Romania 2011 Day Two: What Day is it?

Romania Day 2: What Day Is It?

First, let me apologize for not sending a blog last night. The place we are staying for the youth retreat does not have Wifi and when you see the schedule we went through I hope there is some mercy in understanding why.

The flight from London to Bucharest was on time and I think everyone tried their best to get a little sleep. At the end of the flight I was brought back into the realm of different culture = different norms. A few of us we were sitting towards the back of the plane and once we had landed the usual mad rush to stand up and get your bags pursued. I think this is a worldwide norm. What was a little different was the older lady who was sitting at the back of the plane who decided she needed to get to the front. I assume she thought the rest of us we were just stretching our legs and really wanted to stay on the plane to enjoy another gourmet meal. She proceeded to push her way past every single person the young and the old alike. I wondered how long that would have lasted if she had done that on a flight in America.

Having collected the 29 checked bags we loaded up trolleys and rolled trolleys and bags out to the rental car. Damien, who somehow managed to not even have a carry-on in his hands, did a great job of making sure that the rest of us including the ladies, both young and less young, didn’t drop any of the bags.

One of the Romanian teenagers, Solomon, is attending a Christian music college in Romania and the day that we arrived it was his birthday. To be able to complete the college three-year course he has to have a classical guitar which he does not have nor can afford. Don had a classical guitar at home that he no longer needed and so he brought that over to give to Solomon. It wasn’t until we were in the Romanian airport that Izzy asked why Don and brought a guitar case without a guitar all this way. Apparently the case and guitar was so light she didn’t think there was a guitar in the bag. I informed her that it was an air guitar which seemed to answer the question.

From the airport we split into two groups Don, Russ, Izzy and Dina took our youth straight to Bran where the retreat was. Sue and Gretchen had to go to Puciosa to prepare for next week. Having seen the fear on Sue’s face when Don informed her that she was driving a van to Puciosa I thought I had better offer to drive to Puciosa, drop them off and then head to Bran. When we got into Bucharest on the way to Puciosa we realized that this was probably the first good decision we had made. Driving in Bucharest is an art unto itself on the best of days. Trying to cope with traffic while following someone is close to a death trap. Last year we had several near crashes as Stuart led us through Bucharest making right exits off a roundabout from the left lane across three lanes of traffic. Well apparently Romanians do this as well and yesterday we even learned how to do it during rush hour. Then there is the “make your own lane” rule that you have to get used to. At some turns where you cross traffic you pull up behind the car in front to make the turn. As you wait more and more cars join the turn line but over here the turn line isn’t one behind the other but all lined up next to each other. When the other way is clear about 15 cars all make a dash for the turn which is only 2 lanes wide. I think Sue and Gretchen are breathing again and we did make it safe and sound to Puciosa.

From here I jumped in the car with Marius and his wife and baby son and we headed to pick up Marian (the wife of Florin, the pastor in Fieni) and their daughter Demarius and head to Bran. At this point it was about 8p.m., I had not slept properly for 30 hours and was suffering a little from motion sickness. Ahead of me was a 3 hour drive to Bran. Half way there we had winded our way over the first set of mountains and I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I apologized to my fellow passengers for needing to sleep and for the likelihood that I would snore and proceeded to fall asleep. When I awoke we were nearly in Bran and they were all quiet. I think my snoring must have scared them too much.

When we arrived at the retreat house it was about 11 p.m. a few people were still up but most were in bed. I realized I had missed a meal that night but I wasn’t quite sure which meal I had missed. I did have 2 breakfasts and a lunch I think so I guess it must have been dinner. I said a few hellos and then headed to my room. Apparently Marius and Marian had called ahead to Nicu and asked if he would put me in the same room as Russ who is notorious for his snoring to pay me back for my snoring. Little did they know I have been in training for snoring roommates by having my English bulldog sleep next to me. The training seemed to work and I fell right to sleep.

Anyway there is no internet here and I was so tired I couldn’t drive into town to find Wifi. As soon as I have the chance I will find a Wifi and post.

