special because it was my town. Outdoor movies in the park happen once a week during the summer. They inflate this giant screen and project the movie onto it. We watched Avatar. Upcoming movies are: The Princess Bride, How to Tame Your Dragon, Tangled, and The Sandlot. I'm more excited about those movies than I was about Avatar, but you have to go big for the first movie night, so I understand why they chose Avatar.

On Sunday I spent most of the entire day at my friend's house playing with Legos. We set out to build the Millenium Falcon faster than anyone else. A team of seven Germans built it in just under three hours. We had 5 people. Even after calculating the time difference because of the different team size, we didn't come close. However, it was really fun to hang out and build Legos and talk about nerdy things. After six hours and twenty minutes of building, a couple of missing pieces, and a few dozen extra(?) pieces, we finished.

Monday, I went to the beach to hang out with some friends that were having a potluck. There were thousands of people there and an inversely proportional amount of parking spaces. After parking a comically far distance away (from The Habit on Milpas to the pier: 1.5 miles), I walked over to where the party was. The logic was that it was a nice day for a walk, so I didn't mind parking far away. Also, the parking spot I found was right next to the freeway onramp. The last time I tried to go to the beach on the 4th of July, I got stuck on side streets for an hour with a thousand other lost souls.

It was really fun hanging out with this group. They're a lively bunch. The most common question I was asked was, "Did you bring cookies?" The second most common, "How is fund raising going?" I thought about bringing cookies, but didn't this time, and fund raising is going slowly. Right now, I'm waiting to hear from my church. They told me they want to support me, but haven't said how much. If they don't feel like breaking the bank for me, then I might have to take up my friend's offer of doing a paddle-a-thon. She's on the paddling team (like canoeing, but different), and offered to sponsor me if I did it. The last time I did an anything-a-thon was a jog-a-thon in elementary school. I remember my parents regretting giving me a per lap amount instead of a flat amount because I ran so much that day. If the paddle-a-thon happens, I'll probably make my friends regret giving me a per mile amount. ;)

The fireworks were amazing, and we were practically right underneath them which added to the fun. After the show, we hung out for twenty minutes to let the crowd disperse. It's been a fun weekend.

I'm bad at this.

The last time I tried to fund raise, I was trying to go on a trip with a travelling sports camp. We were going to go from church to church using sports to tell kids about Jesus. I needed to raise $1500. We were going to spend a few weeks in the US, then a few weeks abroad, then a few more weeks in the US. When they did a sports camp at my church, it was so fun. I was really looking forward to it.

I sent out letters to all my relatives and neighbors and everyone I knew telling them about this exciting opportunity. In the end, I raised $100...from my parents, which I told them to keep since no one else was going to support me. I called the company and told them I didn't raise any money. Thankfully, they still let me do the sports camps locally, but I wasn't allowed to go abroad.

This is my experience with fund raising. My current fund raising adventures are going a little better, but not a lot. I have lots of prayer support, but not a lot of financial support. So, for all those prayer supporters out there, please keep praying. :) I need it!

Church

Today we sang a song that mentioned lepers, and my heart ached to be back in Romania, and my heart ached for the people living and serving in India. I love Carpinteria. I love walking along the beach on my way to church. I love my church, the intimate times of worship, and deep theologically sound messages. I love my friends, who are the same type of nerdiness that I am, but I left my heart in Romania. I wish I was a better fund raiser so that I could hurry up and get back to serving Jesus.

Menifee Internets

We have to ration our internet here in Menifee. We're only allowed a certain amount of data per month. However, that's not my excuse for not updating. I'm just being lazy.

Fund raising update: 12% funded. Yay. Thanks, parents for being 8 of that 12 percent.

I wrote a support letter that gives more information on why I'm doing this, what I'll be doing, and how you can help if you want to read it. It's a Google document so send me your email address in a private message and I'll share it with you.

PS, supporting me counts as a charitable donation and is tax deductible.

It's Time

Hello internets, it's time to start updating again. :)

My time in India was wonderful, and I have many pictures and stories to tell. I will be in California in June, and I want to meet with all of you. However, I'm going to be very busy putting together a financial and prayer support team. "Why?" I hear you ask. Well, because I feel that God is calling me to be a full time missionary in Romania for a season. I would love it if all of you wanted to be a part of my team. "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account." Phil 4:17

God blesses the givers (1 Kings 17:1-16) and I want all of you to be blessed, so let me know if you want to meet with me and hear about why I want to stay in Romania, and how you can support me financially and with prayers. :)

No pressure, of course. 2 Cor 9:7, "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver." But I want to give you a chance to know about this so that you're not like the Phillipians that cared about Paul, but didn't have an opportunity to support him. (Phil 4:10, "Though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.")

