Good Morning Everyone!

I arrived home Wednesday morning after spending the night in Chicago. How interesting that my trip ended the same way it began...an overnight in Chicago and my arrival at my destination without my luggage! Sort of like bookends on the trip and actually the night in Chicago on the way home was a blessing because when I arrived here Wednesday morning I was functioning at about 3/4's instead of 1/4...God is good in surprising ways.

Erik and I had a couple of interesting adventures while he was in Romania including a 4:00 a.m. taxi ride that got us from point A to point B in 2 minutes...a drive that normally takes 10-12 min...need I say that our driver easily fits in the "kamakazie" class?

There are a couple more tales to tell but I hope to be telling them to you all in person so let me end this blog adventure by saying thank you to all of you who have checked in so regularly. It was heartwarming to see the number of visits to this site and helped me remember that there were people at home who cared about me and about what I was doing. Without all of you this trip could never have happened and without your prayers my experience would have been much more difficult. THANK YOU...THANK YOU...THANK YOU!

May God bless each and everyone of you in new and surprising ways today and everyday.

Love,

Linda

 

 

The Bus

A funny thing happened on the way to Alba Lilui...24 sleepy-eyed people climbed aboard the bus at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to begin a 5 hour drive to a nearby (distance IS relative) community to join with another youth group in an afternoon of evangelism, a youth gathering Saturday night, and a morning and evening service on Sundayanywayback to the bus. Just in case I had forgotten that people are people where ever you go, here is a list of similarities between this trip and those I have taken with our youth:

 

          1. Excitement gives everyone energy for about the first 2 hours

          2. About the same time the excitement dies down someone is hungry, thirsty, and/or needs to go to the bathroom and the scheduled stop is at least 30 minutes away!

          3. When a bus full of young people unloads at a truck stop, the management gets VERY nervous. (I am absolutely sure it had nothing to do with the young woman riding on the hood of the adult (?) leaders car as he backed across the parking lot.)

          4. Everyone thinks stupid jokes are funny one o'clock in the morning.

 

Most importantly, however, I was reminded that God touches our lives in surprising and wonderful ways when we obey the call to go on a mission. We may start out thinking we are going to be a blessing to others (and we are) but always, always, God blesses us as much or more than we bless others.

 

                          The Park

The setting: Two guitars, a dozen Bibles, and a 26 member chorus gathered under the trees to sing praise music and talk to people about God.

This is the first time about half of the group has done an evangelistic ministry of this kind so some were quite nervous and kept trying to hide in the back of the group. (I, on the other hand, had a perfectly good reason to stand in backI cant sing in Romanianwell, actually I can but dont tell anyone!) So, this is a pretty somber looking group and I am thinking that we are scaring people away rather than attracting them so I decide we need a cheerleader to get people smiling at least a little and since I will most likely never see any of these people again I decide I am the perfect person to get it started. Well, you know how it is when people are nervous, once they laugh a little they relax and enjoy themselves so that is what happened and pretty soon we had a nice little good crowd gathered and we had a good time and talked to people about God and enjoyed ourselves as we sang praises to our Lord.

 

                          The Cathedral

 The setting: Within the park grounds, a cathedral built between 1003-09.

There was a nice young woman who gave tours of the church and she was wonderful! She was patient with our exuberance, willing to answer all of our questions, and at one point let us into a small chapel that is not usually open to the public.

As we stood in this 1,000 year old chapel, we realized that the acoustics were phenomenal and so we sang. We started with Amazing Grace and proceeded to sing 3 or 4 songs. I cannot even begin to tell you what an incredible experience this was. Here we were, standing on the very stones that believers had been standing on for a 1,000 years. We were worshipping the same Godthe God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrowwe were experiencing unexpected grace and felt the touch of the Holy Spirit.

Just as we were beginning to leave the chapel, a woman who had been sitting in the main part of the church came and asked us to sing at the front of the cathedral. She had tears in her eyes as she told us how God had touched her through our music. So there we were, standing at the front of this huge cathedral singing our hearts out for God and for this woman.

As we left the church I was thinking that maybe God sent us there that day just so this one woman would feel His presence.

 

                         Unexpected Grace

The setting: Sunday morning at the kitchen table in the home of the couple who hosted Anca and I.

