Having moved out of downtown Chicago I always enjoy driving back into the skyline of the windy city. On Sunday I had a special reason to make a visit downtown––A U2 concert.

I remember being in high school and the fascination of discovering the tunes of U2 . I was a young kid in the south of Romania singing what I thought were the right lyrics to the songs of my new favorite bands. If you would have told me back then that nine years later I would be sitting 25 feet away from Bono and The Edge I would have given you a blank stare, unless you would have said it in Romanian and use meters instead of feet. Then I would have flipped out!

While we were in line for the concert I whipped out a book I need to read for a class, to make good use of time. I wasn’t even one page into my writing when a girl behind me asked me what I was reading. I politely answered that I was reading a book on counseling and if she had any issues to discuss with me she would have to wait until I finished the book. We then sparked a great conversation with her and her boyfriend. It was one of the few interactions I have had with people outside of the Evangelical bubble that I have been in for most part of my six years in the States. It was energizing to talk to them about their lives, values, culture, career, family and other things. We did not get to the Gospel but I do feel I had a chance to explain how my relationship with Christ is the motivation for my life, for coming across the world for school and for planning to return next year.

Our tickets were in the general seating area. This meant we were in the area on the field in front of the stage. So there was the potential to be real close to the stage. The concert started at 7:00PM so we got there at 3:30PM. When we got there the line was about a mile long so we did not think we would get anywhere close. But once we got in we were surprised to see that we actually had gotten pretty close.

Once we made it in, it all seemed surreal. It was like a boy from the village going to Great America or like a young boy from Romania seeing the skyline of Chicago for the first time. Here we were… standing 25 feet away from the stage where U2 would be performing in about two hours.

The stage was themed after the bottom of a spaceship. The lights, smoke, effects were by far the best I have ever seen in concert. The opening bid was performed by Snow Patrol. I did not know their music very well but I enjoyed them. Once they were done, it was dark outside, the stadium was filled to the brim and we were all eagerly waiting… for the four legendary Irishmen.

They opened with a song called Breathe. Did I mention that the whole thing seemed surreal. I mean I have seen them on youtube, I have listened to their music on my laptop, iPod, my car, heard it in commercials and listened to it at the mall. But now, it was right in front of me, at a deafening volume, vibrating my lungs, and taking most of the horizon. Amazing!––might be an understatement. The concert lasted for 2 1/2 hours. There were times when the music was too loud, but I guess that’s how these concerts are. We jumped sang along, and wondered at the wee-little man from Ireland doing his bid. It was a good concert with a tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi. They sang Sunday Bloody Sunday with a reference to Iran’s street fighting and ‘One’ as an incentive to get involved in the battle for Africa.

The U2 concert was most likely a once in a life time opportunity. It made me think of the one time experiences that will make your life different for the rest of its length. I have been listening to U2 music with different years. Every time I hear the tunes and lyrics it brings me back to that Sunday night, when I sat 25 feet away from Bono. I don’t have too many experiences like this one. But the ones I have are definitely helping me enjoy the present in light of the great opportunities of the past. Thank you Joshua for inviting me. I made a brief clip with a video I took of their opening song and a few pictures from the concert. I apologize for the quality (or lack thereof). I had a small handheld camera, severely outdated. But I hope you enjoy reading about the good things from my life.

U2 Concert from Filip Ologeanu on Vimeo.

September 2009 Update:

   Wow, can you believe September is here already? I don’t know how you feel about this summer but three months in Romania went by very fast for me. As my grandfather would say, the earth spun around several times and May turned into September and here I am at the beginning of my last year in Seminary. Please allow me to share with you some of the highlights of the summer.

Internship
    The overall feeling of my trip to Romania is that I was spoiled by God. I am filled with gratitude to see His provision and the opportunities to minister to people. God’s goodness towards me is renewed daily and there is nothing that I have done or can do to deserve it.
    After six years of Bible training I was asking God to show me how He wanted to use my life to make an impact in Romania. Serving with Missio Dei this summer was a powerful answer to that prayer. It was one of the first ministry involvements where I can see how God used me to help others grow and draw nearer to Him.
    While I was there I had several opportunities to preach. They were all good experience but one worth noting is a three part series on Repentance from Hosea. It was a profound learning experience for all of us and a humbling experience for me. I saw how the Holy Spirit was powerfully using God’s Word to change people’s perceptions about repentance. I was humbled to be reminded that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings fruit in the lives of people and not my clever and clear exposition. I hope to keep that in mind for a long time.
    I also spent two weeks in the mountains of Northeast Romania at Missio Dei’s summer camp. It was another great ministry opportunity to minister to people and get to know them a little better. I helped lead a series of 12 stories that go through the Bible chronologically. It was very encouraging and challenging to bring God’s story to people who did not have a relationship with Christ.
    My three months in Bucharest were busy, but it was a good kind of busy. My schedule was an alternation between meetings, individual and group, reading, resting, hanging out with my host family, and visiting my family.