My treat

So, when I get back, I want to share with you some of my experiences. I'd like to start with the food. Who wants to go out to an Indian restaurant with me and eat a traditional* Indian meal like the ones I've been eating? Who's in?

*I mean eating without utensils, or washing your hands with any kind of antibacterial soap beforehand.

The Plan

I have been hand writing in a journal every day that I've been in India. I have some great stories that I'd love to tell, but I'm too too busy. Once I'm less busy, aka when I'm not in India anymore, I'll post them all on here. Until then, I'll post brief updates so that you know that I'm still alive and well. :) I also have around 500 pictures that I want to post online. :-p

The first week was spent travelling. The second week was spent working with kids from a local village. One of them was this cute little girl that was mute. At the end of the week, I prayed that she would be healed. That day she made some efforts to communicate, but didn't form any actual words. I truly believe that God will heal her and use her to save that entire village, probably more.

The third week is this week. We spent it at a conference that was a ten minute walk from the Indian Ocean. It made me so home sick to visit the beach. God was moving in that place and bringing people together and uniting people from different areas of the world.

One of the things that really spoke to me was a story about the Titanic. When it was sinking, it sent out an SOS signal. The nearest ship was the Californian. My ears perked up. I'm a Californian! :) The Californian clearly heard the SOS, and they were the ones that had warned the Titanic about the icebergs in the first place. So they knew the seriousness of the situation. They should have been the most eager to respond, but they didn't want to risk their ship to go in and rescue the drowning victims. They were afraid.

I too have heard a call, a call to stay in Romania. I too am afraid, afraid of how hard it's going to be to raise the support needed.

Think of how many more lives would have been saved if the Californian hadn't turn away that night. I musnt turn away. I'm going to stay in Romania for a while after I come back from India.

Brb

Well, we leave tonight at 1am local time. That's 3pm for you Californians. We'll take a van over to Budapest, then a plane to Moscow, then one last plane to our final destination. I'm all packed, and under the weight limit. Everything is pretty much ready to go. My Visa came today, as well as another Visa we were waiting for.

Please pray for Paul as he drives back from Bucharest. Imagine driving from Mexico to San Francisco and back, three times in 8 days. That's what he's done. When he gets back, he'll have an hour to pack and kiss his wife goodbye, and then he'll leave. He's going to spend the first three weeks with the first team, then the second three weeks with the second team. Those first three weeks will be the longest he's been apart from Stacey. So please pray for that as well.

I'm so excited to go to India. I love our team. We have the perfect mix of people. Some super outgoing, some super detail oriented, etc. I'm going to miss the Thailand team while they're gone, but I'm super excited to hear about all the things God will do in Thailand.

I don't know how often I'll be able to post while I'm on outreach so this might be my last post for a while. Please keep us in your prayers. We will be doing a lot of traveling.

A couple weeks ago each person on our team prayed and found a verse that they thought represented our outreach journey. Then we put all the verses together and each of us tried to come up with a single sentence or phrase that we could take with us, and repeat whenever things got tough. Here's mine:

Trust in God, walk with God, and He will secure for Himself the victory.

Prayer Request

Today, Paul is in Bucharest picking up the Visas. Everyone's Visas are done, except for mine. Please continue to pray.

Rich Young Ruler

Last night I was talking with Emma. She was asking me various deep questions, and we were having a nice discussion. Then she asked me, "Do you ever ask God something, then wait an hour in silence for the response?" "An hour?? Nope." She challenged me to try it.

The next day (today) was Sunday. I was getting ready for church like normal. Then I had some extra time. I went outside, since it was such a beautiful day, and prayed, and then just sat in silence. The birds were chirping, the dogs were barking, a local church bell was ringing. It was so noisy! hahaha.

My prayer was something like, "God, I know some people want me to stay here in Cluj, but I still have my college loans to pay off and that's hundreds of dollars every month. I don't know how I'm going to raise that much support unless I sell all my things back home. That is the main huge thing standing in my way from serving You here in Cluj. I know that I can serve You wherever I am, but I want to be sent by You to a specific target, for a specific purpose. If here is where You want to send me, give me a peace that surpasses understanding. (Phil 4:7)"

I waited, but I didn't really hear anything, so when the taxi came, we got into it and went to church. As I walked into church, I had the mindset that I'm still going to try and listen to God to get a response from the question, "What should I do after DTS?"