         

The conversation:

Aroure, our hostess: "Linda, would you like coffee before breakfast?

 

* * * * * *

                            Reality Check

I had the pleasure of spending some time with Mary Lou again this week. Talk about unexpected grace, finding another American practically on my doorstep a few weeks ago certainly qualifies in my book! Anyway, I recalled an earlier conversation we had about how weird it was to see someone using a weed whip to cut a whole field of knee high grass. Mary Lou told me she had commented to one of the staff at CASA and their response was that it was a lot faster and easier than using a scythe.

 

I am looking forward to Eriks arrival on Wednesday. In typical Romanian style I have made three different sets of plans and still am not certain which one, if any, will work. But really, who cares! He will be here and what we do is so much less important than that.

In addition to spending a couple of days  exploring, we will attend Emanuels graduation ceremony on the 28^th. Two of the three students I have become close friends with will graduate that day so I am excited to be sharing this event with them.

And then the next day we are off to Budapest where we will spend one day and one night and then I fly home and Erik goes on to visit friends in Germany.

Wow! The adventure is almost at an end and I am feeling a strange mix of excitement and sadnessI have made good friends here whom I will miss and so leaving will have a bittersweet flavoron the sweet side, I look forward to seeing you all!

 

P.S.

          Does anyone need their house painted? I know someone who is looking for a job!

Until I checked my emails yesterday I had completely forgotten that today is Mother's Day (sorry Mom!) and I am a little shocked to realize how thoroughly I am immersed in Romania. We celebrated May 1^st which is a holiday that originated with the Communists and used to be a way to honor laborers. Now days, everyone heads for the mountains or parks for a picnic and/or a swim. Felix, a small community just a couple of kilometers south of Oradea is the chosen destination of many people who live in Oradea. It is attractive for its hot springs, swimming pools, and parks.

 

My days continue to start with a tutoring session with Vitalie, it is amazing to me how quickly he is becoming proficient in English though I really shouldn't be given the fact that he speaks three other languages. It seems as though the US is a bit behind many other countries where a second language is taught from grade school on. I am told that once a person learns one foreign language it is much easier for them to learn another and so many people who are bilingual add a third and fourth language.

 

A story told in chapel:

    There once was a king who had a beautiful daughter. One day the king saw his daughter laughing and talking with a peasant boy. The king was not happy with the idea of his daughter having a peasant for a friend so he decided it was time for his daughter to get married.

 

The king made an announcement that there would be a race across the kingdom and that the man who won the race would become the husband of the princess and heir to the kingdom. On the day designated for the race, many young men came to participate. Before the race started the king announced that he had placed buckets of jewels and gold in the bushes and trees along the path of the race. He went on to say that any of the jewels and gold that were picked up by the participants would be theirs to keep when they crossed the finish line.

 

The race started and soon there were more men in the ditches than on the road and those who were on the road were moving more and more slowly as they struggled to run while carrying buckets of jewels and gold. In the end, only one participant finished the race because he set his eyes on the prize and never wavered. The peasant and the princess lived happily ever after.

 

The preacher used this story as a way to illustrate the need to keep our eyes on Jesus. That Jesus is the one and only target/prize that is worth striving for.

                                      * * * * *

 

This week has flown by! I knew that my last weeks here would go by quickly but wow! I underestimated the speed with which they would pass. I have been volunteering at Emanuel Hospice where I helped pack up boxes of food items that have been donated for the families who are struggling. Every month the Hospice receives groceries for the 40-50 families who are caring for a loved one who is dying of cancer. The social workers all pitch in to box up the food and then Maria spends a day or two delivering it. I was invited to go with her when she visited a woman who is in her 60s, is alone, and has 3^rd stage cancer. She receives a disability payment of 2 million lie per month (about $65) out of which she must pay her rent, heat, water, and electric. She also must purchase all of her medications. She currently lives in one room where she shares a kitchen with two other women. She has to walk through one persons room to get to hers or to the kitchen. The groceries that Maria brought are a God send to this woman. Every time I work with the folks at the Hospice or at CASA I am amazed by their dedication and compassion for the least of Gods children, the ones that much of society overlooks or ignores.

