Romania or Bust!

Back in 2006, our young adult class began raising money to go to Romania on a mission trip. Long story short, we never got the opportunity to complete our mission trip, but Romania remained a part of our church family's heart. Well, God opened up the door for Mary Grooms and me to visit Romania and see the ministry He is doing there.

As I mentioned in my last blog, we left for Romania on Thursday morning SUPER EARLY. Our first leg was from Dallas to Toronto and we had a pretty long layover there. We decided that we didn't want to wait around at the airport, so we bought a subway ticket and headed into Toronto! This was Mary's first time out of the States and her first time to ride on the subway! It was a great way to get us out of our comfort zone to prepare us for 2 weeks abroad. We headed to High Park, which was about as far as we could go within our time limits, and had a delicious lunch. We tried to walk down to Lake Ontario, but didn't really know where we were going and had to head back to catch our flight before we actually found it. You'd think it wouldn't be hard to miss since it's a giant lake, but the park was much bigger than we thought.
The terminal had a super sweet iPad station where you could pass the time while waiting on your flight.  While we were sitting, we met a lady who had lived in Romania for a few years, so we asked her all sorts of questions about the culture and her experiences. We boarded our long flight across the ocean and were on our way to Germany. Mary and I were pretty far away from each other on this flight, but I guess having some time apart before we spent the next 13 days together wasn't a bad thing. :) I chatted with the German man and his grandson that were sitting next to me on their way to spend time in Germany. When we arrived at the airport in Frankfort, we had our first real dose of culture education while trying to navigate to where we were supposed to be, "but the sign says go THAT way." Fortunately, we made it through all of the customs and security and to our terminal with minimal stress. We only had one more quick flight from Frankfort to Budapest, Hungary where Brother Gheorghe was picking us up. Again, we weren't sitting together, but I had a lovely conversation with the man sitting next to me who was on his way to a wedding party in Hungary. We arrived safely and again, navigated our way through a new airport and picked up our luggage which, too, arrived safely. We met Brother Gheorghe and headed to his home in Sacalasau, Romania. It was a 5 hour trip with a stop at the border to get our visas and then another stop for pizza. :) We slept most of the way because sitting on airplanes is exhausting.

We spent that evening looking around their little farm and getting to know the Cormoses. Their son, Daniel, and his friend Quijuan were visiting for the summer and gave up their little guest house for the two weeks Mary and I were there. We also had to pack our bags to leave for camp the next day. We woke up bright and early Saturday morning, picked up some of the church members and youth, and headed southeast to where the camp ground is located, close to the city of Brasov. It was about a 9 hour trip. The scenery was beautiful and the church members sang hymns in the car since we didn't have a radio.

We arrived that evening and explored the cabin and the stream that was right outside the camp. The boys mowed a soccer field and the kids began playing. Mary and I were kicking the ball around, and she attacked me!! The first day we're there, and she tackled me to the ground and left me with a nasty bruise on my arm! It really wasn't that big of a deal, but I gave her a hard time about it all week. :)

On Sunday morning we had a service outside and spent the remainder of the day playing volleyball, soccer, ping pong, and basketball, exploring the surrounding area, and getting to know the kids (even with a language barrier). I'll tell you one thing, those kids can play some soccer. They're so quick. It was fun to watch them. We had a night service that evening with Bro. Gheorghe teaching. That's also the night that we met our mouse that lived in the wall of our bathroom. Mary and I shared a room with Anna and Julia, Brother Gheorghe and Sister Mia's nieces. They live in Colorado and were in Romania for a few weeks to visit family. All four of us just looooved getting to know our mouse friend. On a couple of nights, the mouse actually ran across my face. IT RAN ACROSS MY FACE. Yeah…

Everyday of camp consisted of 2 Bible teachings, sports, and visiting Romanian Historical Landmarks. The campground is centrally located for easy (for the most part) access to many historical sites. There would be a Bible lesson in the morning, games (volleyball, soccer, ping pong), a trip to learn about Romanian history, and then another Bible lesson in the evening. Of course we had some good food 3 times a day, and we learned that bread is held in high regard in Romania. They eat it with EVERYTHING and it's homemade (and DELICIOUS)! The Cormoses take the kids around the country because most of them would never get the opportunity otherwise to learn about their nation's rich history. So each day we all learned new things about Romania and about God's Word.