The two clear options are:

1) Go home. Get a job. Go back to normal life. Easy. Safe. Boring.

2) Stay here in Cluj. Join the staff. Raise all my support from donations of friends and family. Hard. Scary. Exciting.

Then church started.

One of the worship songs we sang:

God is able to do just what He said He would do.

He's gonna fulfill every promise to you.

Don't give up on God, cause He won't give up on you.

He is able.

(I don't have speakers on this computer, but I think this is the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnZGwXfLDN0)

Then it was time for people to come up and give testimonies about how God is moving in their life. Three people came up, and every testimony was about how God had provided money for them in their time of need.

Then the sermon started, and we talked about Caleb. He was one of the 12 spies that was sent in to check out the land. They all agreed that the land was a good land, but ten of the spies didn't think they could defeat the giants in the land. Caleb and Joshua knew God was bigger. (Full story: Numbers 13-14) Okay God, I get it. If you are calling me to Romania like you were calling the Israelites into the promised land, you are stong enough to make it happen.

Then we switched over to the New Testament in Matthew 19, the story of the rich young ruler beginning in verse 16.

Now behond, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

This passage really hit home. I am the rich young ruler. The only way that I can see that I can continue to follow Jesus here in Cluj is if I sell all my things. That makes me sorrowful, because I also have great possessions: a nice car, a nice tv, etc. I don't want to sell all those things.

Then the pastor went over to Mark 14:36. "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."

Okay, it's not as important what I want. It's more important what You want, God, but how are You going to provide for me?

Then the pastor went over to Philippians 4:19. "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Okay, so You can supply all my needs, but my friends and family are going to think I'm crazy for doing this, since it's so risky, and goes against all conventional wisdom.

Then the pastor went over to 1 Corinthians 3, where I noticed verses 18 & 19. "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."

Okay, so I won't put the wisdom of this world (that says I should play it safe) above the wisdom of God (that says I should follow Him).

So, whereas before I didn't know what I was going to do after DTS, now I'm leaning towards staying here for another two years.

April Fools

April Fool's Day is in full swing here. The leader sent text messages to each of his staff members, "Hey! We're having a meeting right now. Where are you??" Each staff member had a mini freak out. Some of the students were told they were going to go work out in the fields today. Half of them belived it. Someone told me that I had a lizard on my back. Really? Is that the best you can do? Hahaha. It was pretty fun. Later in the day, the girls went out and had a girls/dessert night at one of the staff member's apartments. The guys promptly went out, bought meat, built a fire, and had a bar-b-q. Some of the girls were jealous that we were having fun without them. Really? You have a party without us, and then when we do the same, you get sad? Hello Double Standard-ville. Then a thought occured. It's April 1st. The girls are all gone. All of their worldly possessions are upstairs in their unlocked bedroom. Guys? What are we going to do about this? We all put our heads together and came up with the brilliant idea, "We'll do something." We didn't get more specific than that, or actually put any kind of plan into action because we got distracted by stomachs full of meat, and bloody guy movies with lots of fighting. Girls, consider yourselves lucky.

Busy Busy

We are very busy with outreach prep. Today we learned another skit. I play two parts: Family Member #3, and Section of Wall #3. If I may say, my performance as Section of Wall #3 is Ocsar worthy. I don't have time to tell the Bucharest story, so that will just have to wait. I've been spending all my free time trying to finish the last book we're supposed to read. Now, I have a new task: write a sermon. :)

I'm excited about this.

Bucharest

The trip to Bucharest went well. I took lots of pictures. Tomorrow I'll have to try and tell the story of our Bucharest adventure. But right now, it's time for sleep. Good night. Noapte Buna.

Getting Closer

April 5th is the day when I'll be changing countries for six weeks. I'm so excited. :)

I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do after the DTS. One of the options is to stay here and join the staff. Today, after our time of intercession and prayer, they had an impromptu staff meeting. Some of the sutdents hadn't left the room yet, so the leader said we could stay if we wanted. I stayed. I wanted to see what a staff meeting looked like. I non-chalantly remained in my chair.

They talked about all the things they were going to do over the next few months. It was cool to hear. They're doing a few different ministries, and conferences and even a staff retreat. Then after the meeting was over, the leader turned and looked at me, "So, are you coming on staff?" Haha, I thought I was being sneaky. (PS, I don't know if I want to come on staff or not. I'm still praying about it.)

