The Fork

As I was thinking about my Romanian adventure blog for this week it dawned on me that I probably never shared our story as to why we even moved to Romania. Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” My life has been full of forks. There have been so many forks in our life we almost have an entire place setting. Maybe I should start by taking a few steps pack, to set the stage.

After graduating with my master’s degree I decided to try my hand at the family business. So I moved home, bought a trailer house (no jokes) and prepared for my future in banking. It didn’t take long for me to realize that a small town was not the place for a recent college graduate with a girlfriend miles away. After one year I decided to return to school and work on my doctorate. But before I could leave, God planted a seed in my life that continues to grow to fruition. My father and a group of men invited me to travel with them to Romania and Russia on a fact finding mission. This trip changed my life forever. I knew God was calling me to live in Romania; I just didn’t know when or how. Each semester break I would return to Romania to do mission work.

However, after finishing my doctorate I had a momentary lapse of sanity and decided to try my hand at banking again. Things went much better for three years but I knew something was missing. Finally, after months of deliberation we sold the family business. I was completely at a loss. What was I going to do with a degree in animal science and two degrees in agricultural education, plus four years of banking experience and a love for Romania? Enter the International Institute for Christian Studies. One day I received a call from an acquaintance asking for the contact information of a mutual friend that lived in Romania. It seems the acquaintance had a family friend that was moving to Romania to teach college. Come again? By the end of the conversation I learned of IICS that sends college professors to third world countries to teach in their discipline in an effort to reach the future leaders of said country.

It was at this point that God was so in control of every minor detail that Kacee and I could not question His call. We stormed through the application process. We even flew through the fundraising process in less than six months. Even more amazing was the fact that our house sold “for sale by owner” in two days, for a profit! After a week long check out trip to Romania I signed a contract with the University of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences Banat Timisoara in Timisoara, Romania. A few months later we put everything we owned into storage and boarded a plane with way too much luggage and moved to Romania.

What did I learn from this adventure? Guess you will have to tune in next Friday to fin out! Until then, aspire to new heights.