Hello Friends and Family,
It’s Luke again! I never know what I should put in these. Last year I wrote one with Matt and I was exhausted. This year I am all alone and still exhausted. Since I’m exhausted and words are hard, this will not look pretty from an English perspective.
Today was amazing. It is truly amazing to see the stretch of God’s hands and works the moment we arrived. We heard about what OpenRoads has done in orphan and youth ministry and it is nuts how God is clearly here. I am just so excited to be back in the Vieru’s yard and in Ethos! They put lights in their yard. It was beautiful and relieving to see the yard lit up when we arrived after a long day of travel.
Some of us woke up way too early for a breakfast that had been rescheduled for 30 minutes later. Classic Romania. Personally, I am super jetlagged but will get over it. We ate at the school for lunch. Then we all split up into the different groups; Crafts, Worship, Drama, and Sports. I am on Crafts and we were inside. That said the worship team started practicing and the other two were outside laughing and I just smiled. I just couldn’t help but smile during these meetings because this is why I came back. I think the relationship side of this trip is what fills my heart so much. Just knowing that we, a group of random high school Wisconsinites, have friends on the other side of the world is amazing.
In between lunch and dinner we played Psychiatrist and Mafia. In true mafia fashion, I was killed off for being too smart. I accidentally told a mafia that I knew who one of the mafias was. Whoops. That means that my adapted version of the Megan Smith (talk all the time) strategy didn’t work out. After dinner we went to one of the largest natural parks in the world and saw Traditional Romanian dancing. Interesting is the word I’d use to describe it. We only were there for a short bit and walked throughout the park, skipping the racoon zoo, while the sun set on our first full day in Craiova.
As I write this, there are games of Euchre and other games and conversations happening. People are starting to talk about heading to bed I think. I guess it’s more of a hope. I’m going to join in now! Talk to y’all later.
With love,
Luke Stevens
PS here are the shout outs:
To my people: Feed Gus.
To UK: I met a cat! It was cute but it didn’t.
To Jay and his Muscles: hello
To Jenna and Dan Hershberger: Hellos from the Romanians!
To my dad: hello dad
To my brother Nicky: Hi my gamer brother
To Hannah: I didn’t remember everyone on my list, but I did my best.
To Isabel’s parents: Feed Jeff and I love you!
To Noah Stevens: I hope you are well. -Leah
To George: how is the cruise
To the Stevens sibs: I hope that you all had a blast at Noah’s Ark without me again. I miss you all so much and wish I could be in two places at once.
To all,
As a parent, I love hearing all of the details from each of you. As parents, we usually get short texts as far as written communications… 🙂 I love every detail and am so thankful for each of your beautiful hearts, amazing minds and God-filled souls and spirits. Thank you!!!
Paige (Ashton’s “Mammaaa!”)
My heart is so full thinking of you all being the hands and feet of Jesus! You are an amazing group!
Isabel, fed Jeff but he looked at me and swam away, I think he’s protesting his clean bowl. My interviews went well. Now it’s in God’s hands. Love you.
Thanks for the awesome updates! This is such a great team – can’t wait to hear all about the new relationships you’ll build and the old ones that will be strengthened! Praying for you all!
Hi and thanks for the awesome update, Luke. Sounds pretty awesome. If Julian is on worship, can you guys get some video of him leading worship playing violin? Thanks.
Julian’s Mom (Ruslana)
So great to hear from you Luke! Jet lagged and all! I can close my eyes and imagine your big smile as you listened to everyone reconnecting. I love it! It is so special to have those friendships that last over time and many miles!
We are praying for you all every day!
p.s. ummmmm…sooooo…dad and I wouldn’t be against getting a shout out. Just sayin. 😉
Luke!! Are you sure you were using my strategy? I mean, I understand you beat my system ONE time, but that was a fluke! You should try it again — and silly, of course you die when you tell the mafia you know who the others are! I think we can safely blame that loss on the jet lag! 😉 I believe in your mafia skills, Luke Stevens! And always remember — even when you are in the mafia, you still are a townsperson, cuz ya still gotta live somewhere in the town! hehee Make me proud! 😉
Oh — and also prayers for the entire team. Loving your posts, so keep them coming…jet lagged processing and all.
Hey Luke, great post! Love all the details…it helps in picturing what y’all are doing over there. Also, nice job using y’all in your post. Hannah Metzger would be proud (Go Dawgs). Here’s to multiplying those smiles and fading that jet lag.
Cheers!
Rachel
PS – Tell Leah we said hi, even though she gave her fish a way better shout out than she gave us. 😑