 

Speaking of compassion, as I was leaving campus to go for a walk I ran into a student whom I knew and asked her if she would like to go for a walk with me. She said no thanks because she was meeting the students in her group and they were going to visit a young woman who had had an accident. As we chatted, she shared with me that the young woman they were going to see was a gypsy and that she was injured while rummaging through the trash at a garbage dump. Apparently something she moved blew up and the lower half of her body was severely damaged by fire and flying debris. This small group of students has been acting as the girls advocate, fighting with the doctors to ensure that she received treatment, raising money to pay for her surgeries, visiting her regularly in the hospital, and now visiting her at home where she awaits more surgery. What makes this group exceptional is that they are doing all of this for a young woman who belongs to the most despised and looked down upon people in Romania--the Gypsies. I have had the privilege of praying for this student and her group before when they went on a weekend mission trip. What an honor to be able to pray for them now as they go to minister to and be Jesus to this young Gypsy woman.

 

A Story

 

So, there was this American staying in Romania and she was really tired. So tired in fact that she was thinking about staying home and sleeping in on Sunday morning. After all, she reasoned, I haven't made arrangements to go with anyone and I don't understand anything when I go alone and sermons are REALLY long and boring when you don't understand them and I can have just as good a worship time in my room listening to praise music, reading the Bible, and praying so I will just sleep in. I just wish there was a church around here that had a service in English, then I wouldn't mind going.

 

8:00 a.m. Sunday morning finds our friend wide awake and thinking that it wasn't much of a sleep in. So here she is wide awake and thinking maybe she should think about going to church, there is plenty of time to get ready but then again, maybe it would be nice to just lie around and take it easy and have church here but then that would not be a very good witness to the students and it really isn't such a bad thing to sit and read the Bible during the sermon is it? Long story short, 9:50 a.m. finds our friend sitting and waiting for the service to start at 10. A student who comes in a little later recognizes our friend and comes and sits by her. There are announcements, praise music, prayer, a hymn or two and another announcement. After the announcement the student leans over and says "Linda, there is a guest preacher today and he is from Tennessee."

 

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is in me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits."  Ps. 103.1-2

 

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Don't laugh when you read this...but it occurred to me the other day as I went downstairs (a mere 4 floors, 3 hallways, and 90 stairs from my room) to set my bag of laundry in line with two others to wait my turn to use one of the two washing machines that are available to students (and praise God I am here now when they have washing machines!) that my life is a little strange. Or maybe it was the day I sat on the back steps of a home in one of the villages. There I was with a kitten on my lap, looking across a freshly planted garden with the smells of lunch in the air and suddenly I was remembering the house where my Grandma Bergeon lived when I was growing up; a place where the garden took up nearly half of the property, a place where the cooking was done on a wood stove which also provided heat, a place where there was always room for one more at the table. Or maybe it was after participating in a worship service with 8 other people in a room lovingly maintained since 1915, maybe it was that day that I realized my life is a little strange...strange in a weird and wonderful way.

 

I told you NOT to laugh!

 

* * * * * *

 

There are advantages and disadvantages in being in the field for an extended period of time. The greatest advantage is having time to develop deeper relationships with people as well as the opportunity to understand the people's daily life in a more complete way.  The disadvantages are that you have time to develop deeper relationships with people to whom you will have to say good-bye and you begin to realize that there are issues in their daily lives that you will never understand.

 

As I enter the last three weeks of my time here I am realizing how much I have learned and how much more there is to learn. I am realizing how much I am going to miss some of the people I have met and how little I really know many of them. I also realized last night as I went off on my own to pick up a phone card and a couple of other items that the neighborhood feels like home. I know where to go, I recognize people on the streets, and sometimes I don't see the ugliness of the blocks (apartment buildings) because I know some of the people who have made warm and loving homes inside those ugly exteriors. These days when I talk about going home, I mean to my room at Emanuel. And then I realize that in three short weeks I will be leaving what has become familiar and will return to what is no longer familiar. I don't think it will take long for me to get back in the swing of things once I return and yet I know that I have been changed and that I may not so easily fit back into my old life.

