Big Blog Entry!!

Okay, so I haven't really posted much substance on here yet....I didn't have "chef" to bother with all of that until now. BTW..."chef" is Romanian for "the want to." It's been a week!! I didn't have my regular English class with the gas company people this week and my other class doesn't start till next Tuesday, I did not have a youth night on Friday, and I didn't go to Petelea on Monday....so why in the world was it such a crazy week...this I cannot figure out!! I really only had two responsibilities....teaching Steven's English class twice (since he STILL hasn't arrived and we are already going into the fifth week of classes) and going to Zau this morning!!

I really think it must have something to do with the fact that since getting internet at home...and especially since getting the bright idea to really start blogging.....I really haven't gone to bed at a decent time...at least till last night...when I was actually in bed with the light out and classical music on by 11:15!!

Now you may say that I really have not done much blogging even so...which is true. However, I felt this crazy need to check out several sites before choosing which ones to start blogging on.....and wanting to totally explore the available options is a major time-waster!! However, I think I have resolved how to do this blogging business now.

My Yahoo 360 site will be my "official" site....the one that will have all my newsletters and pictures posted...the one that I give out to friends, family, church family, and random relatives and strangers who wanna know what I am up to over here in Romania.

My Xanga site will basically be my online journal...the one with all the "word-vomit" that spills out of my mouth and onto the net!! Here I will be myself...without worrying that someone somewhere at some super-legalistic church will think that I am unspiritual...because, after all, missionaries are supposed to be super-hero type people who pray literally without ceasing, fast 3 days a week, get by on 4 hours of sleep a night (hey, wait a minute...I actually do that!), heal the sick, raise the dead, never think ill of anyone, lead 100 people a week to the Lord....all without breaking a sweat...and of course, being a girl...doing it all in a floor length skirt!!

Then, I decided, based on comments by many of my messenger buddies....who told me it wasn't fair that they couldn't understand my blog cause it was in English...I will actually attempt to start a bi-lingual blog for all my Romanian and Spanish speaking friends. Yup, you heard me right...no English at all on that one!! This will be more of a challenge and I probably won't have time to start that one till I get through this next week!! My Spanish is rusty as I really only use it for talking to my bro-in-law and my sis-in-law mostly. I will probably have to use one of those hilarious free translations sites...and then make corrections to the translations!!

But before I do any more on my Yahoo site or my bi-lingual one...which will probably be on my Blogger account...I have to get through this next week!!

I will not only have my gas company class this next week, but will be starting another class of my own, will STILL be teaching Steven's class, will be going to both Petelea on Monday and Zau on Saturday, and will be tutoring one of STEVEN'S students who is behind and wants to catch up with the class!! This is not counting Sunday with church, of course...plus the Sunday afternoon lunch with the other single missionary girls that has become a tradition...plus, most likely, the Sunday night hanging out at McD's or a coffee shop with Romanian friends from church!!

And the weather is acting like it's gonna get worse before it gets better...I swear I am freezing my tushie off!! For a girl from Texas....this is freakin' cold!! I thought I was gonna die last summer when I was living on the top floor of my apartment building on the sunny side and with not even a fan...the heat was a killer!! However, after several months of huddling under blankets to keep warm...even in my apartment...I am really beginning to miss the warmer weather!!

Anyway...current prayer requests...Just pray I make it through the week without too many problems and that I can be a good testimony to all around me..especially my new class who I will be meeting for the first time on Tuesday morning at 7:30 am!! Also, pray that I can keep to a decent schedule so that I will actually be able to get up in the mornings and get to my class early enough to be prepared when my students show up!!

Okay....now that it is almost 1am and I have to be up no later than 8am to get ready for church tomorrow...and now that I have another doozy of a long blog ready to post...I will close this out!!

God bless and keep on smiling...it's contagious!!

Currently Listening To: Who I Am by Jessica Andrews

My Xanga Blog

Okay....here I am...starting another blog on another blog site!! I wanted to try several sites out and see which one worked out the best for me...for what I wanted to include on my site for all my friends and fam to see...plus anyone else who is curious to see what I'm up to!! What I am thinking that I will do is keep my Yahoo 360 site as my "normal" page...and use my Xanga site for "spilling my guts"!! So....let's see how this works out!!

