CROATIA!!! Day 2

Saturday morning brought the best news for the two older kids!  We get to SLEEP IN !!!  They were so excited about the opportunity to not have to be anywhere at a certain time and sleep a little bit.  So, we let them sleep for ALMOST as long as they wanted.  However, as long as they wanted would probably have been all day.  :)

Buying lace at the market

After a lazy morning, Kim H. and I (and Daniel)  got ready, had breakfast and went on our way shopping.  I wanted to get a few souvenirs from Nova Gradiska before we left, so she took me to her favorite gift gallery.  INDEED , I found a few souvenirs.  We walked along the korzo and went to the local market.  Everyone seems to buy their vegetables at the market from different vendors.  It reminds me of a flea market in a way, but everything is fresh, local and reasonable.  It was also an open air market.  I found a lady who Kim has befriended that speaks very good English and makes beautiful lace and fabric work.  I purchased a couple of pieces from her and was VERY pleased with what I found.  :)  Kim and I met up with Randy, Kelsie and Dustin in the korzo, as well as teammate Tim for drinks at a nice little coffe shop.  We enjoyed the chit-chat and time of getting to know Kim's family here.  They are indeed a family and they support one another and encourage one another in their walk with Christ.  That was an encouragement to me to see.  It's nice to fellowship with believers of like faith!

I stopped by the bakery on the walk home and purchased some crescent dogs for lunch.  Believe it or NOT, Dustin was ready for lunch!!!  Kim and I made a salad, had a great time chatting together in the kitchen while we cut vegetables for our salad.  Yummy, fresh veggies from her garden.

The concert time was approaching and nerves were a little on edge.  Randy was speaking and making a gospel presentation during the concert, so he was especially concerned and dare I say a little nervous.  WE left the house at a little before 5 with our van stuffed to the gills with concert equipment.  The big stage was bare and we had to provide the sound equipment, microphones, piano, etc., so we needed a couple of hours to set-up before the big show.  Showtime was at 8!

The set-up went well, only one major problem.  The kids hadn't eaten since lunch and they were starving.  So, I sent money with Aunt Kim and she took them to get some food.  They returned with bread, meat and cheese to make sandwiches for us all.  Yum!  A quick bite and it was time to get the show ON THE STAGE!!!

A small crowd had began to gather as we were setting up.  As we began to sing, play and share, more and more people started hanging around.  This was an outdoor stage, platform in the middle of the korzo, so you could hear us before you could see us.  It was a wonderful experience.  People clapped, twirled, danced, sang, but Praise the Lord, no hecklers!  I was relieved about that.  Believe it or not there was plenty of opportunity for that, but the Lord kept them as well as the rain away from us.  We got through all the concert, complete with translations and a few MINOR mistakes and felt wonderful about the time we shared.  I think the crowd was a blessing, the team was a definite blessing to us, and the Lord truly blessed our voices despite the allergy issues we were all experiencing.

Praise the Lord for the clearness of the gospel presentation, the clarity of the translations and the beauty of the weather.  Several crowd members stayed around to chat with us for a long time afterwards.  One young man asked me if we were famous in America.  He said, do you have statues of you in America ?  You famous back home?  I humbly answered that we were indeed NOT celebrities in America but were indeed servants of Christ and wanted to share the gospel with the world.  We felt like stars here with all of the cameras and big stage, but alas, we are just humble servants of the ONE who gave the gifts to us!

We packed up, loaded the van and got home around 11.  By the time we shared ice cream around the table and thoughts from the evening, it was REALLY, REALLY late.  But, despite the weariness of our bodies, the lateness of the hour, it was all COMPLETELY worth the sacrifice.  What a privilege and pleasure of being short-term missionaries to the town of Nova Gradiska.

Kim

Thoughts from Randy:


My original intention was to do some photography around the korzo in the morning light.  Instead I elected to rest and prepare for the evening.  I was able to get some quiet time by myself on Kim's small porch for prayer and more thinking about what I would say when presenting the gospel during the concert.  It was a really good time and I felt great afterwards.  The Lord moved my heart to feel good about all of our preparations.  I was still a little nervous as the concert time approached later in the day but it wasn't much. 


I still took a little time while the girls were shopping to do some photography around the korzo and park.  The light just wasn't as good.  No big deal. 


I enjoyed talking with Tim at the cafe.  He's a super guy (ignoring his preference for the ACC) and is staying real positive even though his wife must stay in the U.S. until their baby arrives this Fall.


The concert went well I think.  We had a few sound issues but overall it was good.  I was very concerned about not having monitors for an outdoor concert, especially with most of our songs being played on a keyboard.  If you can't hear the piano you've got real problems.  Thankfully a local music store guy came through with some powered speakers.  We had to daisy-chain them from the mains but it worked ok since they had a separate volume control.


The gospel presentation was very similar to something done by Mike Richards during VBS (thanks Mike).  At the time of VBS I was really searching for the right way to organize our songs and to present the gospel.  When Mike presented the gospel the last night of VBS using the black, red, and white shirts I knew that was it.  I organized our songs roughly based on that progression with a few extra songs here and there.  Here is our song set along with the gospel presentations:

1.  Born to Praise the Lord
2.  Doxology
Introductions
3.  Grave Clothes
The story behind It Is Well
4.  It Is Well
BLACK - sin, added my testimony at the end
5.  Sinner Saved By Grace
6.  Out of His Great Love
RED - blood/cross, atonement
7.  The Precious Blood
8.  Power of The Cross (O To See the Dawn)
9.  Trust & Obey
WHITE - forgiveness
10.  In Christ Alone
Closing comments
11.  O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

Reviewing the program with Miro

I think it went a little over an hour, maybe 70 minutes, with no breaks other than my speaking and the translation.


Speaking of which, my translator was Miro, the pastor of the new church in Nova Gradiska.  He did a fantastic job and appreciate all of his help this past weekend.


It was a really long, exhausting day as Kim said but well worth it.


Randy


p.s. Our first Croatian fan has posted a couple of videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MaranathaWorld

CROATIA!!! Day 1

After a nice restful evening, Friday morning greeted us with a wonderfully warm, soft,skin  pampering shower.  Oh what a wonderful feeling of softer water pressure, constant temperature and I felt extremely spoiled after my shower.  Thank the Lord for wonderful, warm water and friends willing to share the simple pleasures of life!  :)

Kim H. walked next door to the bakery and picked up some yummy, delightful pastires for our breakfast.  We had chocolate and apricot "donuts".  They hit the spot and we were ready to head out for the morning.

One of the newest project Kim and her team are working on here in Croatia is of particular interest to us and our family.  They are working on a new outreach to the Roma people who live in a village outside of Slavonski Brod. Their recent survey provided them with enough information to begin their outreach.  They discovered there are approximately 450 children living within the village, a ripe field just waiting for harvest.  Randy and I really wanted to see this village and see if there was an opportunity to perhaps share some of Daniel's soccer balls with them.  We drove to Slavonski Brod, following Kim, and enjoyed the drive between the two cities.

