I figured rather than sending out 10 posts today about this past week, I'd show you our week in pictures.
Our contact in Stobarasti was a young pastor named Alex. We lived below he and his family and I was humbled by their hospitality and love for God and the people of Stobarasti.
Wednesday we arrived and worked to do some gardening around the church property.
Thursday morning we headed out to the local cemetary. The Baptist church owns a portion. We used our favorite tools (hoes, hatchets, scythe and a pitchfork this time) to cut the grass, trees, weeds, etc to make it a much more beautiful place. We also cleaned up a lot of trash as the Orthodox people in the cemetery tend to use the Baptist portion to dump their trash. I guess no love for the Baptist in Romania.
Thursday night is a mid-week church service. We did praise and worship in English/Romanian. Ben shared on the definition of success and Jenny shared about seeing God work in her life.
Friday in the morning we finished up work at the cemetery. In the afternoon, we walked over an hour to a neighboring village to be a part of a youth program. For those of you familiar with Awana, the youth program is modeled after Awana. I was able to give my testimony, we did a few camp classic (Baby shark, Father Abraham, and played games). We arrived back to a traditional Romanian barbecue dinner that Alex and his family prepared for us. Delicious!!!
Saturday morning we went to Alex's in-law's house and moved wood. Most Romanian families use wood stoves to heat during the winter, so we moved the wood from the yard where it had been split into the shed in preparation for winter. They then fed us more Romanian barbecue. We loved the influx of meat into our diet as our food budget makes meat a rare commodity. They also have grape vines strung around their house so we got to eat grapes right off the vine. Raspberries in Serbia, grapes in Romania. We are spoiled.
Saturday afternoon we had both a youth (14-19) program followed by a younger youth program (4-13). Emily told the story of Jonah and the whale, Ben led Bible study, Staci shared her testimony, I shared my testimony again and Jenni led us in some rocking kids songs. We then headed out for a campfire with the older youth.
Sunday we went to morning church where Ben preached and Michael shared his testimony and did some praise and worship. We then headed back to Dragonesti where we went to church for the 2nd time.
I am thankful today is our day of rest as it was a full, but very cool week.
