To the conductor on the train I said, “MulÅ£umesc” (Thank you in Romanian) – he responded, “Merci!”
To the shop keeper in our town I said, “Merci” – she responded “Köszönöm” (Thank you in Hungarian)
You could have convinced me originally that I was sleep deprived and the muddled mess of the identity of our location a byproduct of my travel weary oatmeal brain but that argument no longer holds any water; ours is just a blended community.
The source of my confusion, well, you make sense of it…we live in a “willage” just outside Târgu MureÅŸ (which is the “new” Romanian spelling)…many signs around town and one of our train tickets, however, reads Tîrgu MureÅŸ (the “old” Romania spelling)…it is a “willage” because “v” is exchanged for “w” in this part of the world…and if all that weren't enough the willage is predominantly Hungarian. Wait what?
Our contact, Pastor Zsombor, is a native Hungarian, speaks fluent Romanian, English and dabbles in German, French and Spanish. Pastor, as I've taken to calling him, is passionate about creating unity among the 50.4% Romanian, 46.7% Hungarian, and 2.4% Gypsy population that comprises the 150,000 or so folks that live in Targu Mures.
Unity is the prevailing vision and our charge is to stimulate that in four ways:
Help to grow the congregation of “The House of Restoration” church
Street, park, hospital, and university evangelism
Village ministry
Media ministry (write and help produce “The Overcomer Word” newspaper)
We have had a taste of the first three and it will be based on these samples that I present to you the…
Five Sense Show Down for Romania:
1) Sight – The architecture of the actual city is darling and thoroughly European. The people look a little like us (er, rather we look like them?) so we all notice we don't stick out quite as much here. The surrounding valley has great beauty potential but some of its promise is hidden under a very frozen blanket. I do take great delight in the church steeples that sprinkle the landscape; they are everywhere.
2) Sound – A block down we have one such church steeple and as I write the bells are chiming. Love that!
3) Smell – Burning wood. We have two wood burning stoves in our cozy home to keep us warm. Normally, I don't like smelling like a campfire but in the interest of feeling my fingers and toes I've decided to make an exception.
4) Taste – CHEESE! They sell cheese here! They SERVE cheese here! Agggh, Europe is so grand!
5) Touch – Everything, I mean everything is cold. So, COLD. But we got to go play with some gypsy kids a few willages down the other day and, somehow, I just didn't mind icicle hands grabbing mine and dragging me to the sledding hill.