This area is indeed a picturesque community and countryside.  It was a beautiful drive for us despite the AGAIN rain.  When we arrived in Brod, we were met with lots of traffic and road construction, two of Randy's favorite things to encounter while driving in a foreign country!  :)  We were following Kim and suddenly she pulled up onto the sidewalk and parked.  I thought this was where she was parking the car she had exchanged with her teammate Andy, but, instead her words were the following.  "The 12:00 bell just chimed, I'm assuming we need to feed a 6'3" stomach."  She was right, of course, Dustin was ready for lunch!!!  So, we grabbed some "kabobs" from a local kiosk and headed on towards the Roma village.

The village was much nicer and bigger than I had expected, a little more upscale than some we had seen in Romania last week.  Lots of kids were around, despite the dreary conditions, and lots of stares from the inhabitants of the homes.  A big white, fancy van goes exploring around your village, people take notice.  The people appeared friendly and indeed, the kids had two soccer fields.  Due to the rain and muddy conditions, we opted to not get OUT and kick a ball around.  We left the village and headed back into town to the "I Club".

Inside the internet cafe in SB

The I Club was started by a teammate of Kim's named Andy and his wife Lim.  Andy is spearheading the new ministry with the Roma's so we wanted to talk with him about Daniel and the potential of the soccer ball ministry.  This was a fun time for the boys because the I club is actually an internet cafe with Wii, Playstation, Nintendo and Ping Pong.  We chatted with Andy and Lim, played a little, rested a little, and then headed back to NG.  Andy was indeed interested in the soccer ball outreach, and Daniel will be leaving the other 12 balls with him to distribute to the Roma children as he deems appropriate.

Friday had been a busy day with lots of running around and meeting people.  We ended the day by dropping Daniel off at the place where Kim's team had been hosting baseball camp.  They were playing soccer since the rain had cancelled their final baseball game.  Daniel played soccer and we came back to Kim's to practice a bit for our upcoming concert, well, actually her church.  The church was hosting a party at 7 for all of the children that had participated in the baseball camp the previous week.  Pizza, drinks and entertainment brought lots of local Croatian kids to the church.  It was fun to interact with them, meet the girls that have been working with the team this summer, and fellowship with new friends at the church.  The entire team was there at the social, so we did indeed get to meet everyone.  A great time and a great day.

Time to practice again!!!  We came back to Kim's, turned all the sound down really low on the piano and bass and closed the doors up tight!!!  It was well after 9 by this time, but felt it necessary to practice again with Kim accompanying us on 3 songs.  Practice went very well, and at around 11:30, we decided to call it a night.

Blessed day, blessed night, and new friends!!!  It was a great day!!!

Kim

Transitions

Thursday was a day of transitions, a day of saying goodbye to new friends, and hello to a new country, currency, and experience.

We had a wonderful fellowship time with the students on Wednesday evening with the chapel service as well as following the service.  Even though the service lasted until 10PM, we all stayed around to fellowship, take pictures, exchange e-mail addresses and just enjoy being together.  I can't tell you how strong the bond between us came in such a short time.  The bonds of Christ are indeed the strongest, and I felt like I was leaving new-found family.  What a wonderful time we all had.

So, on to Thursday morning.  Doru came to have breakfast with us and say goodbye.  The goodbyes were hard.  I definitely feel that Ivonne and I impacted some of the girls.  We were able to share our life with them and they with us.  Goodbye for now, until we meet again dear Romanian family!  We loved our time with you and can't wait until the day God returns us to you or when we are able to share eternity in heaven together.  What an amazing thought, that we will all be able to understand each other, regardless of language.  Isn't that a remarkable thought???  God truly blows my mind sometimes and I'm so blessed to be HIS!!!

We left Emmanuel University around 9:30 after Kelsie finally finished goodbyes, and Daniel also.  I think Daniel really hated saying goodbye.  He's asked a couple of times since we left if we could just please go back and spend about 4 more days there.  How wonderful for him to feel so accepted, loved and the experience he was able to have.

The drive to Budapest is not very exciting, other than the driving!!  Hugging center lines, driving fast, passing on curves, you get the picture.  The scenery is rather boring and mundane, so not much to report there.  Once we arrived in Budapest, we met a young man from Melba tours to get our rental van.  Ok, I think it's a mini-bus, but it is indeed a very nice, roomy van for our family and we were blessed to be able to find such a bargain and large vehicle in Europe.  Oh, and did I mention it's a standard, so yours truly can't drive after all?  I suppose I could in a pinch, but I've never driven a standard for any length of time.  Too bad for me, but worse for Randy.  He quickly adjusted to a stick shift and I think he mistakenly took it for his Mach I a couple of times, but said by the end of the night, he and the van were ONE.

We decided to take a bathroom break and grab a burger at BURGER KING in Budapest before heading out on our next adventure.  Yes, it was Burger King, but the menu was in HUNGARIAN which surprised Kelsie for some reason, and the cashiers didn't speak much English.  Adventure #1 in Budapest....ordering in a Hungarian restaurant and speaking NO HUNGARIAN.  A nice, well, nice is a stretch, but a man decided to help us out with our order.  He spoke very good English and we were able to get our hamburgers with cheese only and Dustin some chicken nuggets.  Thank you kind sir for the help.  He was not friendly, but the fact that he was willing to help foreigners makes him "nice" in my mind.  Thank you LORD for sending someone just in our moment of need.

The drive from the meeting spot through Budapest was....well....scary, frightening, exhilarating, and relieving when we were through the city.  Once we crossed the Danube, we were both breathing a little easier.  We didn't have a great map, and the streets were named differently than our google directions (OF COURSE!).  We only made a couple of wrong turns and missed an exit, but all in all, we were safe and out of Budapest in 20 minutes or so.  Randy instantly relaxed and we were well on our way at this point.

Hungary was not very pretty, the terrain around Budapest is flat.  They raise corn by the truckloads and all you can see for miles is corn.  However, the closer we came to the Croatian border, the prettier the scenery.  The rolling hills appeared, we could see mountain foothills in the distance and every village we came upon was so picturesque.  Just a lovely drive through Southwest Hungary and on to Croatia.  We crossed the Hungarian border with no problems, Randy thought we were finished and a police man came out quickly and said STOP, PASSPORT CONTROL!!!  Oh boy, we're in trouble.  I could hear one of Doru's stories coming up only this time, I was the main character.  We were just entering Croatia and had to have our passports checked and stamped AGAIN, just 2 feet (meters) from where we just stopped at the Hungarian border.  Oh well, the police man was nice, took our passports, stamped them as entering Croatia and we were again on our way.  Off to the AUTOBAHN!!!  What fun it would have been for Randy if he would have been driving anything else.  The van topped out at 125 kph, so he wasn't really able to experience the true European driving experience.