I have now been in Romania as a missionary for almost eight months...where has the time gone? I kept pretty busy last summer with working at Kiwi House and working at a couple day camps with Livada Orphan Care. I also went to a couple of away camps during the summer (at Lunca Bradului and Roica) and one away camp this winter (at Vlahita)...lots of fun!! I kept working at Kiwi House regularly until the beginning of January...when I started teaching English classes at another foundation. I have also been working since the fall with Livada...going every week to two different homes for orphans (Zau and Petelea) to do programs with them....such an adventure!!

Okay....so here goes the various ramblings of a single missionary girl!! God Bless!!

Julie

Currently Listening To: Good Little Girls by Blue Country

Funny Cat Escapades

My roommate and I have a couple of kittens. Mine is named Hayley and she was a little bundle of tiger-striped fluff when she was tiny. She is going through an awkward stage right now though as she is growing up...her fur is getting sleeker...it's just not there yet...so it kinda sticks out all over!!

Meg's kitten is named Starbucks and she is a white and black spotted cat with very large expressive ears. We actually looked up what she is online and she is what they call a "cow cat"...with maybe some abyssynian characteristics. Her ears let us know if she is mad, embarrassed, happy, etc. It's actually quite funny!! She loves to ride on shoulders, poke her head around the shower curtain when someone is showering, and hide under blankets. Some of these characteristics are common to her breed...but she is rubbing off on Hayley!!

Hayley is a more gentle cat...she loves to sit still and cuddle forever and is always striking a cute pose. Starbucks, on the other hand has a lot more energy and is always trying to rile Hayley up. They have been known to have mad chases through the house and "discussions" as to whose toy who has!!

The two of them have weird food addictions. They LOVE popcorn!! We buy it pre-popped and flavored and we can't even walk through the door with a bag before they are weaving around legs and meowing for some!! Whenever I have young people over they get a big kick out of throwing popcorn kernels down just to see the kittens go nuts!! They also love this instant pudding that Meg and I found at a store over here...last night Meg let Starbucks have at her almost empty mug of pudding and it was so funny cause that little cat kept getting pudding on her face and sneezing...but still kept on eating it!!

These silly little kittens will also beg for or get into any other people food they can get their little paws on...pizza, mandarine orange slices, sweet bread, regular bread, pasta of any type, chocolate cake, you name it...they love it!! About the only things that we have discovered they don't care for is pickles and olives...and that is only because they already begged for and tasted them and didn't like them!!

They also have some other strange things they love to do. We had a basket in the bathroom, right by the radiator pipes, that we kept extra rolls of toilet paper in...not anymore!! They decided they wanted that basket for their naps and now anytime we forget and leave a roll or two of toilet paper in there....they shred it to pieces!! They also have a weird fixation on Q-tips and twisty ties and would rather fight over and play with them than with the toys we bought them at the pet shop!! Once, Meg forgot to close her Q-tip container in the bathroom and we came home to find about 12-15 Q-tips scattered around the hall...in various stages of destruction!!

Anyway...we sure do have some strange kitties...and now you know just HOW weird!! And now, of course, I sound like a total old maid...talking about her cats!! Oh, well...I get my entertainment where I can!!

What Happened?

I really wanna know where January disappeared to....it seems like it was New Years just days ago!! This month just FLEW!! Here are some of the things that have happened this month:

*I don't work at Kiwi House anymore. The powers that be decided to go with a strictly salaried staff from here on out...no more volunteers. So I haven't been working there since the beginning of January. Even though I don't miss the diaper changing and such....I really do miss the babies!!

*I am an English teacher!! Who woulda thunk it? I am SO not teacher material...it's one thing teaching a Sunday School class once a week, or doing a few weeks of camp counselor...but I have never seen myself as the teacher type...especially not to adults!! I started the very next week after my last day at Kiwi to teach at another foundation. Right now I teach one class of over--50's from the gas company...Intro English!! Starting in February I will have one more Intro class (which the biggest challenge for that will be getting up in the wee hours of the morning...it starts at 7:30am)!! This last week I subbed for another teacher who hasn't arrived yet, and may have to sub again next week...hopefully that teacher will arrive soon!!