In Ephesians 5:20 it tells us to give “thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. This is one of the results of being filled with the Holy Spirit. After our safe travel all the way to Bran and the joy of seeing our brothers and sisters in Christ from Romania all that we can do is give thanks.

OK - I found internet but I am not sure for how long. Here is the latest post. Because I am in a hurry there are no pictures. I will try again later if possible.

Romania 2011 Day One: The madness begins

Romania 2011Day 1

Currently it is about 4 a.m. in the morning in Houston. The Romanian Missions team is now in England on a 4 hour layover before flying on to Bucharest in the Southeast of Romania. There is always something about spending 9 hours cramped on a plane that brings out the ability to look at the funny side of life.

The journey to London was relatively smooth once we got the Ayoubi sisters to the airport an hour or so late. Something about forgetting a passport and needing medication seemed to be the problem. Not sure if the medication was for either Hannah or Michelle or for Dani as she said goodbye to the girls for two weeks. Houston airport was pretty crowd free and so having 15 people walking around with the same shirt on drew attention as it has done in the previous 2 years ( I think I meant same colored shirt not the same shirt - having 15 people all in one shirt might be too weird). One gentleman tried to persuade us that we should buy property in Portugal because everyone is selling. He said if we did we would be treated like we were Portuguese. I kind of found a flaw in his sales pitch. There must be a reason everyone is selling - it’s not usually the best tactic to buy stock when everyone is dumping it. I maybe thought it was because they were being treated as though they were Portuguese that actually might be the issue. Not quite sure how the Portuguese are treated but apparently it’s not so good.

The plane brought its own events. One of the flight attendants started to question why we all had the same shirt on and then began reading it. He kind of got stuck with the “Isaiah six point eight” as he said it. I think he thought it was some kind of software program. He finally did come to realize it was a verse from the Bible. Maybe it was the picture of Jesus carrying the cross on the back and front that gave it away. A lot of the English may have a great sense of humor but that doesn’t mean we are all as smart as me :-)

We were all spread throughout the coach section of the plane. I carried on visiting Business Class to see how Stuart Holland was doing but remembered he wasn’t with us this year. Gretchen I think drew the short straw. As tall as she is she had to have the man in front of her who wanted to lay his seat back as far as possible. I think by the end of the trip she felt a bit like God as she could number the hairs on his head. Russ didn’t fair much better as he had the choice of spending the whole flight in an aisle seat next to a 2 year old for whom the family had not bought a ticket i.e. had no seat, or crammed into a window seat. The one

saving grace for him was that when the person in front reclined the seat he had a get rest for his Nook on her head.

I had a good seat/bad seat kind of situation. I got a bulk head seat (good) but I had the toilets right in front of me (bad). I had some nice leg room (good) but the guy next to me was not a small dude (bad). It wasn’t so much the top half of his body that was pressing against me but from the hip down. And boy did this guy put out some heat. I thought summers in Houston were hot. Also for some reason he sat with his legs as far apart as possible. I carried on leaning over to make sure the baby wasn’t coming out. As I tried to sleep it was nice to have the constant sound of a flushing toilet to lull me to sleep. I might try and get the sound added to the Soothing Soundscape CD used to help people go to sleep.

Heathrow was the usual schedule. Immediately head for Wagamama for a good English

breakfast and then shop or relax until the flight to Bucharest. I have no clue what internet I will get when we get to our retreat location in the mountains and so I cannot promise an update tonight but I will try.

On a personal note I do need to have shout out for Steven Buras. Last week I put my back out and it wasn’t getting better. The prospect of sitting on a plane for 10 hours was frightening. I went to see Steven on Monday, Tuesday and finally on Wednesday morning before the flight. I walked into his office on Wednesday in a lot of pain and walked out feeling much better. The good news is I didn’t feel my back at all and even getting up after sitting for so long was pain free. Praise God and thank you Steven.

