July 24, 2006
Notes From Another Land
While we were in Romania, one of my duties was to send e-mails to our supporters and families back in the States. Because I wrote them daily, and because I still don't really know how to summarize the trip, I thought it would be easiest to repost edited versions of them here.
Wednesday, July 12
We are here! After a short delay leaving Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (what's new?) we arrived in Stuttgart, Germany with just enough time to make our connection to Timisoara. After an uneventful flight on one of Carpatair's finest 54-seater prop planes, we arrived in Romania about 3 p.m. local time. The airport in Timisoara is surrounded by fields and you can't even see runway until you're on it. Once we stepped off the plane (via stairs onto the runway) we loaded onto a bus for a very short 100 feet trip to the terminal. (That's service!)
Our prayers were answered when ALL of our luggage made its way off the conveyor belt and we made it through customs with only ONE person's bags even being opened! This was a huge deal, as we were later told that a church group who arrived last week were delayed for hours in customs.
Our accommodations in the church are wonderful - it almost feels like we are in an Ikea showroom! We each have our own bathrooms and are only two to a room and (the most wonderful of all) each room has its own air conditioning. It is HOT in Romania in July!
Thursday, July 13
What an AMAZING day! It is almost midnight and we just finished our group devotional and recap of the day and everyone headed back downstairs to finish painting while I ran up to e-mail all of you about our second day in Romania.
First, we will not starve. They are feeding us three huge, awesome meals a day, cooked right in the church's kitchen by two wonderful Romanian women. For breakfast we had cereal, milk, cheese, meat, bread, hard-boiled eggs, jams, coffee, juice, tea... a real spread. After a leisurely meal (no eating in the car/at your desk/over the sink for the Romanians - each meal is conversation-driven and relaxed), Gelu (the senior pastor) took a few of us over to the college campus to exchange money. The Romanians recently changed their currency, going from Lei in the thousands to tens. (They used to have a bill that was half a million lei that is now a 50!) On our way back we got stuck behind some Gypsies who were "driving" a horse-drawn wagon.
We broke for lunch at about 12 p.m. and sat down for another full, amazing meal. We broke bread with the Romanians who were here for training and got to know a lot of great people. A few of us sat with a man named Barry, who is an American ex-pat who moved his family to Timisoara about 12 years ago to be a missionary. He gave us a brief explanation of the money and taught us a few key words. (Thank you, good morning etc.)
After lunch it was time for projects. We got so much accomplished! We went through ALL of the supplies we brought with us (that filled 1,000 pounds worth of luggage!) and organized everything. We taught some women how to make homemade Play-Doh. We taught three of the children's worship songs to several of the volunteers and one of us even went on an adventurous journey to buy paint at the Romanian (actually German) version of Home Depot, Praktiker. We also sorted through toys and cleaned everything salvageable, constructed about three packs of cardboard blocks, cleaned out closets and moved furniture!
Around 5:30 p.m. we were called back into the basement dining room/fellowship hall for dinner. It was rice and a sort of mushroom-based creamy soup (but thicker) with chicken. We were then served homemade Romanian doughnuts! They were a little like beignets, but instead of massive amounts of powdered sugar, they were lightly dusted and the Romanians ate theirs with jelly.
After dinner it was time to start painting! We were given free reign to makeover the babies' room, so we moved everything out and we're painting all four walls a light blue. We also took on the HUGE job of painting the fellowship hall! It is a fairly large space and it used to have four stark white walls with no decoration or color. Now the walls are a light olive with an accent wall of a slightly darker green. Tomorrow we are going to paint some accent stripes and a church member artist named Radu is going to paint some sea creatures on the walls of the babies' room.
Many of the Romanians helped with painting and we made quick work of the initial coats. Tomorrow we just have to paint the accent colors and touch-up. It's going to be a huge change and hopefully it will add some life and cheer to the much-used space.
We made many new friends today and got much accomplished - however there is still much to do! We have to complete our "extreme makeover" tasks and continue teaching them about our preschool/school age curriculums and procedures. Florentina, a mother of 5 who came today to the training, said that she thinks the children will be very receptive to a new system, but it will be the parents who are hesitant or unreceptive. She said that they really view Sunday School as childcare, not as a separate environment where their children can learn about God and worship. Pray that the Romanian parents will have open hearts and minds when it comes to the children's ministry.