The Autobahn was a partial toll road, so our next tense moment came when it was time to pay the toll.  Unfortunately, we had NO Croatian money yet as we hadn't seen a place to exchange.  The toll booth credit card machine was broken in the lane we chose, so the man angrily told Randy to back up FAST and go to another line.  WOW!!!  Reverse quickly, choose another line and this machine worked.  PRAISE the Lord.  I  was afraid we were going to have to put the kids out on the side of the highway to beg for KUNA.

On the road again.....off to Nova Gradiska!  The rest of the journey was fairly quiet and non-descriptive.  Randy and I enjoyed the scenery and the church steeples that projected high above the quaint villages.  The scenery here in Croatia reminds me of the many movies I've watched set in European villages.  Sweet, serene, terra-cotta colored roofs with window boxes full of beautiful flowers.  Just very nice and enjoyable scenery.

The only other thing of note was when we were all busting to find a bathroom.  We finally found a stop with a gas station, restaurant and roadside park.  We quickly parked, and walked to the "water closet".  However, this water closet had a GUARD!!!  An older lady wouldn't let us go in unless we paid her first.  OH NO!!!  Here we go again, no KUNA still and this woman was demanding money for us to relieve our full bladders.  NOT a position I particularly enjoy!  Again, God provided a stranger to help us.  She handed me the 30 cent coins needed for 1 person to go into the bathroom.  I chose for Kelsie to go, she was in the worst state at this point.  Boys, well....you know they don't HAVE TO have a toilet.  :)  Randy offered her Forints (Hungarian currency coins), but she refused and finally, probably just to get rid of us, motioned ALL of us to go to the closets.  PRAISE the Lord again for HIS mercy.  He is faithful, even in the little things.

We finally arrived in Nova Gradiska around 7 PM.  We met Kim at the Center park and she led us to the police station and ATM.  Apparently since we are FOREIGN to this city (and we're Christians), we had to register with the police in order to hold our outdoor concert in the city.  Americans....you truly have NO IDEA how blessed you are to live in a free country.  We waited around for around 40 minutes to get the right policeman, and jump through the proper hoops and receive our registration papers.  Now we're legal and allowed to sing in this great town!  Another praise!!!

Off to meet Kim's team who is conducting a baseball camp this week with some of the children of the city!  Nice people, worn out, finished for the day, but great guys.  We look forward to serving with them this weekend.

Kim took us to a delightful restaurant for dinner to feed our very hungry tummies, and then we settled into our new quarters.  How kind of Kim to let all 5 of us squeeze into her apartment with one bathroom.  So gracious and we slept like babies!!!

Kim

Comments from Randy:

Daniel & Doru with 8 balls

Before leaving Doru explained that they would be doing some outreach in the mountains over the next couple of weeks and, knowing that Daniel had brought soccer balls for the children of Romania, asked if they could use some for their outreach work.  Daniel obviously agreed and was happy to do it.  Doru said they would send an email later and hopefully pictures as well about how the balls were used.

Daniel donates a ball to the students

Daniel also donated a soccer ball to the university for the students to use.  The one they were using was in terrible condition.  The guys were very excited about it.


Thoughts on Budapest driving - Not bad.  Most major U.S. cities have traffic that is worse, Knoxville for instance.  We weren't in central Budapest but we were able to see the downtown area and Castle Hill as we crossed the Danube River.


Driving the main highways through Hungary and Croatia was nice.  Get this - people actually stay in the right lane except to pass.  There's a thought.

The main exit for Nova Gradiska was closed so we had to use a small side road for the last 30 km or so.  This was a very pleasant drive through the countryside and small villages.  Every small village/town has either a small catholic or orthodox church, sometimes in excellent condition but often neglected and in need of repair.  They have a form of religion but don't know God.


Randy

Romania Day 7 - Bittersweet

I don't have long for a post.  It's 11:23 pm and we leave for Croatia in the morning.  However, I wanted to capture a few thoughts - from tonight primarily.

Today was about working, yes, but also about tying up loose ends, thanking everyone, and saying goodbye.

Tonight we shared a chapel service with the students.  It was in the small chapel.  No sound system, just a broken piano.  It appears to be used as a classroom part of the time.

Services are all different and one is blessed in different ways at each service, but this one in particular moved me.  The opening Bible verse was from II Timothy 2:1-10.  The students sang together, mostly without any music, sometimes with a guitar.  There were a few small groups that got up and led worship.  A couple of the men spoke.  Bravo, I say.  Bravo.

And then Ed spoke.

All I can say is that you had to be there.  One of his primary verses was II Timothy 2:2.  The interpreter was very good.  The room fell still.  I looked around and the students were intently listening.  I could feel it in my heart.  This was the right message at the right time - a divine appointment.  I kid you not I almost wept, a grown man from Tennessee.

Seeds were planted while we were here that I am certain God will cultivate and mature long after we are gone.

Finally, let me say that our mission team was perfect for the job.  I'm sure that all male teams are appropriate at times but I can also say with certainty that our impact on these kids was multiplied because of Kelsie and Ivonne and Kim.

God bless and see you in Croatia

Randy

Romania Day 6 - Caulking for Christ

Tuesday morning brought more rain and cool weather.  We've really been blessed with unseasonably cool weather the past week.

On another floor were 41 more doors to clean up for painting.  Turns out that 7 of the doors hadn't been scraped and sanded as well so there you go.  Kelsie and I (and Daniel off/on) worked with Emma in the morning and mostly on our own after lunch.  The rest of the group started caulking door frames after Ed went with Cornaluch to get the right materials.

Last night I found out that another American guest was kindly told to change jobs.

Cornaluch to Kim - "You done.  No more.  You hold bucket for me."

After

Before

The day was  productive with all the door frames getting done on the ground floor.  Kelsie and I were able to finish all but three doors that needed to be scraped, sanded, and cleaned.  We just finished those this morning.

Daniel's friend Marcin

Daniel has become good friends with a student called "Marcin".  Marcin has been grabbing Daniel to work with him and they've played quite a bit of ping pong in the basement as well as volleyball.

Marcin asked that I come with Daniel to play ping pong last night around 9 pm.  He was hoping to play doubles but another guy didn't show up.  We ended up rotating and had a good time, especially since I won every game (Marcin not happy but a good sport).

So Kim comes down to the basement around 9:30 and starts talking sweet and hanging on me between points.  It seems that her and Ivonne would like some pastries from the bakery we found on Monday.  Game over.  The funny part was watching Marcin as Kim tried to "butter me up".  Let's just say PDA in Romania is not common.

La revedere

Randy

Random Thoughts on Romania from Daniel

I have asked Daniel to tell some of his thoughts and experiences during our stay in Romania.  These are his words:

It's different!  The people, stores, the houses,the food,the drinks,their clothes,and their way of living. The work here is hard. Their food is much sweeter. There drinks have more sugar. I have not seen alot but things here are very different.

