Don invited me to visit today with a Romanian refugee family that he knows. Four adults and 6 children living in a tiny basement apartment in Halls. Don tutors English for one of the married couples twice a week in their home.
He has been involved with this tutoring program for several months now, a commitment which has impressed me to no end. I have trouble committing that many hours weekly to anything! But he goes and does it joyfully, and has poured hours into carefully preparing creative lessons and working with the couple face-to-face. As I watched him teach today, all I could think was, God, what did I ever do to deserve this man? He blew me away, he really did.
While Don taught, I spent time in another room playing with the kids. Picture 3 rambunctious boys ages 8-10, a sweet 4 year old girl, and 2 small babies, everyone yelling and arguing in Romanian. The oldest boy spoke some English and served as the friendly host of the group. The children invited me to play some game involving a dreidel and lima beans, for which the victor would receive a plastic gold coin and a roll of Sweet Tarts. I actually ended up winning the booty, and they insisted that I take it which was kind of sweet. Then we played dominoes and checkers, which was total pandemonium with checker pieces being placed every which way and everyone was yelling at everyone else. While all this was going on, the little girl kept talking to me (I had no clue what she was saying), stacking pillows on my left knee, and sitting on me. All I could do was giggle and hug her!
The youngest boy really freaked me out! He was a budding bully with a temper and a deep booming voice (very strange coming out of a pint-sized kid!). He reminded me of a miniature version of the Eastern European/Russian mob guys you'd see in movies like "The Saint" or the Bourne series.
Anyway, Natalia (the mother) insisted on sending food home with us, and she gave me a small dish of it to try first. It had some unidentifiable meat in it. The flavor of the soupy part was good, but as a general rule, I like to know what animal my meat comes from. There is a Nutella jar full of that Romanian food sitting in our fridge if anyone wants to come over and try it out!
At the end of our visit, Natalia asked me to sing some for their family. I sang a few Christmas carols (they knew Jingle Bells and Joy to the World). The boys joined in on "Jesus Loves Me". And they treated me to a group singing of some of their own Christian songs, in which I could recognize a few words here and there. How beautiful it was to hear God praised in another language!
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