"The American Dream"...
What is the American dream? Most people would say it's to have a good job, good money, a nice house, car, family and maybe even a dog. Sounds like the perfect life right? Of course everyone would want this dream...you have everything right? But yet, even if you are blessed with a house and a car and nice things someone else could have more and you can't help but feel jealous and want more. And if we are blessed to make a lot of money we are greedy. Americans don't realize how truly blessed they are despite our troubles. I'm not rich and I worry how God will provide, but He does and I look like an idiot with little faith. God provides money for my school, He gave me a part-time job, He took care of my family when my dad was in between jobs, God comforted me when I felt saddness over my grandfathers death, and He gives me peace and strength when I'm troubled and weak. And yet, I'm still one of the Americans who doesn't appreciate what I have.
This summer I went to Moldova on a mission trip with my church for ten days. We stayed the first and last night in Chisnau, the capital, and for the rest of the week we stayed in the village Vulcanesti in homes of the church members we partnered with and traveled to the villages Cismichoi and Etulia for two days during the day. I have traveled before in my life. I've been to different States in America and I've been to Mexico (I'm from Texas) in junior high with my church on a misson trip. Although we stayed the nights on the Texas side of the border and drove into Mexico during the day. Moldova was my first time to go overseas for a mission trip and it was definitely the longest. It was definitely out of my comfort zone as well. Ill tell you this, I'm not taking for granted my bathroom or public bathrooms in America ever again. My first experience with a Moldvan toilet was our first day in Moldova on a tour in Chisnau and we went inside the mall to escape the rain. Well I had to go to the bathroom so our tour guide took a couple of us girls to the bathroom. We were surprised to see that the toilet was a hole in the ground and that we had to squat. Us Americans are use to toilets that we sit on. And the outhouses were an experience. In America we have bathrooms kind of like outhouses but they're called porter potties. They're like outhouses in the fact that it smells but it's not a hole in the ground, it's a sit down toilet. After my first experience in the Moldvan outhouse the girls on our team and I decided to just go in the bushes. This experience made me appreciate the simple things in America, like our toilets and public bathrooms.
Now in Vulcanesti I was blessed to stay in a home with indoor plumbing. So I got to shower and actually have the privalege to use a sit down potty except when I had to poop, then had to use the outhouse . My host home was a answered prayer from God because I was nervous for my cycle on the trip. My cycle started the first day we were in Chisnau and God delivered me by blessing me with a home with indoor plumbing. Praise God! But I don't want you to think that I am complaining about Moldova. In fact, I loved my experience in Moldova. The flowers were beautiful, the city and villages were permeated with flowers and trees! The hills and the agriculture were breath-taking. I loved reading my Bible outside and looking out at the hills. And I loved picking cherries and berries off the trees. And the people were so nice and hospitable! It was so easy to talk to the people I met in the villages. Just the fact that members of the church in Vulcanesti would make room for us in their house and make us feel welcomed with the little what they had humbled me. I rarely saw a trash can and in my host homes bathroom there was a teeny tiny trash can that I overflowed with my trash. It made me realize how wasteful we are in America. The time in Moldova taught me to appreciate what I have in America. God could of placecd me in a family in Europe, Asia or Africa but He chose America. And after all, everything we have in this temporary life on earth-money, clothes, television, computer, phones, cameras, cars and so on- all belongs to God. It's not ours. God blesses us with such things that we don't need. Why are we selfish of things that aren't ours? I hope to go back to Moldova again next summer to see my Moldvan friends and family again. Before I go I'd like to share two verses with you that I read in my testimony:
"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night."
-Psalm 1:1-2
"You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound."
-Psalm 4:7
Molly Rae Adams <3<><
What is the American dream? Most people would say it's to have a good job, good money, a nice house, car, family and maybe even a dog. Sounds like the perfect life right? Of course everyone would want this dream...you have everything right? But yet, even if you are blessed with a house and a car and nice things someone else could have more and you can't help but feel jealous and want more. And if we are blessed to make a lot of money we are greedy. Americans don't realize how truly blessed they are despite our troubles. I'm not rich and I worry how God will provide, but He does and I look like an idiot with little faith. God provides money for my school, He gave me a part-time job, He took care of my family when my dad was in between jobs, God comforted me when I felt saddness over my grandfathers death, and He gives me peace and strength when I'm troubled and weak. And yet, I'm still one of the Americans who doesn't appreciate what I have.
This summer I went to Moldova on a mission trip with my church for ten days. We stayed the first and last night in Chisnau, the capital, and for the rest of the week we stayed in the village Vulcanesti in homes of the church members we partnered with and traveled to the villages Cismichoi and Etulia for two days during the day. I have traveled before in my life. I've been to different States in America and I've been to Mexico (I'm from Texas) in junior high with my church on a misson trip. Although we stayed the nights on the Texas side of the border and drove into Mexico during the day. Moldova was my first time to go overseas for a mission trip and it was definitely the longest. It was definitely out of my comfort zone as well. Ill tell you this, I'm not taking for granted my bathroom or public bathrooms in America ever again. My first experience with a Moldvan toilet was our first day in Moldova on a tour in Chisnau and we went inside the mall to escape the rain. Well I had to go to the bathroom so our tour guide took a couple of us girls to the bathroom. We were surprised to see that the toilet was a hole in the ground and that we had to squat. Us Americans are use to toilets that we sit on. And the outhouses were an experience. In America we have bathrooms kind of like outhouses but they're called porter potties. They're like outhouses in the fact that it smells but it's not a hole in the ground, it's a sit down toilet. After my first experience in the Moldvan outhouse the girls on our team and I decided to just go in the bushes. This experience made me appreciate the simple things in America, like our toilets and public bathrooms.
Now in Vulcanesti I was blessed to stay in a home with indoor plumbing. So I got to shower and actually have the privalege to use a sit down potty except when I had to poop, then had to use the outhouse . My host home was a answered prayer from God because I was nervous for my cycle on the trip. My cycle started the first day we were in Chisnau and God delivered me by blessing me with a home with indoor plumbing. Praise God! But I don't want you to think that I am complaining about Moldova. In fact, I loved my experience in Moldova. The flowers were beautiful, the city and villages were permeated with flowers and trees! The hills and the agriculture were breath-taking. I loved reading my Bible outside and looking out at the hills. And I loved picking cherries and berries off the trees. And the people were so nice and hospitable! It was so easy to talk to the people I met in the villages. Just the fact that members of the church in Vulcanesti would make room for us in their house and make us feel welcomed with the little what they had humbled me. I rarely saw a trash can and in my host homes bathroom there was a teeny tiny trash can that I overflowed with my trash. It made me realize how wasteful we are in America. The time in Moldova taught me to appreciate what I have in America. God could of placecd me in a family in Europe, Asia or Africa but He chose America. And after all, everything we have in this temporary life on earth-money, clothes, television, computer, phones, cameras, cars and so on- all belongs to God. It's not ours. God blesses us with such things that we don't need. Why are we selfish of things that aren't ours? I hope to go back to Moldova again next summer to see my Moldvan friends and family again. Before I go I'd like to share two verses with you that I read in my testimony:
"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night."
-Psalm 1:1-2
"You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound."
-Psalm 4:7
Molly Rae Adams <3<><
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