I like the people here because they are like me.  The guys here at the University have helped me move stuff when I couldn't carry it.  They play a lot of games.  They're very active.  They are rough, probably because they're good at soccer.  They have more skills.  I played a game with them and my team won!

Marcen  is teaching me how to speak Romanian and I am teaching him to speak English.  It's working out!  I've learned da (yes), multzemesc (thank you) bene (good)   cheh my facha (how are you?) imi pare rau (I'm sorry) va rog  (please)  Cu placere (You're welcome)  Salut, chow  (hello/goodbye)  nu (no)

apah (water)  paheene (bread) for starters.

I went shopping at the mall.  The mall is different.

I really have loved a dessert the cooks have made two different times now.  It's called a gra-goot?  Something like a donut.

Last night, we went to the Brutarie patiserie.  They have lots of sweets.  I had a whipped cream cake that was mostly whipped cream.  The place was very small.  It was delicious!

That's all I can get out of him for now.  More thoughts later.

Romania Day 5 - Alfred Hitchcock presents "Doors"

Breakfast of champions

Since we had a 5-liter container of fruit salad and a full tray of appetizers from Sunday night, the Oradea team elected to catch a little more sleep and skip the cafeteria breakfast on Monday.  Still good stuff the next day although Ed and I noticed that the sausage ball taste tends to linger for several hours.

In the morning Kim and Ivonne started washing doors in preparation for caulking and painting while the rest of us were scraping and sanding door frames - pretty much the same thing as the door work but we weren't bent over all the time, and since it was more or less solitary work I pulled my Sansa Clip+ out and listened to music.  Always a good time with music in my ear.

Lunch on Monday

Lunch was fried potatoes, some mystery meat that was battered and fried,  and a vegetable soup.  The mystery meat was a hot topic at the table with speculation abounding, particularly from Ed.  It escalated to the point where Ivonne approached the cooks and found out that the meat was pork - mystery solved.  I mean, I don't have any reason not to trust the cooks, right?

In the afternoon Ivonne, Kim, and Kelsie traveled with a couple of ladies to a hospital and hospice, or at least they were supposed to do that.  I'll let Kim elaborate.

Back at the ranch - the men worked.

Doors.


































Ed, the boys, and I were also blessed to have an afternoon break with the college students.  Lemonade.  Very nice.  One can tell that everyone gets along well.

Afternoon break with the students

After supper some of us went back out and walked to the local mall and also grabbed some pastries on the way back.  I'll leave that for Kim also.

Lunch break is over.

I hear a door calling my name ....

Randy

Randy covered most of the days activities in a nutshell.  However, I do have a few things to add to his comments.


Kelsie, Ivonne and I were invited to go visit one of the hospice houses that Emanuel Baptist Church owns and operates.  Unfortunately, we arrived too late and weren't able to do that part of our afternoon visit.  However, we did go with our new friends Dairia and Tabita, two sisters here at the University.  They spoke very good English and were extremely entertaining.  Dairia actually spent 3 months last summer in Texas at a hospital there to do some training.  Her English was very, very good - the best we've encountered here besides the other American group we ran into at the mall.  :)


Dairia asked us if it would be ok if we took the tram to the hospital where she volunteered.  We all three agreed and thought that it would be a really good way to encounter the true "spirit" of Oradea.  Well, let me just tell you, we encountered something, but I'm not sure it was a spirit.  It stunk in the tram; it was lined with one horizontal row of metal seats and it was DIRTY.  Biggest thing we took from the tram ride of 45 minutes was the SMELL.  Oh my goodness they stink like body odor and the brakes squeak badly at every stop.  Anyway, it was an adventure.  We also discovered that there is NO dress code.....a beggar came up to us wearing only a shirt and pants ( not matching of course)  and no shoes.  His poor feet looked like he had set them in wet concrete, it was really pitiful.


We exited the tram about a 7-10 minute walk away from the hospital and proceeded towards the children's hospital.  Another adventure awaited us there.  The hospital has a gate that is guarded all the time, not by an armed guard, but a security-type guard.  He needed to know how many of us there were and what we were doing there.  Dairia explained we were with her, what she was doing and we were allowed to go in with her.  Once inside the lobby of the hospital, another "security guard" greeted us.  Dairia did all of the talking in Romanian and looked like they were arguing over something, but she won the 'argument' and came back to our group.  Basically, the man was attempting to scam us by making us purchase sanitary slip-ons for our shoes.  What most visitors don't realize is that if they are necessary, the nurses on the hospital floor give them to you to wear.  No need to buy them, EVER.  What a crafty one he was!!!


The elevator ride was, well, another adventure to say the least.  The elevators in Romania are more like phone booths than elevators.  We needed to get to the 8th floor, so we really wanted to ride the elevator, not climb the stairs.  Long story short, we split into two groups and finally all 5 of us made it to floor 8.  Wow, what a difficult time just trying to get there!  :)


We were going to visit the children that were "acute" patients.  Just sick, not dying patients.  That was good with me, I wasn't sure I could handle visiting very sick cancer patients that were also kids.  It was a nice call for me and I was relieved.  Ivonne and I stayed with Dairia on the boys wing.  Each floor of the hospital is separated and have boys on one side, girls on the other.  Kelsie went with the girls side with Tabita.  I was blessed by 5 little boys ranging in age from 3-15 approximately.  Ivonne and I helped as best we could with 3 separate crafts for them to do.  The boys loved being able to have a time just for them and they enjoyed hearing us Americans talk and trying to communicate with us by hand signals and gestures.  It was a great time.  I love children and I love working with them.  Really felt good to do some "heart" work rather than physical work on this particular day.


I do have to say, however, the conditions of the hospital were very disturbing.  The 8th floor was brand new, we were told.  It is true, the paint was new and the cononstruction looked relatively fresh, but oh my!  I never saw hand sanitizer, alcohol, or anything that looked halfway sterile.  The dining room where we held our craft session had a floor that I stuck to every time I moved.  But, the worst thing I saw was the baby bottles.  They were very old fashioned bottles with a big nipple, full of milk and sitting out on a table.  Those bottles sat there the entire time we were at the hospital, at least an hour.  I kept thinking, why aren't those in the refrigerator???  Can I put them in a fridge?  But, apparently they sit out the entire time.  Just so different here than in the states.  The standard of healthcare is obviously lower than what I'm used to at home.  


I have to admit, I actually had difficulty sleeping last night thinking about what would happen if one of the kids or myself got sick while we were here.  I know I'm not supposed to worry and all of that stuff, but still, when you see things first hand, you can't help but think about those kind of things.  Praise God we are all well and healthy to this point.  :)


The guys were expecting us home by 5:30 and we realized we were still doing crafts with the kids at 5.  It was a 45 minute tram ride back, (PLEASE, NO MORE TRAM), and we had no way to contact our men.  So, Dairai said we COULD take a taxi, but she had no more money.  Ivonne said she would GLADLY pay the 16 lei to get us back on time and not have to ride the tram again.  That equates to around $5 US, so honestly, not a bad deal.  We got back at about 5:55 and went to supper with the guys.