On Monday we loaded up pretty early after breakfast and went to Bran Castle. This is the site that was made famous by Bram Stoker when he wrote Dracula and forever changed the face of Romania. Apparently this is the inspiration for the vampire character, so it's known around the world as Dracula's castle. Dracula is supposedly based off of the actual ruler Vlad the Impaler who wasn't really a vampire (because come on guys…people can't turn into bats) and who only actually visited Bran Castle once. It was a great day learning about Romanian history with the kids. After we returned to the camp, we had an evening service, and Mary taught about Ruth and did a great job!

On Tuesday, only the people that don't get carsick were allowed to go on our adventure. Since many of the people in the village where the Cormoses live do not ride in cars very often, a lot of them get very car sick. On this day in particular, we were going to be driving up the mountain and back down, so it was a zig zag road. In fact that's what this specific road is known for. It's called Transfagarasan Highway and it goes up through the mountains. The scenery was breathtaking and it was so cold up in the mountains! There was even some snow still on the ground!

After we came back down the mountain, we stopped by Poienari Fortress, which is where the real Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) made men rebuild the fortress and then supposedly his wife jumped off the top during a raid. All I know is, we climbed up 1,480 steps just to get up there and then climbed back down all of those steps.

After we left the fortress, we stopped by Curtea de Arges Monastary and toured the beautiful hand-crafted church building. There were a lot of legends about the building of this church, and again, we enjoyed learning more about the Romanian culture with the kids and church members.

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of teaching in the morning. It's always interesting to teach with a translator. It makes you think of different ways to say what you want to say. The whole theme for the week was salvation. It was a lot of fun to teach the students and share what was on my heart. We wrote out the word for sin in sidewalk chalk and had the kids write different sins on the ground. The kids didn't know what to think as I began to try and sweep the chalk off (symbolizing our efforts to take away our own sin). It wasn't until the water was applied (the living water of Jesus) that the sins actually went away. Then we wrote the word ISUS (Jesus) and the kids filled in the letters with the things God produces in our lives after we are saved.

That afternoon we visited Fagaras Fortress which had a full history of the area. That evening, Mary taught Part 2 of her lesson on Ruth and the richness of Jesus being our redeemer. She explained to the kids about Ruth's story and how we can use it as an illustration of Christ. Mary did a fantastic job on her lessons and the kids really had never heard the story of Ruth. It was a privilege spending the time in Romania with her.

Our trip on Thursday consisted of traveling to the city of Sinai to Peles Castle. It was absolutely incredible. I mean you lose words to say when you enter a place like that. It's all hand-crafted and so ornate that you just don't know how to describe it. Standing there in awe reminded me of when Solomon had the temple built. The detail and work that went into the design and creation of the temple was something unimaginable to me. When I see places like Peles Castle, it brings the Bible into a new light. We read over the details of Solomon's temple a lot of times, but have you ever tried to picture the grandeur of the gold and carvings and columns? Seeing this place brought it into perspective at how awe-struck people were of the temple and how awe-struck we should be at our God. We shouldn't always have the words, but instead sometimes just relish in the magnitude of our Heavenly Father.

When we tried to leave to come back to the camp, the van wouldn't start. This was extremely nerve-racking since we were parked against an embankment and could only push it so far forward because of other parked cars. So many of our people began to try to give the van a little jump start back and forth (and almost running over one of the kids in the process) until finally the van cranked. We were able to travel back to the camp and enjoy fun and games before our evening service taught by Brother Gheorghe.



We woke up Friday morning to adorn our red, white, and blue to celebrate Independence Day! The last 3 Independence Days have been spent outside of the country. Every time I leave the country, I learn more and more about the US of A from a different perspective. If you ever get the chance to leave the country on a trip of some sort, do not pass it up! It will open your eyes to a whole new level of understanding the world. We had morning services with Sister Mia teaching the lesson. Then our outside journey was to the nearby city of Brasov. This is one of the larger cities in Romania and it was so much fun wandering through a very European city. We toured the Biserica Neagra, or Black Church. It got its name because it partially burned down in 1689 and so the brick turned black. It has since been cleaned, and it is currently a Lutheran church that you can tour during the week.

