Dear Friends and Family,
This is an unedited, rough draft of some thoughts I wrote the other evening:
I'm in Galaţi sitting in a park not far from home, the one that looks like a big green octagon on the map. The day today was unusually hot, but as the sun finally sinks behind the towering linden trees, a cool breeze begins to blow. The sun casts golden rays of light through the branches, giving the leaves a luminescent glow. There is trash scattered about on the spotty grass, a reminder to me of both life and death. I notice a group of children running and playing with whatever treasures they find on the ground-this time an old tire–while two older women sit on a concrete bench, “la taifas”* on this Sunday evening in July. Not far away a group of teenagers is gathered around another bench gossiping and popping their gum and comparing their newest ring tones.
The breeze picks up and a white plastic bag jumps across the pebbled path in front of my bench. I shiver, suddenly reminded of Wednesday night in the Bucharest hostel with my sister Sarah, of the terror of being awakened by a stranger whose upper body was thrust through the first-floor window of our room. I think of our screams and his fleeing with the Canadian girl's clothing that had been set out to dry. The plastic bag continues to dance in the evening breeze, and my mind drifts to my friends who will be sleeping on the street tonight. I recall my own sense of fear and vulnerability as I shut the window that night in the hostel and of not being able to fall back asleep. How do my friends manage on the sidewalks, in the sewers and in makeshift tents and abandoned buildings? Are they able to rest knowing the nearness of police brutality and vandalism and violence?
There's that word again. Violence. The night of my Word Made Flesh staff commissioning in Omaha, sometime after midnight and tea and conversation, a friend prayed a simple prayer over me. He prayed that I might not fear violence. It is usually difficult for me to recall specific things that people have prayed over me, but this one has remained fresh in the forefront of my mind.
I remembered it again as I lay in my hostel bed, being jerked alert by a surge of fear every time I began drifting to sleep. I prayed that darkness and fear would be driven away from that hostel room, and I prayed that my friends on the street in Galaţi would be able to rest without fear of violence. I prayed that light would invade the darkness in their lives. I thought of the children who daily face physical abuse and who are forced to labor by their parents. I cried out to God for liberation on their behalf.
I am interrupted by a mother struggling to push her baby in a stroller up the uneven, stony path in front of me. Strangely, I wonder where she will sleep tonight. The sun sinks even lower and the page of my journal becomes harder to see. The breeze ceases slightly and I am reminded of the heat of this July day.
I begin to pray that this new week would be one in which God comes to our day center, the Valley House, in an extraordinary way. I ask that His unconditional love-the love that casts out fear-would be manifest in our community this week. I pray for children and youth and families to find new life in the Kingdom of God. As I stand up from the cracked, concrete bench I've been sitting on and start up the hill toward home, the twilight beckoning, I thank God for the true Light He sent into the world. There is no fear tonight as I place my trust in the King who is transforming all things with justice and love. I whisper, “The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27.1, NIV), and I know that His light shines in even the darkest places.
*A colloquial Romanian phrase which means “chatting” or “prattling”
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1) Continue to pray for the children this summer and for the extra time that we have to spend with them. We are focusing heavily on reading time each day with the kids as well as helping them catch up on school subjects where they may have fallen behind. Pray that our relationships with the kids and their parents would be strengthened this summer. Pray that their time at the Valley House would be full of light, safety, love and joy.
2) Pray for the time we will have at camp with the children the first week of September. Ask the Holy Spirit to prepare our hearts and the hearts of the children for a sweet time of fellowship and growth.
3) Continue to pray for those of us who are praying about a new Word Made Flesh field in Moldova. We already have a small group of Romanians and North Americans who will be traveling to Moldova in September for a time of prayer and learning. Ask that we would be attentive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and that we would be obedient to where God is leading us. Pray that God would show us each individually the place to which He is calling us. Ask Him to raise up Moldovans who are called to serve in this ministry.
4) Please see http://www.wordmadeflesh.com/countries/ to read monthly prayer requests for the WMF Romania field as well as other fields around the globe.
Some Notes from Daily Life
* My sister Sarah was here recently for a two-week visit. She had a lot of fun getting to know the kids and staff workers, leading a singing workshop for some of the older girls and seeing all the sights around Galaţi. One weekend we took a short trip into the beautiful mountain towns of Braşov and Sinaia accompanied by good Vanderbilt friend Lesley Lowe and her sister Rebecca.
* Other visitors we've had this month include a team from Scotland who did all sorts of projects around the center, including extending our garden area and leading health seminars for the kids' parents. Also, my Romanian teacher from Moldova, Adriana, was here for two days to visit the center and to talk to us more about the possibility of planting a field in her country.
* I recently finished reading Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World by Chris Heuertz, the International Director of Word Made Flesh. I highly recommend it.
* I'm leading a special music appreciation workshop this week for some of the kids. Yesterday we covered the Baroque period of music–Bach, Vivaldi and Handel–and will spend this week traveling from Classical to Romantic to Modern music. It's a joy for me to share the music I love most with the kids. While we listen, I give them the option of drawing, writing or dancing if they want, and many of them choose to dance! It's fun to see the freedom with which they express themselves that was often absent from the university where I studied many of these pieces.
* I will be leaving Romania on July 30 for Columbus, OH for my sister Mary's wedding, which is on August 9. I am looking forward to seeing family and friends during my short time in the States as well as playing cello a
t the wedding. Best wishes to Matt and Mary!
* See http://jwkoon.blogspot.com for more updates.
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