Wednesday, July 30, 2008

So much to process!

Things have been going well here. The kids are all having a blast. The parents are very grateful for everything we're doing. We are all tired, and running low on energy...please pray for strength! We still have no power on our floor in the hotel...but things could definitely be worse!

I have had some really neat conversations with different missionaries, especially my friends from Brussels. I have learned a lot more about the mission field. I have also had a great time getting to know some of the kids on our team on a deeper level. Today I had lunch with a recruiter for CA...it was very enlightening! We will see where the road takes me, but my heart feels somewhat at home here. Who knows. I could definitely use some prayer for that.

Alan and Deb Hirsch are here. They came and spoke to our team the other night, which was really neat. I had the opportunity to go to one of the sessions this afternoon that Alan spoke on Hebraic Spirituality...the concept of not separating your life as sacred part and secular part but blending it all together...really cool.

This morning was awesome. Andrew was baptized! It was open for the entire conference to come and see. When one of the 10 year old kids heard that there was going to be a baptism he told his parents that he wanted to be baptized too, which is so special. We ended up having 3 baptisms today and ended with everyone singing He is Exalted.

As you can see I have been soaking in a lot, and learning a ton! I feel that I will need a whole week just to process things I've learned from here...not to mention what's to come in Cameroon!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Here in Sopron...


The rest of our time in Vienna was a lot of fun. Kevin and Keely got their bags and guitar...so no problems there. Thursday we went to the Belvedere Palace, which was Prince Eugene of Savoy's summer home, and to Schronbrunn Palace, which was Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette's mothers, summer home. They were beautiful! Karl realized halfway through the day that it was his birthday so Michelle and I went to the grocery store and bought a cake and filled it with whipped cream and nutella. It was a mess, but a lot of fun...and I think Karl enjoyed it.

That night we went into downtown Vienna to Stephansplatz and looked at a beautiful church. Kevin had the great idea of splitting up the kids into small groups and each having a map and a location. The leaders just had to step back and let the kids find their way to the place and back to the hostel. My group was assigned City Hall. I had Andrew, Jenny, Kt and Tony in my group. We made it there with extra time and were able to walk around and see a film festival and some other cool buildings.

Friday we packed up and headed onto Sopron! We made it here safely. Its been great to see kids from last year and meet new friends. We had a smaller group of kids this weekend, but everyone arrived Sunday so the Olympics program started, with Opening Ceremonies Sunday night, Monday the theme of status quo and using Samson, and today was humility, talking about Jonah. Sunday morning our team was able to worship with the rest of the conference. It was amazing to be in a room where people live all over the world to serve Christ yet you could feel true fellowship and family among them. I was reminded of how important Christ's story is, and what a privledge it is to be able to share it.

I have been able to step more outside of my comfort zone, meeting with missionaries and other resources here. Alan and Deb Hirsch came and spoke to our team last night which was awesome. I have been able to talk to someone who works with people to help them apply their test results from Strengthfinders. I have a lot of processing to do...and I'm excited about it!

Our floor in the hotel is having some power issues. Most of our rooms have no power. Yesterday we didn't have water. Its all being blamed on the american appliances and converters, but I don't think thats what it is...so I can't add more pictures...Things could be a lot worse!

This afternoon the team went into downtown Sopron. It was fun to walk around the quaint little town.

We have all had a blast with all the kids, but we are running a little low energy wise, so please pray for strength.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

We are here in Vienna!

Hello! We have finally made it to Vienna!!! Our flight was delayed 2 and a half hours...and we were on the plane the entire time! The plane lost power twice and then they had to replace the radio.

After a long flight with no sleep for me we made it to Frankfurt, Germany where we were supposed to make our connection to Vienna...but we missed it. They put us on the next flight...and it was very turbulant! Luckily I fell asleep before that flight took off and woke up when we landed...it was only an hour though.

We got to Vienna but poor Keely is missing both her personal bag and her team bag, and Kevin is missing his guitar. I got stopped in customs for a random search, and my bag was definitely search by TSA. I guess I have a target on me this trip!

Emilie and Sven made it here...they were in London and Portugal and met us here. We took a trip to the grocery store around the corner from the hostel where we're staying. We bought lunch meat and snacks for late lunch. After that we walked to the Promenade, an outdoor mall, in the pouring down rain. It was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow we will go further into the city and see more sites. There is talk about maybe going to Marie Theresa summer palace again, which I would love to see again. I'm hoping to see the Parlament, but we'll see what the circumstances allow!