After we came back to the camp, the kids played some soccer. It was then time for our evening service and I had another opportunity to teach. Since our focus for the week was on salvation, we spent a large amount of time in Romans 10, John 8, and Romans 6, focusing on being free in Christ! After our evening service, we had a bonfire and just hung out with the kids. At this point, we had learned a few phrases in Romanian and a few of the kids knew some English phrases. We really loved getting to know the kids that the Cormoses minister to. 

Mary must have braided everyone's hair that night.

As we were preparing for bed, we had a very long visit from our mouse friend. He ran around the room for a little bit playing peek-a-boo with us. I finally was able to capture a picture of our little friend before he ran out of the room. We closed the door and stuffed a towel underneath it to ensure he didn't return that evening. It was the best night of rest I had because I wasn't half awake making sure he wasn't running across my bed…I'm sure he found a way back in and probably sat there laughing at me, but I didn't notice. :)

Here are a few more pictures from our week at camp:

This is where we came to get our clean water everyday.

The younger boys' table for mealtime.

The American's table for mealtime.

The oldest girls' table for mealtime.

The older girls' table for mealtime.

The young girls' table for mealtime.

The older boys' table for mealtime.

The younger girls cooked when the older ones left to go into town one day.

Our friend who sat at our table and taught us Romanian.

Our table for mealtime.

 On Saturday morning, we woke up and packed our things back in the vans to travel the 9 hours back to the village. Our van waited around for a little over an hour to meet the next group who was coming to camp for the next week to exchange the keys. On our way back, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some snacks for our travels. At this point, we no longer cared about what foods were bad for us because we had eaten enough carbs to put on 10 new pounds (remember the delicious bread I mentioned), so when we came out of the store, it looked like this...

Crammed in the front seat with our roomies!

 After dropping everyone off and returning to the Cormoses' house, we were exhausted! We hung out for a little bit just debriefing about the week and then went to bed. It was easy to stay up late because it didn't get dark until after 10PM since it's so far in the northern hemisphere (I've give you a science lesson later if you really want one), so we still didn't get in bed until pretty late. We woke up the next morning and headed to church. We were able to attend services at both of their church plants with a short lunch in between. We had such a great time fellowshipping with the church members and getting a glimpse of how the missionaries work in their community. We even sang a song at the second service!

Mary helping Sister Mia with lunch at the Cormoses' house.

On Monday we had a rest day and enjoyed the hot springs at Felix, a thermal waters spa park with Anna, Julia, their mom, Daniel, his friend Quijuan, and his cousin Alin. Again, we got a dose of European culture and had several discussions about the …um…differences… between American culture and European culture. This was also a great day of reflection of our trip as a whole while enjoying each other's company.  When we left the water park, we visited the rare water lily that only grows in the thermal waters. It was then back to the house to pack our bags to get ready to go.

Tuesday came bright and early, and we rode with Brother Gheorghe to Budapest, Hungary. He took us there and helped us get a hotel room and taxi set up for our flights out the next day. On our way to Budapest, we were able to share our appreciation to Brother Gheorghe for all that he allowed us to be a part of. We were also able to ask him a few more questions about the culture and their ministry there. Staying in Hungary for the night was interesting. Mary's flight was at 6 AM and mine wasn't until 6 PM, so she left the hotel at 4 in the morning and I stayed until check-out time at 10. I hung out at the airport in a little coffee house reading until it was time to head through security and on to my next 3 flights to Kenya. First stop, Austria, then to Ethiopia, and lastly to Kenya!

I cannot truly express how thankful I am for the opportunity to travel to Romania and fellowship with the Cormoses. They are doing a mighty work for the Lord in their community. Their warm spirit was so welcoming and they taught us so much about serving Christ.

Please continue to pray for the missionaries all over the world who are serving for the furtherance of the Gospel.