This is a wonderful country full of contradictions (billboards for mobile phones next to torn-up undrivieable roads... a McDonald's across the street from a hospital where you "go in well and come out sick"). We are learning a lot and are so excited to see what the next few days have in store for all of us.
It's past midnight now and most of you are probably just heading home from work or are perhaps off to the gym or out to dinner. We will be turning in shortly (hopefully!) before we greet Friday with happy hearts and servants' hands. Keep praying for Vox Domini and for the work we are doing here. Pray for Romania as her people recover from generations of oppression and depression. Pray for her children as they grow up in the ever-growing chasm between the new world and the old.
Friday, July 14
We are trying to turn in earlier tonight, so only a quick update. Today was much less stressful than yesterday as most of what we accomplished today was simply finishing up projects we'd already started.
The painting was completed entirely by Romanian volunteers and they did a fantastic job. The fellowship hall has been transformed and the babies' room is almost complete. We sat down with Gili, the youth pastor, today and gave him an overview of NPCC's teen ministry.
Tonight we had a parents' meeting so that we could talk to them about the planned children's ministry and answer any questions. We followed up the meeting with an ice cream social and it was fun to interact and mingle with the Romanians. Several of them brought their children, so we finally got to meet some kids!
After the meeting/ice cream social our team walked to McDonald's to recap our day and talk about our plans for tomorrow. After morning sessions to work further with the volunteers, Rodica, the pastor's wife, is taking us into the town square tomorrow to tell us the Revolution story.
Saturday, July 15
We worked hard! First, we had a final meeting with the volunteers and we did actual run-throughs of the curriculum and what Sunday morning would look like. After a lunch of meatball soup and Romanian doughnuts we recruited everyone to help set-up the preschool classrooms. Vox Domini runs a weekday private kindergarten (not like ours - a mixture of ages 4-7) and so their classrooms hold materials for the kindergarten as well as Sunday school. We had quite the task of prepping these rooms as we pulled out EVERYthing and reloaded them with just essential materials. It took us most of the afternoon but with many hands we made quick work.
After dinner, Gelu and his wife Rodica took us to central Timisoara and told us the Revolution story. We started at the exact spot where the Revolution began: On Dec. 15, 1989 a priest was arrested outside his church. Members of his congregation were upset over the arrest and so they began gathering, holding a quiet protest. No one was speaking or shouting, they were just standing silent, holding candles. Rodica saw the group and wondered what was happening. Eventually, someone shouted that what was happening was wrong and that they should be free. Rodica said this was very scary, as they were conditioned to turn in instigators or anyone who spoke badly about the government. She said it was a foreign feeling to hear someone speak out against the Tyrant. (She rarely called him by name, just "the Tyrant.") Eventually this gathering grew and within a few days they began marching towards the central square and many people were killed.
We then traveled to the Cathedral where the bloodiest "battle" occurred. A group of young people were gathered on the steps of the Cathedral (which faces the square), mourning the loss of their loved ones who were killed early in the protests. Rodica said the square was filled with secret police and army and they had guns and tanks and the young people opened up their shirts and said, "If you want to shoot us, shoot us, we have nothing to lose." So the army and police open-fired on them, first with rubber bullets and then with real ones, and many people lost their lives. The survivors began to run to go back into the church but the priest had barred the doors. "I guess to save the building," Rodica said. "Save the building by sacrificing its people." After that day more and more people began to come to the square to protest. Rodica and Gelu said it was so full of people that it could take you hours to move a few meters.
The first night only Gelu went down to the square, with another male friend, and Rodica and the other wife stayed behind, afraid it would be too dangerous. The next night the husbands told their wives that they must come out - it was too important. At one point they were questioning and praying about why the army was fighting against them - their own people - when they heard a commotion further up the square. When they asked what had happened, there were told that a woman had been throwing bread and flowers at the soldiers when suddenly the army joined in with the people to fight alongside them. Later, when they were still in the square, the couples were praying about what to do in this situation, as Christians, asking for guidance. As they were praying, a woman near them said aloud, "We should shout that there is God." So they began to shout, "There is God! There is God!" Gelu said it quickly spread throughout the entire crowd until everyone was shouting, "There is God!"