 

The double-edged sword of knowledge also means that I know more about the problems the Romanian people face, about the difficulties of existing in a time of the great transitions that are happening politically, economically, and socially. Politically I hear about things like a religious law that, if passed, will essentially make the Orthodox church the state church and all others illegal. In the economic realm I am told the weather here is unusually cold for this time of the year. People are concerned because crops are going in late and with the amount of rain they have had some areas still cannot plant. People who always struggle to make ends meet during the winter are anticipating higher prices in the fall and winter and wonder how they will feed their families and heat their homes.

 

Socially the Romanian people are being deluged with images and life-styles that are attractive and deadly. Social issues such as hunger and homelessness are needing to be addressed in new ways...ways that are almost foreign after decades of being repressed and taken care of by the government.

 

It is almost impossible for us to imagine the damage the Communist and Ceaucescu regimes did to this country and its people. We can read about it and study it but until you talk to people who lived it the reality just doesn't sink in. Last night I talked to a woman who remembers that as a young teen she had to get up at 4 a.m. one morning every week to go stand in line for 1 litre of milk, the ration that was given her family. Most of those mornings, rain or shine, she stood in line for at least 4 hours.

 

I have learned that the goal of the Ceaucescu Communist government was to make the people completely dependent on the government for everythingfood, shelter, work, etc. To obtain that goal they did everything possible to separate people from their ethnic, religious, and cultural heritages. Their measures  included fear and intimidation which was carried out by the secret police who then recruited or threatened people into becoming informers (it is said that at one time 1 out of every 3 people was an informer and even if this was not true it is what was believed), the destruction of historic buildings and the razing of entire villages, the relocation of people from the country to the city, the persecution of intellectuals and dissenters, etc. etc. etc. They sought to and almost accomplished the complete subjection of the people of Romania and perhaps worst of all, crushed their spirit and took away their hope.

 

The miracle is that there are good people in Romania working hard to improve conditions for everyone, good people who survived those years of oppression and are now raising children whose futures have the potential to be much brighter. Please keep them in your prayers.

 

* * * * *

It has been quite a weekI have met a Canadian author and a former U.S. Ambassador to Romania. I have attended a Christian concert and a grief counseling workshop. I have worshipped in the largest evangelical church in Romania and in a one room home church. I have bounced around in a van with two other people and been packed into a VW hatchback car with five.

                           * * * * *

The young man I am tutoring has such a heart for God! He is a gifted musician who wants to be a missionary and will spend the summer ministering with mission teams from the U.S. He will travel to Moscow as soon as school is done to meet up with the first groups. Then they will travel to the Chez Republic and then he will go on to St. Petersburg. Please pray that he will be able to get his visa and whatever other documents he needs as well as find the funds to pay for everything.

 

 * * * * *

 Hows this for an internship?

 

Leave your home at 6:30 a.m. and walk to the bus station to catch the 8:00 bus which will take you another 20 miles north and drop you off on the highway where you will walk another two miles to arrive at the church where you will conduct morning worship, preach, and provide music. After a short break you hold Sunday school for the children and youth which last about another hour so it is now about 3 p.m. You have lunch with one of the families from the church and at 4:15 you leave the village to return to Oradea and play music at the 5:00 p.m. service which last until 7 or 7:15. Oh, and your pay is your transportation money and lunch.

 

My friend, Vitalie, does this every Sunday.

 

Food for Thought

The other day one of the students asked me how I liked the food in Romania and I said I liked it a lot (because I do!) even though some of it was unfamiliar. I went on to say that I liked trying new things including different kinds of food. The student expressed surprise at my response saying that "most Americans complain about our food. They say it upsets their stomachs."

 

The longer I am here the more often these little pieces of information come out in casual conversations. You may remember that in an earlier entry I talked about Bogdan and his experience with Americans who didn't take the time to learn his name. In another entry I mentioned a young woman and her boyfriend who had a bad experience with an American. It turns out that a young woman who was on a mission team from the U.S. decided that the boy was cute and even though she knew the Romanian girl and the boy were dating she began flirting with the boy. And now this comment about the food.

 

Maybe, just maybe, we have earned the title "Ugly Americans."