In Christ,
Ashley

4 down…3 to go

The title could be the number of flights since I've left the United States….OR it could be my goal of reaching all 7 continents before I'm 30 years old. Either way… ONLY THREE MORE!

Since my last post I have returned safely from The National Messenger Meeting of the ABA, and I'm a little wiser and have met so many new people! We left the meeting and stopped at one of my favorite places, Lambert's, to eat dinner. I am so glad that God's plan was for me to travel with the Mountain View Crew. We had such a great time fellowshipping. God always knows what He's doing. I drove to Malvern, AR, Friday night where the pastor's family from Kentucky Baptist Church opened up their home for me to stay the night. I woke up quite early Saturday morning and ate breakfast with a good friend before heading down to Natchitoches, LA, to share my mission journey with the Central Louisiana ABA churches at their Mission Rally. I found that I love deputation work. I get to share what God is doing all over the place! We had some good food and good fellowship, and people in Central LA are excited about Kenya! Woot woot! I even got to talk for a little bit to the Ladies Auxiliary. I may or may not have talked longer than I was supposed to. :) I finally got back home Saturday night.

On Sunday I spent my last Sunday before I left with my church family. The sending service was good and quite emotional. Let's just say that I'm loved. :) I'm so blessed to have a wonderful church family that is willing to ship me off to Kenya.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were spent packing. Well, technically Monday night all night and Wednesday were spent packing. On Tuesday, Mary and I drove up to Bogg Springs, AR, to sell our T-shirts at the Louisiana Camp. We had a blast getting to hang out at camp for the day. When we got back, we had our weekly hangout time at my brother's house. For a couple of years now, every Tuesday night I go over to my brother and sister-in-law's house to hang out, watch tv, and eat some food. This was the last one for a long time, and it's something that I am going to miss a whole lot.

Wednesday was spent finishing packing (and unpacking the 100 pound bags) and repacking and getting everything situated for the year. My parents then drove Mary and me to Dallas, and we spent the night before waking up SUPER early for our flight.

Mary had never been out of the country before, so, needless to say, we had so much fun traveling! I'll post a blog when I get to Kenya about our 2 weeks in Romania! I am currently at the airport in Budapest, Hungary, waiting for my flights to Kenya. Please pray for the mission team that is leaving today to head to Kenya as well as the work we will be doing the next two weeks! Let's go #affecteternity!

Thank you all so much for the prayers!! I will tell you all about our time in Romania soon!! (With PLENTY of pictures!)

By the way, if you would like to receive my monthly report in email form, click the link on the right and sign up!

In Christ,
Ashley

PS: I still have Australia, South America, and Antarctica to go! Who wants to come along? :)

