Dear Friend,
Once again God spoke to me through His Word. This morning I went up to the cross with Andrew, Chelsea, Anne, and Hollyann. We did a little group devotion. There’s a part in my Warren Wiersbe commentary on James. It concentrates on James 5:7-12, the section entitled so perfectly by the NIV as “Patience through Suffering.” Suffering is a somewhat extreme word for my experience yesterday. In fact, very little about it was suffering. However, I couldn’t help but feel the passage was still encouraging me to remain patient. I shared it with the others and we discussed for awhile the previous day’s events and how we might maintain our patience through the rest of the week. I greatly appreciated the initiative that was taken by my peers to have devotion time with each other. In fact, this group overall has done a very good job at taking the initiative and being proactive.
Breakfast was rather dead, which I expected. We were all supposed to meet with our groups at the restaurant down the mountain, Montana. Everyone comes shuffling in looking quite out of it, eating mostly in silence and rarely making eye contact with anyone. I figured this wouldn’t be the best time to strike up conversation with anyone, so I too ate in silence.
Today our group planned to tackle the low ropes course. Most of the course elements I enjoyed. The following are descriptions for some of the elements we participated in.
The Trust Fall was first done on the ground and then done from a tree stump. Each of us started with a partner on the ground. One of us caught as the other fell backwards. From the stump each of us fell backwards and the others caught. On the ground, you have to hold your arms out in an every-other pattern with the other members of the team. Your arms get really tired after awhile. Also, I’d suggest that if you have a two hundred pound, six foot four member in your group be very prepared to work hard at catching him. He very well may be larger than even he realizes. It was a thrill nonetheless.
The Spider Web was a challenging element. A giant spider web made of rope is strung up between two trees. The idea is to get your group from on side of the web to the other. The trick is to go through holes in the web without touching the web, otherwise you have to start over again. Also, each hole can only be used twice. Further handicaps are given by restricting movement or speech for some members of the group.
The Wall involved a lot more lifting. The entire team has to get over the wall using only each other to do so. There’s a platform on the other side of the wall where group leaders stand to assist lifting people over the top, but very little else is given to the group. I and another member of the group, Willy, helped to lift the other members to the top of the wall where Claudius, pretending to be a princess waiting for her prince, helped in a very un-princess fashion by getting group members over the top. I was the last person to go over the wall, which involved Claudius lowering a rope halfway down the wall and me jumping to grab the rope and climb my way up. This element helped me realize I need more arm strength, because I could barely lift myself near the end.
Lunch at the camp is eaten by the fire pit. Two of our leaders usually leave the team to prepare lunch for the rest of us. When we get to the picnic table by the pit, lunch is laid out for us in piles. There’s a pile of bread with margarine, a pile of sliced cheese, a pile of cut sausage, and a pile of cucumber slices. Everyone then dives in and selects food from each pile as they please. Beforehand some kids led the rest of us to a small spring to wash our hands. The water was very cold. On our way back to camp we spotted some raspberries, which many of us decided to pick. They were very delicious. Lunch was alright. I ate primarily bread and cucumbers, but felt it necessary to have some of the sausage. The sausage turned out to be alright. For dessert each of us received a packet of twenty or so small, square, chocolate biscuits, which turned out to be rather bland. The others absolutely loved them, though. Apparently the biscuits are really popular here.
After lunch we did an element called the See-Saw, which is essentially a giant see-saw. The first part of this element is to balance the platform with everyone on it. You can’t allow either end of the platform to hit the ground, otherwise you start over. The second part is to switch places with the person opposite you while still balancing the platform. I’m so tall and big that two guys from the group had to change places with me.
During most of the elements, but this last one especially, there were a lot of people in the group trying more to be leaders than followers. Anne and I were very often in the midst of heated arguments amongst the kids. They spoke in Romanian, so neither of us understood the words, but I think we understood the meaning. After this last element Ana facilitated a group discussion about the importance of listening. Raluca translated for Anne and me, and also encouraged us to share our thoughts. Anne thanked the group for their patience concerning us, two Americans who don’t speak a lick nor understand a word of Romanian. I encouraged the members of the group to continue forming ideas but be willing to accept others’ ideas as well. I told them they are all very smart and have really good ideas, and the key to their success is to realize that everyone else in the group also has good ideas. Ana translated our comments to the group. Most of them can speak rather good English, but they understandably prefer to communicate with Romanian.