*We FINALLY have internet at the apartment!! Yup, we have now had internet in the apartment for about two weeks!! It took them long enough to get around to installing it...almost three months!! But now it's up and running. We still haven't managed to figure out how to set up the wireless, so we have cables criss-crossing the living-room floor to our laptops....but hey, it's cool anyway...we have internet!!

*I am still going to Petelea on Mondays and to Zau on Saturdays...except when things happen to upset our schedule....such as our van being in the shop...so we aren't going to Zau tomorrow...thus the late night!!

*I worked up an invite to the Friday Fellowships at my apartment on Publisher this past week. I'm gonna print out an original copy and then make copies off of it soon, cause they will start being a weekly thing this coming week.

*I dyed my hair a couple weeks ago...it looked cool, but it was just temporary...so my hair is almost back to normal...just in time to dye it bright red for Valentine's Day...just kidding!!

Speaking of Valentine's Day...let's just forget about that this year, okay? I will be thirty this year and with one solitary exception have never had a special Valentine, so I'd rather forget that particular holiday. So this will be the one and only time that I will refer to it this year, okay? For those of you who have valentines....congrats and have fun...but let's not make too much of this holiday, okay?

Okay, on to more interesting stuff. I really am hoping to make a regular thing of blogging...AND I love to take pictures and can take them easier now that I have a digital camera...so I am trying out quite a few different places for friend networks, blogging, and posting photos. So far I have these places listing me on their site lists...Yahoo 360, Tickle, Ringo, Hi5, Friendster, Bebo, MSN Spaces, MySpace, Angelfire, Xanga, and Blogger. Anyone who knows anything about these sites who can help me figure out who offers the best layout for content, your help would be appreciated!! I wanna try to get all my blogging and pics on just one site or two...but we'll see!!

Anyway....even though I don't have to get up so stinkin' early tomorrow...I still need to clean the apartment and get some clothes over to a friend's house in the AM to get them washed, and it is already almost 5:30am!! Whoa!! I need my bed now, people!! So I'm gonna close this out now... take care one and all!!

November 2005--January 2006 Newsletter

JULIE SEALE—MISSIONARY TO
THE YOUTH OF ROMANIA

Dear Praying Friends,

Greetings from the very cold country of Romania!! It has snowed several times in the last three months and we actually had a white Christmas…which everyone was very happy about. After the New Year the snow melted and it was just bitterly cold for a while, but it snowed again a few days ago and it looks so nice to see the dusting of snow on the eaves of houses and tops of cars!!

During the last two months of 2005 I kept very busy with work at Kiwi House. The babies at Kiwi House are doing very well and growing daily…we are hoping that adoptive families are found very soon for these precious little ones. The Kiwi house administrators are already prayerfully searching for new babies to add to the Kiwi House family as homes are found for the precious toddlers there now. However, due to some restructuring of the workers at Kiwi House, they will no longer be using volunteers, so I had to find somewhere else I was needed.

The timing could not have been any more perfect for moving on to another ministry!! I was told on a Thursday that Kiwi House did not need me anymore and that very same day was approached about working with another foundation that uses teaching English as a door to witnessing. Their classes were starting the very next week on Monday!! So now I am a beginning English teacher to one class of five students (who are all almost twice my age) and will be starting with another class in early February. In addition to the teaching I will be doing with this foundation, I have also been approached separately by several young people asking if I would tutor them in English. Please keep me in your prayers about this, as I have never been in a teaching situation other than with small children or at summer camp!!

I am still working with Livada Orphan Care in their follow-up program. On Mondays I go to a small state-run group home in the town of Petelea to do a program there. There are eight boys at this group home and we have a lot of fun teaching these rambunctious boys all about God, manners, and life in general. On Saturday mornings I have been going to the town of Zau to a girls orphanage there. This is a larger home with around 60 little girls, ranging in age from five to eighteen. They are a great bunch of girls to work with….very affectionate and sweet. They just get so excited when we pull up in the van and we are immediately swarmed with girls who hang onto us constantly until time for us to leave!!

