We are in our last day at Romania, and it has been a good wrap up. Since Monday we have been in Brasov, Romania for a conference called “The Awakening.” Every world race squad out right now came together at the same place, plus all staff and any and all alumni were invited. It has been a good month after a somewhat interesting month of ministry.
Romania was pretty tough on my team seeing as how EVERYONE got sick at one point or another. It was a very tough month physically because of it. It seemed like nobody was ever really 100%, and especially not everybody at the same time. The family who was somewhat in charge of us though took very good care of us. When our stomachs were killing us one day they gave us medicine, which was a spoonful of sugar soaked with vinegar. Brings new meaning to me for the words of Marry Poppins. But it was a good month to spend with each other. We had some well spent team time despite our somewhat close quarters. All seven of us were in the same room, which I would like to think is a rare occurrence, but I just wouldn’t want to set myself up for that kind’ve of disappointment. It really was not that bad. The people in the village we were in were an interesting breed. We would every few days go around and invite all of the towns people to church, or to a bible study we were doing, and EVERYBODY said they were going to be there. Rarely did any show up I’m sorry to say, but all the same, our host family was enough of a reason to be there. Nanu and his father John were so gracious to us. John, who has lost most of his teeth but still has one of the biggest smiles, was the first man baptized in the village 8 years ago, and his love for Christ is so apparent. Nanu was baptized 5 years ago and is equally in love with the Lord. Nanu’s kids were a handful, but were nothing but joy. His oldest son Danny, 14, was a lot of fun, and though quiet at first would just follow all the Americans around and laugh at us and occasionally lend a helping hand. His sisters, 10 and 6 years old were just completely enamored with the girls. It took about .37 seconds for them to fall in love with our girls and start playing games with them. I once again feel like we left way too early and that we have hardly done a thing for them, but as I sensed at the end of Ireland, there will not likely be a country where this is not the case. We did get to attend a baptismal service the last day before we left. It was a neat experience to get to share that with the church.
The conference has been a good time. The first night it was about 36 degrees outside and everybody FROZE. My sister got into camp at midnight on Monday and it was a true blessing to get to see her. She has been a truth breath of fresh air. She was in her tent about 10 minutes in the 36 degree weather the first night before she split to the staff cabin. In her defense I do have her good sleeping bag. I got up to wake her up the next morning and was scratching on her tent and saying her name trying to wake her up before I realized that there is clearly nobody in her tent and opened it to confirm my suspicion.
The country we are going to will be Montenegro we found out yesterday. We will be heading out tomorrow and we really have no idea where we are heading. We will be trying to make contacts all month and perhaps enter into ministry somewhere or maybe just set the stage for following world race squads. We just don’t know yet. Hopefully we can get plugged in somewhere with a church. We will be there for 5 weeks in all reality, probably our longest stay in any country. Should be interesting. Will be sure and keep everyone at home updated. Hope all is well at home.
