Romania Day 2

Sorry about the delay, those pesky tornadoes are always a problem.

On to day 2 of the Romania trip....

Woke up, refreshed and ready for Romania. Breakfast included tea (I drank so much tea while there, I do enjoy tea), fresh baked bread, hard boiled egg (which I've never honestly had), apricot jam, cheese and, wait for it, wait....hot dogs. All of that was provided by our host family, that didn't eat with us, it was ready when we woke up. Jr., one of the guys from Harvest, never eats hot dogs, he states because he knows what's in them. Well he did, to not insult our host family, or that's what us and the other people convinced him would happen...."When in Romania"

So we packed up and got ready for our 6 1/2 hour drive. We visited the local corner store for some Appa Platta (bottled water that isn't carbonated) and checked the community well while all the other people assembled from the houses around the neighborhood.

Well the drive, I can sum it up with one word, 'awesome.' I've been to Europe before and have experienced the driving, but I mean, I thought it was great. Other then it being like a race, the reactions from the other passengers who haven't experience this driving was priceless.

There was road construction EVERYWHERE, since Romania had joined the European Union they are helping rebuild the roads. Marius (a Romanian pastor in a gypsy town who was helping in our building project) was our driver and he drove like a rock-star! You get right behind the vehicle that you want to pass, I mean inches, then pass as fast as you can while there is a car about 100 feet away, coming at you in the other lane. Sometimes the car that is passing someone takes too long, so you in turn pass them, creating a 3 lane road, all going on direction, while you have another car coming at you. It was great.

We stopped to see a church that had just been dedicated/finished by Arne and Ede (someone helping Arne & Caroline from San Diego - whose home church had been sponsoring it's construction for 12 years). I don't remember the name of the town, it starts with a 'D', I know that doesn't help much. A story about that church/town is they were wanting to show the Jesus film so they rented the community center but the local pastor (from the Pentecostal or Romanian Orthadox church) cut the power from it so they couldn't show it. So a farmer let them show it on the side of their building. This same pastor actually got in a fist fight with Arne's translator. Then only after this death, not from the fight, were they able to get that church in their and spread the Gospel.

We stopped at a open air market that was really cool, swapped out some American cash for Romanian Lai (2.33 Lai to the American dollar...good trade off). I'm sorry I don't remember the names, I will have to get them from someone else but it was a beautiful town whose name comes from this old water tower that is found in the middle of the town. One of our guys picked up some flip-flops there.

After some more driving we stopped at a touristy type spot. At some old Roman ruins of a fortress and a bridge (now gone) that stretched across the river. The amazing thing about this bridge was that they created this bridge in 3 years...we can't even do that now.

We continued along the Danube river seeing Serbia and Bulgaria. We stopped by another market so Caroline could pick up some fresh vegetables and fruit for dinner tonight.

Dave Jolly, was riding in the van I was in and periodically on the trip he was calling WDLM and doing live updates from Romania. And since I was sitting beside him, by proximity I got to be on the air! It was pretty fun, you can hear it here. At one point I was talking and Marius decided to do some off roading with the van. Another time, we drove by the other van of people going to Rast was using the bathroom on the side of the road...but I didn't think I should say it on the air.

Finally we arrived at Rast at about 5:30, where we met Adi and Monica, the pastor and his wife of Rast. Children started flooding in, so eager for contact.

We at some soup, salad and bread then started moving the wood for the addition over from beside the house to beside the church. Well it was moving very slowly so we enlisted in the help of a horse cart! That at one point fell apart, but worked very well in the end.

The kids helped if they could, but did help us move our bags. I taught one to say "Cool dude" when he was wearing my sunglasses. We got all the wood moved. Then 6 of us stayed in Rast (while other's went into town to the hotel) in a house of a friend's of the pastor by the church. It had beds and that's about it...no running water, bathroom, door handle anything. I bathroom was a hole in the backyard, literally, not even a outhouse over it. So I got to use the out house by Adi & Monica's place tonight. Woot woot.

Tomorrow time to work! Thank you for the amazing day God!

(pictures to come later)

Romania Day 1

This is taken from my journal on the trip and I will add any other info as needed. I pretty much started writing when we arrived in Romania so I will spare you the expense of the grueling flights and drive...though the driving in Romania is exciting, to me. I will add pictures as I get them. Please ask any questions you might have! Click the pictures for bigger views.

Here is the history of Romania and the religious persecution that they went through in 1989 told by Dave Jolly, a radio announcer for the local radio station on WDLM.

The town of Otelu Rosu (Red Steel)

Well we made it to Romania finally yesterday (5.10.08) at about 4p.m. Romania time. The traveling to get there seemed like it took forever, mainly because I didn't sleep at all. In the last 4 days from yesterday. I think I got something like 14 hours of sleep. With anticipation being part of the first 2 days of the 4 (being at home waiting) and just not being able to sleep on the way to Romania...on the plane, jet lag, long drives, etc.

Well I slept a lot last night and WE ARE IN ROMANIA! We are staying with a host family for the night before going to Rast. They know no English but luckily Dave Jolly knows a little Romanian. There was 4 or us in 3 beds in their house while they slept in a cottage in back. We made the folks that snore sleep together. The host's 'mom' was named Sylvia, I didn't catch the man's name. She would have lengthy conversations with us in Romanian and we would just smile and nod. The other group members spread out to different host houses throughout the town.

What was so amazing, that this family, that spoke no English opened their doors to complete strangers, willing to share their house, give up their bed, offer food because we share one thing...Christ. The language barrier didn't matter so much anymore.

I did get a shower that evening (and I didn't know it would be my last for several days). What I had to remember was not to drink the water while I showered. Even though the water was supposedly chlorinated, you could still get sick. So when I did get some water in my mouth, I would freak out...it was humorous to me and I didn't get sick.

The day before we ate at Arne & Caroline's (the long term missionaries that are friends with our leader Dave who have been in Romania for around 15 years) place in Otelu Rosu (where we stayed the night too, the host's house was a couple blocks from Arne & Caroline's). We gathered there together and enjoyed some spaghetti and "Hungry" doughnuts. Then talked plans about the building that will be build in Rast...I did not participate in it, though I thought they should work on the quad spectre of the 4th quadrant...what? These are pics from their house and the amazing view.

This is their vineyards, grapes are produced abundantly in Romania.







What a view!











This was a town with a huge steel mill with brown billowing smoke coming out of it...hence the name of Red Steel was given to it during the countries communist ownership.

They also picked us up from the airport in Timisoara which was about an hour away.


















God is good. All the time. Thank you for the rest and safe travel! Tomorrow Rast!

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Okay, I will.

See everyone soon. Take care! Pray for me if I could.