Christmas was an interesting experience for me as this was the first time I have spent Christmas completely without any family around. Even when I was in college and the majority of my family was in Peru, I at least was able to spend Christmas with my Grandma Seale, my aunt Joyce, and a brother or two. I would have to say that this past Christmas was unlike any other Christmas I have ever experienced…at home or on the field. My roommate was gone for the week, I had no oven for cooking up Christmas goodies, I was cat-sitting for both my roommate and another friend, and I went caroling for two nights in a row….arriving home at 5am both nights!!

On the 31st of December, I headed out to the mountains with a large group of young people for a winter camp. This was a great time of fun and fellowship. We were able to go sledding, have snowball fights, participate in some awesome praise and worship, discover our spiritual gifts, and hear great messages about serving the Lord in the new year.

I have continued with the twice monthly youth nights at my apartment…a chance for the young people to meet for fun and fellowship. This will become a weekly thing in the spring, once my roommate heads back to the States. I am also meeting with others in a home group once a week for Bible study and prayer. Please pray that the Lord will be with and lead in all of these ministries in the coming year.

I just want to thank all of you for both your prayers and financial support!! God bless you all!!

All for Him,
JULIE SEALE
For any questions or comments, or if you would like to be added to my mailing list, then email me at texanromaniac@hotmail.com with the subject line: Email Updates

Happy Birthday, Everyone!!

Hello once again from the beautiful country of Romania!! I take this opportunity to sent a big Happy Birthday out to everyone in my fam with birthdays during this holiday time!!

Yup, my family has TONS of birthdays around now...Mom and my bro-in-law Michael are in November and my littlest bro Andrew in January. But the biggest months for birthdays are February (my sis Melody, Aunt Brenda, sis-in-law Dayana, and both of my grandmas) and December (Dad, my bro Steve, my bro John, my sis Rebekah, and my new little niece Lydia)!! It makes for an interesting holiday season, let me tell you!! Plus, this Christmas Eve my parents celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary!!

Well, my Christmas went by pretty quickly...since all I really did was go caroling!! Fortunately, everyone got the white Christmas we were hoping for, so it was very pretty outside for the holiday (it snowed almost non-stop for two days)!!. I went caroling on the 24th and 25th...getting home after 5 am both nights and then sleeping most of the day on Christmas and the day after!! My roommate was out of the country for a week and so it was just me and our two kittens and the cat I was cat-sitting for a friend!! I ate a McDonald double cheeseburger meal for Christmas dinner!! Hopefully next year I will get to do the works for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas to make up for this year!!

Anyway, I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon (Dec.31) with a bunch of youth from church to go to the mountains for 3 days to celebrate the New Year...we will be having Bible studies during this time, but everyone will also have plenty of time for sledding, snowball fights, and other winter activities. Should be fun!!

I am doing fine otherwise...I've recovered from my embarrassing fall on the ice last week!! I think I sprained a finger this week and I am hoping that my last wisdom tooth hasn't actually decided to start growing, but I am doing fine besides. I think I beat a cold..hope so anyway...by drinking liters of orange juice and dosing up on vitamins and cold medicine...my head is finally pretty clear, so that is awesome...no sniffling on the mountain trip!!

Well, this will be it till the New Year rolls around...so I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year...here's hoping next year will be all you are wishing for and more!! God Bless!!

Happy Holidays...And God Bless Us, Everyone!!

As I write this, it is almost 6 am...which means that even though I slept in yesterday I have still been up for almost 20 hours straight...so please bear with me!! I am at an internet cafe downtown in the "bustling metropolis" of Targu Mures, Romania!! Once I head home I will need to air out my jacket as it is beginning to reek of second-hand cigarette smoke!! (On a side note, if I make it back to the States after my stint here WITHOUT lung cancer from all the second-hand smoke...it will be a miracle)!!

I have some awesome family news to impart...as of one week ago...I have a new niece!! Her name is Lydia Claire Cordero and she is a little beauty!! I was able to talk to the biggest chunk of my family on the internet this evening and to see most of them via webcam...it was absolutely great...and definately helped me to bear being away from them ALL for the first time EVER (usually the barest Christmases included at least my Grandma Seale, my aunt Joyce, and a brother or two)!! Next year Steve and Syrena have promised to visit at Christmas and the following one after that I will be home in the States...so yeah...this will be my loneliest Christmas.