The other day I was speaking to Mary Lou, a Peace Corp volunteer from New Hampshire, and I found myself searching for a word I wanted to use. Now I figure there is one of three things going on here:

1)     I was having a middle-age memory moment;

2)    I am so busy trying to learn Romanian that I am forgetting English; or,

3)    I was automatically trying to find a word or phrase that a Romanian would understand.

While I obviously prefer the second or third answer, number one is certainly a possibility!

 

Speaking of Mary Lou, I spent most of April 29^th with her, what a treat! It is such a gift to spend a day with someone who not only speaks your language but understands your cultural markers as well. The frosting on the cake is the discovery that we have a great deal in common. She is an intelligent woman with a somewhat skewed sense of humor (gee, why would I like someone like that?) who is dedicated to helping people. She and her husband, Tom, came to Romania almost two years ago. Tom teaches at a local school and Mary Lou works with CASA, a social service organization here on Emanuel's campus. Their hitch is up the middle of June so they are short-timers who are looking forward to being back in the States for the first time in 2 years. They have been a wealth of information and friendship these past few weeks and for a few moments last night as we had dinner and chatted I could almost imagine I was home.

 

Do you know what New Hampshires license plates say and who makes them? The plates are stamped "Live Free or Die" and are made by prisoners in State penitentiaries. (Dont get upset with me! They are the ones who told me!)

 

One of the places Mary Lou and I trekked off to was an Orthodox monastery that is being built just outside Oradea. The church on this site is called a painted biserica (church) because the entire outside is painted with scenes from the Bible; as is the archway leading into the grounds. We were allowed to go inside the original chapel which dates back about 500 years and was built completely of hand hewn timbers.

 

There is a story told about a man from Seattle who came to Romania, fell in love with the people and decided that he wanted to help. So when he went home he recruited help from his church and they collected clothing and goods to send. They ended up filling a large shipping container and paid $3,000 to get it shipped here. When the container arrived in the Romanian port it ended up costing this man another $3,000 to get it cleared through customs and sent on to the people for whom it was intended.

 

I hear stories like this all the time and never know if they are true or not and I tell them not to discourage people from helping or to point out the flaws here in Romania but rather to show how powerfully God speaks to some of the people who come here. If this story is true, I suspect the gentleman involved was not surprised at having to pay extra. I suspect he knew there was a good possibility of this happening and yet he went ahead and answered the call God put on him. I hope I get to shake his hand someday.

 

Friday night I had an opportunity to speak to the youth group at Emanuel Church. It was the last week of a six week focus on missions so along with three people who have gone on local missions, there was a woman from New Zealand, and myself who spoke. Rosalind and I had never met before and yet we ended up sharing stories that were very similar. We talked about how God always provides though sometimes it seems to be at the last possible moment, we both had the idea of doing something really powerful and flashy for God--she ended up in a warehouse handing out clothing, and about how God has graciously given us moments of insight when we have felt affirmed in our efforts. We both talked about the first step being obedience and Rosalind added that whether we are successful or not in our endeavors doesn't really matter because God is worthy of our obedience and efforts no matter what.

 

One of those moments of grace happened later in the evening when a member of the youth praise team came up to me after the meeting and asked if we could talk for a few minutes. Of course I said yes and she proceeded to tell me that up until this night she had hated Americans! Apparently she and a friend of hers had a really bad experience with some Americans about two years ago and she was prepared to dislike any American she met. She said that my story had helped her realize that American's are just people like everyone else and that the short conversation we had had before the service had made her rethink her decision. Then she asked if we could meet again because she wanted to discuss the incident with me. We met Sunday evening just before I posted this and it was a wonderful time of sharing words and laughter and a few tears. We both feel so blessed and loved by our God who reached out and touched us in such a powerful way.

 

What is truly amazing about this encounter is that, as you may remember, I went through quite a struggle early on in my stay here about wanting to do something really flashy for God and realizing that maybe God sent me here for the benefit of one person. Isn't God wonderful to provide release for Anca and affirmation for me all in one glorious moment?!

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO:

 "Hi Ana, did you call me?"

"No."

"You didn"t? Thats weird cause there is a message on my phone that I missed a call from you."

"No, I didn"t call. When was the call made?"

"Just in the last ten minutes. Are you sure you didn't call me?"

"I didn't call."

"Well, something must be up with my phone. Ill have to get it checked. Sorry to bother you."

