The movie “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles” has definitely taken on a new meaning for our team and another that’s joining us in ministry this month. After a three hour flight from Ireland, ten hours total of train rides, and a two hour bus ride in three days we have finally made it to our destination here in Romania. The first time riding on a train here in Eastern Europe was an incredible experience as you can watch the beautiful country side fly by and words can’t express the beauty of this place at all. In the beginning you would see sky high mountains disappear in the clouds, green hills and mountains, small villages with one little chapel all across the land, horses and buggies still being used. The people are even beautiful in themselves, a gentle mix of the Romanian and Hungary here where we are and think of the old times I’ve seen at home.
On the train ride I had a wonderful conversation with a lady named Andre’ea who was also a believer and had the chance to encourage for a few hours being sleep deprived, but I couldn’t sleep through all the scenery and conversation. While we stopped at our train station and found out we would have to wait there over night almost, we met a Romanian family who just took a liking into us and come up to say hi. Next thing I know, there’s an older man with a huge black beard who is dancing dirty to Christian Rap music; we just laughed so hard. Or the little boys I saw near a Water Closet who told me their names in their language, Balti and Dicor. Or the many other faces we have seen not only on the train rides and stations but now where we are currently.
We are in a village out in the beautiful countryside called Bogar Falva (Bulgareni in Hungarian) and it only has a population of around 400 people in this spot and we’re only here for the next six days before leaving to another place across country for the rest of our time. The closer we got here the more excited we were to know we wouldn’t be in a huge city but with the countryside people and what an experience in just a couple of days. We are actually in the Transylvania Province, and sad to tell you, but there’s no such thing as Transylvania University and we are still about 300km from Dracula’s Castle. This place is so peaceful and serene.
As I walked the streets to take photos you would see women with their scarves over their heads and men with their hats that you would only see in pictures at home, others working in the farm fields with their sheep, cows, and still using horse carriages. One time a man came walking down the road in the small village carrying two buckets. He stopped and gave me a huge smile speaking in the Hungarian language that I just couldn’t understand. And with his cheerful attitude to this foreigner, he put down the pales and folded back the towels over them to reveal the largest black current grapes I’ve ever seen and pears. He then without hesitation gave me two pears without asking. He then said a word to me and then smiled as he went on his way; I think I’ll like this place.
You may have noticed that I mentioned Hungarian things a few times; though I’m in Romania. That’s because Hungary used to be very dominate back in the early 20th Century and Romania didn’t really exist much. Romania/Hungarian people are a minority in the society of Romania. Transylvania was originally a part of Hungary but after WW1 Hungary was part of the countries which lost the first one and Romania was in the winners part, so Transylvania was given to Romania and the people. Hungary actually joined Germany in WW2. Hungary borders Romania on the West side, from Transylvania up in the country it was Hungarian. There are about 1,500,000 of them left now out of the 22,000,000.
Our contacts are Hungarian also who have come here because they have a huge passion to see a revival here in Romania. Within little time our teams have been so encouraged to be around them and they have been such a blessing. Zsombor the husband, Eniko (“o” sounds like “uh”) the wife, and little eleven year old Christophe are now a family to us. They are part of a organization/denomination called Full Gospel Covenant and used to be under the Assembly of Christ. There is a great need for revival here according to Zsombor and a huge stagnancy of aliveness in Christ. There’s a lot of influence of Catholicism, Jehova Witnesses, Unitarian, and Lutheran; so there’s a big influence in tradition but not Spirit-filledness.
It’s obvious when you walk the streets of this small village that you will see little crosses on top of almost every house and even the small catholic church steeple high over the little village like you see in photos at home, but doesn’t mean that there’s people who know the true life God has. We replace the Spirit within us and the desire to know Christ with an icon that’s only a small representation of a greater reality, and sometimes we settle for idolatry of relics and things more than the real Giver.
There are 22,000,000 people in this country and 4,000,000 of them are gypsies; a class that isn’t highly favored and looked at with much respect here. It’s a type of ministry I’ve been hoping to do since being on the Race. There are two types of them; traditional and home. Traditional gypsy men wear some type of dress and hats, and women with skirts and robes over them. There are either Romania or Hungarian gypsies and they rebel against the Romanian Laws. Traditional gypsies are considered rich wearing jewelry, wearing classy robes, and other things. Then there’s the home gypsies who are considered poor, lazy, and many alcoholic. They live in their own villages and don’t go out of their own homes much. There’s much more to learn about them. This is also a country still recovering from communism that was still be in the recent past and domination of the U.S.S.R. Also the strongholds of tradition, fear, insecurity, and other things run so high.
This week our team will be going on the streets of Szentezyhaza to share the gospel to various people bringing instruments, singing, praying, and building relationships on the corners of streets. Please pray that God will prepare hearts and ours about the right things to say in sharing the Good News to these people who need hope and revival. It has been said that they are willing to accept Jesus, but don’t fully understand the “Gospel” very much; so pray that we can share well the true gospel and Good News to these people.
God implanted a vision of ministry that I hope to blog about next time, so I won’t tell you right now, but it’s getting confirmed. Amy Book on the other team spoke out about a desire she had for these people and it was the exact vision I had and the contact said it would work; aren’t you interested? Not only will we do some, but also hand out flyers about two Christian concerts called Adonai Formation that we’ll be attending and in prayer intercession and ministry to the people. It’s going to be a great week and even more excited about the three week following.