After dinner, we met with Dairai and Tabita again and they walked with us to the mall.  I was wanting to find some Romanian made tablecloths like I had bought here 10 years ago, and she thought she knew of a place to take us.  So, we made the journey on foot to the mall about 10-15 minutes from the University.  No tablecloths, but Ivonne picked up a beautiful plate and the highlight was on the trip back.


Dustin has been craving a sweet, moist chocolate cake, so we asked Dairia if she knew of a place we could get something similar to American cake.  Yes, indeed, she knew of a place and would take us there.  Obviously, it was the best, least-expensive bakery in the area because it stayed BUSY the entire time we were there.  We brought home cake for Dustin, Kelsie and Daniel, and the adults all got a turnover-type fruit pastry that was absolutely DELICIOUS.  They had just come out of the oven and we bought one of each, a plum and apricot.  YUM!!!  My tummy is rumbling right now thinking about how good they were.  I could put away another one or two if I could get my man to walk over and get me one!  (He's snoozing on the couch at the moment, so I think I'm out of luck.  )  Great find, great buy, and happy tummy.


Well, it wasn't American chocolate cake, but it was about the sweetest think Dustin had since we left American airspace.  It was enjoyed by all!!!  A big huge thanks to the sisters for an awesome day!!!


That was about it for Monday.  Randy and Daniel did play volleyball with a group of students, that was interesting to watch!!!  They had fun and the Romanians allow using your feet for digs.  Hmmmm....


Until Tuesday....
Kim

The LORD'S Day in Romania, Part 2

So we got right at an hour between services to rest and blog and then we sped off (same driver) to Emanuel Baptist.  We met Doru there and he asked for two more songs, not together - separate.

We saw Lessa Wilson in the hallway.  I kid you not.  Her twin sister lives in Oradea.  Actually, she was our interpreter for the evening.  It's a small world (after all).

Speaking of which, I ran into another couple after the service that wanted to send their regards to Pastor Weems.  It seems that he stayed at their flat in Cluj, or trashed their flat in Cluj, or something like that.  So there you go.

The orchestra played a recessional after the service

We were blessed to enjoy more music from the men's choir, from a visiting orchestra, and a beautiful solo, not to mention more great congregational hymns of which we even knew one or two.

Doru went easy on Ed, asking for a few words of greeting and a brief summary of our trip so far.  Piece of cake for the colonel.

For our first song we elected to do a new one that we've learned for Croatia, Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.  It is a beautiful song that Kim plays on the piano and features Kelsie.  Did I mention that the church was probably 80% full?  Kim was nervous about using a different keyboard but she did great.

For our last song we decided to do It Is Well acapella style.  Since we had done it that morning at the village church we knew that people would recognize it.  When Doru motioned for us to go sing again I asked him to tell the congregation to feel free to sing with us.  He in turn asked us to sing the Doxology again.  Fair enough.  Indeed they did know the song and it was a real blessing to hear them sing with us.

Doru was the preacher last night and even though a little may have been lost in translation, the Word was boldly proclaimed as only Doru can do it.  Did I mention he's a master storyteller?  He brings that same dynamic speaking ability to the pulpit.

Outside Emanuel Baptist
after the service

After church, shaking hands, speaking really bad Romanian - you get the picture- time for another meal with Doru at Emanuel.  We are all thinking, "Please, not more food.  We can't eat another big meal like we had for lunch."  Seriously, there are four courses at every meal so you truly have to pace yourself (that's English pace).  Doru was kind enough to say that it wouldn't be a big meal, just a normal meal.  Good news.

Appetizers

To keep it short, I'll just say that we had plenty to eat.  The appetizer plate was very similar to the one at lunch and could have been a meal by itself.  We also had a very traditional Romanian dish called sarmale.  It is a sausage roll wrapped in cabbage.  For dessert, fruit and cake.  And the lemonade.  Have we mentioned the lemonade yet?  It is fabulous.

Sarmale

So that's about it for a normal Sunday in Oradea, Romania.  I'll add photos and maybe a video clip or two later.

Pace

Randy



My turn to add thoughts to our Lord's day experience yesterday evening.  The "short" afternoon was a nice respite from the activities of the day.  A time to recharge my batteries, blog, and catch-up on my facebook feed.  :)  


At 4:30 we were picked up and taken to Emanuel Baptist Church.  It was great to return to the church; it felt comfortable and welcoming.  I truly enjoyed the orchestra and the singing....the music is so good there.  I have mentioned the acoustics in the building, right???  Wow, it's simply a blessing to sit and listen regardless of the language.


We sang a total of 3 songs this time.  It went well and was a blessing just to participate and see the look on people's faces when they recognized "It is Well". People joined in with us on the chorus and it was just awesome.   Loved being a part of their service and the message was so good.  Doru preached from I Peter about the "fear of God".  It was refreshing and energizing to my soul and spirit.  I loved the day, it was long, yes, we ate a lot, yes, but oh my goodness, it was so good for all of us.


After service,  supper was again delightful.  We had an authentically "Romanian", dish, "Sarmale" - stuffed cabbage leaves with fresh made sausage.  Oh, and we had CAKE for dessert.  Cakes are a true work of art in Romania.  They go to extreme measures to make it LOOK better than it tastes.  Fancy icing, 4 or 5 layers of different colors.  It tasted very good, just not as sweet as American cakes.  Dustin said he would really like to just have a super sweet, chocolate cake, oh and it would have to be really moist, too.  :)


The boys did great.  They were even willing to try some new foods, regardless of the fact they didn't think they would like it at all.  It was a proud momma moment.


The Lord's day is truly about the Lord here, at least with the people we were with yesterday.


Kim

The LORD'S Day in Romania

What a day it has been thus far!!! I can't believe all that I've already done and many of you are just getting up at home. It's only 9 AM in Johnson City, but much has happened with the Oradea team today. WOW!!!

The village church at
Topa de Cris

Where to begin for Sunday??? We were to meet our driver and translator downstairs in the lobby at 8:30 this morning. Today is the Lord's Day and we were going to a church in a nearby village. When I say a village church in Romania it is the equivalent to a small city in Tennessee. I at first had in my mind that the village churches were outdoor, small, quaint tent-type towns. Not so.  The one we visited today, Topas de Crisis was more like the size of maybe Jonesborough, TN, but no real obvious shops or anything like that.