"Oh, you do not have to do that."

"Why not? If the phone is not working properly someone needs to fix it."

"Your phone is okay. I didnt call you. I beeped."

 

TWO WEEKS EARLIER:

Let's say you and a friend are in Bucaresti together and she needs to go to the embassy to get her visa and she says "I will beep you when I get done" and you say "great" thinking she means she will call when she gets done. So you wait and pretty soon the phone beeps and you answer and get the message that you have missed a call and so you call your friend back and she acts surprised but being the kindhearted person she is (this is the same friend who did not laugh at me over the blanket/comforter thing) she says yes, everything is done and I will be back in about 30 minutes. 

 

Okay, so some days I am a little slow but I am beginning to think there might be something about this beeping that I don't get! It turns out that beeping is a way to communicate via cell phone that doesn't cost anything. People will beep you to let you know they are thinking of you, or, as in the Bucaresti scenario, to let you know that they have finished an errand or that they are okay or whatever.  Do you think it would be okay if I told people that I can now speak TWO foreign languages badly?

 

Since returning from Bucaresti I have been going with the social workers from CASA to visit families in nearby villages. We are delivering food and clothing as well as updating paper work. The contrast between the cities I visited on my trip (all with over 100,000 people) and these villages (all under 1,000 people) is mind boggling. It's sort of like going from New York City to Minneapolis to Hammond. What a privilege to see so many facets of life in Romania.

 

Food for Thought:

 

The families that receive help from CASA are in similar circumstances. For one reason or another they are unable to fully support themselves and so they have applied for aid. One day we visited two families where we were dropping off items that had been sent to them from a couple of churches in England. The first family (a husband and wife and six children) were thrilled to see us. Turns out he had just spent a couple of weeks in the hospital and had been unable to work and though his wife has a part time job she doesnt make enough to support them all (she earns $40/month). When he came out to greet us and Nellie opened the back of the van and told him that there were 18 boxes for him and his family he threw his hands in the air and said "Hallilueah!" 

 

The second family was made up of a young couple with three children. When the man came out to greet us, he had little or nothing to say about the five or six boxes they were receiving. When we were on our way back to Oradea I asked Nellie if there was a problem with the second family. She replied that the parents were unwilling to work, would not uphold their end of the agreement they had with CASA and didn't seem to care one way or the other about the goods they received.

 

I wonder why people in similar circumstances respond so differently?

I arrived back in Oradea on Friday the 21 (Good Friday here) after only a 5 hour train ride. I had the option of taking a 5 a.m. train or a 5:30 p.m. bus. Since I preferred to arrive in the daylight I chose the first option, tiring but good to be back. One of the nice things about being back is that I am once again using a computer whose keyboard is familiar. The last blog entry I made was done on a Romanian keyboard where the "y" key printed as "X" and vice versa. And that was one of the easier things to figure out!

 

As many of you know I occasionally have a problem with motion sickness so I am giving glory to God and thanking all of you for praying because I have had very little trouble with motion sickness in spite of a variety of train, bus, and taxi rides. Even the trip over the Carpathian Mountains was tolerable because I could look up and out and not directly at the passing scenery. That was some bus ride! We were in a full size commercial bus going up and over the mountains on a road that I am sure followed an old mountain goat path! The switch backs were worthy of 15-20 mile an hour speeds and I always seemed to be on the side of the bus with no guard rail. Not that the guard rails were much good because the road bed was washing away from under them! As if all of this wasn't exciting enough we had a trainee driver who managed to stall the bus three different times one of which was as we were rounding one of the very tight corners on the way up! I have a friend who once told me that I must work my guardian angel overtime, well she sure had her work cut out for her on this bus trip! In spite of all of these unexpected thrills, the journey through the mountains was beautiful. I am glad I had the opportunity to travel from Piatru Neamt to Tirgu Meres.

 

Did I mention that driver training in Romania includes learning how to play chicken? Drivers race down the road, swerving around the numerous pot holes and try to beat any vehicle coming from the other direction to the path through the pot holes. You can actually see the tire tracks vehicles have worn into the pavement as they dodge the holes!