Anyway, about getting to talk to my family...I was able to talk to Mom, Dad, John, Dayana, Michael, Melody, Susanna, and Rebekah. Poor little guy Andrew was feeling sick, so he only waved from across the room at the webcam. I also got to see the new little one Lydia and to see how my "big boy" nephew Josiah has grown!! It was SO good to talk to them. Suz and Beka are both insisting that they will have enough money to come here for next summer and I don't doubt but that Suz will at least...it remains to be seen whether Beka will be able to hold onto her money that long!!

I still plan on getting my previous newsletters posted in here one of these days soon...so keep an eye peeled for that. I also want to get some more pics on this page...but that will most likely have to wait till I get S&S to send me some of their wedding pics, M&M to send some pics of the babies, and my digital camera to arrive!! Yes, my Christmas present to myself...(thanks to Steve FINALLY sending my support in a lump sum this month)...is a new digital camera and a super-duper 512MB memory stick...so everyone will FINALLY see pics of TM and of the babies at Kiwi House.

My apologies to anyone who has just stumbled onto this site and has no clue whatsoever what I am talking about...but again...once my newsletters and a few more things get posted on here...it should be easy for you to figure out what in the WORLD I am talking about...maybe!! But then again, I can be pretty random sometimes!!

All right...now to the main reason I was gonna post today!! I want to wish all of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hope you have the best of time this holiday season!!!Think of me when you eat your Christmas dinner...hopefully next year I can actually bake...pray for my next apartment to be fully furnished (or at LEAST have a stove and fridge included)!!! I pray you have an awesome time this holiday season...and that no one else falls on their backside on ice that is hidden under the snow and gets stared at by all the passersby!! Okay, that happened to me Thursday and I'm still sore!!

Anyways, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and GOD BLESS!!!

Adventures in Missionary Life!!

I wanted to start a blog so that people could better get an idea of my life as I am on the field of Romania. I really thought I knew a lot about being a missionary...having been a missionary kid (MK) for most of my life...but there is so much more involved in actually being a missionary...frustrations, misunderstandings, the pendulum swinging from boredom to sheer chaos in no time at all...it is fun and frustrating at the same time!!

What I want to do is update this whenever I can and then maybe take from all these tidbits when I go to do my newsletters...so for those of you who get my newsletters, you will probably recognize a lot of my info from the blogs...so I apologize in advance for repeating myself!!
God Bless!!

JULIE

September--October 2005 Newsletter

Dear Praying Friends,

Greetings once again from Romania!! The weather is turning colder here as winter sets in and the sidewalks are covered with multi-colored leaves. They tell me it should be snowing within a few weeks….brrrr!!!

It is quite interesting to find out as a missionary that there all kinds of things that you thought you knew about the missionary life from having been a missionary kid that you really don’t know!! One thing is how much bureaucracy is involved in getting just about anything accomplished!! I have been going all over the place the last couple of months getting all the paperwork resolved for getting a residence visa and for getting a phone & internet package installed at the apartment. This involves going to one place to get a paper, to go to another place to get a stamp, to go to another place to get a signature, and on it goes!!

I had to move once again at the end of September. This was because in order to get a residence visa I had to have a rental contract and the landlord of my previous apartment did not want to make a contract as he did not want to pay taxes on his rental income. Fortunately, I was able to find a two bedroom apartment in the same neighborhood as the previous apartment. Everything functions properly at the new apartment, but it is not as fully furnished as the other one was. Fortunately we at least have most of the furniture that we need and since the weather is getting colder the lack of a refrigerator is not as big of a problem as it could have been were it still summer. My previous roommate Siri headed back to Norway at the end of September, but my new roommate Meg arrived just before that. Meg and I have really settled into our apartment and have even adopted two small kittens we named Hayley and Starbucks.

