Friday, September 11th
Viila Techi, Romania
We finished with Kids Club this afternoon and decided to head in to town to get on the internet. We needed to send word to our supporters of a project we are doing for the amazing family that is hosting us. It is actually quite amazing really. They have a 2 room house. 2 – that is it. Not 2 bedrooms, but 2 rooms in which they eat, sleep, do laundry, cook, get dressed, shower, etc. And they have completely given up 1 of those rooms for the 5 girls on the team. The two boys are sleeping outside in their tents. They have given up a lot to have us here, so when Sanda started talking about how she wished she could have a shower, we were on it. We would love to be able to bless the ones who have allowed God to use them to provide so amazingly for us.
They have a car. But not many cars seat 7+ people. At least when you are this far removed from SUV land. So 4 of us decided to take the ride into town and the remaining 3 decided to walk to the next town over. I decided to walk. It is beautiful here and I love a good walk. Nothing like a few steps to get your blood pumping and allow you to soak in the sights and the culture. But I can honestly say that the novelty of the walk wore off quickly. There isn’t a quaint trail to walk on. You walk on a shoulder that is pretty much non-existent. And if there is any stretch of land that isn’t taken over by the cars that speed past you, you must share it with the gypsy carts. They are literally horse powered, which means you better watch your step. The tension of avoiding stepping in something that would make you cry or getting run over by a car was a bit much for me to handle at times. And when I say avoid getting run over by a car, I mean there would be nothing left. If I were smarter about cars, I could tell you how fast they were going. At one point, the wind coming from a passing car literally made my arms fly up. Which was quite handy, because I used them to cover my face as I thought death was near.
At any rate (no pun intended), we walked and we walked. It is quite different from wireless internet we have at home. We finally arrived to a quaint little shop with coffee, drinks, and ice cream. It was at that moment that I knew Jesus loved me. The man that owned the shop was watching an American movie dubbed in Romanian. There was an actual toilet and the drinks were cold. We got some treats and saddled up to a computer and went to work. As if it couldn’t get any better, a few moments later a herd of cattle passed right by the window we were sitting at with our computers. Almost as if the battle between technology and simplicity were going on before our eyes.
We headed back and darkness fell upon us faster than we were prepared for. What could have been a terrible evening of walking trying to survive became one of my favorite evenings. We saw the brilliant night sky in between the car lights. We saw shooting stars, satellites overhead, and constellations galore. The Milky Way shined through in the absence of urban sprawl and it was quite a sight to behold. God spoke my language again tonight. In a place where I speak about 10 words of the everyday language, God spoke mine and I felt right at home. I felt like I could skip the entire 3 miles back because of how amazing He is. And to think, this is but the outer fringes of His ways (Job 26:14). I really would walk 500 miles to be apart of His glory and His amazing design, dirty feet and all!
