The only way to get to this resort was to park near the bottom and and take a 40-minute-long chair lift to the top. There we found hotels, restaurants, cabins, etc. There is one road that goes there, but it is only open in the summer (it is blocked with 3-4 feet of snow now). The weather was good except for a stiff wind at the very top ridge. We were all very tired by the end of the afternoon, but we had great fun. And the muscles aren't too sore today despite a few rough falls :-)  Scott

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January 23, 2008 - Wednesday - Today I (Paula) spent the entire afternoon in language clubs…teaching kids how to speak English. Last week, we began our clubs again including my English clubs on Wednesdays. I have three groups that meet for an hour each…about 5 children in each group. I like having the smaller groups because I can interact with the children more closely. Someone recently donated some hand puppets to our puppet club for which we are very thankful. We are also hopeful that a church can help us raise money to purchase hand chimes. Lydia helps me with the English club, and she has begun to help someone else (Lucian) with the music/recorder club which meets on Mondays. We are still very thankful for the opportunity to interact with the children of the community. Please pray that good relationships will develop from these clubs.

I’m also working diligently on emailing with several people who are interested in coming to Arad and serving with Oaza. We also have several teams who are making plans to come this summer. I LOVE this part of my “job”…I am such a people person…the more people, the bigger the party! :-) Realistically, pray that God will bring the right people at the right time.

Next week, Scott and I will be speaking at the New Missionary Orientation in Budapest about culture shock…and other related things. Please pray for us as we prepare.

A note of praise…! Two weeks ago we once again began the annual process of applying for our residence Visas so we may stay here in Romania. Both times previously, it has been a frustrating and exhausting process. Well, so far this year…things could not have gone any smoother. We visited the Volunteer Office and received our letter without any problems; then we received the letter from the Mayor’s office without any problems; and now we ALSO received our letter from Bucuresti in a record 5 days! WOW! We are amazed and so thankful! Now…on to the police station to do whatever they ask of us…and then we’ll be set for another year! However, don’t stop praying about this process…because at any moment, we know that ANYTHING can happen…because “where do we live...?”...this is what the Romanians would say to us. :-) We love where we live!

Thankful for you…thankful that we are here! Pace (peace)… Paula

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January 21, 2008 - Monday - Another record was established yesterday along our Road in Romania...the number of sermons preached in ONE Sunday worship service. The previous record was three; care to guess how many I (Scott) experienced yesterday?

I was attending the ordination service for one of the young men, Vlad, who attends my leadership group. He currently pastors two small, rural Baptist churches. However, his ordination service took place at a larger Baptist church in the city of Timisoara where his mentor is senior pastor. I was attending simply to be an encouragement to Vlad. But in true Romanian fashion (I'm no longer surprised by this) I was asked, immediately upon my arrival at the church (10 minutes prior to the service beginning) to bring a short message. They then hustled me into the pastor's office where there were 8 others pastors (two were ordination candidates). We were handed an outline of the service and then we lined up to enter the sanctuary in procession. We were all seated on the platform, and the service began.

Note, the little that had been explained to me at this point had all been spoken in Romanian. I understand maybe 80% of what is said to me now, but that missing 20% can sometimes be very important! The other pastors obviously thought I spoke fluent Romanian because I greeted and responded to them in their language. But I don't yet preach in Romanian! So here I sit, with 200-300 Romanian believers looking at me and 8 other pastors around me, and I still have no idea when I am to speak or if any of these other pastors understand enough English to translate for me. "Well, God, you put me here, so here's one more opportunity to trust you!"

Then about an hour into what would become a 3-hour worship service, the pastor sitting next to me leans over and in perfect American English asks, "Where are you from in America? I live in Los Angeles." YES! So I asked him if he knew when I would be speaking. In true Romanian fashion, he didn't. But he said, "Don't worry about it, I'll be translating for you." A few minutes later the lead pastor called me to speak; I shared the thoughts God had been giving me since my shower that morning, and I received many strong "Amens" from both the pastors around me and the congregation in front of me. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Heb. 4:16). Yeah God!