By the next Friday (exactly one week), Cecescu had fled and they were free. Gelu and Rodica said, however, that the next two weeks were very scary and that there were times when they had to lay on the floor of their flat to avoid being shot. (The interim government was just as corrupt, there were rogue secret police, etc.). Cecescu and his wife were killed on Dec. 25, and Rodica said that morning it finally snowed, covering the entire square with a perfect white blanket.
We then walked to the very center of Timisoara (the city is laid out in a circle), where there are outdoor pubs and restaurants and live music. The buildings are yellow and blue and green and pink and Gelu said during Communist times all these buildings were gray - it's only been in the last 17 years that there has been so much color. Timisoara is a beautiful city and we were blessed with a beautiful night to experience it.
Sunday, July 16
Today was the big day! Vox Domini holds two services - 9:30 and 11:30 - but our plan was to only hold the children's ministries during the first service. (It ended up happening twice, but it was great!) It went beautifully. The volunteers were enthusiastic and took to the material and the kids seemed really happy and excited. Since most people are currently on holiday there weren't a lot of kids, but we think that worked to our advantage. The volunteers didn't get overwhelmed and they were able to really work through the curriculum. During both services, Wendy had an opportunity to speak to the congregation about what we've been doing this week and she was also able to put in a plug for volunteers. She mentioned how our team is made up of men and women, marrieds and singles, parents and non, and that it doesn't matter who you are or whether or not you have children, investing in the spiritual lives of children is vital, both for their sake and for the sake of the church.
We were all able to sit in on one of the two services and I'm so happy we could experience it. Three of the four worship songs were songs we all knew ("How Great is Our God", "Blessed Be Your Name," "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand"), and it was special to hear some of us singing English intermixed with Romanian. During the sermon, we wore special headphones that were connected to a microphone and one of the Romanians translated the entire sermon for us and we heard it right in our headphones.
After church, we went shopping! At one point, Autumn and I were sitting in the mall's food court (on the terrace level that you can reach by taking a glass elevator that overlooks a huge patio and two rock walls - yes, rock walls) and as we were sitting there I said, "Let's take this in. We are sitting in a huge mall, right next to a KFC, drinking Coca-Cola, listening to Beyonce and we are in a country where, in my lifetime, there was a Communist regime." Quite the dichotomy.
Tomorrow, we are going to venture into Romania to see a castle and some Roman ruins. It will probably be a long, tiring day, but we are all excited to see more of this beautiful country and just to have some time to relax and not think about stuff left to do! Tomorrow night we will meet once more with the church leadership to say goodbye and have one last night together. We've all made friends here and that has really been the most wonderful gift of all.
Monday, July 17
How can I possibly put this day into words?
Today Rodica and Gelu took us sightseeing around Romania for our day of rest and relaxation. We traveled farther into the state/province of Transylvania and we visited the ruins of an ancient Roman city (established sometime after 106 AD), went to a monastery and saw a castle in the Carpathian mountains. It was a lot of driving (small winding roads going very fast - typical European driving!) but we saw a LOT of incredibly gorgeous countryside and had great conversations in the car. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant, Caffe Barrio, in a small village where Gelu and Rodica have friends. They served us a huge meal - soup, salad, chicken, potatoes, crepes and coffee for dessert.
When we got back to the church the volunteers that we've worked with this week were waiting for us. We ate a late dinner and then we sat down together and shared our thoughts about the week and it was pretty emotional, to say the least. We had Communion as we worshipped with songs in both Romanian and English. We then exchanged gifts and hugs and e-mail addresses. It's amazing the connections you can make with strangers in a short period of time when you're all serving together for God's glory. I honestly don't think I can adequately explain it.
We appreciate your prayers and we know that they were heard, as we had a week without injury or incident. The 10 of us worked so well together and we worked so well with the Romanians and we know it was 100 percent God. We thank Him first and foremost and we also thank you.
Posted by hannah at 04:53 PM