There have been minor bumps along the road...but so far so good! This is a great team and I'm excited to see what God continues to do!

Off for some games with the kids then BEDTIME!!

Monday, July 21, 2008


I have been described as manic for what I'm about to embark this summer. Taking two mission trips overseas back to back...yeah...I think manic is about right!
A team of 16 of us are headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, which is off the west coast of Africa. Our church supports G and W Naines, who are full time missionaries through Navigators in Cameroon. They are having their national Navigators staff conference in the beginning of August. The wives have always had to stay home and take care of the kids, but we are going to serve the families and take care of the kids so the wives can be with their husbands. Like in Hungary, our team has put together a kids program, but this team decided on the theme of Godly Superheros! We have a skit, games, stories, crafts, and more all planned for the kids. I am amazed by what this team has put together. There are so many different parts and personalities on the team, but we all balance one another out!

Three students are just as manic as I am, and are going on both trips with me. I'm really excited to see what God will do. Also, to be doing almost the exact same thing in two completely different cultures will be fun to see and compare. I've never been to Africa before, and just going there is going to stretch me. I have a real sense that I'm going to come back from this adventure completely changed...I hope and pray that its true!

My Hungary Heart...


Last year TSheng invited me to be a part of one of our SPACE (Students Prepared to Act for Christ's Empire) overseas mission trips. It was my first overseas mission trip, and I was honored and thrilled to be a part of it! We had an excellent team of 7 high school students, 6 leaders and 2 elementary students assembled. We served Christian Associates International, which is a group of people who left the comforts of their homes to live and serve all over Europe trying to spread God's word. We took care of the missionary kids while their parents were in sessions for their annual staff conference. The week of the conference is such a blessing to each of the families. Its a time for them to come together and be encouraged by others who are experiencing the same thing, and to be rejuvenated for the next year of serving.

Our students wrote a whole kids program about finding God's treasures, including a skit with Pirate Sven who was searching for the treasure and learned that he needed God's treasure.


Tomorrow I leave to return to Sopron, Hungary with a team of 26! The students this year wrote a whole curriculum from scratch about running God's race with the theme of the Olympics for the kids. They have put together videos, themed nights, games, crafts, and the list goes on!!! This team of kids is so creative, talented, and giving! I can't wait to see what God has in store!

I'm excited to see the kids that we bonded with last year, and the missionaries that I have kept in touch with over the past year. I'm looking forward to stretching myself and having meals with the different missionaries and hear about their lives and experiences. Please pray for safe travels, team unity, and that we can really go over and above to serve these families.

Our flight takes off tomorrow around 5:30pm and we fly all night to Vienna, Austria where we will spend 2 nights to try to get over our jetlag. Then we will drive about an hour to Sopron for the 7 day conference. From there we take off for 2 nights in Paris to debrief and meet up with the Cameroon team...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The heart of a child



For about 6 years now I've been caring for 2 little boys who I absolutely adore! S is 6 and O is 4; and I've been taking care of them since S was about 8 months old. Their parents call me apart of their parenting team...and I think of them as my second family.

Each summer S and O go to Michigan for about a month to see family and go on vacation. This summer has been a bit crazy so we haven't seen each other that much. I went over there the other day to hang out before we all went our separate ways.

I was talking to the boys and their mom about my upcoming trip. I asked the boys if there were any questions they have about Cameroon that they would want me to ask the Cameroonian children. O wants to know if they play lacrosse, and S wants to know if they play baseball.

I also asked them what they wanted me to bring back from Africa for them. S wants a hyena tooth necklace, and O a cheetah...a real live cheetah. When I told him I wouldn't be able to get the cheetah on the plane he said "Miss Erin, you can figure out a way to sneak it on the plane!"
I told him I would try to get him a little cheetah statue or something.

