Sunday morning mass...

It is early Sunday morning and I am sitting on the balcony of my hotel with the breeze from the Aegean sea blowing. The Greek Orthodox church is opposite of our hotel and a mass is in full swing - the priests are singing mass and it can be heard clearly through the town's streets. It is beautiful and eerie all at once.

Today is our first day of teaching - and Andrew will be speaking of leading from your strengths and how to develop those strengths and surrounding yourself with people that are competent in your areas of weakness. These students are all the leaders from the different University campuses across Romania. They are tired and discouraged from a long summer's worth of leading English camps in efforts to introduce their non-believing friends to Christ and the concept of having a personal relationship with Him. It is hard work in a very dark country. Yet they are all excited to be here, to be gathered with other student leaders that they don't get to see often, and to travel outside of Romania. Many have never seen the seaside before. With Romania coming into the European Union, they are know finally able to obtain travel visas, one major reason that this leadership conference was held in northern Greece in a resort town.

Mark Dugger and I are the odd men out since we were placed with Romanian students because we did not have even numbers of single Americans. I am rooming with Simona and am the only American in my hotel. The rest of the team is in a hotel around the corner. So far the only conflict of cultures has been the concept of keeping the air conditioning on at night. For those of you that know me, this is a bit of a non-negotiable. :) We are getting along just fine, and the fact that she is Romanian is a good challenge for me since it won't allow me to retreat back to the comfortable ease of the other Americans. I have been sleeping fantastically - praise God for the invention of Ambien and ear plugs!

Please pray for our interactions and ability to encourage, inspire and provide a refreshing, relaxing week to these students and full-time staff of the OSCER movement. The Americans and the Romanian full-time staff are meeting every morning at 7:30 to pray over the day and the students.

I kicked last night with a welcome address - I am the emcee for the week and will need your prayers to continually have high energy, be relatable and be the "face of the Americans." It seemed to be received well. It doesn't hurt that my translator turned many of my comments into jokes for my benefit. Never hurts to be funny in translation!

Have a wonderful Sunday!