Philippians 3:13-14 - ... but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Romania 2011 - Pre-trip Blog

Pre-trip July 2011

Every time this year I seem to get back into blogging. This time last year I was actually finished with the blogging escapades but for some reason this year the Romania Missions trip was pushed back a month and we still have a few days before we leave. I am sure the fact that Don Owens was organizing the trip had nothing to do with the trip being delayed but I do think the two year ban on his driving in Romania, because of the car he wrote off, expiring may have had some influence. (I don't think he was banned but it is a good story to keep perpetuating).

This year a smaller team is headed to Puciosa but we will still have three groups for VBS (Puciosa, Fieni and Vulcana Bai - in some combination of Isabelle Sr. Clair, Sue Hedner, Lindsay Hedner, Damien Burke, Katie Rossman, Michelle Ayoubi, Hannah Ayoubi, Dina Ellisor, Kayla Ellisor, Michaila Bertuccini, and Savannah Britton) and a building team (Russ and Don) and new to the mix this year is the women's conference led by Gretchen Bertuccini.

With a smaller team the bonding may be a little more stronger than with the larger groups. Don Owens has already set the example here by forgetting to take Lindsay home after one of our preparation meetings. With her parents out of town it wasn't a really big deal for the first couple of hours of being stranded. Luckily somebody else stepped into the gap and got Lindsay home safely.

So tomorrow we set off. An overnight flight to London and then after a couple of hours a 3 hour flight to Bucharest. From Bucharest we will head straight to the youth retreat stopping via Puciosa to pick up the youth (thought that would be a good idea). I am not sure whether we will break the news to the Romania youth that the 3 drivers will have not slept for 24 hours before we head up into the mountains or just wait and see if they ask why we are drinking so mcuh Red Bull.

After a few days at the retreat we head back to Puciosa for the VBS, building project and women's conference.

Our call to action is from Isaiah 6:8 - "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?' Then I said, 'Here I am. Send Me'"

Please pray for our travel and that the Holy Spirit would lead us in all we do and say.

Day 10 – A Day for the Tough, the Journey Home and Final Thoughts

Day 10 – A Day for the Tough, the Journey Home and Final Thoughts

The alarm clock goes off at 5 a.m. (although I think for some of the others it was earlier) and 45 mins later we have the bags packed in the vans and say a prayer before leaving the hotel for the airport. Because of a recon trip to the airport the night before, we got to the airport without event on Saturday morning. The only hard part was actually trying to return the rental vans. The guard opened the gate but when I asked him where to

park he looked at me like I was foreign. Okay so he didn’t speak English but if you say “Hertz” at a rental car return area you

would expect some kind of understanding. I am sure we were not the first people to return Hertz rental cars to the airport. After a shrug of his shoulders we just pulled into three empty spaces and dropped off the keys in the drop box.
This year we got to the airport just when the BA counter opened, not an hour or so before hand. We still had the same problem as last year which was despite there being an obvious line some people just walked up to the front of the line to check in. This also happened at the security check point so it must just be a cultural thing. It just happens to be an extremely annoying cultural tradition. Despite very careful packing one of my bags was 2 kilograms too heavy, about 4.5 pounds heavy. One thing I do remember from last year is that the airport personnel are stickler for rules (except for enforcing the “no-butting-in-line” norm) and so I had to frantically rearrange a couple of bags to make them weight appropriate. From check in it was through to security. Now having travelled extensively and internationally I am pretty careful about what I pack in my carry-on luggage and so was surprised when my bag got pulled aside. Now the way they have the screens set up at the security, once you have walked through the

body scan, you can see the bag x-ray screens. So when my bag was pulled I looked at the screen and could see that by computer battery and by flashlight were circled. In most countries the procedure is to locate the suspicious object and verify it is okay or remove it and re-scan the bag. Not in Romania. He went through my bag and randomly emptied pockets into a tray and then emptied bags of my computer cords etc. And so my bag was almost empty and the contents haphazardly strewn in a tray. He then rescanned everything and gave me my bag and tray of contents to repack.

A three hour flight to London followed by a 3 hour layover, led to our boarding the 747 that would take us from London to Houston. As we boarded the plane I struck up a conversation with one of the flight attendants and having found out that in Coach there was no power outlets for computers, I asked him whether it was okay if I ran an extension cord from row 50 (5 rows from the back of the plane) down to business class. After thinking about it for about 3 seconds he just laughed. During the flight I tried to work on my computer but realized that the balancing act on my table and belly made it so hard to use a computer hence the lack of power outlets.

