George? She landed...

(sidenote: if you don't recognize that quote, it's from Father of the Bride)

The 3 of us who were stuck in London have finally arrived in Oradea, Romania with the rest of our group. Currently it's 9:40 pm here, and many of us just went to the hypermarket, Real, to buy clothes for church tomorrow. Only about 4 or 5 people actually have their checked luggage, and the rest of us have been in the same clothes since Thursday. Thankfully the exchange rate is better in Romania than it was in London, so we were able to buy some clothes for less than an entire arm and a leg.

So, we're a day late and a few dollars short, but we are all here safe and sound. Tired, feeling a little dirty, and still confused about how our flights got so screwed up, but we are here.

I've seen God work through our airline mishaps already...first we met a guy named Steve from Des Moines, IA in Heathrow who was playing worship songs and on his way to do missions for a week in Barcelona, and we sat and sang praise songs with him for a little while and then he prayed for us and we prayed for him. It was good.

God worked in the way that when we had to check in at the hotel last night in London and used the business center to e-mail Rachel in Romania via facebook, she just happened to be online at the time I was sending her the messages. It worked out perfectly.

God worked in the fact that we were stuck in a place where people speak English, so it made our problems easier to resolve. Had we been stuck in Frankfort (which almost happened), I'm not sure that my 4 years of German in high school would have helped us through.

And it's only Saturday. We have all day tomorrow through Friday to see God's hand at work more on this trip. I know that He certainly will.

Rachel Ross and the other girls from her children's center--Erin & Sarah--are already working hard to help make things come together for us here. I'm thankful for all they're doing. The hardest part about coming here to serve is that I feel we're the ones being served rather than serving. I hope that somehow they are blessed through the little time we have here. And I hope that we are changed too.

We do have internet access right here in the "hotel" where we're living all week. I'll be updating daily (hopefully) if I can weasel enough time in between my students checking their emails and facebook accounts. I'll be checking mine as well. We appreciate your prayers for us and for Rachel's ministry in Romania.

As I sit here with one of my students playing the piano beautifully in the background, I am finally at peace. It's good to be at peace for the first time in a few days. It's good when things are out of my hands, out of my control. It's a lesson I'm learning. I have a great group of students here with me and I'm looking forward to seeing how this week will unfold.

Love you all and nuapte buna! (I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong, but it's supposed to be 'good night' in Romanian...)