Tonight's plans:

Today I got my Romanian Visa. :) Yay! I'm officially allowed to visit Romania for longer than 90 days! I have a laminated card with my picture on it and everything! (We weren't allowed to smile, and I had to take off my hat revealing severe hat-hair, and I hadn't shaved that day, so I look a little like a homeless person, but it's still very exciting.)

Tonight, we need to do some more paperwork things before we leave Romania for outreach. We're going to drive through the night from Cluj to Bucharest. For those Pettys out there reading this, it'll be similar to when we drive to Vegas on Thanksgiving. We'll leave around 11, and get there around 8 or 9 in the morning. There's 5 of us in a 5 seat car. Four boys and one girl. Please pray for us as we travel and talk with all the government officials. Also pray for the one girl that has to be in a car with four smelly boys. :-p

Team Meeting

Today we had a very important outreach team meeting where we played Uno, Jenga, and Three Truths and a Lie. Oh yeah, we also discussed outreach stuff.

This is probably easy for you blog readers because you know me so well, but I'll put my three truths and a lie anyways.

1) I was once so sunburned that I couldn't move for three days.
(It was the day I learned how to swim.)

2) I've hitch-hiked from southern California to northern California.
(It's surprisingly easy to hitch-hike on Halloween when you have cute girls in costumes with you.)

3) I've written a children's book.
(He's a pirate cat. His name is Aarrrrr.)

4) I know what it's like to be in the back seat of a cop car.
(Bachelor party in Orange County.)

Which one is a lie?

Conversation

Today I was in church and the pastor came over and chatted with us after the service. He was chatting with me about what I'm going to do after Romania. He wanted to know if I had plans to stay, or plans to come back if I did leave. I told him that I didn't know. Then he said something that made me laugh. "Are you single? There's a lot of pretty girls here." Hahaha.

Yep, that's one thing that would get me to stay or come back.

Today's Adventure

Today's adventure was a short one. We went downtown and wandered around for a while. I took way too many pictures of clouds. (I couldn't help it. They were big and the sun was trying to peek through, and it was creating that cool sun beam effect.) Then we ditched the girls, or they ditched us, depending on who you ask. We agreed to split up, and then we weren't where we said we were going to be, and they couldn't find us. Oh well. It was still a beautiful day. The wind was blowing our hair around.

Also, I think Romania is a bad influence on me. A couple weeks ago, I was the get away driver when we stole a bride. Today we got on the bus without paying. It was about to leave, and the Romanian in the group jumped on the bus. We all followed, assuming she knew what she was doing, and then Brooklyn asks, "Ummm, were we supposed to pay?" "Yes." "Are we going to pay?" "No." Brooklyn felt so badly about not paying. She's a good person. I didn't feel bad at all. I'm a bad person. If I come back and start a crime syndicate, you can mark today as the day that I started down the slippery slope. (Or maybe stealing the bride was the day, and this is just further indication that I'm still sliding down.)

Skits

We're learning a skit for outreach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA

I'm Jesus. :)

My Testimony

I was having the hardest time coming up with my testimony the other day. I didn't have a grand experience like some people. I was 5 when I got saved. (Hahaha, it would be funny if I did have a grand conversion story. "Yeah, when I was four, my life was pretty messed up. I was on heroine. My rock band and I slept with different women in every city that we toured to. I thought I had it all, but it just wasn't enough. I came to a place when I was five that I realized, 'I've been alive for 5 years. This can't be all there is to life...'"

[insert Stacie Orrico song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUOcQnWbk_U]

No, it didn't happen like that. There isn't a grand story for me to tell. ("Darn you parents for raising me right!" hahaha) Instead my life is like a ship going from California to Hawaii. If you draw a straight line from one place to the other, the ship is rarely going to be on that line. It wants to be on that line. That's the plotted course, but currents and winds will carry it away. When it starts to drift away from that line, they make a small correction. If they drift to far the other way, they make another small correction. Day by day, they're just trying to stay on that line, and before they know it, they're at their destination.

My life hasn't been about one big decision. It's been about a thousand small corrections. When I start to worry, I make the decision to read to Matthew 6:25. When I start to fear, I decide to run to Psalm 23:4 and 2 Chronicles 20:15. When my friends want to go out drinking, I decide not go to. When I'm sick, or tired, or beat down, or worn out, I decide to worship Jesus. Even if I don't feel like it, Jesus is still worthy of my worship.

My plotted course are the principles I've read in the Bible, and I try to live my life like that. If I drift to far away, I make a correction. If I drift to far the other way, I make another correction. Without even realizing it, I'm getting closer to my destination. My life looks more like Jesus than it used to.

Hebrews 2:1 says it like this.

