Romania photos, part 2

It's time for the continued update on the Romania trip!

I'm more of a visual type of person, so for all the details on some of our exciting stories, please visit www.thetruthministry.blogspot.com. Eileen does a great job explaining what we did and what happened! Some of our photos are repeats, but who cares, right? :)

Anyway, here we go with part 2...

On Friday night, we had a prayer meeting at Carmen's house in her kitchen. (We stayed with Carmen for the duration of the trip.) Sergiu, who is interested in coming to the US to be part of the Living Light School of Worship, led worship that night.


And THIS is Carmen! She's an amazing woman - not only did she let us stay at her house the entire time we were there, but she cooked ALL of our meals for us AND acted as our interpreter for EVERYTHING!



These are just a few more photos from the prayer meeting that night -- i found them to be aesthetically pleasing. The prayer meeting was incredible...everyone was having such a great time praying and worshipping that nobody wanted to leave!


What do you get when you combine a heart for the nations, an amazing anointing for teaching -- and you're cute, too? EILEEN!!! Yep, I think she's my new favorite Bible teacher. In this photo, Eileen is teaching at the women's conference that we held on Saturday.


Eileen brought a GREAT teaching, and then I sang "At the Cross"...it was my first solo in front of a large group of people, and it actually went over well! Roxana translated the words to the song into Romanian and had them projected so that everyone could understand the words. (Thanks, Roxana!)



At the end of the conference, Eileen, Carmen and I anointed, prayed, and prophesied over each woman that attended. It was great to see how God would use me in that gift - and it was really flowing! This was definitely another highlight of the trip for me! (And I got to use my design skills to create the "oil of joy" cards which we attached to each vial of anointing oil. I was so excited to create those!)


I don't know this girl's name, but she's one of the ones that I got to prophesy over... God gave me a really "interesting" word for her - one of those that makes you think, "God, are you SERIOUS? You want me to bring THAT?" The cool part about it was that it was what someone had prophesied over her a week or so earlier! (Yet another trip highlight.)




Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who donated glasses! We had over 100 pairs to give out, and there were so many who went home with a "new" pair of glasses. We didn't bring any of them home with us!



Now what would my blog be without scenic photos? These are some of the clusters of grapes that grew over Carmen's driveway...EVERYONE in Romania grows grapes! And they're SO good!

That's all for now! I'll post more in the next few days.

Pleasant Prairie Triathlon 2007

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Romania photos to bring you...PLEASANT PRAIRIE TRIATHLON 2007!!!

(I did the triathlon as a fundraiser for the Romania trip AND I shared a bit about the tri during one of my "sharing" sessions while in Romania...hey, they're somewhat related!!)

Anyway, here we go!!!


It's me coming out of the mile-long swim! In this photo, you can tell that i really do enjoy swimming...but take a look at the next one!!!


This is probably one of the funniest race photos of myself that i've EVER seen! I look like I'm surprised I survived! Either that, or nobody told me that there are no sharks in Lake Andrea...gotta love that one!


It's me on my bike! I look fast, don't I? Haha!


Uh...yeah...I REALLY like my bike...it's a road bike...FINALLY, something fast! (I had ridden a hybrid for the past 3 races.) I'm also finally racing with clipless pedals and cycling shoes instead of platform pedals and running shoes...what a difference! (And yes, I always remember to clip out...haha! No falls yet!)


And there's my dad on his bike! Yep...my dad is a triathlete, everyone...


I'm running!!! (Or at least trying to...) Hey, after 27+ miles of race behind me, I was tired! I still had a few miles to go!


My dad's running photos look WAY better...at least it looks like he's actually RUNNING!


At least I had a cool finish photo...


My dad had a great finish photo, too... wow...my dad really IS a triathlete! To all those out there who say "i can't", you have no excuse...


Here's my not-so-cool finish photo... Maybe we could call this the triathlon happy dance! Haha! What AM I doing?


And that's me with my dad and our finisher's medals! Again, to everyone who says, "I can't", you have no excuse. This was his first race EVER, by the way...


And what race would be complete without the best fans in the world? Eileen, you're the best superfan EVER!!!!

I have no official finish time because something happened to my chip... But with a dropped chain and a flat tire (that delayed me 15 minutes), I still managed to beat my goal of 3:30:00 by three minutes! Not bad!

In a nutshell, here's what I shared in Romania:

It was pouring rain the morning of the triathlon, with lightning, flooding...you name it! I still was insisting that God give me the weather that I had requested: something between 60 and 70 degrees, no rain, no wind, and no humidity. Before we knew it, the skies held back their rain, and I got EXACTLY the weather I wanted -- right before the race started! The funny thing was that there were storms surrounding the course, but none actually ON it. I had a great race, finishing my swim right where I wanted to be, and riding my bike faster than I ever have before...but at mile 16.5, I got a flat tire and couldn't change it! After a good 10 minutes of frustration, I asked God to send me someone to help me fix it...and he did! Mark #794 stopped and changed the whole thing! I was so excited! I finished "strong" (or as strong as one can finish at the end of an Olympic distance race), and I had a great story of God's faithfulness to share while in Romania!

That's all I've got... :)

(visit brightroom.com for all the triathlon photos)

Romania photos, part 1

I'm back from Romania!!!

It was a wonderful trip full of SO MUCH, i'm still trying to take it all in! I absolutely love Romania, and I can't wait to go back. Here are some of the photos from our trip...I can't post 'em all in one shot - there are just WAY too many! (And that's a LOT of editing and color adjusting...) Anyway, here they are!!!


Here's a group shot of all the women that attended the parenting conference on our first full day in Sibiu. (That's KC and I in the background goofing off!) It was wonderfully successful - Eileen did the teaching, and KC and I got to share a quick testimony. So many women were touched -- even those who were single and had no children! It was just the beginning of a great week.


Here's Eileen sharing a scripture with one of the women (Tammy) who was really encouraged by her teaching.


And here's me with Tammy!!! Tammy is actually doing missions work in Romania, and she's from New Zealand! I really enjoyed talking with Tammy and hearing her testimony. She's got such a beautiful heart!


Here's KC with one of the women at the parenting conference...i think that girl's joy bubbles over onto everyone she's around!


This is a view down the road that the church building was on. I found it to be interestingly beautiful, so the artist in me had to get a photo.


We took an afternoon to go to the village of Nokrij (I hope I spelled that right!) outside of Sibiu. Eileen taught the kids how to play a few games, such as "red light, green light", which they LOVED.


Here's another game Eileen taught 'em. I don't know what this one is called -- it's the one where you link arms with someone at your back, and you try to sit down and stand up again without letting go. It was hilarious watching them!


After all the fun & games, I did a short gospel presentation, and KC taught on the fruits of the spirit (supplemented with her own artwork!) That girl is so gifted - i kept forgetting how young she is!


This little girl was just so cute while she was praying, I couldn't help myself when it came to getting a photo! I don't have an exact number, but I want to say that at least 5 or 6 girls raised their hands and said they wanted to accept Jesus! HOW EXCITING!!!


We also got the chance to pray over each one of the kids at the village church and give them a bag of school supplies and other "goodies." It was really great - they were all so willing to receive it! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. :)





Here's KC spreading her usualy joy!


These little girls were just too cute! I had to get my photo with them. I just love those curls!!!!!


Scenic photo! This is a view of the village in "one direction" (without Lake Michigan, I really have no idea which way I'm facing.)


Another shot of the village in the "other" direction. Yep...still no idea which way I'm facing...but it's beautiful, isn't it?

That's all for now! More Romania photos to come in the near future!