Family
    Another significant highlight of the summer was the opportunity to spend time with my family. I am very thankful for the opportunity to spend my birthday at my grandparents’ house. God gave me the opportunity to spend time with them and show my appreciation for all they have done for me. I was also able to spend some time with my father, although not as much as I would have liked. I was encouraged by his advice and willingness to help me as I get closer to the next stage of my life. I also spent time with my sister and brother-in-law. Bogdan was my faithful driver for the summer and together the three of us enjoyed a few trips around the country.
    As I mentioned the summer went by like a heart beat. This page provides you with the highlights of an awesome blessed summer. I want to thank all of you who helped make this possible. I am still amazed at how God moved your hearts to give and support my ministry. I pray that He would reward your efforts and I hope this update was encouraging for you.

Final Lap
    My final year of seminary has started. I will be taking 8 classes this semester. It will be a busy semester but I have 4 classes in counseling which is a new and exciting area of study for me.

Future
   The ministry involvement was a great blessing this summer but it also opened up some opportunities for involvement once I relocate to Romania. The hopes and plans are to move back to Romania in the fall of 2010. Hopefully I will have more details in my next update. Until then may God richly bless you!

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for strength and motivation in the new semester.
• Pray for wisdom and discernment as I seek God’s will for ministry involvement in Romania.
• Pray for effective ministry involvement in my last year in the States.
• Pray that I would not grow weary of books, classes, and academic work (after 7 years it can get a little dry)
• Pray for Gospel motivated rhythms in my life.

I found this on someone's blog. I can't remember where. But it shows that the cult I recently converted to is slowly taking over the world.

What side are you on?
 

I don't mean to be insensitive to those who would like to jump the fence to our side. Suffice to say that I wished for one for three years before I was able to buy one. Don't give up hope, some day it will happen. They did lower the price recently...

Reflections on my birthday

For those of you who are interested here is a chronological run through my 26th celebration of my birthday.

I woke up early, about 7:30am. It did not feel like a special morning, much like the rest of the day. I have not had that feeling about my birthday in a long time. I woke up and headed for the shower, stopping in the kitchen to start the coffee maker. Refreshed from the shower I sipped my coffee as I read two chapters of Proverbs.

As I was getting ready to leave the apartment, my host Simona woke up and asked me to delay my departure so she could make breakfast for me. In a few minutes I was enjoying scrambled eggs, cheese, and tomatoes. She was also making creppes. But in between the breakfast part and desert part the youngest daughter of the household awoke and was now sitting on my lap as we waited for the first batch of creppes. She is 1 year and 8 months old. She calls me ‘Peceep.’ I taught her where the knee and heel are (two essential parts of the body). The older daughter tried to make an appearance, but she was too sleepy and soon fell asleep on the couch in the living-room.




After breakfast I took a tram over to a friend’s apartment who was going to lend me his car to drive to my grandparents. We chatted for a bit and I was soon on my way out of the city. The trip was pleasant with plenty of time to think about my life and thank God for the life he had given me thus far. The plan was to spend the day at my grandparents’ house joined by my father. The four of us were going to grill out and relive childhood memories.

My father and I arrived with plenty of food to feed the whole family, even those absent. We had all kinds of meat, watermellon, cantelope, sweet corn, grilled green peppers, grilled tomatoes with garlic… what can I say nothing unworthy of the celebration of a 26th year old. We made plans to make a short visit to my other grandmother who lives in a village outside Alexandria.

When we got there we saw two of my uncles and their wives. It was good to see some of them as I had not seen them in a long time. My grandmother was also glad to see me on my birthday as the last time we saw each other was on her birthday. We talked about my summer plans, girlfriends (mine and my father’s) and other small stuff. We did not stay too long but it was good to see them. The drive there and back was also a good time with my father. We started a couple of conversations that I hope to continue in about a week.