While I was talking to their mom about life, the boys decided they wanted to each give a book to the Cameroonian kids on my trip. They scurried upstairs, and each found a book. O brought down his Preschool Bible, and S 'Oh Holy Night'. This is the conversation that happened:

S & O's mom - "S that is a great book, but its one of Daddy's favorites. Do you think you can find another one?"
S - runs upstairs to find another book
S - "How about this one?!" (holds up book)
M - "Sweetie, thats another great book, but it was a special gift given to our family. How about you choose another book. It doesn't have to be a book about God."
S- "But Mommy I want the kids in Cameroon to learn about God, so I want to give them a God book."
M - "How about you look in O's room on his shelf for a God book"
S (in tears) - "But I want the book to be from me, and if its off O's shelf it will be from him"
M - "let's go look together"

They went upstairs for a little bit, and decided that the Bible would be from both S and O.

To have a heart like that...wanting kids halfway around the world from where you are to learn about God and to want to give up one (or more) of your favorite books for them to learn.

I hope whenever I have kids they are like that.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Oh what to do...

So a week from tomorrow I leave for my 26 day adventure (I promise I will post about that soon)...if you don't know me, then I need to tell you that I LOVE pictures and photography. Last summer I went to Hungary (same place I'm going this year) and took over 1500 pictures in less than 2 weeks.

I find myself faced with a hard decision because my amazing, favorite, $500 lens was broken last year (we won't get into details about that) so I'm thinking that I might want to buy a new one for this year...or a new flash. Either will be a great investment...but note the word investment. Its not a word that you use to talk about $5...its something you use when you are talking about a lot of money. Unfortunately I have decided on having an expensive hobby.

I have asked for wisdom from an acquaintance who is a professional photographer. She was great help, but is making the investment even larger than I originally planned. So we shall see...

So what to do? What to do? (If you have any words of wisdom on this I would LOVE to hear them!)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Laughter



They say that laughter is the best medicine...and I think I agree! Not that I needed medicine last night, but I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed that hard.

Last night my friends got married. It was a long awaited (they dated for 6 years) and wonderful event. The bride was beautiful, the wedding was great. The reception was outside with white Christmas lights, candles, and even the neighborhood across the street had fireworks. Absolutely amazing!

With that said...there were many "memories" (as I like to call them) made. I started typing the whole elaborate story of each event, but this post would be forever long, so you get the shortened version. Someone forgot to light the unity candles, so during a prayer in the ceremony one of the groomsmen quickly goes to light the candles, but lights the MIDDLE ONE...the one the bride and groom are supposed to light! He quickly blew the candle out and lit the correct ones. I helped set up the beautiful dessert reception after the ceremony. Two of the 3 tier gold cardboard cookie trays collapsed while people were taking them to the tables, and sent cookies FLYING! Someone was trying to place her cookie tray at a table, tripped and knocked all the drinks over on the table. There were 2 chocolate fountains, as someone was pouring the melted chocolate into the fountain the wind picked up and blew chocolate everywhere. To try and block the wind they brought out a divider that blew over and knocked the entire fountain off the table! All of these received a good hearty laugh.

As the bride and groom were leaving my friend Amy and I went walking around the "getaway car" to observe the new decorations. Many inappropriate but very funny comments about sex were written all over the windows. The best was on the bumper it said "Bump Her" Amy and I laughed as we walked into the parking lot, to the car and drove all the way home...10 miles. We tried on many occasions to stop laughing, but the more we tried to stop the more we laughed. The whole way home I was trying not to wet myself! As I pulled into Amy's driveway I ran to her door and tried to unlock it. I was jumping up and down because I had to pee so bad and still laughing but could not get the door unlocked. Amy walked up and just opened the door, it wasn't even locked! We both doubled over in even more laughter crossing our legs so we wouldn't wet ourselves. The babysitter came in and looked at us like we were insane. Needless to say, a lot of fun was had at the wedding, and more laughs that I can't even remember happened.

Its great to have good friends that you can laugh at everything and nothing with! :)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

New to this...

So after going back and forth for weeks about whether or not to get a blog...I obviously decided to give in. When I first started thinking about starting a blog I had so many things inside my head that I was having a hard time to get out and process, I thought a blog might help. Then I realized those thoughts would be posted on the internet for the world to see and not all of it I wanted to share so I changed my way of journaling to remedy that :)

My final decision to start blogging was thinking about the upcoming adventure God has called me to and how I can easily share the stories. In 13 days I am leaving on a 26 day, 4 country adventure! I will post on that later.

I will promise some fun stories and pictures of my upcoming trip...but after that we'll see how into this blogging thing I'll get.