We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

I like that.

Testimony

Definition: Declaration by a witness.

Today we spent some time and worked on our testimonies. We're supposed to come up with a three minute speech. I was trying to think of something to write, but I couldn't think of anything.

"My name is Mike. I became a Christian when I was 5. Now I'm 27. Some stuff happened inbetween. The end."

Boring.

I was trying to think of what to say in the context of talking to other Christians. I was trying to think of what to say in the context of talking to non-Christians. I couldn't think of anything. I tried to think of an answer to the question, "Why am I a Christian?" I came up with the response, "Because of what I've read in the Bible," but that doesn't mean anything to people that haven't read it.

Hmmm, I need to think and pray some more.

I like this

Today our teacher told us a story about a guy. She couldn't remember his name, and I haven't made any effort to search for him on the internet. The story goes like this.

He was asleep in bed when something woke him up. He rolled over to see what it was and he saw Satan sitting in his room! He said, "Oh it's only you," and rolled over and fell back asleep.

:)

Joke Explained

I decided that I can't just leave you hanging on the meaning of "I have a job for you." So here is the explanation.

I went to a men's conference with my dad and brothers a while back. It was pretty boring except for the very last speaker, Ken Graves. His message was about how it's not a bad thing when God calls you to do something.

Most of the time when we think of God calling us to do something, we think, "Ug, it's going to be so boring. I'm going to have to give up all my fun things." But that's not the case. Ken went to the Bible to analyze the very first time that God called someone to do something. He went all the way back to Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Think about it. Adam's job was to populate the earth.

God creates Eve, beautiful, tender, sensual, a perfect match for Adam. God then takes Adam by the shoulder, looks over at Eve, looks back at Adam, and says, "I have a job for you."

Hahaha, go get 'em Adam. It's not a bad thing to be called by God. ;)

"I have a job for you."

Hahaha, the title of this post is such an inside joke, that I think I'm the only one left that gets it. If I can't think of anything else to post tomorrow, I'll explain it. :-p

So, a couple days ago we had an India team meeting. In this team meeting we were each given our tasks for the India outreach. Here are mine. :)

Accounting: Booya. I was born for this.

Children's Ministry: Double booya. I'm on a team of four people, and we're all in charge of children's ministry, but this is also going to be super amazing fantastic.

Journaling & Photography: This sort of defaulted to me because I'm the only one on the team that has a blog, and I'm one of two people with a camera. However, this is going to be a fun task as well.

Teach Advanced English: Ummm, what? What does that mean? How advanced is "advanced"? Do I have to teach the difference between who and whom? Or between their, there, and they're? Or mabye they just want to know the difference between past, present, and future tenses. Where do I begin with this?

Friday Night Adventure

On Thursday and Friday there were a couple of birthdays. On Friday we celebrated.

Leaders: "Let's go to the park!"
Clouds: "Rain!"
Leaders: "Let's go bowling!"

So we went bowling. It was about 4pm when we got there and we were the only ones there. Half of the bowling lanes were being lacquered. Oh the fumes! Half of the people got headaches, the other half got high. I didn't have a headache, so I must have been in that second half. The good news is, I bowled a 127 and took first place in our group of bowlers. :)

After that we walked over to a buffet style restaurant and ate a lovely meal. I used the "order by pointing" method and got some chicken with mushrooms, cheese and a tomato on top, and some rice pilaf, and some french fries, and a roll, and some grapefruit and lychee juice. Yummy!

Then we split into two groups. Group A: "We're party poopers. We want to go back to the base, tell kids to get off our lawns, and go to bed early." Group B: "We're young and full of life. The party never stops with us. We want to stay in town and hang out!" Group A took taxis back to the base. Group B left on foot. Destination: Unknown.

After about 5 minutes of walking, "Destination: Unknown" turned into "Destination: Thrift Store." Boys reaction :-|. Girls reaction :-D. I had my camera on me, so I snapped a quick photo. "Hey! Blah blah blah blah blah!" Romanian to English translation: "You can't take pictures in here! It offends my sensibilities! Also, I hate men!"

Okay, okay. I'm sorry. The boys and I stood over in the boys section, which consisted of one rack of a few shirts and a few shorts. The girls wandered throughout the rest of the store, scouring for hidden treasures. Price by weight: 150 lei per kilogram. 23 dollars per pound.

While everyone was looking for stuff, I found a wall to lean against. There was a radio nearby playing tunes that I could groove to. Whenever I got bored, I turned my leaning-against-the-wall party into a dance-and-let-people-look-at-me party.