The flight westward is longer than the eastward journey and with it not being an overnight you find ways to keep entertained for nine hours. With the new Video On Demand system entertainment was not the issue. However the problem we faced was the temperature. In our section it was like an oven. When you are cramped up with your knees touching the seat in front, body touching the person next to you and sitting on a leather seat the last thing you need is for the cabin to be hot. I write this so graphically so Stuart can get an understanding how us common folk travel. Anyway for about 8 hours of the nine hour journey we were unbareably hot and sweaty. As you watch the screen that shows the flight path and it tells you that the outside temperature is -52˚ you’d think that a 10 second blast from outside would cool things down pretty quickly but no we just sat and suffered. When you walked the plane you would find pockets of cold air and so the crew’s rationale for it being hot where we were was that some other people were cold. Now call me stupid but if you are cold you can put blankets on and stay warm. I don’t think the alternative of me taking clothes off is an acceptable or desirable option. Anyway about an hour before we landed it finally cooled down.

So now we are back home and I have had a day to reflect on our trip here are some final thoughts. As we drove home last night the sun was setting and that is the same sun that was setting on our Romanian friends about 8 hours earlier. I don’t know why but God has ordained that I should be living in America and those friends are to live in Romania but I cannot take for granted the blessings I have. Simple things like a good and reliable shower, a comfy mattress, a pillow that has some constituency to it and is bigger than your head so when you roll over you don’t have to keep your head in one spot. However, more important things like food on a table or housing or religious freedom are also things we take for granted. Now in Romania they have food but they grow a lot of it themselves including raising chickens on rabbits for meat. They have housing but that might be a family of four in a one bedroom apartment. They are free to go to church where they want but if they don’t go to the orthodox church they may be shunned by family and friends and definitely will be by society. We saw kids whose source of entertainment was a cardboard box that had been pulled from the trash not a TV or a computer or a video game. But no matter what the circumstance, no matter what they had or didn’t have, these people at the churches in Puciosa and Fieni had a love for Jesus and a smile on their face. I just wish I had half of the fortitude these people had to deal with what card they had been dealt. Once a year Puciosa gets invaded by a group of Americans and believe me they remember us (especially when Russ with a little help from me drink two restaurants dry of Mountain Dew and I, with a little help from everyone else, can get a restaurant to sell out of Papanosi). So how we act and what we say are so important not only in representing God but also representing ourselves, the churches there and also Harvest Bible Church.

One of the biggest frustrations I have is the language barrier. I have learned some

of the language but there is only so much you can talk about when you know how to say hello and good bye, right and left, and count from 0 – 99 (actually I learned 100 this year as well). In one store we went to, the man asked Alex which cult we belonged to. I didn’t understand what he said but if I had known I would have loved to talk to him. There are people we meet at VBS who I would love to talk to but cannot. I got myself in trouble a couple of times when I said “Good morning” to someone in Romanian and then when they made the next comment saying “Da” as though I had understood but then with they came with another comment, asking me a question which I did not understand also and that seemed to require something more than another “Da”. The people looked bewildered when I tried to explain that I didn’t speak Romanian. My goal for next year is to continue to grow my vocabulary.
I did want to clear up one small point that had been floating around since arriving in

Romania. Certain comments had been made as to my navigational abilities and implications that I had to stop and get directions. There were also some photos that tried to prove these baseless accusations. It was obvious that I was trying to evangelize and the pointing done was in response to where the person was going after they died which then opened up the opportunity to tell them it wasn’t left or right they were going but probably down. I feel better knowing that everyone knows the truth now.

Some of the Romanian practices still leave me confused. The allowing of dogs to rule the streets seems strange. I guess that versus euthanizing them is a better option but you’d have thought something would be done. In a restaurant if the bill comes to 23.42 lei and you give them 50 lei to pay, you don’t get back 26.58 lei as one would expect but you get 25 lei back. I am not sure if this is self-decided tip they take or just the fact that they have no clue what to give back because their math is so bad.

