Oh Silent Night!

It is  five minutes to Christmas here in Bucharest. Earlier in the day, Susan (who is visiting for the holidays :) :) :) ) and I were discussing how it just doesn't seem like Christmas without the candlelight service on Christmas Eve at Gordonsville Baptist Church. My church here has a Christmas Eve service so we went like good girls. It was the children's program along with the carols sung by the youth. I knew quite a few of these carols because I have been attending the practices for the past five Saturdays but didn't join in the singing because I missed a dress code memo (aka I thought it was okay to wear pants because it was the children's program but it really wasn't a good idea).

Anyways, towards the end of the service one of the leaders got up to lead the congregation in the closing hymn before being dismissed. Right as he stood, the electricity in the church went out. Everyone whipped out their cellphones lights to see. Then, they started to sing. It was Silent Night and we sang by cellphone light instead of candlelight. Susan and I sang along in English but we forgot a few verses. It was an awesome!
Merry Christmas everyone!

Residency!

After six months and six days of being in Romania, I am now officially a temporary resident. I was approved for residency for five years which is the longest period of time permitted without reapplying for Americans. It has been a long process full of surprises like having to be fingerprinted or cards not being printed but it is over :)

Thank you all for your prayers for this!

Also, thank you Madi and Mishi for all your trips to the Immigration Office and waiting in line for 2.5+ hours :).

Mos Nicolae

December 6th is Mos Nicolae or Saint Nicholas day. I didn't really know this nor do I keep up with saints' days because they are just way too many of them but Nicholas is special and very important to candy lovers. On the night of December 5th, children all over Romania and other countries put out their shoes. In the morning "Saint Nicholas" has filled them with candy. This is sort of a pre-Christmas holiday.
To celebrate this Christmas tradition, volunteers from the Romanian company InMedio came to visit. They held a Christmas program for the 1st and 2nd graders during which they made ornaments for their classroom trees, cards for their parents, and sang carols.

Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year we had many things to be thankful for at Project Ruth and the Ruth School. During Thanksgiving week, there was a Gypsy Smith School session for 20+ Roma church leaders. Anna & I made and decorate cupcakes on Thanksgiving Day to give to the men to share a cross-cultural moment with them. We expressed how this year we are so thankful for the leadership they provide and the witness for Jesus that they are each day in their villages.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Also, Anna, Tammy and I were especially thankful for the end of many loads of laundry. Laundry is not one of my favorite things at all, just ask my mother or college roommate :). Yet, in mid-November we noticed that all of the linens that Project Ruth owned were in the dirty laundry mountain so we had to get washing.... Not only did things have to be washed, they had to be dried and ironed. Fortunately, Project Ruth has a clothes dryer which makes this process easier but it could only be run in the evenings when the school was closed because of electric limitations. Yes, we did cause the school to lose power but only once :)

Luminita, Anna, Atena and I
 the cooks and dishwashers :)

"Thanksgiving is all about food." This was my short answer when trying to explain one of the best days in American culture. In order to stay true to this, Anna & I ordered a pizza for dinner and I made mac-n-cheese while on the phone with my mother to make sure I got it just right. Now, we would have had a real Thanksgiving dinner but we were washing dishes for GSS and the kids all day (7:30, 11, 12, 1, 5). 

Party girls :)

On Saturday, Tammy, Anna and I organized an American Thanksgiving dinner for our co-workers and close friends (about 35 people). We cooked frantically all morning. Around ten, I had just put the sweet potato casserole in the oven and the power went out for over an hour. This put a bit of a kink in the cooking schedule but everything worked out. It was a wonderful afternoon of food, fellowship and crafts for the kids.

Library decorated for the
 American Thanksgiving Party!



Side note - I just finished decorating my apartment for Christmas! 23.5 days until Susan Shifflett arrives :) :) :)

Burlington Baptist Youth visits Project Ruth

The British Team

This past week we had a wonderful team of youth visiting from Burlington Baptist Church in Ipswich, England. There were seventeen total volunteers that were full of energy, activities and love to share with the students of the Ruth School. The 1st-4th graders were actually on vacation last week but over forty of them came each morning at ten for a Bible lesson, craft, games and fun songs. Through-out the school day, the team was involved in teaching music, PE, and art classes for the 5-8 graders.

In the afternoons, Anna and I were able to take them to hang out at the mall and in the park. It was great to hang out with youth and I love seeing all of them bond together. Them interacting made me miss GBC youth quite a bit.

Alex was the first one to club every morning!
And is still in need of a sponsor

My day to day activities are varied depending on what needs to be done. I have been helping get the child sponsorship information updated. We have over thirty students that are still in need of sponsors so if anyone is interested in sponsoring a student for $30 per month please let me know.




Random information about life here now...

Chips & Salsa :)

--- it gets dark around 5pm every night.
--- the grocery store has recently gotten baked Lay's potato chips which has made my week.
--- the students are getting use to the rountine of chapel and sing their little hearts out every week.
--- Anna and I discovered a Mexican restaurant in downtown Bucharest that is WONDERFUL :) :) :)
--- the leaves are beautiful in the parks here. I don't see many trees in my neighborhood so visits to parks are a treat. 