We are T minus one week to launch

My title to this blog comes because one of my dear friends is at space camp teacher training this week in Alabama and I'm slightly jealous that he gets to go to SPACE CAMP! The other reason for the title is that I am getting on a plane a week from today. ONE WEEK! This is the plane that is taking me into the rest of my life. I try to water it down so that it's not as big of a deal. "Oh I'm just moving to Kenya for a year." But no matter how much I just want to pretend it's just like going to work everyday to teach, the truth is that this is a brand new door on the path down which God has been leading me. My whole life, the circumstances that I've been through, the choices and mistakes I've made, truths God has shown me, everything has brought me straight to this door. Now, there have been several doors along the way and there are several more to be discovered, but I'm currently standing at this one. Bear with me as I continue with this door metaphor some more (I like rhyming words...).
For a few years now, I have been struggling to communicate what Faith means to me. It may be because some think I'm impulsive or careless, so they automatically assume that when I am not worried about things it HAS to be because I'm just not thinking of the consequences. I'm using this door as the illustration for Faith and how I view it. We all come to these doors in our lives, and since we can't see what's behind it (it's a wooden door, not one of those fancy glass doors), we don't want to open it. We like the way our life looks on this side of the door. We have it all figured out over here. There is Social Security, our family, Tenure, the perfect job, retirement plans, friends, relationships, and all of these beautiful things that we can SEE…that we can TOUCH… that MAKE so much SENSE… that OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING AROUND US…  But God does not call us to be stagnant. In Revelation chapter 3, He criticizes the church in Laodicea for being stagnant! He doesn't want us to sit down where we are. He wants us to show our Faith in Him by stepping through those doors along the way without knowing exactly what's behind them. Paul even wrote in 2 Corinthians that "Three times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me.That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Jesus himself says in Matthew chapter 6 "So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all see, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." This is what I should have quoted when my mom told me to pick out my clothes for the next day before I went to bed. ;) But in all seriousness, we are destroying what the term "Christian" means when we are constantly in control of all of our plans! What separated the first churches from the non-Christians was that THEIR FAITH WAS EVIDENT! People saw them relying on the power of Christ instead of their own strength. They were considered crazy! I can just hear it now, "But, Saul, er, um, Paul, whatever they call you now, why are you not worried about where you are going? Aren't you scared that something bad is going to happen to you? How are you going to make your money? Where are you going to live? Do you have a mailing address? Do you have an IRA in place?" Understand this, I am not by any means telling you that any of these are BAD THINGS. These are wonderful! God doesn't want us to be careless with the responsibilities He's given us and He certainly doesn't want us to be ignorant. BUT HE WANTS US TO SEEK HIS KINGDOM FIRST. Tomorrow will take care of itself. God will work it out. He's in control. (By the way, I'm reiterating this for myself) We do not need to be so worried about the "what ifs" that we miss the opportunity to share the love of Christ and what he did for the world with everyone we know. Turn the door knob and step BOLDLY into the unknown, not out of recklessness, but out of the POWER OF CHRIST and knowing that HE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!

People who are reading this blog, I want you to understand that everything happens for a reason. God is at work in your life, whether or not you even believe in Him. He brought you all to this page for various reasons, but some of you may not understand what I'm even talking about because you've never encountered the One True God. You don't know what that freedom and security feels like. First, God loves you. It's a love that we have a hard time understanding because it's perfect and we are not. There is a Heaven and He is preparing a place for us, but we won't be able to dwell there with Him unless the sin in our life is recognized, repented from, and completely forgiven. THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO TO FIX THIS! God has done it all! He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, to be a sacrifice in our place and the craziest thing of it all is that we need only to BELIEVE this in order to dwell with Him for eternity. It's one of the easiest and hardest things because it only takes this one step of believing that we are sinners and that Jesus Christ's power as our sacrifice has covered our sins, but we refuse to believe this because it doesn't make sense in our human minds. It requires this thing called Faith. God sees where you are. He sees that you are hurting, that you are searching, that you are looking for something to fill this void in your life, and He wants you to simply believe in His power and the power to forgive and heal all of those things! He longs to build a relationship with you! The time is now to repent and embrace Christ as your comfort and your strength! When you turn your life over to Him and believe that He is who He is, then comes the freedom. Since we understand that God is in control and that He is perfect and we are not, we can rely on Him to take care of us! It's beautiful, ladies and gentlemen.

As I step out on Faith next week to start this incredible journey, I don't know what it will look like. I don't know what is going to happen. I don't know if the area will be safe. I don't know if I will be on the mission field for the rest of my life. I don't know what God's vision is for my life. What I do know is that I have been adopted into His family of Believers. I am His child. I am HIS. No matter what happens, no matter what is behind the door, no matter what, I am forever His. So I will listen to Him and I will read His love letter to me in scripture and I will follow as I feel He is leading.

On Thursday, a small group from my church, probably just two of us, will be traveling to Romania to work with Gheorghe and Mia Cormos and help them with their church camp. PLEASE PRAY for this. We have had several issues with this trip and I know it is because Satan is trying to prevent us from doing the Lord's work, so PLEASE pray that this trip will provide assistance to the Cormoses in Romania and that God is glorified through this whole trip.

On July 9 I will be flying out of Romania to Kenya and I will meet the second 516Missions team in Mombasa to begin working with James and Kenya Taylor. PLEASE pray for safety and for the mission work the team will be doing. I know God hears the prayers of those who love Him.