Each member of the team gave of their time and their talents and it was a joy to spend time and serve with them. Whether it was their musical talents (Lindsey, Sue, Emily, Chrissie, Tiffany, Savannah, Holly, Katie, Michelle), their cooking talents (Chrissie, Tiffany), their VBS leadership talents (Dani, Kelley, Tiffany, Stuart, Russ, Barbara), their shopping talents (Chrissie, Dani), their preaching and teaching talents (Russ, Stuart, Damien), their sporting talents (Damien, Hunter, Barbara), their drawing and creativity talents (Hannah), their construction talents (Russ, Damien, Hunter, Stuart, Sue), their blogging talents (Katie, Holly, Michelle),

their driving talents (Russ, Stuart), their leadership talents (Russ, Stuart), their sitting at home talents (Nate and Sara Krupke, Steve and Kelly Zettlemoyer, Don Owens, Isabelle St Clair) and their “Bushy Bear” talents (Hunter), all was done with passion. Next year we already have direction about what can be done but we will have to see what God has in store for us.
God bless you all or as they say in Romania “Pace” (peace). Thank you for your prayers and for sharing this journey with us.
Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Day 9 - The Toughest Day

Day 9 – The Toughest Day

I know yesterday’s blog wasn’t really a blog but for the first time in the two years of coming to Romania I really was too tired to function. And so tonight I will try to cover the last two days in a little more detail.
Yesterday was the wrapping up of VBS. Both Puciosa and Fieni had about the same number of children (40-50 at both locations). From what I could tell the children had a great time. Some of the children really touch your hearts. One of the boys at Puciosa has been a royal pain for the last two years and nothing changed this year. After about 30 minutes of his acting up you are ready to beat him. But this year for the first time I heard more of his story. He comes from a gypsy family and is one of 8 children (I think – it may be 14 children but that seems way too many). And his 14 year old sister is in charge of looking after all of the young ones including a young toddler. When you start to realize that this boy has essentially no guidance it is not difficult to understand why he constantly acts up. This year Russ decided to show some tough love and discipline him but do it with some guidance. Today as we said our goodbyes he was there with his elder sister and he wanted his picture taken with us and loved the picture he had with Russ.
For the roving Brittoners we began and finished up in Vulcana Bai. VBS was in a field, on a hill, in wet grass – the program had to be cut down from 4 hours to 2 hours and so essentially we used the accounts of Moses and Jesus to give the gospel message. Talk about difficult conditions to do crafts and even act out some of the scenes but I am proud of my family and the job they did to pull off another great VBS. Here we had 27 kids and again this was after handing out flyers one day before. The toughest thing for me was the fire eating. In Varfur the wind posed a problem with fire eating and having learned from that when I faced the same windy conditions in Vulcana Bai I remembered to face so that the wind was blowing away from my face. But now I had a new problem – when I faced with the wind blowing in the right direction and put my head back the sun was shining straight in my eyes. As I lowered the fire into my mouth I had to shut my eyes for the last few inches. When I came to the part where I light my tongue on fire I literally shut my eyes and hoped I pressed down on my tongue and then was able to find the flame with the other stick. This was by far and away the most difficult fire eating I have ever done and frankly makes think twice of whether I will ever eat fire if there is even the slightest breeze.
Niku and I spoke and he was so happy that at the 3 locations we reached almost 70 kids. One of the goals of this year’s trip was to expand our outreach and that was done. There are already ideas afoot of expanding the time in Magura, Varfur and Vulcana Bai and even sending a team to Rimnicu Sarat.
Today was the toughest day of the whole trip. The goodbyes. After breakfast we headed to the church where we began the painful process of saying goodbye to both the Puciosa and Fieni churches. Dani won the prize for most time spent crying but frankly everyone pailed in comparison to the deluge Izzy produced last year. In fact I am sure Izzy has shed several tears this year and she wasn’t even on the trip. Again the tears shed between the youth were very touching but for me the most touching was the 14 year old girl who came to the church with the trouble boy and the toddler so they could say goodbye. She had spent 4 days at VBS where she had been able to actually act like a kid, singing songs and doing crafts, and had help looking after the toddler. She was walking up and down the street by our vans bawling her eyes out.