Man hater's reaction: *Scowl*
Cute thrift store worker girl's reaction: *glance then turn away and blush*

Seriously, that first lady that yelled at me never took her eyes off me. The cute thrift store worker girl on the other hand was walking around the store, organizing the hangers and clothes. The guys and I were hanging out in one spot. She kept getting closer and closer. When she got to where we were, she just stayed there for a while, putting clothes on hangers and being busy.

When she looked over at me, I said "Hi" but I don't think she spoke english. Eventually, she walked away and we went over and found the girls. They were waiting in line to try on clothes.

Number of items Timmy wants to try on: 4
Number of items Brooklyn wants to try on: 9
Number of items Cristina wants to try on: 12
Number of items you're allowed to bring back to the changing room at one time: 5

The girls went in and tried on all their treasures.

Number of items Timmy ended up getting: 0
Number of items Brooklyn ended up getting: 2
Number of items Cristina ended up getting: 2

We waited by the door while the girls bought their stuff.
Scowling lady: "Rawr, blah blah blah blah."
Translation: "You are standing 5 feet from the exit. You need to be standing 5 inches from the exit. You already made your purchases, which means you can't go further than 5 inches into the store. Also, I still hate men....and probably small puppies."

Sheesh, okay. Once we were done buying clothes, we left. Goodbye cute thrift store worker girl. I'll treasure those moments we had forever.

Next destination: Coffee place?

I heard someone say coffee, or cafe, or something like that. We walked some more and went into a bowling alley by a McDonalds. This was the place we went for Paul's birthday. :) We hopped into the elevator and rode to the very top.

Elevator conversation:
Brookyn (noticing that the elevator is pretty packed with the six of us): How many people are allowed on this elevator?
Me (noticing a sign on the wall): Ten people.
Ovi (notcing a comedic opportunity): I count as two people, you (Timmy) count as a half person.
All of us in unison: lols.

We get to the top and there's a really nice restaurant on the roof of the building. There's also a really nice view of the city from up there. (It was either a seven story building, or the elevator designers wanted us to think it was a seven story building by making the number 7 button the highest numbered button.)

Dear Freud, feel free to psycho-analyze our orders.
Girls wanted a fruit cup with ice cream
Dan wanted a virgin sex on the beach.
I wanted a love potion.
Ovi wanted nothing.

Mine was 8.5 lei ($2.88), and it was really good. It's a good thing it was really good, because it was kinda small. You can't go wrong with strawberries and bananas. We had some stimulating conversation (actually, this is not an exaggeration like the rest of this blog post). Then we went outside and took pictures of the lion and elephant statues, followed by pictures of everyone jumping at the same time. :) Then we came back and went to bed. It was very fun.

Confession

I need to get something off my chest. I'm not perfect.

I'm smart enough and clever enough to know how to get you to think that I'm perfect. I know all the right things to do, and all the right things to say. I've had many years of practice. I know exactly how to show off my strengths and also how to hide my weaknesses, but I'm not perfect. If you already knew this, then consider yourself among my best of friends.

God has been dealing with me in this area of my life. What I've been realizing is that one of my biggest fears is the fear of rejection. I combatted this with perfectionism. If I'm perfect, then how could anyone reject me? Surprise, surprise, it didn't work. Some people still reject you.

Someone was praying for me tonight, and they said something that seems obvious, but for whatever reason didn't sink in. Jesus is the only one that lived a perfect life. I'm not called to live a perfect life. I'm not called to be Jesus. I'm just called to follow Jesus, and do my best apply His teachings to my life.

Please pray for me in this area. Pray that God will build up a confidence in me to live as the person God created me to be, with no regrets or apologies.

I like this quote from John Eldredge, "Let people feel the weight of who you are and let them deal with it."

Numbers 22-24

Fiona: He talks!

Shrek: Yeah, it's getting him to shut up that's the trick.

In case you couldn't guess, the story in Numbers is the one with the talking donkey. Technically, the donkey is in chapter 22 only, but I like the full story. Balaam and Balak crack me up.

Balak: "Will you please curse these people?"

Balaam: "Lemme ask God."

God: "Nope. Bless 'em."

Balaam: "Bless, bless, bless."

Balak: "Gah!"

Me: *lol'ing

Or what about the part when his donkey starts to talk?

Donkey: "Why do you keep whacking me?"

Normal response: "Holy Toledo! A talking donkey."

Balaam's response: "You hurt me! I want to KILL YOU!"

Hahaha, take a chill pill buddy.