Back to the meeting with our driver....we met Cor-na-luge (No idea how to spell this one, so here's the way it sounds! :) His driving, well....I think it even scared Dustin and Daniel a bit. My oh my how in the world do they teach their children to drive here. We did find out over lunch that you have to be 18 at least before you can receive a drivers license in Romania. What a relief to this mom!!! Anyway, he drove very fast, over the center line almost ALL the time, passed cars on curves and tailgated anything in front of him. Ivonne and I decided it was better to just talk to each other, face-to-face and NOT watch the road. WE felt much better that way. On the way home, Ed held the grip on top of the car ceiling the WHOLE WAY back. That should give you some idea of the harrowing ride we had.   Fun.....the boys said.  Scary is what I say. But, we prayed before we left both times and I think I really understand why they insist on praying before they drive! :)

We arrived at the village church right at 9:20. The attendees that were already there were praying so we stayed outside until time for service to begin at 9:30. Cornaluge (maybe Cornalush) instructed us in this way: Ladies-sit to the right, Men- to the left. OK, excuse me....WHAT??? Yes, indeed, I heard him correctly. Tthe sanctuary was divided with men on one side and ladies on the other. First time EVER for me to sit opposite my husband during church. It felt so odd to me, but of course, it's their culture, their church, and we respect their customs. Definitely different for me to be away from my boys.

The service was wonderful. (Almost 3 hours). We had no translator for the service, but even without understanding what was being said or prayed, we understood their devotion and heart for God.

I simply have to close early.....we are being picked up in 15 minutes for another service tonight. Please pray for the boys.  They are tired and we have another 2 hour service to sit through tonight. Also pray for us as we sing this evening. We want to be a blessing in every and any language.

God's blessings to you.  Pace

Kim

Thoughts from Randy:


So the drive to the church was slightly exciting but I was honestly never afraid-for-my-life scared.  Cornalush was very aggressive and fast but he was also very good.  Now the last time Kim and I were in Romania our driver was just as aggressive at passing on curves but he wasn't the best driver.  Also, he had a van that blew smoke when he pressed the gas pedal down.  I honestly think that old van accelerated due to the force of the smoke coming out the tail pipe.  No, today was nothing like that.  We had a VW that could haul mail.


I was sitting in the front seat with Cornalush and our interpreter, Daniel.  A couple of things stood out about our conversation.


First, I was quizzing them about what is meant by a "village".  Seeing as how we were going to one of them there villages I wanted some idea of the size.  I already suspected that a village probably meant something different than it did to me.  Indeed, the difference between a village and a city is - drum roll, please - taxes.  Yes, Cornalush said that you pay taxes in a city and you don't in a village.  He probably means local taxes for infrastructure and government.  Villages do not have this.  In fact Cornalush said that a village could be as large as 20-25,000 people.  Our village this morning, Topa de Cris, was on the smaller side - around 1,000 people or so.


Second thing - Daniel, our student interpreter, is from Timisoara.  This was pointed out to me by Cornalush and stated in such a way that made it apparent that being from this city is and should be a source of pride.  Why is this?  Timisoara was where the 1989 revolution began, where the first martyrs for freedom were made.


I don't have much to add to Kim's comments on the morning service.  Ok, maybe just a few.  


Good singing - At both the village church and at Emanuel these people know how to praise God with their voices.  They are both good and fervent in their worship.  Several kids came up to sing or read during the service and that was a special blessing, just as it is when the kids read scripture at Heritage.


Ed gave a great sermon on Moses and David.  The thought I took away - Forget 40 days and 40 nights.  What would happen if the church spent one hour per day on their face before God?  You have to start somewhere.


Regardless of many people knowing some English, their favorite songs are the hymns, especially the Doxology which they obviously recognize.  I had a hard time finishing the song this morning when I looked up and saw a lady in the back crying.

A bunch of happy and stuffed people

Lunch was incredible and was hosted by Elijah's sister and brother-in-law who live in the village.  Their son is also named Daniel and has a wonderful voice.  It was another four course meal, starting with appetizers ( sausage balls, cheese, stuffed white peppers, salami like slim jims, a potato salad-like ball, and an eggplant spread), chicken soup, main course of mashed potatoes and a fantastic chopped up roast, and the finale (more like a coup de grâce) was tiramisu.


An explanation for Kim using the word pace to close her post.


Pace (pronounced paw-cha (like in chase)) is a traditional greeting that believers give one another in Romania.  It means peace.


It's after midnight so we'll blog about tonight's events at Emanuel sometime tomorrow.


Randy out.

Romania Day 3 - Doors and Stairs Galore

We elected to rest and sleep in preparation for the Lord's Day in lieu of blogging last night.  Sorry.
We are all well and had a good day of work and touring of Oradea so I have many pictures to upload.
We'll try to give a more comprehensive update between services today.


Randy

Taking a short break between church services today.  It's been a long, but blessed day so far.  But, before I start on today, let me return to yesterday and give you a report of what we did on Saturday.

We started the day just like the day before with DOORS!  Yes, more doors.  All of the doors on the 2nd floor had to be scraped and prepared for new caulk and pain, so there were about 65 total that we were asked to help finish.  We finished our pile of doors by 11 yesterday!!  Much joy and celebration all around,  especially from Dustin who has many blisters to show for his days of labor thus far.  :)  We quickly went up to our rooms for showers and de-dusting!  I had a very pleasant shower for the first time since our arrival here.  Thanks to the Lord for nice, even water temperature and no scalding today.  :P

Gov't Building and Clock Tower

After lunch, we were to meet Mihai (Micah in English) and Emma in the lobby downstairs.  Mihai was our driver, Emma our translator.  We wanted to do some sightseeing of Oradea and a little "shopping".  We first went to the government building of the city and climbed 265 stairs to the tip top of the clock tower.  How do I know there were 265 stairs?  Daniel counted ALL THE WAY DOWN!  The sound of him counting stairs echoed all the way up and down the narrow chamber.  The view from the top can ONLY be described as BREATHTAKING!  We had a 360 degree view of the entire city.  WOW!!!  We were all in awe of what we saw.  Terra Cotta rooftops as far as we could see.  The most intriguing thing about the view to me, (and Ivonne) was the fact that the church steeples towered above the rest of the city.  So easy to see God all around Oradea.  It was a neat experience.

Orthodox church
"of the moon"

After the  climb down and some WATER to quench our thirsty selves, we headed out of the building to the streets.  We got to see a Romanian wedding in progress.  The tradition here is to decorate the bride/groom car with flowers and white streamers.  Everyone in the wedding party or even attendees follow their car and flash their lights and honk their horns LOUDLY and constantly.  We saw at least 5 such events yesterday afternoon alone.  The wedding we actually almost participated in was at an Orthodox church known as the Church with the moon.  There was literally a large moon inside the church building.  They required money to photograph inside the church so we opted NOT to support the orthodox religion in that way.  The inside was ornate and full of "saints"  all around, but an interesting view nonetheless.

