Awaken My Heart To Life: Travels: Lessons from traveling abroad: I love a mess but I need structure

My time in Romania was kind of a mess: The fire in the Isaiah Center moved all the operations to Rachel's house for the time we were there. It also had prevented any of the staff from being able to prepare for the contractors, resulting in furniture strewn about and freezers left full of food to thaw and rot in the 90+ weather that we needed to clean. My favorite mess was the one Alex left all over Sarah every time we went to visit.

Alex has Down's Syndrome and is sponsored by Sarah because she fell in love with him and his antics the first time she came to Romania, several years ago. During our weeks there we hardly ever saw him because he came down with a stomach virus. His grandmother doesn't have access to same anti-diarrheals or fluid replacements we have here, and also doesn't have the money to buy them if she could find them. So every day we took a container of yogurt over and Sarah would sit and try to feed Alex. I say try, because as you can see from the picture above, he was more than willing to share. Share his yogurt….and his gastroenteritis germs. Every day she would leave a smiley, sticky mess.

Our tranquil, though mosquito plagued view in the evenings

I loved my time in Romania, but it wasn't until the last few days that I really felt helpful. I need direction and structure on a mission trip. I need someone to say "You sit here and listen to this guy tell you what's bothering him, treat him, and then do the same to this woman and this kid, and so on until the line is gone" or "Here is a hammer and nails: use them to secure the hurricane ties to the foundation of the house like this." Do that and I am golden. I love it.