The leaves are changing

Finding the Small Town in the Big City

 Well folks, I have been in Romania for over four months now and I think it is safe to say that I have settled into life here in the city of 3 million people. Sometimes when I am roaming around the city, I find it hard to believe that I have gone from the small town of Gordonsville and relatively small town of Bluefield to Bucharest. Yet, God is revealing to me that cities have a small town feel to them when you know your neighbors or maybe this is just unique to Ferentari. Each and every time I feel slightly alone walking down the street or waiting for the bus and start to feel a little twinge of homesickness for good ole’ Gordonsville where I can always find someone I know in Food Lion, I see a familiar face. This afternoon I had an experience that felt like I was in a small town in the South. Last Thursday, Anna and I were craving raw veggies and ranch dip, so we went to the vegetable stand at the end of my street. While I was in the process of collecting my change from the veggie man, a man began to speak to Anna in Romanian and didn’t seem to back off when she said she didn’t speak Romanian. I figured he was begging for money but turns out he was trying to convert us to Christianity. We then proceeded to walk away because my Romanian isn’t strong enough to discuss theology in the middle of the street. Upon arriving home, we realized that in the confusion I had forgotten the red peppers. This afternoon, I decided to make some soup because it has gotten chilly here fast. Again, I made the pilgrimage to the veggie stand for some onions, turnips and whatever else is  in season. The veggie man quickly recognized me and insisted that I take a pound of peppers for free because he remembered that I had forgotten mine last week. I am so thankful for simple blessing like knowing the veggie man in the midst of this big city, I am a small town girl at heart.  

Please be in prayer for this church leader as
he goes back to minister to his community.

In other news, this past week was a Gypsy Smith School which is a leadership training program for Roma church leaders from churches all over Romania. There were 21 men in attendance. One of the men graduated from the program during this session because he had completed eight sessions. These men stayed in the Ruth Centre and ate all three meals at the Ruth School which meant that Anna and I were on major dish duty to help the kitchen staff with the increase in demand for their delicious food.

One busy week...

The nurse sharing about

 Women's Health at Mother's Club.

Mothers Club crafts

This week we were joined by a team from Anderson, South Carolina. On Monday, we hosted a Mothers Club for Ruth School moms. Twenty mothers were in attendance. The school nurse joined the festivities and gave some information regarding women's health in conjunction with breast cancer awareness month in October. The mothers then decorated frames and enjoyed snacks. We are really excited about this mother's outreach because it is a way for us to minister to the young mothers and encourage them to be involved in their children's academic careers.

First grade was the best class
 of recorder players

On Tuesday, the majority of the team took the Obed Day Centre students the Zoo and McDonald's for lunch which is pretty much the perfect day for them. From what I hear, the students loved the tigers and the Smurf Happy Meal toys :) I stayed at the Ruth School with two of the team members to lead makeshift music classes. One of the team members is a music minister and former music teacher. He brought 198 recorders for the Ruth School in his suitcase. The students have enjoyed learning to play them and only spend part of the practice time actually playing.

Sewing Club!

Sami, the youth minister at
 Providence Baptist, lead worship
 for chapel.

Chapel on Wednesday was a new experience for the Ruth School students. It was the first one in the history of Ruth School and will continue henceforth weekly. The team told the story of Ruth and then explained why the Ruth School is called Ruth. For those of you who don't know, Project Ruth is named Project Ruth because of the fact that like Ruth was welcomed in a land that was not her own, everyone is welcomed here. In the afternoon, we kicked off the sewing and craft club with scarves. We started the club with 9 machines working and by the end of the club we had two working. This was not the fault of the students but the fact that the machines are about 50+ years old. Needless to say, we are exploring ways to get new or newer machines.

Playing in the park
during the field trip

Thursday, the South Carolina team sponsored a trip to Targoviste, which is the former capital of Romania. The first, second and third grade classes piled onto the double decker bus this morning along with the team at 7. We visited the ruins of the Royal Palace which is where Vlad Tepes ruled from in the late 1400s. After visiting the ruins, we played in the park for an hour then feasted on our picnic. It was a fun filled day. The students enjoyed getting out of the city and were fascinated by open fields in the countryside. It truly is the little things in life!

Yesterday was our first open house and recorder concert for the parents of the Ruth School. It went fairly well. The students enjoyed playing their recorders for their parents but I'm not sure if their parents enjoyed the squeaking very much :) The turn out of parents was not as large as we had hoped but maybe next time. Many of the mothers who came to mother's club on Monday were happy to finally hear the concert they had hear about earlier in the week.

Open House

Thank you Boulevard Baptist in Anderson, SC for sending a team full of energy and ideas to help get all these new programs at Project Ruth up off the ground!

If you would like to see more pictures of what is happening at Project Ruth please follow this link and "like" us on Facebook.

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