We also visited the Black Eagle Hotel complete with stained glass entry.  It's an old hotel in the city center with outdoor cafes dotting the interior walkway that was actually outside.  That doesn't make much sense, but that's the way it was,  truly!  The biggest highlight for the boys was the stop we made at Emma's favorite ice cream bar.  It was delightful.  We all had an ice cream cone (Belgian chocolate for me!!!) and went about our way walking the "Centre".  Fantastic time was had by all!!!

Our last stop was to the mall where Kelsie, Ivonne and I enjoyed perusing the shoe stores, the guys visited the media and sports stores.  It really doesn't matter the language....girls like their shoes and boys like their electronics!!!

Mihai took us to his favorite pizzeria for dinner.  We had 3 large pizzas for the whole group and they were very different from American pizza, but very good!   All of us ate our fill and came home with full bellies!!! We opted to rest last night and retire early.  It's been a jam-packed few days for us with little sleep, different foods, loud traffic noise by which to sleep, and strange surroundings.  We needed a night to relax a bit and it was indeed a good evening.

Some specific prayer needs for my prayer warriors:

• Emma and Mona-our new friends here need discipleship and mentoring.  Pray that Ivonne and I can continue to minister to them and follow God's leading in what other ways He wants us to participate in their lives.
• We sing TONIGHT again (Sunday) at Emanuel.  I'll be playing piano.....new piano, strange piano...you get the idea!
• Dustin and Daniel--patience through yet another LONG Romanian church service!  :)
• Our outreach tomorrow as we visit a hospice center

That's all for the Saturday wrap-up!  Love and hugs to all!

Kim


Notables from Randy:

• Door efficiency was much higher today.  We are nearly "experts".  One exception of course.  See the picture to the right as a follow-up from yesterday's discussion -  my, my, my ...
• So many landmarks and exterior architecture suffered under the communist regime.  Renovation abounds, however, albeit slowly and with limited resources.  The rich heritage of the people can still be seen and was devoured by my American eyes.
• Sweet success today with my ATM card.  It actually does work at some machines.  Who knew?  And Kim used the Visa card also.   That's a long story but we're managing to use now.  Thanks for the prayers on that front.  It was an early source of frustration for us last week.

Here are a few more pictures below from our stroll downtown.  A few more can be found in the gallery.

A break for ice cream

view from the clock tower

Romania Day 2: Let's Make a Deal!

Today was indeed the day of many doors. I wish I could be really poetic and write a neat sentence regarding doors, but my poetic muse is apparently on vacation. So, I'm just going to do my best to make a seemingly dull day more entertaining.

Breakfast was "interesting" to say the least. We went through the cafeteria line and received our plates of 3 HOT DOGS for BREAKFAST!!! Interesting, to say the least. I was not really sure how big of a hit that truly was with us, but, nonetheless, that was breakfast. So, I had toast. It was an, well, an experience. :-)

Ok, so after breakfast we came back to our apartment and enjoyed a time of prayer with our entire team. It was a refreshing time of prayer, praise, and encouragement. At the final AMEN, there was a knock on the door. It was Doru, giving us instructions for the day and for the weekend. After a time of prayer with him, it was off to work on DOORS. We had a supervisor and detailed instructions on how to scrape, scrape, scrape and sand doors. We were to prepare them for new caulking and paint. All in all, after a long day of scraping, sanding, blisters, sore hands,etc., we completed 35 doors. Productive day.

I have to mention a special little event, well, a FUNNY event at Ivonne's expense. She knows I'm posting this, so I have cleared it with her first. We were split into two separate rooms today to work. Randy, Ed and I had one room and Kelsie, Dustin and Ivonne were in another room. They were also blessed to have two of the students with them in their room helping them work. "Mona" and Chobi. Again, I'm not sure on the spelling, but this is the way they sound in my broken Romanian English. 

Chobi and Dustin

So, both teams are working away. After lunch break, Chobi came to Ivonne and said in his best, broken English, "You not scrape, ANYMORE"!  Apparently, Ivonne had scraped too hard and was taking out too much of the wood to please our Romanian supervisors. Choby was in trouble, so he asked Ivonne to not scrape any more wood, ONLY SAND. She's a little bit OCD about things, and was just trying to scrape away the splintering wood, but it was too much, too much!!! It was funny!

The team enjoyed the day with their Romanian friends and found out much about the culture here. Daniel enjoyed playing with two Romanian boys, ages 11 and 12, while we worked all morning. He played soccer and ping pong and climbed up on dorm mattresses.  Anything else he did -well, I don't know. I don't really think I want to know!

Supper is served at 6:30, so we ended our work day around 5 for showers and clean-up. Can I just ask if there is ANYONE reading this blog today that actually PRAYED for hot water during their shower? Well, I know of at least 2 members of our team that did. Unfortunately, my water was a little too hot. It was scalding hot or freezing cold. Not a happy medium today, just uncomfortable. Kelsie, however, said she began praying at 3:30, Lord, please let me have some hot water tonight for my shower. Their rooms are on the 4th floor, so they are warmer,and tend to not have the water pressure or temperature like the lower floors. Well, long story short, Kelsie got her prayer answered and had a pleasant shower. Dustin and Daniel were blessed as well and had warm showers. What a blessing!!!

Dinner was, well, interesting again. We should have had a camera to take a picture. We decided it was the American equivalent to a "mustgo" meal. They needed to clean out the refrigerator. :) We had "pizza". It was very thick dough with a ketcup sauce and, of course, cut-up hot dogs as the topping. There was bread, a sweet bread called cozonac, leftover rice, soup, and sheep cheese. All-in-all, most of us didn't care for the Romanian pizza. Thankfully we had salami, cheese and fruit in our apartment. :)

Big highlight came at the end of the day. Randy, Kelsie and I went upstairs and found a wonderful practice room with a piano. Beautiful acoustics again, and fun to sing!!! We looked out our window and saw a pick-up soccer game going on with the university boys. Guess who joined them??? Daniel couldn't resist. It was the highlight of his day, playing soccer IN ROMANIA with the big boys. He scored 5 goals and loved bragging to us....trust me.

Pictures to come and Randy says he plans to upload a video before we retire for the night.

La revedere!

Kim

Update by Randy:


Ok, so not to brag (well, yes a little I guess), but your's truly is having a better time with the food than anyone else in the Gardner clan.  The pizza?  It was fine.  I even spread a little sheep's cheese on top.  Very nice.


We discussed Ivonne's "re-direction" over supper and she was laughing so hard at herself that she was crying - what a sweet spirit she has.


I enjoyed watching the pick-up game of soccer this evening and took a few pictures.  The university boys have some good skills.  They treated Daniel very well and Daniel had the good sense to stay away from the 50/50 balls.  One defender (Cornelius) took him out once - actually fell on top of him - and the guys harassed the defender mercilessly.  It's the same in any language.  Pictures are in the gallery and I posted a couple below.

Finally, I just posted a short video from our service at Emanuel Baptist Church of Oradea that was taken last night.  Note the blend in the second song.  My mic wasn't even working.


