As a fitting book end, my last night in Romania took me back to the girls meeting. At the start, there was clearly something going on but I was completely out of the loop. Girls were talking over top of others and Amber was trying to get things settled down. Initally, I had planned on playing a song at the meeting for the girls, but my cold was getting worse and my voice was like a croaking frog. Instead, Amber offerred to let me speak to them.
Admittedly, I felt inadequate and unsure of what I could talk about at first. God knew. Then I knew... talk about choices. We all make choices constantly, but how are we deciding? What factors do we use? Most of the time it's our own pleasure and comfort in that moment. There are many choices I've made in the past that are affecting me in the present. That is what I hoped to share with the girls.
I'm less comfortable talking than writing. Processing the thoughts in my heart and having them come out my mouth coherently doesn't always go smoothly. Add to that having someone translate, it was a little disjointed but I trust the Spirit impressed upon their hearts as He intended.
On the way home, Amber shared with me that the topic of choices was very appropriate. The something that was going on at the beginning of the meeting had to do with words spoken carelessly and inappropriatly. After I finished speaking, Amber was able to tie it back to what had happened. God knew.
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On Saturday morning, 30 kids descended on the building in Roseti. Even Spanky from the Little Rascals came. In addition to the 5 staff members and I there was another couple, Dave and Deb, from the US helping out. The lesson for this week was the story of Ruth and Naomi and I was responsible for the craft.
The program started with worship. These kids love to sing! Then Deb got up to sing a song with the kids. First her and Elisei taught the kids the chorus in English.
"Rise and Shine and give God the glory, glory..." Then Deb sang the verses and the kids came in on the chorus. On the last verse she belted out, "That is the end, the end of my story, story. Everything is hunky dory, dory." When she said hunky dory, she said it with an Elvis-like growl. The kids all laughed. So she did the verse again and the kids came in and growled their own HUNKY DORY. It was so funny. The kids weren't done. They wanted to sing the song again in Romanian. Did I mention that these kids love to sing!
Then Sorin shared the story of Ruth and Naomi and how good relationships help us in life. We followed this with the craft. The kids were given a piece of paper with a tree drawn on it and 3 pieces of construction paper to trace their hand. The hands were glued to the tree as the leaves and the names of close friends or family were written on each one to remind us that relationships make us stronger. 
One thing I learned (and put to use later) is that the kids are very literal. My craft example had different sized hands on it and the kids were initially confused on how to do that. One kid piped in "I don't have a small hand like that." We had to explain to them they could just use their own hand. What ensued was wonderful chaos. Paper flying. Trying to help the little ones trace and cut. Four and five kids all asking for help with something - most of the time I was clueless to what they were asking me. Somehow we got them all done and a couple of the kids sweetly asked me to add my name to their relationship tree.
My bucket was starting to fill. God Knew.
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