We leave for the airport at 5:30AM on Friday morning. Our
first stop is Atlanta Georgia, then onto to Amsterdam, Holland and finally we
arrive in Bucharest, Romania on Saturday afternoon. So our time at the
Missionary Training Center (MTC) is coming to a close.
It is difficult to describe how incredible this experience
has been to those of you who are not familiar with the MTC. Imagine thousands
of people, 18 year old young men, 19 year old young women and senior couples of
all ages being instructed to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ in all languages
to take this message to the world. The same message is taught in all languages
because the same principles for happiness in this life and the world to come
apply to all of His children everywhere. Each week hundreds of missionaries
finish their training and fly out to their destinations and hundreds of new
missionaries arrive to begin their training. Some stay here for a week or two
and others remain her for a few months to become more proficient in more
difficult languages. There are 13 other MTC’s throughout the world; in
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, England, Ghana,
Guatemala, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines and Spain with a global count of
over 80,000 missionaries serving fulltime missions from 18 months to two years.
Ken and I will be serving in Bucharest for 23 months.
It has been such a choice experience for Ken and me to study
and worship here and just be counted among the good people whose only desire is
to serve others and share what we know about our Father in Heaven who loves us
and the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.
We have been too well fed here so I hope I have a hard time
adjusting to the food in Romania so I can fit back into half of my skirts! I have never before been so spiritually
“well-fed”. You know how sometimes you’re just so thankful for your family or
so excited about an event that your heart “swells” inside you – so much so that
it brings tears to your eyes or goose bumps. This feelings seems to wash over
you time after time during the day as you feel the spirit present.
This past week we have learned how accomplish many tasks
required in a mission office, for example newsletters, travel arrangements,
transferring missionaries, mail merging, excel spread sheets, etc. Ken learned
about mission finances, maintaining and assigning automobiles, cell phone
distribution, housing contracts for missionary apartments and record keeping
for current visas and passports. There is so much more learn about serving in a
mission office than one would initially imagine ….. and while doing all that,
we must keep a positive attitude … anyone who has ever worked with either of us
knows that will be a modern day miracle (no sarcasm from me or growling from
Ken). It’s funny, when we left home we thought our greatest challenge was going
to be learning Romanian….we haven’t even thought about the language acquisition
because our time has been so filled with so many other important assignments.
We, of course, feel nervous about our departure
tomorrow, but even more than nervous we feel excited and thrilled that we have
this opportunity for such a valuable experience. We feel very happy to be doing
this together and we believe the Lord qualifies who he calls.| "COME ON EVERYBODY....HERE WE GO!" |
| Thank you wonderful children for your support. |
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