Bucharest and Belgrade

Just to let everyone know, I did make it to Europe. After a long flight to London and a long layover at Heathrow, and then a flight to Bucharest, I got there at 11:40 PM and spent the night a a hotel there. The next day I hung out and read my book in a park near my hotel until I finally had to leave because I was attracting too much attention. It's is extrodinarily hard to read when people keep coming up an wanting to talk to you because they can tell you're foreign. Usually I am pretty good at blending in, but apparently not in Bucharest. And it's not that I don't want to talk to people, but I was super tired and not in the mood to be hit on. So, I went backto the hotel and read in the lobby there until it was time to take a taxi to the train station. I took an overnight train to Belgrade and arrived at 10:00 AM to be met by Crystal. We will be here a few days and then will drive up to Budapest to meet her friend Danielle at the airport. Then we will do a brief stopover in Osijek on the way back to Belgrade. Crystal and I are on the way to visit the museum in Belgrade, so I have to go. Ciao!

EuroTour 2007

That's what I've dubbed this trip. It started out as just a short trip to one country. But then it evolved (it's Lamarckian...). So now, I will be in 5 countries in 5 weeks: Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Russia (they gave me a visa!), and England.

Specifically:

March 6-7: fly from Seattle to Bucharest, Romania (via Heathrow)
March 8: overnight train to Belgrade
March 9-16: Belgrade, Osijek, Zagreb (details tbd)
March 17: overnight train to Bucharest
March 18: Bucharest/Brasov/Sighisoara
March 19: Sighisoara/Baia Mare
March 20: Baia Mare/Sighetu Marmatiei/Iza Valley Churches/Bucovina
March 21: Campulung/Moldovita/Sucevita/Humor/Voronet
March 22: Voronet/Agapia/Varatec/Bicaz Gorges/The Red Lake
March 23: The Red Lake/Lacu Rosu/Harman/Prejmer/Bran
March 24: Bran/Sinaia/Bucharest
March 25-26: Bucharest
March 27: fly to St. Petersburg
March 27-April 4: St. Pete
April 4: fly to London
April 4-11: London
April 11: fly to Seattle

Yep, you read it right! I get a super-long birthday this year! Since it will begin at 12:01 AM BST (GMT daylight savings, and ends at 12:00 midnight PDT, I have calculated that my 24th birthday will be 32 hours long. Woo! Too bad most of that will be aiports and airplanes. By myself. Well, I really can't complain - this trip is a pretty good birthday present.

I don't want to be lukewarm

A couple years ago, Mike Gaffney preached on the "lukewarm-ness" of the church at Laodicea, and I was recently reminded of that while I was reading Jim Cymbala's Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."Revelation 3:15-16That's what I thought of when my friend Jessica sent me the following:

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger

At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,

So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

The world tells us that we should want life to be easy - to live in a nice place, in a nice house, drive a nice car, not have to worry about money. In essence, that we should be lukewarm. But that is not what God wants for us. It means nothing to have good intentions if nothing comes from them. We see ads on TV to sponsor children in poor countries and we think about how sad it is that children are dying. But what good is it to feel bad about it if the children continue to die? Sometimes is seems such a lofty goal to want to change the world - a task too big to be accomplished by one person. But that's the thing. One person can make a difference. And we are never really alone in our efforts. God promises that he will hear our prayers and answer them. (A good example of this is 'now a major motion picture' - if you haven't yet, go see Amazing Grace. It is an amazing movie.)

"And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us." 1 John 3:22-23

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

When we do not receive it is because "because (we) ask with wrong motives" (James 4:3) or maybe because we "have not asked" at all (John 16:24).

So I second the sentiment in the blessing above. May we ask God to help us NOT to be lukewarm, and let's ask for his help to make the difference we want to see in the world.