Here is the video.  You can also browse to it through the youtube bar on the right once it updates.


Randy

Romania Day 1 - Of Windows and Choir Lofts

Umm, we had a little problem.
The post disappeared, got eaten by Romanian gremlins or something.
and it's late.
Fix tomorrow.
We have some pictures for you.  Yes, look at pictures instead.  Blog tomorrow.
La revedere

Ok, it's technically a new day, but I'm going to try this again regarding YESTERDAY.

We officially began our service here in Oradea on Thursday.  A "work" day of sorts.  If you have looked at our picture gallery any, you may have seen the picture of Kelsie and Ivonne standing in the windows.  Yes, those are windows, about 3 feet off the floor with a wide sill (obviously wide enough to stand)!  These windows in several different dorm rooms on the first level were our first assignment.  Apparently when these rooms were freshly painted, due to water damage, they didn't know about painters tape.  The windows suffered greatly by getting the fresh brownish gray paint on them.  So, scrapers, rags and a neat ajax paste in hand, we were scrubbing paint from window frames for the better part of the day on Thursday.  They were careful to split the boys from the girls and keep us busy in separate rooms.  It was a fun day.

Kelsie, Ivonne and I also had the extreme pleasure of going to the local grocery-club.  It was much like our Sams at home.  Our polite, non-English speaking driver took us across the road to get some "Cola-Light" and water.  The biggest highlight of that trip was trying to explain to a Romanian, knowing very little English, what a "pop-tart" is.  Dustin and Daniel literally SURVIVE on pop-tarts at home.  At least 2 a day is the norm and Dustin asked that we try to find some yesterday for him.  Well, after 2 phone calls, talking with 2 different customers/workers at the local store, we came home with no pop-tarts.  They don't have them here is what we finally surmised.  An English speaking student at the University told us he had never heard or seen them before.Needless to say, I think our wonderfully polite driver and guide thought we were crazy and we Americans suffered greatly in the translation.

A big highlight of the day yesterday was our getting to move rooms.  When we first arrived, there was a little misunderstanding as to the composition of our team.  We were moved into two joining apartments, each with 4 twin beds.  Randy said he slept GREAT in the twin bed....probably had something to do with JETLAG!!!  Nonetheless, as 2 married couples, we gently, politely asked our host Doru about getting us some different accommodations   They were eager and willing to please us.  We now have 2 adjoining apartments again, but this time we have a sitting room, kitchen, and a bedroom with a "matrimonial" bed as they say in Romania.  The boys have their own room on the 4th floor, and Kelsie was extremely pleased to be given her very own room next to the boys.  Everyone seems much happier with these arrangements.  I'm very pleased that the shower WORKS in this apartment, and the water is even warm!  :)  I had a very cold, drippy shower yesterday morning, but the Lord gave me a trickle of warm water at the end so I was happy.  :)  The phrase "spoiled Americans" came to mind and was uttered SEVERAL times during the day yesterday (by the team). We are so grateful to the faculty, staff and students of Emanuel University.  They are so kind and patient with us and we are blessed beyond words.

Ed speaking at Emanuel Baptist

Last night was the biggest and most incredible blessing of the day, however.  I know this post is turning into a novel, but it was truly an amazing experience.  We were honored and blessed beyond words to be invited to sing and worship at Emanuel Baptist Church last night.  Thursday evening is their prayer service.  What a unique and awesome time of worship.  Is it not cool that our God is so big he knows every language!!!  I don't know why that struck me last night, but I was just in awe of the fact that God hears the prayers of HIS children, regardless of language!  Even though we could not understand what they were praying, we definitely understood their passion, their belief, and their faith.  It was evident in the resounding "Ahh-mens" we constantly heard throughout the congregation.  Ed gave a short devotion on Jeremiah with the help of a translator.  He did a great job, even though he had to stop mid-thought for translation.  I think that would be very difficult, but I know that God used him and his words.

The congregation was gracious and smiled and "Ah-men" after we sang.  We had no translation, but many told us afterward, "God bless you"  and "beautiful voices".  We were humbled by the experience and may I just add that the acoustics in Emanuel Baptist Church are the best that the Gardner trio has EVER had the privilege to experience.  WOW!!!!  The building is round and I KNOW pastor Marcos would be envious.  It was phenomenal!!!!  We didn't need microphones or monitors, the sound just reverberated through the sanctuary.  So cool!

Ok, I'm going to wrap this up before I lose all my readers.  After service we were treated to a truly Romanian meal by Doru and his wife Orica.  (I am probably not spelling this correctly, but I am spelling them the way they sound to me in English)  We had salad, chicken, pork, fried potatoes.  If that wasn't enough, they then brought out a traditional Romanian dessert that we would call crepes.  OH MY it was delightful.  Even Dustin couldn't eat everything!!!  Daniel was beyond stuffed and told our host, I'm sorry, I'm just so full!!!!

We were then driven back to the University and greeted by an English speaking student.  He had worked with the boys earlier in the day and asked them what they thought of Romanian church.  Daniel's response was...."IT WAS LONG"!!!  By American standards, it was indeed a little long.  It began at 6 and ended at 8, so yes,it was a bit.

One last thing, thanks for the prayers specifically about our allergy issues.  We have had very little mold to deal with so far, and I'm so grateful.  Please continue to pray for us.  We are enjoying our time, but honestly, it's not home.  There are frustrations and we are totally human.  Dustin is upset this morning because there shower would NOT produce hot water, so his world is a little tilted today.   Just remember us and our total humanness in your prayers today.  WE love you and are so grateful for your partnership in prayers.  We simply can't tell you all that enough.

Kim

Thoughts from Randy:


Things that made an indelible mark yesterday:

• Doru - He's an amazing man.  His hospitality, humor, and storytelling ability are all exceptional.  He began telling us his background over breakfast and finished it over supper last night (quite a memorable meal also).  The story of God's hand in his life and in the life of the Romanian church was a moving experience and a true blessing to hear.



The choir loft

• Emanuel Baptist Church - Many thoughts here.  Yes, it is a fabulous building and an amazing choir loft. The acoustics cannot be described.  (Case in point - on our second acapella song my mic was not working for the entire song, but I just thought they had turned my big mouth down in the monitors because I could still hear myself well enough from the sanctuary sound.  In fact, Ed later said that he could hear me just fine).  More than the edifice, though, will be my memory of the prayers lifted up in the service.  Without knowing the language, the passion and desires of God's people could be felt in a very visceral way and I was moved greatly.
• Giving hearts - These people want to bless us as much as we want to bless them and I think they are succeeding.  Shouldn't this be how it always is with God's people?  Must we travel to another continent to display and receive such grace as this?  Oh, that God will move in our hearts to always give abundantly above measure wherever we are just as Christ gave himself for the Church.

Soli deo gloria

Randy