The last two elements I found very frustrating. The TP Shuffle involved all of us sitting on a cut down tree trunk, keeping our feet from touching the ground. We then had to reorganize ourselves according to birth month, then last letter of our first name, and finally by hair length. All this (except the last one) had to be done without speaking or touching the ground. Initially I had no clue what was going on because no one had translated for me. I didn’t even know we had started. Suddenly I was breaking a bunch of rules without even knowing it. This is when the frustration began setting in. I was doing rather well until the end of the first one, when I fell flat on my back. On top of the frustration was now embarrassment. Everyone was very supportive, though. The final element was the Low Mohawk, which is an exercise involving walking on wire tied between two trees. I fell on this one, too. I was really just ready to be done for the day. I tried to not let it all get to me, because I had been doing so well up until this point.
At supper I had the chance to have a conversation with two kids from my group. Katalin and Olivia are the token couple in the group. Katalin reminds me of by friend Matt Hulstein, when he hasn’t shaved for awhile, very wiry and pronounced features. Olivia reminds me of a more petite Catherine Zeta-Jones, but for some reason the way she dresses reminds me of Audrey Hepburn. She’s very classy. Our conversation started with celebrities. We spotted a famous Romanian supermodel on the restaurants flatscreen television, which led us into our conversation about celebrities, how the very attractive yet not so talented ones seem to get the most money and be in the most movies. Olivia seemed irritated by that.
We then moved into conversations on school and what to do after school. Katalin asked me about my being in Romania and I gave what I thought was the short version of the story. I’ve been trying to shorten the story, mainly saying I’m in Romania because of A.R.T. Fusion. It seems to make the conversation less about me and my life, which helps maintain the dialogue. I monologue way too much. They were very kind and patient with me, though.
During supper I looked at the TV, suspended in one corner of the restaurant. The news was on, and someone was reporting on hurricane Gustav which was now passing through the Gulf of Mexico. My thoughts instantly went to Hollygrove, the area of New Orleans I had served a twice in the past years at Northwestern. I was a little surprised by the concern I felt, in large part because I hadn’t felt it before, with previous hurricanes. Being halfway around the world, I think, adds more to your concern for your whole country because your whole country becomes home for you when in a different country. I don’t live in New Orleans, but because New Orleans is a part of the United States it somehow becomes home. I hadn’t felt this way when Katrina hit because I was home in Iowa. Now, in a country across the Atlantic Ocean, all of the United States is home.
The night ended with another visit to the Orthodox Church. We all sat on the floor as the priest spoke about the history of the church, some Orthodox theology, and the church’s relationship to Viaţa. Ana translated. The priest went on to encourage us to visit the church as often as we liked and also encouraged us not to judge others, especially kids, based on Orthodox presuppositions. The example he gave for the latter was not judging a girl who goes to church wearing shorts and a tanktop. Such attire would usually not be accepted in church, but the priest suggested that no matter how she dresses she’s in church, which is more important. I did my best to stay awake, which was very, very difficult. The priest had good things to say, but spoke very slow, and the atmosphere was such that it would be convenient to fall asleep. The priest did, however, speak about the peace of God, which caught my attention. I was surprisingly moved by how passionate he was about being in church. That’s where God is most, he told us. He was very adamant about being where God is and meditating on the Word.
We exited back through the tunnel where the church calendar is exhibited. I noticed other paintings showing different scenes from the Bible. I want to return and take a closer look through the tunnel. I was so tired, though, that getting to bed was the only thing on my mind.
I don’t think I realized up until now how frustrated a lot of this week would truly be. I guess I expect just the usual awkwardness between two cultures, or that I’d be able to deal with such awkwardness. Maybe my expectations are too high. I know I’ve had that problem before. This morning’s devotion rings truer to me now at the end of the day. I just hope by the end of the week I’ll make some headway.
Blessings.
Kailen
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