The drive back to Bucharest was uneventful except for Stuart, who was leading, once again having a desire to make a right turn from the left lane of a roundabout (traffic circle). After a traditional meal at Hard Rock some decided to visit a Museum of Houses, some took a water ferry to the hotel and Russ and I drove to the hotel. One of the biggest changes this year has been the police presence wherever we have been and today in Bucharest it was even more the case. We had road stops, police cars and ambulances flying up and down roads and at one point Russ almost had a head on collision with a police car. I do have to say that this was not Russ’ fault at all. He made his way on to a roundabout going the right way and suddenly a police car appeared out of nowhere going in the wrong direction. Both Russ and the police car completed diversionary maneuvers and I put my money I was going to use to bail Russ out back in my wallet.
We rounded out today with a devotion and then dinner at the hotel. Just like last year there was a group singing in the restaurant and just like last year the lead male singer blew us away with his 1970’s look. I am not sure any photo could do justice to this guy’s outfit.
Well just to finish off this blog here are some random stories or thoughts from the trip.
Food has been a main topic of conversation and controversy this trip. From the first meal here with Hannah unable to order anything she liked, to the wonderful food we had at people’s houses, to the joy of being able to turn up at breakfast, lunch or dinner and have it prepared for you by Chrissie, Tiffany or Daniella. Stuart finally changed from only praying for the hands of the person who prepared the meal to praying for their whole body. Dani had a saccharin disaster. With Hannah needing a sugar substitute Dani picked up a saccharin dispenser for her. The one-by-one dispensing didn’t work and so Dani prized the top off the dispenser sending hundreds of tiny saccharin tablets all over the table including over the Papanosi.
Last year we were all surprised by the listing of Crap on the menu. Now this is a fish and the only debate is whether it is Carp mis-spelled or actually a fish by that name. Hunter finally couldn’t take it anymore and ordered Crap to share with Michelle. They really didn’t like it and so Russ and I tried it and both agreed it lived up to its name and that it left a horrible after taste in your mouth. Depsite this proclamation Holly and Savannah seemed to determined to disprove us. I am not sure why you would run the risk of the proclamation being right but they didn’t find it quite as bad until the after taste set in. So take note if you make next year’s trip, do not order Crap or Mushroom soup at the hotel restaurant.
Some people make lasting impressions. When I turned up at Fieni to do my fire eating Marian asked the children if they could remember a special person from last year’s VBS. The answer was not George Bush but “Miss Isabelle”. This year it was Hunter who made an impression. Before VBS on the last day a little girl named Maria cam running up and gave Hunter a picture of herself and had written her address on the back. As she walked away she professed her love for him. What these 8 year olds will do for a boyfriend. I must admit it was not hard to be attracted to her especially with her Mickey Mouse slippers on.
Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Tomorrow we head home and so have an early morning leaving the hotel at 5:45 a.m.

Day 8 – VBS Ends

It’s currently 1 a.m. and I am just sitting down to write the blog so you may have to forgive me if this is short. The reason for the lateness of the blog is that today is the last day in Puciosa and we crammed in as much as possible and I am just getting back to my room. The quick rundown of the schedule was as follows.
• Devotion and Breakfast
• VBS in Puciosa, Fieni and Vulcana Bai
• Lunch
• Last minute shopping in Targoviste and Puciosa
• Construction in Puciosa and Fieni
• Fellowship dinner in Fieni
• Volleyball in Puciosa
• Final evening wind down at Café Vienna
• Packing for the trip back home

I will write a lot more tomorrow but for now I need sleep.

