Hello everyone!

I wanted to write a little bit about my apartment. Last year, I had a little, one-bedroom apartment with a tiny kitchen and a bathroom without a shower. This year God has blessed me with a palace...or at least it seems like a palace to me.


The main hallway in my apartment...the American flag was there when I moved in :)

I have two rooms which will be great because I am hosting an intern this summer so we will both have separate rooms.


My bedroom which is also the living room.


My bed which is actually the pull-out sofa.


The bedroom where, Sarah, our intern will stay.


The bathroom with the old washing machine there on the left.

I also have a large kitchen and a big bathroom with an old washing machine that works! It is wonderful. When I arrived in Romania, I was praying that God would send a place with two rooms for a reasonable monthly rent but after looking through the weekly buy and sell newspaper, I was getting a little discouraged as the cheapest place I could find was more than I could really afford monthly. Also, the cheaper places were outside of the center of town, a good distance from all of our children's homes. So I continued to pray about this and asked everyone I knew here to pray too. One day, I went to meet with Romica Iuga, the president of the Romanian side of Global Hope. I wanted to talk with him about applying for a visa and also wanted to just check-in. So I went to his office at the Speranta Baptist Church. We briefly chatted about how things were going for me and I mentioned the apartment problem. He then offered me the available apartment in the church! I never even considered the church as a possible living place. They have two apartments in the back. One is used by the church administrator and his family. The other was free. They had been talking about using the apartment. A few different ideas were tossed around. Apparently, another young missionary girl had stayed there for six or seven months. They had also occasionally used the church for guests who visited Arad and needed a place to stay for a night or two. So Romica walked me downstairs and gave me the general tour of the apartment. I told him I was interested in renting it and he asked me to come by the church that evening for the committee meeting. This is a meeting of the leaders of the church. This experience was a little intimidating because all of the committee members are men and it was a very serious meeting. I was familiar with some of the members but not because I knew them personally but because I know their teen-age children. Well, to sum everything up, the church offered me the apartment for a very reasonable monthly rent that includes all utilities and wireless internet. It is a wonderful apartment, quiet and clean. I really feel like I can escape and relax there.


My kitchen: the sink and stove (off to the right).


The refrigerator...the cabinet doors are a little broken and the door on the stove comes off on one side, but otherwise the kitchen is great.

When I told Dorel and Gabi (house parents at Steven's House) about the apartment, Dorel smiled and said, "See, we have a big God!" Yes, our God is very big and more than capable to handle all of our problems. Nothing is too big or too small for him! I hope you see His hand working in your life, too.