I now have a regular schedule at Kiwi House, the home for abandoned babies. I work there with Meg two mornings and one afternoon a week. Since my arrival in June two of the eight babies have been adopted…little David and baby Bolaş. The remaining children include four-year-old Andrei (who is quite the charmer), his two-year-old sister Rosa (such a sweet and smart little girl) and their two-year-old cousin Viorel (who is awaiting his second surgery for a harelip and cleft palate). There is also two-year-old Cristian (who is a favorite amongst the volunteers for his cheery behavior) and two-year-old Emanuel (a real bundle of energy)—these two are the next ones who will be adopted. Finally there is little Alina who will be two in December. She has really made a tremendous amount of progress just in the last month. She is now walking all on her own and is eating from a spoon!! This doesn’t sound so impressive until you realize that just a few months ago she was off in her own little world, rocking herself and shrieking for her bottle. Please keep all these little ones in your prayers, that God will heal them and find good adoptive families for all of them. Please also pray for the Kiwi House administrators as they pray about the new little ones they will be bringing into the home soon.

I am also working with Livada Orphan Care in their follow-up program. Starting in two weeks I will be going on Monday afternoons to a small state-run group home in the town of Petelea to do a program there. I have already started going to the town of Zau on Saturday mornings to a girls orphanage there. Separately from Livada, though at the suggestion of their follow-up director, I have begun meeting once a week with some of the older girls from the Zau home who go to high school here in Targu Mures. I am hoping that by being a sort of big sister to these girls that I will be able to show them the love that the Lord has for them too.

I will be getting involved with a home group (run by the worship leader from church) that is starting in November. This group will meet every two weeks for a Bible study and prayer. I have also started a twice monthly youth night at my apartment for fun and fellowship for the youth from church and from the other ministries. I have also been asked by several people to tutor their children in English and am hoping that this may be a means for ministry also. Please pray that the Lord will be with and lead in all of these ministries.

I just want to thank all of you for both your prayers and financial support!! God bless you all!!

All for Him,
JULIE SEALE

Just a reminder…if you have any questions or comments, or would like to receive my email newsletters personally, then email me at texanromaniac@hotmail.com with the subject line: Email Updates

June--August 2005 Newsletter

Dear Praying Friends,

Greetings from the beautiful country of Romania!! I can hardly believe I have been here already for over two months—the time has flown by!!

I have settled in the city of Targu Mures, in the heart of Romania…in the region also known as Transylvania. You can just imagine the history of this city as you turn the corner of a modern street and find a narrow street paved with cobblestones and lined with centuries-old buildings. Just recently I was reading one afternoon on a park bench that was shadowed by the wall of a medieval fortress!! Needless to say, the history buff in me will be thrilled to discover all the history of this region during my time here!!

I was able to get into my apartment in July. I thank the Lord for providing the opportunity to rent a furnished 3 bedroom apartment for less than most unfurnished 2 bedroom apartments usually go for. Granted, since it had not been lived in for quite some time, it took a lot of cleaning and a couple repairmen to get everything clean and in working order—but praise the Lord—we can now flush the toilets!! My present roommate is a girl named Siri from Norway, who will be here until October. My other roommate—Meg from the US—will arrive in late September.

Since my arrival I have been keeping busy!! There is always plenty to keep me busy at Kiwi House, the home for abandoned babies. There are eight babies in the home—ranging in age from four months to four years old. These little ones are so sweet, despite their being somewhat behind in their development. I just love walking in there and seeing their faces light up when they see me!!

Besides helping at Kiwi House, I was also able to work at two day camps with Livada Orphan Care. The first was at their group home—Casa Rebekah—where they care for ten children ranging in age from seven to twelve. It is amazing to see what a difference can be made by placing these children into a loving Christian environment—when they had spent most of their lives in a huge and impersonal state orphanage.

The second day camp was at Ludus, a state home in a town about an hour from Targu Mures. The theme for both camps was character—focusing on the character qualities of David and then tying them in with the character qualities of Christ. The only problem was that at the state home we couldn’t specifically mention Christ or salvation—but the leader managed to still get the point across and most of the kids knew who she was talking about—even shouting it out to her!! Also while at Ludus, I was able to reconnect with some of my campers from my last summer trip over here three years ago---which was awesome!!