Back at my other grandparents the grill was full underway. I provided some assistance to my grandfather though I doubt he needed any. I was more interested in learning the skill. I did help him with some steak as Romanians do not grill steak. We ate and had a feast. After the meal my grandfather kept asking us if we were tired and if we wanted to take a nap. We soon learned that his repeated question was concealing a personal desire to get some shut-eye. We gave him permission and he retreated to his bedroom.

I then asked my grandmother and father if they recollect the day I was born. My grandmother said she did not remember it but my father reminded her that she was the one who went to the hospital with my mother. I was born on Sunday morning. Aparently things went pretty fast and smooth for by the time my father and sisters arrived to the hospital my mother was already walking around the hospital. My father came with his arms full of flowers and with my names already picked out: I was going to be named Sergiu-Cadmiel. To his dismay and my fortune my mother had already decided my name: Filip-Valentin.

The highlight of the day was unusual for a birthday “celebration.” On my way back to Bucharest I stopped to lay 26 carnations on my mothers grave. It was my eight birthday without her and the first that I was “celebrating” by her grave side. I have found myself thinking a lot about her particularly on my birthday. The opportunity to lay flowers on her grave on my birthday was very special to me.

 

When I got back into the city I quickly resumed my sermon preparations. For all I knew my birthday celebration had ended. But to a few members of Missio Dei thought otherwise. As I was imersed in my preparations I head a knock on the door. I hesitated to answer since the last time I did I said no to helping a sick little girl. But upon a second knock I opened and they sang happy birthday to me. I invited them in and we had a good time talking about being 25 and 26 and we ended with a solid time of prayer. It was a good surprise.

And that’s how I spent my 26th birthday. I don’t know if I would call it a celebration as it was more an opportunity to meditate upon God’s work in my life, but it was definitely sprinkled with encouraging and affirming interactions with people. Thank you to all of you who made me feel special on my birthday!

After a short break I am back to give you an update. As usual I get 2-3 ideas of things to write but don’t have the time and motivation to sit down and write. Fortunately for you the time has come for me to sit down and scribble some thoughts.

It’s hard for me to believe that I have already been in Romania for a month. I was sitting down at dinner with my friend and host and I counted the remaining sundays (eight) and they are already all planned. Time flies fast when you’re having fun in Romania.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy. I preached two messages out of the three that I had planned in the church where I am doing my internship. I also preached a few other times at other churches. Overall it has been a blessed time, not too busy and if it was busy it was not stressful as it was mostly interacting with people or preparing messages.

God has been really blessing me and does not cease to amaze me with his faithfulness. So far I have stayed in two places. It so happened that my hosts were away for a while so I basically had both apartments to myself. Even though I am not a huge fan of living by myself, it has been a tremendous sign of His provision.

Bucharest is a busy city. I had forgotten about it or I had never really noticed. I lived in Bucharest for 10 months back in 2002, but maybe I never really noticed the crazy rhythm of the city. Maybe my impressions are different because now I am contemplating making it my home town once I move back to Romania next year.

Even though I am not excited about the city I am enjoying the community I am serving among this summer. The people are very welcoming and I am encouraged to see in them a desire to grow in their understanding of the Gospel and how to make it contagious.

One of the things I have tried to do in this month is observe the people. I like to observe the people in the subway. I remember riding it from the place I am staying to a place across town. On the way there we passed the downtown stop. A lot of people were in a rush to get off and others were impatiently waiting and pushing each other to make it into the train. I was wondering why the rush, what were they all doing downtown. Do they, like the singer, believe that things will be good when you’re downtown. Where are the people going. Wherever it may be, it must have been serious, because none of the were smiling.

The smile issue is something I have written about in the past. I am once again surprised, not shocked, but I guess I forget every time I go away. It’s not that people don’t smile. But they seem to be caught off guard when I smile at them. They don’t really know how to react. Nobody smiles, who do I think I am to smile at them. Well, I am from America, over there people smile, sometimes for no apparent reason. Other times they smile to brighten your moment. But they won’t have it, they are sad, in a hurry and determined. A smile will not change that (they say).

On another note, Bucharest is under sever storm watch with lots of thunders. One just went off and with it 20 car alarms.