 

Both Piatru Neamt and Tirgu Meres are considered small towns with populations around 100,000. (So small is a relative term!) Anyway, they are located on opposite sides of the mountains in the foothills and are beautiful and picturesque. Unfortunately, as is the case in all of Romania that I have seen, litter is a huge problem. In the city or in the countryside there are always plastic bags and bottles laying around. Efforts are being made to cut back on the trash such as charging for bags at the stores, hiring cleaning crews, and using men from the jails to clean up. Tirgu Meres was the cleanest of the places I have visited and so the combination of rolling streets, old buildings, and lack of litter made it memorable.

 

Of course it is the people I met who really made the whole trip a grand adventure. I traveled with Cristina and met her fiance, Roy. They will be getting married this fall and will live in Bucuaresti. This doesnt seem so unusual until you realize that Roy is English and has learned Romanian and is willing to live in Romania because it is Cristina's home--must be love! Cristina's parents hosted us for a number of meals in their home in Piatru Neamt and offered much laughter and hospitality. Ana and her parents provided a comfortable place for me to stay. Ana gave up her bedroom so that I could have privacy. This meant that she and her parents shared one room while I had another all to myself. That's hospitality! While in Piatru Neamt I also had an opportunity to meet Bert, an Englishman who is in his late 70s and who travels to Romania about three times a year for 6 to 8 weeks at a time. One of the ways in which Bert lives out his faith is to go to parts of the city where he knows the beggars are sleeping and hand out food and money. This action is particularly awe inspiring because the typical Romanian will simply walk by beggers and tell you not to give them any money because they might come back. Not so different from many the way I saw New Yorkers treat beggars in New York City.

 

From Piatru Neamt and a family of very organized and thoughtful people I went on to Tirgu Meres where I stayed with a family of four who were the total opposite. They stayed up late, slept late, ate when they were hungry and took life at a pretty relaxed pace. Their home is made up of a small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, no tub, a very small sitting/dining room, and what we would consider a living room. The two girls share a bed in the living room while the parents have a bed in the sitting/dining room. There are no closets, no storage areas of any kind so they have cabinets situated around the living room where each person has space to keep their personal items including clothing. Mimi, my hostess, was a joy to be around. She loves her family, loves the Lord, and wants desperately to move to the U.S. It is humbling to realize the high regard in which many people here hold the U.S. It can also be very frustrating because they all want to hear success stories and have a difficult time understanding that not everything in the U.S. is easy or as wonderful as they imagine. In a couple of conversation I had to give up trying to insert a bit of reality because the people I was talking to simply wouldnt believe me. They told me I must be wrong! I found myself trying to maintain a balance between being honest about things in the States while at the same time not destroying peoples' dreams. For some of the folks I have met the dream of moving to the U.S. is one of the things that helps them survive as they face the difficult circumstances of their lives here in Romania.

 

A CONVERSATION:

"I bought my ticket today. The bus leaves at 7 a.m.  How long does it take to get to Tirgu Meres?"

 

"About 5 hours."

 

"Great! Ill be there by Noon."

 

"No, the bus arrive about half past 1."

 

WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

1. The Romanian speaker translated the number 6 as 5.

2. The duration of the trip stated does not include stops.

3. The 5 hour answer was the least painful for the questioner to hear.

4. The bus starts loading at 7:00.

 

CHOOSE THE ANSWER YOU THINK IS RIGHT. SEE END OF BLOG ENTRY FOR THE CORRECT ANSWER.

 

* * * *

A CONVERSATION:

"What time do you (the guest) usually go to bed?

Oh, somewhere between 10 and 11 p.m."

"Good, what time do you get up?"

"Around 8-8:30." (I learned earlier in this trip that if I say the actual time I normally get up6-6:30--people seems a little freaked out.)

"Good. We will have coffee when you get up."

SAME DAY, SOMETIME AFTER 11 P.M.

"You can sleep as late as you want in the morning. Ten, eleven oclock if you want."

"Oh, I wont sleep that late. Eight or eight-thirty is about as late as I ever sleep."

"Well, maybe here it will be different."

 

TRANSLATION: We (the host family) stay up late and sleep late.

 

I have had numerous conversations like the one above. I think the rules of politeness and/or hospitality dictate that the host ask the questions but don't seem to include a need to necessarily honor the answer. Sooner or later you will end up doing what the questioner wants.