Also during this time I was able to go back to Lunca Bradului—the camp I worked at during my last trip over here—for one session. I was the principal leader of an awesome group of teens. At this camp, whose theme was “Mission IS Possible” the teams pick out their own team names and decorate flags. My team ended up being “CIA—Crazy Invisible Agents”!! It was a great camp with several salvations and many people dedicating themselves to the Lord. My team from camp has even committed themselves to continue meeting once a week during the school year!! Please keep them in your prayers, as not all are Christians.

I just recently returned from another camp way up in the mountains—this was an awesome time of fellowship with God and with other Christians. The summer camp season is now officially over and school will be starting back in about two weeks. It is just amazing how quickly the summer has flown by!! Soon my ministry here will transition into a regular weekly schedule. Besides continuing to help at Kiwi House 2-3 mornings a week, I hope to be able to do follow up for the two day camps I was involved in with Livada Orphan Care, and to get more actively involved in the youth ministry at church. Also, my crate will be arriving soon and I will be able to get my apartment organized. Once the apartment is in order and school has started back, my camp group will start meeting, a young ladies Bible study will be started, and I hope some other youth outreaches can be begun as the Lord leads. Needless to say…it will be a busy, but enjoyable time!!

I just want to thank all of you for both your prayers and financial support—without which I could never have arrived on the field so quickly!! God bless you all!!

All for Him,
JULIE SEALE

Just a reminder…if you have any questions or comments, or would like to receive my email newsletters personally, then email me at texanromaniac@hotmail.com with the subject line: Email Updates

June 2005 Newsletter

Time to Leave for Romania!!
The time has finally arrived!! I now have 85% of my support raised and my pastor has given me the go ahead to leave for Romania. My tickets are bought and my bags are packed!! I headed out to Woodstock, GA this past Saturday, and today was able to get my crate mostly packed. Now I have a couple days for last minute errands and to rest up and then I fly out from Atlanta this Wednesday evening--June 15th!! Upon my arrival in the capital city of Bucharest, I will then be taking a train and then a bus to the city of Targu Mures, where I will be settling. I am so excited that I will be making it over there in time to jump right into the summer ministries!! Please keep me in prayer as I travel.

Family News
As mentioned in my last newsletter, my younger sister and her husband are expecting their second child in December. Please keep Melody in prayer as she has been experiencing morning sickness and yet still must care for my rambunctious one year old nephew. Please keep my dad in your prayers also as he has been experiencing chest pain again. For those of you who don't know, he has had four stints put into his heart in the past three years. My parents are serving the Lord on the field of Mexico and things are going well there, but just keep my dad's health in your prayers. Also, keep praying for my new sister-in-law Dayana. All the paperwork has been filed for her visa, and now we are just waiting for everything to go through so that she can join my brother John here in the States. Please keep my brother Stephen in your prayers also as he serves in the Army in Korea. My family is getting scattered around the globe and who knows how long it will be before we will all be together in one place again!!

Ministry Needs:
*I have just gotten a laptop and hope to be able to get it installed with a DVD burner drive in the coming months...this will be a big help ministry-wise.
*I would also like to be able to get a digital camera/videocamera in the coming months. With this, and the laptop DVD drive, I will be able to put together a DVD presentation of the ministries I will be involved in to send to the churches as an update a couple times a year, as well as add pictures to my regular updates.
*Eventually I would love to be able to get a projector to hook up to the laptop to be able to show Bible stories and clean movies to the young people.
*I would also like to set up a webpage where everyone can go to read past newsletters and see pictures of the children and young people I will be ministering to. If anyone can give me suggestions on how to set one up, it would be greatly appreciated!!

Prayer Requests
*That I will have safety traveling to Romania...by car, plane, train, and bus!!
*That the shipping of my crate will go smoothly with no surprise costs.
*That I will be able to jump right into several ministries upon my arrival in Targu Mures.
*That young people will come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.
*That God will be glorified in all that I do!!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!! May God richly bless you in all that you do!!

All for Him,
JULIE SEALE

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to receive my email newsletters personally, then email me at texanromaniac@hotmail.com with the subject line: Email Updates