After the team leaves, I will begin school with the kids and I am so excited to be able to help the Taylors and do all sorts of fun stuff with their children! If you have any homeschooling advice, I will gladly welcome it, just email me at ashleyjteacher@gmail.com.

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June Report

I am so thankful for all of the people that I've met, all of the places I've visited, and all of the support people have given me both prayerfully and financially. On June 1, I got the opportunity to speak at Eastside Missionary Baptist Church in Minden, Louisiana. Their church family was so welcoming and poured their love out on me. I got to spend the afternoon with the pastor's, Brother Richard Methvin, family then I drove up to Magnolia, Arkansas to speak to the congregation at Calvary Baptist Church. They, too, were wonderful and took the time out to pray over me as I venture to follow God's call. I was able to spend a little time with some of the church members and their pastor's, Brother Micah Carter, family that evening. I want to thank both of these churches for allowing me to come and spend time with your church family.

On Wednesday, June 4, I was able to venture up to Monticello, Arkansas, to visit with Pauline Baptist Church. This is the Taylors' sending church, and I was so glad that I was able to share how I will be working with their missionaries.

On Thursday, all of the students from Bossier Parish that traveled to Destination Imagination Global Finals were recognized at the school board meeting. I am so proud of my kiddos for presenting their solutions at Global Finals and for doing an outstanding job!

On Friday, June 6, I left with my parents to travel to Destin for a last minute family getaway/my Dad's Associational Meeting for the Concrete and Aggregates Association of Louisiana. I was able to sit on the beach and just take a short break while spending some quality time with my parents before I head out. I also got to go deep sea fishing on my birthday!!! Wooohoo 27! We got back on Thursday night, June 12 and I immediately went over to a fellow church member's house to get the T-shirts ready that we sold for our mission trip to Romania. We organized them and got them ready to pass out and sell extras.

On Friday, June 13 I was able to spend some time with my fellow teachers that I will miss terribly. I still can't really comprehend that I will not get to see them everyday. That night, my family and a few friends came over to hang out and celebrate my birthday. We had a fun time.

Saturday morning, we were able to set up a little area at a craft fair at Love Chapel Methodist Church to sell some of our mission trip T-shirts. I also want to give a shout-out to Love Chapel for sending in a donation toward my mission goal! I appreciate your love that you've shown me! :) That afternoon I drove to Monroe to spend time with my extended family. We have a very large, close, loving family, and I am so glad that I got to spend some time with them before I leave. They showered me with cards, love, and gifts, and I cannot express how blessed I am to have such an amazing family.

Sunday morning I woke up extremely early (4:00 to be exact) and drove up to Flatwoods Missionary Baptist Church in Mountain View, Arkansas to thank them so much for the financial donation that they sent. God is so good because He knew I needed traveling buddies to ride with to the National American Baptist Association Messenger Meeting and He provided me with several traveling buddies from Flatwoods. Their pastor, Brother Joe Murrell, his wife and some others from their church were also planning on making the trip to the ABA meeting, so we joined forces and headed out that afternoon to drive to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Annual ABA Meeting. I am so thankful for this group of people that I've been able to get to know. We have had a great time and God sent them to me in my time of need. So for the last few days, I have been here at the ABA meeting getting to know so many wonderful people! This was the perfect way to get focused and pumped up for the mission field! Praise God for His wonderful Grace and Mercy. I cannot believe He's chosen ME to go to Kenya and help the Taylor family. It's truly an honor to be able to serve a risen Savior who gave His life for mine. Please pray for us as we head back south. My car had a bit of trouble, but God is greater than car trouble and I know He will protect and provide.

I will be going to speak at the Central Louisiana Ladies Auxiliary Meeting on Saturday afternoon. Please pray for this meeting as I will be very spent from the two-day journey from Michigan, but I will also be so excited to get to share what God is doing with these wonderful ladies!

I am so excited to be able to spend Sunday services with my church family at Greenacres Missionary Baptist Church this weekend. As this week winds down and the packing becomes overwhelming, I covet your prayers. This is such a beautiful journey and I don't want to lose sight that it's about God and His Kingdom.

Thank you so much for your love and support!
In Christ,
Ashley