What do you guys think of Balaam? I like him.

Time

Me: "Hey, you're heading home this weekend right?"
Friend: "Yep, it's only a few hours away."
Me: "Are you going to raise some support?"
Friend: "Yeah, that's the idea. I'm going to talk in front of my church."
Me: "I'll pray for you. What time are you presenting?"
Friend: "10:30."
Me: "Cool. I'll pray before then."
Friend: "Good, because it doesn't really matter if you pray after."


I don't remember the exact conversation, but this is basically what was said. Then I was thinking. If God exists outside of time, and can see the beginning and the end simultaneously, then can we pray for things that already happened? Does it make sense to pray for things that already happened?

What if there's a car wreck on Monday, and I find out everyone is safe, and then I pray for everyone's safety? What if I was the only one that prayed, and they were only safe because God saw my prayer on Tuesday, and honored it on Monday?

Pray

Please keep praying for us over here. We covet your prayers.

There has not been a time during this entire DTS where everyone has been healthy. Everyone here, including me, has been sick at some point. (I had a migrane after playing basketball a few weeks ago, and for those that don't know about my migranes, they're the end of the world for me. I feel like dying whenever I get them.)

One student even admitted to me that they feel like they should just go home. That's how bad it's gotten for them! hnvtbiojewaui! Pray!

We are learning so much! We are all so excited to go to India and Thailand! God is moving over here! Going home is not something that God wants right now! Please pray for us!

Name

I decided today that I really like my name. Michael Joseph Petty.

Before today, I liked it simply because it was attached to me. I like me, so I liked my name. But today, I looked at each part and their meanings.

Michael: Who is like God.

The angel Michael was a mighty warrior in Heaven's army. Those are my aims: to be like Jesus, and to be a mighty warrior in Heaven's army.

Joseph: God will increase.

I didn't know this was the meaning until I looked it up just now. When I was thinking about my name earlier, I was thinking of the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. It's one of my favorite Bible stories. Everywhere Joseph went, people kept putting him in charge, and God blessed everything he was in charge of: Potipher's house, the jail, even all of Egypt. He went through some hard times, but at the end he was second only to Pharaoh.

Petty - adj - of small importance; trivial.

It's hard to be prideful when your last name is Petty. :) And yet, the last and the trivial shall be first in the kingdom of Heaven. :)

What do your names mean?

Finances

I told you all about how God provided the finances for the lecture phase of this DTS.

http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/02/gods-provision.html

Now we're trying to pay for the outreach phase. We need 9,000 Euros. We took an offering today like the last time, but I don't know how much we raised. Today in class we talked about the story in 2 Kings 4:1-7

2 Kings 4:1-7 (New King James Version)

Elisha and the Widow’s Oil

¹ A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”
² So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
³ Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. ⁴ And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
⁵ So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured itout. ⁶ Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”
And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. ⁷ Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

Of course everyone in the room saw the correlation between our little offering jar and the widow's oil jar. We put a little in, but with God, so much can be poured out! Please pray for these funds to be raised so that we may glorify God and His awesome power.

Timmy is going to her home town this weekend to try and raise some more funds for her portion of the outreach cost. Please pray for her. Pray that the Holy Spirit would go before her and prepare the hearts of all of the people that she will talk to.

We already took the offering, but I still need to pray about whether I should give or not. God really challenged me to give more than I thought I could afford in the last offering. So I did. Then I stressed for a few weeks about my finances. God had told me He would provide, but I was still stressing.

Then in my daily Bible reading, I came across Numbers 11:23

²³ The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

All of a sudden, I had a need to do my taxes. It took me over an hour to go through TurboTax, but at the end, my refund was $50 more than what I gave in that offering. God had covered it all. I've never gotten a refund like that before. In fact, TurboTax had this feature that let me compare last year's taxes to this year's taxes. Last year, I owed the government money. I have no idea how I got such a large refund. (Send me a private message if you want to know exact numbers. Let me just say that I'm not talking about donating $50 and getting a $100 refund.)

I remember when Stacey wrote on the board how much we needed to raise and thinking, "Wow, that is a lot bigger than last time." Then I pictured God. He was also watching Stacey write the number. Then He leaned over and whispered to me, "Watch what I'm about to do."

I'm excited to see how God will provide, but please pray for us.

PS, if you would like to donate, I'll give you the contact info for the leaders here. However, don't feel like you need to.

Creative Worship

I meant to post this yesterday, but I did my taxes instead. :)

On Monday, instead of pulling out the guitars and the sheet music, a few of us were asked to do some presentations. The subject: Creative Worship. The time from 9-10 was still dedicated to worshipping, but we were encouraged to be creative about it. Singing songs is not the only way to worship God.

