Jon & Kate + Super Nanny= Minstry

Luckily everyone else filled you in on the details of our last 2 days, because I had a pretty special experience I wanted to share. Sometimes God puts you in a place you need to be, even though you don't know it, and that is what happened to me.

The original plan for the trip was that Joanne and I would stay in Sibui while the guys went to family camp, but once we arrived in town we figured out that we could all go to Family Camp and Pastor's Wife, Joanne was given the task of running a women's break out group. While I prepared a couple of things to say during the break out I was very much in a "back seat" mode.

So we get to the resort and Pastor Rich uses a Jon and Kate plus Eight example to illustrate scriptural advise on marriage. I kept thinking it was too bad my daughter, Katelyn, wasn't there to hear a Jon and Kate sermon as it is one of her favorite shows.

That evening Joanne did a great job running our women's group, and channeling her "inner Jojo" when asked about disciplining children. Joanne asked if any of the women had questions and one woman asked a question related to something she was struggling with. I had been sitting there thankful that not much was required of me, but after Joanne answered her, I felt like I needed to let Laura know that her struggle was also a struggle for me. After talking briefly, I thought to myself, maybe I didn't really express what I wanted, but let it go.

The next day Laura sat across from me at breakfast and asked if we could talk privately. She said that she felt like I might be able to help her with a situation and we ended up going for a walk and talking at length. She lived in an orphanage for her whole life, and had an amazing story to tell about how it has impacted her life. She is now an engineer and married with 2 wonderful kids, and on the surface looked to me like she had an almost perfect life, but she carries many of the burdens of her childhood. Even though our lives are totally different I was able to talk with her and provide her with some thoughts that she seemed to value. I asked if I could pray for her and she cried and said no one had prayed for her 1:1 in a long time. It was an amazing experience to hear about her life and connect with her, and to learn from her experience, and I felt that I now knew at least one of the reasons that I came to Romania.

Laura happened to be the same person who had "How Great is our God" in Romanian in a song book that we used to get the Romanian words for our last minute musical performance in the village church this evening. That song coming together was a miracle in and of itself.

Some other time I'll have to tell you about horseback riding, amazing views, and the beautiful Romanian children at family camp. I was surprised the women asked about ideas about disciplining their children because to me they seemed very well behaved and loving children, and certainly not in need of a Super Nanny intervention. Their church family is literally a family to them. Karen

PS. Jerry did a great job with his first real preaching gig!