It's about time that I update the second portion of the series that I promised to have completed before we launch in July. Before we leave our great country, I'd like to do at least a small amount of research on each country we will be visiting, to see what we can expect out of the landscape, culture, and faith of each nation, where we will be serving the Lord. Go back just a few blogs to see my article on Ireland, and now…
Next up: Romania
Boring garbage:
Romania, as it currently stands, is a relatively new nation, when it comes to the countries of Europe. The official United Principalities of Romania didn't emerge until 1859, when the territories of Moldavia and Wallachia were brought together under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza. However, Romania didn't officially gain its independence from the Ottoman Empire until 1877.
In the mid-20th Century, Romania suffered under the reign of General Antonescu, who turned the country into a military dictatorship, after choosing to fight with the Axis Powers during World War II (Woops! Bad choice.) After Antonescu was removed from power in 1944, Romania switched sides, and joined forces with the Allies. However, as WWII came to a close, many northeastern Romanian territories were still occupied by the Red Army, and the nation was forcibly turned into a People's Republic (also not good) under rule of the Soviet Union.
In 1965, Nicolae Ceausescu came to power, and Romania was in for a world of hurt under his reign. To keep a long story short, Romania's foreign debt had a sharp increase in the late 1970's, creating a great amount of outside influence from organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The influence of these organizations conflicted with Ceausescu's autocratic policies (aka, ego trip), so he set out on a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt. Unfortunately for the Romanian people, this meant imposing policies that impoverished millions of Romanian people, and exhausted the country's economy.
Although this did almost completely pay off Romania's foreign debt by the late 1980's, it greatly decreased Ceausescu's popularity, and eventually led to his overthrow and execution in the Romanian Revolution of 1989. At this point, it's estimated that anywhere between 2-5 million Romanians died under the reign of Ceausescu, either due to malnutrition, poor treatment in communist prisons, or simply due to the dire economic circumstances that most people found themselves in during his reign.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Romania began it's journey towards democracy, and today, Romania is officially a "united semi-presidential republic", and is a member of the European Union, as well as NATO, and the United Nations.
What we plan on doing in Romania:
Like most countries, this is left largely up for debate at this point, as we won't truly know exactly what we will be doing in any country until we get there. But from everything that I've read, we will be traveling to the northern part of the country, and living and working with the gypsy community, while showing them the love of Christ.
Many of these people prefer to go by the term, "Romani", as the word "gypsy" has negative connotations in some cultures. The Romani people migrated to Europe from India in the 14th and 15th Centuries, though some people believe that the Romani were exiled to Europe from Egypt after harboring Jesus and his family as an infant.
From what I've learned from previous Racers, this is usually a month of manual labor, and living in community with a people group that is still developing its relationship with Christ. This should be a time when we will be hard at work during the day, and trying to show these people what it's like to live our lives for Christ on a daily basis.
Why I'm excited:
Romania usually doesn't stir up ideas of beauty and grandeur, but from what I've heard from my Dad, who has traveled a lot of Europe, as well as other Racers; northern Romania is one of the most beautiful parts of Europe, and should be replete with amazing photographic opportunities… I've been having issues with uploading jpeg photos to this website, but hopefully in a few days, I can include some photographs that I've found online.
Also, one of my major interests in the mission field is manual labor. Ever since my spring break trips to a church camp in Missouri, I've loved getting my hands dirty and really having a tangible way of showing people my love for them, and my desire to serve Christ. It's also a good opportunity to work alongside the people of this community, and have God-honoring conversations with them, while accomplishing a common goal.
Fun Facts:
Capital city of Bucharest is the 10th largest city in the European Union.
Some human remains found in Romania are believed to belong to some of Europe's first homo sapiens.
Romania is divided into 41 counties and the municipality of Bucharest. Basically, it's like the USA, where each "county" has their own government councils, while the Bucharest stands as its own separate entity, much like Washington D.C.
Several different castles throughout the Transylvanian area of Romania claim to be the "original Dracula's castle", though it's hard to pinpoint where Bran Stoker truly drew his inspiration.
Romanian inventor Traian Vuia created the first airplane to take off on its own power.
86% of Romania's population is identified as Orthodox Christian.
Our squad will be in Romania for one of their major holidays, "The Dormition of the Theotokos", which commemorates the death of Mary, moth of Jesus (Theotokos literally translates to "God-bearer").
The Romanian national anthem, "Awaken thee, Romanian", is long and… terrifying. But the final verse says, "Priests, lead with your crucifixes, for our army is Christian, The motto is Liberty and its goal is holy, Better to die in battle, in full glory, Than to once again be slaves upon our ancient ground!"
One of my all time favorite basketball players, 7 ft. 7 in. Gheorghe Muresan is from Cluj County in Romania.