So, how many sermons did you guess? Including my five-minute message, there were SEVEN sermons or sermonettes plus testimonies from the two ordination candidates. How many sermons did your church have yesterday? How many would you have stayed for? :-)

Do pray for Vlad (and his wife Alina) as well as the others who come to my monthly leadership group. This past Saturday we did spiritual gift and relational style (DISC) inventories. It turned out to be a wonderful time of affirmation for everyone in a culture that typically only points out one's faults and weaknesses (their own self-admission, not my words). Little by little, step by step, God is working.  Scott

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January 19, 2008 - Saturday - We forgot to post anything about Stephen's birthday this week. Our oldest turned 16 on Wednesday! He's not legally allowed to drive here until he is 18, but we are teaching him the basic driving skills in a nearby parking lot (he got his Ohio learner's permit this past summer when we were in the States). We hope to log enough practice hours so that he can get his license the next time we return to the US. Even so, he is NOT driving in Romania...the traffic is just too crazy here for a young driver. :-)

Stephen's current interests include programming computer games, learning the Linux operating system, watching the stars (through his new telescope) and playing guitar. He recently wrote and recorded some original music on his guitars. Click here to hear the mp3 file. This recording actually includes 3 different guitars; Stephen played all three himself (separately), recorded them on his computer, and then mixed them on his computer to make the song. He he taught himself to do all of this! Gotta love his creativity; we do!  Scott

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January 12, 2008 - Saturday - As some of you might remember, today, January 12th, is our 2nd anniversary for living here in Romania! On January 10th, two years ago, we flew from Detroit and landed the afternoon of the 11th in Budapest, Hungary (boy was that a long day). Then on the 12th we drove to Arad and began our life here.

From two years ago things are quite different; we live in a house, we can “get-around” in Romanian, we have a car, I (Lydia) can, normally, complete a full day's worth of school, and many other things. For example, when we moved into our house (March, 2006) the furniture was set up in one arrangement and we did not change it from that because we did not think any other arrangement would work. This past Wednesday we finally moved our furniture around! It makes the house feel so much more like ours'. As we were moving our furniture around Mom and I kept asking each other how we would ever be able to completely pack up and head back to the States in a few years. It seems to be that in the past two years of living here in Romania we have been able to make it our home, and even though it was extremely hard the leave Ohio, and even though it is still tough to live far away from family and friends, it will be hard to leave Romania when that time comes (home assignment is currently planned for sometime in 2010).

Happy 2nd Anniversary! Lydia (Click here to read our journal entries from 2 years ago)

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January 10, 2008 - Thursday - It's been quite a while since our last post. Where shall we begin? Perhaps I'll just write in reverse order...

Return to work and school: Many businesses (and all schools, of course) remained closed for the holidays through Sunday, January 6, so the whole city was very quiet for those two weeks. We found it rather pleasant, actually. We took some family and vacation time during these days as well. Nice! However, we're all back to "normal" life this week.

New Year's Eve: Some teens and adults from our church put together a small party for the evening--music, dancing, food... Then around 11:30 we all piled into cars for the short trip downtown to watch the midnight fireworks from the front lawn of city hall. Wow, it was quite a show! After the fireworks many returned to the party for more music and dancing...til 3:00am!

Slovakia trip: On December 29 we made the 5-hour drive to Bratislava, Slovakia, to enjoy a holiday lunch and fellowship with our colleagues and leaders from the Carpathian Basin Region (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania). Since we had never been to Slovakia, we arrived early to try to take in some sights in the historic section of the city. It was foggy, COLD and WINDY (did I mention it was COLD?), but we still had a good time seeing the castle area of the city. And of course, we couldn't miss the opportunity to continue our search for Europe's best hot chocolate. Bratislava, so far is a close 2nd or 3rd to our favorites in Budapest.

One highlight of this trip is where we spent the night...on the Danube river in a river boat hotel. The boat is semi-permanently docked on the river, but it was the closest we've ever been to a cruise. And, since it we got a great off-season rate.

Sunday morning we attended church with our colleagues, Lynette and Josef Sykora. Lynette works with all of our European missionaries, providing counsel and emotional support for us. Josef, a native of the Czech Republic, serves as the associate pastor of the Cirkev Bratska church (associated with the Evangelical Free Church denomination) in downtown Bratislava. After church and lunch with the Sykoras, we headed back to Romania. And since Bratislava is only a 10-minute drive from the Austrian border, we decided to adventure through a corner of Austria on our way back (Paula and the kids had never been in Austria).

Christmas: We had a good Christmas celebration this year. Paula made a yummy lunch much like our traditional family meal in the USA with baked ham and sweet potatoes (yes, we can find them here occasionally now, raw, not canned). Thanks to some special elves we enjoyed opening several gift boxes with unique goodies for each of us. The gift with perhaps the most fun this year came to Stephen. Mos Craciun (Santa in Romanian) somehow found a Nintendo Wii and put it under the tree. We've all had lots of fun bowling, golfing, boxing (Paula is especially wicked on this), and playing tennis and boxing. I (Scott) also enjoyed receiving a very soft lamb skin. One can use these skins for many things, but I've decided to drape it over the back of my office chair for some comfy-cuddly while I type these web updates :-).

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