When people presented, there were so many good ideas, and different ways to worship; two of which made me homesick.

The first person to present showed a Youtube video of some cool math equations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h60r2HPsiuM

The second person said they enjoyed going to the beach back home, and they showed a video of a peaceful beach.

Math & Beach?! I'm homesick for the first time since coming here!

Eventually it got to be my turn. I didn't feel like I had a ton of time to say everything I wanted to say, so I presented the short version of my creative worship to my classmates. Here's the long version.

Maybe it's just me, but I think that in order to properly worship God, you need to have a proper perspective on Him. So my creative worship is to appreciate how big God is, and how clever He is. I know you already have some ideas in your head about this, but let me share with you what's in my head.

Now, first question: When you think of God, does He blow your mind? If He doesn't, then I want to try and help you get there. Maybe you put Him in a box and carry Him around with you. (I do this from time to time.) Every once and a while, when you need something, you can let Him out, but then once you have what you need then it's back into the box with God.

Oh! And if you're a "good" Christian you'll even poke some holes in the box so that God can breathe. Maybe you'll even throw in some leaves and sticks so he can climb around on them. You wouldn't want God to be bored, would you? Instead of a cardboard box, you might even go to the fancy "Christian" box store and pick out a nice one. Nothing but the best for your God, right?

Haha, except God is not a pet frog. (Note to self: get a pet frog.) God is infinite! Okay, as a math major, I know a little bit about infinity. I've taken different classes that have studied infinity. Normally, when you think of infinity, you think of the numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4... all the way up to infinity.

Did you know that there is also an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and 1? Don't believe me? Let's start naming them: .5, .55, .555, .5555... I could go on forever just adding 5's. Each would be a different number. There are actually more numbers between 0 and 1 then there are if you start at 0 and count upwards. If that doesn't sound rational, then you're right! (Math joke for the math nerds that understand irrational numbers. :) )

Let's take another look at the number line with this new fact in mind: 0, infinity, 1, infinity, 2, infinity, 3, infinity, 4... There is an infinite amount of numbers inbetween each of them.

Does this remind you of anything? What about when someone asks how an infinite God can live in a finite being? Zero to one is finite, and yet within that space exists infinity! Is your mind blown yet? Because I have more.

Draw a line. This is length. It goes infinitely in both directions. Draw another one perpendicular to that one. This is height. It also goes infinitely in both directions. Draw one more line for depth, and you've defined a three dimensional space. We exist in three dimensions, so it's easy for us to understand this.

There are three lines. Each of them is independent of the others. You can move along the length without moving up the height or down the depth. Likewise for the others. Each of them is also infinite. You can move along one line forever, even out into space. And yet, working together they create something so much more! Three dimensional space!

Does this remind you of anything? What about the Trinity? Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Each infinite. Each independent. Yet, working together they create something so much more! Three lines, one space! Three in one! How about now, am I blowing your mind yet? I have more. :)

Take a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WF6V9RQFz8

Things as simple as a seashell, and a sunflower, and the wings of a dragonfly have complex mathematical concepts hidden within them! You think that happens by accident? Or do you see a bit of the Creator within the creation?

I have a couple more things I want to throw at you. :)

Starting with this two part video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySBaYMESb8o&feature=channel

God is not restrained by time. Yes? I have even heard someone say that God exists outside of time. Do you ever think about that? If time is the fourth dimension, does that mean that God exists in a dimension that's higher than the fourth dimension? That's what I think.

I'm in three dimensions. I exist outside of two dimensional objects. If I take a piece of paper, I can put two fingers in two different spots. According to that paper, I'm in two places at once. If God is omnipresent, then doesn't that make more sense if he's a higher dimensional being?

A teacher here at the DTS told us that "God is bigger than your imagination." That statement blew my mind. I wanted to stop him and explain to him the size of my imagination. I can imagine up to the 10th dimension! But I stopped myself, and started to process the truth of that statement. The Creator is bigger than the creation. If I make a sculpture, am I bigger than that sculpture's imagination? You bet I am! That sculpture doesn't even have an imagination! Likewise, God must be bigger than our imaginations! That means that God is bigger than 10 dimensional beings! Do you know how big that is??

Is there anything too hard for a God of that size? Are any of your problems or worries too tough for a God of that size to handle? Is there anything that a God of that size can't provide for you in your time of need?

First let God blow your mind, then worship Him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQYhWPFDa6Y