Day 7 – Church on Wednesday (like most normal churches)

Day 7 – Church on Wednesday (like most normal churches)

I am not sure whether we had another mosquito in the room last night or whether the mosquito bites that had been inflicted on me the night before were just coming out. At the latest count I have 36 on one arm and 11 on the other. As least I know I will be leaving a part of me here when I go home.
Today the roving team headed back out to Varfur. There were 31 kids and a couple more mums. In speaking to Niku this is a village that is ready for an evangelical. He was so uplifted to see the response from the village towards the VBS and not only that, the mayor of the town seems to be open to having Niku start a church there.
Again in typical fashion the plans change on the fly. Our time in Vulcana Bai on Thursday is only supposed to be from 10 a.m. to noon, not 2:30 p.m. and so Niku me if we could go back out to Varfur on Thursday afternoon. I let Niku know that the VBS material would be finished today but I could go out and do a series of object lessons for them. In the end as I started to prepare a 2 hour program Niku changed his mind. In a way I would love to have gone back out because the instant interest from this area is something that needs to be grasped to.
In the afternoon we had some free time except for the fact that nothing had been communicated to the people in Vulcana Bai about the VBS tomorrow and so a team of people went there to hand out flyers. Barbara and I got to accompany Alex to Targoviste and while there he took the time to take us to a couple of places. First, we went to the old fortress which was in ruins but was being rebuilt. The only thing open to the public was the tower and in that we learned some of the history of Romania and of Targoviste. Romania used to be a country made up of three regions all ruled by a prince. Then about 400 years ago it was united under some man named Mihai who has his head buried in Targoviste. I am not sure what happened to the rest of the body but they only seem to care about where his head was buried. The capital was moved from Targoviste to Bucharest and remained a monarchy until the end of World War II. Sometime during this period is when Vlad Tepes ruled as one of the regional leaders in Targoviste. His name Tepes means “stake” and because of his father being called Dracul, Vlad Tepes became known as Count Dracula. He lived upto his name by putting a stake through people. At the end of World War ii the Russians came in and installed a new ruler who was a communist. They took the wealth from the rich and gave it out. Despite everyone having a job and being able to have the essentials in life they could not handle the lack of freedom that existed under the communists. Eventually in 1989 the communist leader of Romania was killed in Targoviste.
The strange thing about the ruins was that the wall had been built up and then inside these walls a number of ruins had been uncovered and the buildings were being rebuilt. However, the tower was rebuilt but on top of the site where the church used to be. The church was being built somewhere else. So essentially they were building a series of new buildings to cover up the ruins.
Second, we went to visit an area in old Targoviste which has been re-done to create a shopping/restaurant area only open to pedestrians. I was actually very nice so we sat down to have a coffee. And then the rains came in. So we jumped into another café and had another coffee. I told Alex if we kept doing that we would be wired for church. It did stop and we returned to Puciosa for evening Church.
At church I started to get some of the emotions of this trip as I realized we only had one more day in Puciosa. This trip again has been a blessing to me and it is hard to think it almost done for another year. Niku had asked all of the VBS kids to bring their parents to the church for the service and had promised I would do fire eating (not inside during the service but afterwards outside. This was going to be the 3nd time for me to eat fire. In Varfur I did the fire eating and was rather challenged with the wind. I only singed one side of my beard. Then in Puciosa after the service I did the fire eating. At one point I push one of the burning rods on to my tongue which lights my tongue on fire so I can light the other rod. Unfortunately I did not have enough liquid on it and I had to push down very hard to have the flame burn on my tongue. It never is a good feeling when you take a fire and push it onto your tongue but I got through it.
Tonight Barbara and I and Russ and Tiffany went over to Solomon’s house and met his family. It is very strange to see a family over here all with strong Christian values and all getting along together . Solomon is one of 11 children of which one died at birth and the eldest died from leukemia 10 years ago. As Solomon talked about this brother who was about to die when Solomon asked him to teach him music, you could see the tears in his eyes. This was how Solomon got the passion for music but also the heart for Jesus. After eating, Solomon introduced his mother. With Solomon on the accordion and the mother either singing or playing the harmonica and the rest of the family singing, we were serenaded by them. Folks, I think we have found the Romanian equivalent of the Parkin family.
Philippians 3:13-14 – “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”