 

My hostess in Tirgu Meres kept encouraging me to drink milk. She would tell me over and over that it was okay, it was fresh milk..which it was...fresh, unpasturized, out of the cow that morning fresh. I declined.

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

 

While in Tirgu Meres, it came to my attention that a family in a nearby village was struggling to make a living. The husband has been out of work for some time and they are trying to survive on what they can grow and sell. Since he has been out of work this man has learned to make artwork out of metal sheets. I am not sure if they are aluminum or copper or what, but they are beautiful. My hostess asked if I would be interested in purchasing some of the art work because it would be a great kindness to this family. I hesitated to respond right away because I wanted to spend some time thinking and praying about the matter. Here is the reason I wanted time: one of the issues I have had to struggle with while here is figuring out when I am being manipulated by people. I don't know if they do it consciously or not but it almost seems like a given in many situations.

 

I spent some pretty intense time thinking about whether or not I should order this art work. Was the money going to go to the artist? Would a product be coming back? Was the host family going to get a percentage (or keep it all)? Would purchasing this artwork be an appropriate way to use some of the ministry money I still had? These questions kept rolling around inside my head. Then I started thinking about Easter and the great gift of love that God showered upon his people. Did God ask if we deserved this gift? Did God want a guarantee that we would accept his grace and pass it on? Did God's love depend on my credibility? If you answer these questions in the same way I did you will know what my final decisions was.

 

ANSWER TO THE TIME QUESTION:

 It could be any one of the four answers! The first two are self-explanatory. Number 3 would fit into what I have begun to understand as a Romanian concept of hospitality. Number 4 could fall into one of two categories--first, time is a very loosely held concept for many Romanians; second, everything is dependent on the driver who may or may not load the bus right at 7. The driver is in control and the rest of us are just along for the ride.

 

Paste Ferecit (Happy Easter) 

 

http://mail.emanuel.ro/student/CadarClaudia/INDEX.HTM

After you acces this link, appears a main page with McDonald`s. On thew left side there is a frame, and the "English" option. If you click that option you`ll get at the English questionnaire. After completing that you have to click on Submit Form, that is at the end of the questionnaire. Sometimes, after this appears Error or The page was not found, but I receive the answers of the questionnaire, so there is no problem. I hope it will work. Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate this.
Happy Easter and I`m looking forward to see you again.
By grace,
Flavia

Hi all,

In an effort to help out a student here, I am posting a website and asking that you visit it and fill out the questionnaire. Flavia and Claudia worked hard to post it and their grade is partially dependent on how many people respond.

http://mail.emanuel.ro/student/CadarClaudi/INDEX.HTM

Thank you!

How is this for a surprise? It is less than a week and I am updating...miracles do happen!

Just wanted to remind everyone that I will be traveling for the next 11 days and may not have computer access while I am gone. I am traveling to Bucuresti and then north to the home town of a student and then across northern Romania back to Oradea. Upon my return I will be doing volunteer work at a local hospice and a home for single mothers. Baby's don't care if I can't speak Romanian and so I am able to babysit while the mom's take parenting and vocational classes.

Also wanted to let you know that I have made donations to CASA, a Chrisitan social services organization to use in their work with families in distress, single mother's home, and play therapy program for disabled children. I also donated to Emanuel Hospice, a new Christian hospice here in Oradea that serves some of the poorest areas of the city. I will continue to work with them both when I return. I am also setting up a scholarship fund for students which will assits with acedemic or physical needs. Many of the students eat poorly because of limited finances so I wanted to provide some aid. God blessed me so abundantly with funds that I am able to give significant amounts of money to these ministries and thank the Lord for the opportunity to do so. The student fund is being set up with the tithe I commited and I am so happy to directly help students! What a blessing it is to be a blessing to others! And it is all because of wonderful friends like you who believed in me and supported me and loved me! I am so grateful!

So, please keep me in your prayers as I travel...it is a 12 hour train trip from here to Bucuresti! And pray for all of the students who will be traveling home over the Paste (Easter) break. I am praying that your Resurrection Sunday celebration will be glorious and know that we will all be together in a Spirit of praise and rejoicing!