Sunt Fericit Isus Mi-e Liberat

Getting to know these girls has been amazing and I am so glad that I am privileged enough to get to do this. Sometimes I stop and wonder... how or why did God choose me for this. But then there is that one moment when you realize why you are there. That one moment when you know EXACTLY why God picked you and not someone else. Each day I have those moments. Sometimes it is just one moment and sometimes it is more. Today there were a few moments.

First let me tell you about one of the girls. Her name is Roxana. I met her in Alexandria two years ago, and I called her Roxi. Now she doesn't like to be called Roxi. There is something about her that I just can't put my finger on. She is very quiet, VERY quiet. I feel like she would have a lot to say, if she were to trust you enough to open up. When you look in her eyes you can tell she has a history, she has lived a life that I can't even imagine. But she stays silent. She has one of the longest, hardest, deepest stares of anyone I have ever met. When she stares into your eyes it is like she is reading your soul. She will rarely smile about something with it being a real smile that goes all the way through her, but there are those special occasions when that does happen.

So today, at one point I was sitting on one of the couches kind of just by myself, waiting for the girls to get done journaling. I was just kind of looking around and I saw Roxana sitting on the stairs. There was plenty of room on the couches, but she was on the stairs.
So I smiled at her.
My smile was met with a blank stare.
Then I winked with each eye a few times.
My winks were met with a half smile.
I made some silly faces at her and continued to smile.
Then she cracked.
I got her to laugh at me, not for long... but long enough.

Later during small groups, our translator was talking to one of the other girls, answering a question she had. Roxana hasn't said more than two words ever in small groups. I was sitting across the table from her, and since she was not interested in the conversation and I couldn't understand, I just held my gaze in her general direction. Her eyes would meet mine every so often and she would smile.

At the end of the day, we sang worship songs before it was time for us to leave. It was really cool because there were people worshiping in both Romanian and English, it didn't matter if you could or couldnt sing; it didnt matter if you were on key or not; it didnt matter if it was half English and half Romanian. It was a mixture of the languages that made it a beautiful sound.

At these moments today, I felt so blessed to be here. I felt so blessed to be able to share in this experience. I can't believe I am here. I can't believe God picked me to do this ministry, but I am so thankful that he did. I wish I wasn't going home in August.

I have many more of these moments.
I just wish I knew more Romanian so that I could respond. I can generally understand what the girls are saying... sometimes... but figuring out how to respond is the hard part.