Online Journal - April 2006 Archive

 

April 16, 2006 – Sunday – Happy Easter! (except in Orthodox countries such as Romania where we celebrated Palm Sunday--Duminica Floriilor, say do-MEEN-nee-kah FLOOR-ee-lor). Our Easter (Paşte, say PASH-tay) will be NEXT Sunday. Scott wrote about our trip last weekend to the center of Romania. It was great to stand on top of the snow covered mountains and look out over this beautiful country. It was a wonderful trip but we were also glad to get back to Arad again.

There has been a ministry/work team here this past week working with Oaza from a church in the UK. We spent an evening with them and some of the children. It was great to see the children have so much enjoyment. Yesterday they went on a trip to a cave about three hours from Arad. Apparently, the children loved the scenery on the way to the cave and thought they had traveled to Germany. They just don’t know the beauty of their own country!

 

We have some beautiful trees in our backyard that are in full bloom. They smell wonderful too! The white blossoms we believe are cherry blossoms. The red flowers are on a large bush. Can anyone help identify them? Let us know…
 

It was strange for us to not celebrate Easter today. (We did call our home church, LifeNet, and wish them a Happy Easter! It was a blessing to speak with them and we were able to pray with some of the people over the phone.) Scott did preach today about laying our lives at Jesus feet in a similar way to the palm branches being laid before Jesus upon His entry into Jerusalem. He invited us to make Jesus King over every part of our lives. Several people responded with upraised hands during prayer. I also found that I really understood several phrases of the songs we sang for worship. One song is very catchy and says (translated to English) This is, this is, this is the day of the Lord… It will be so good when we can sing the songs without having to focus so much on how to say the words. :-)

We still have no visas and no word as to when they will come. We continue to ask the Lord to help us not fret and to learn from this experience of waiting. (Please continue to pray about this matter.) Our legs and hearts are getting good exercise from walking everywhere. That’s a plus! :-) It has been very rainy the last couple of weeks so that makes walking less enjoyable. We are very happy when we see the sun shining!

If you didn’t hear, the sale contract on our house fell through. We were disappointed but at the same time we feel no worry. God’s plans are perfect. He has this matter completely under control.
We were delighted to hear from Cristi (Christian) this week from the States. Cristi is from Emmanuel Church (our church here) and is visiting the States to record a Christian CD in Romanian. We look forward to his return and to hearing the CD.

We look forward to Easter weekend so we may learn more Romanian traditions. At the store yesterday, they were selling huge legs of lamb. Scott loves lamb but the rest of us…well…we’ll see.

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Victory and hope! Paula

 

April 11, 2006 - Tuesday - We took a trip this weekend with some of our new friends here. We traveled to central Romania to see the ancient Saxon-built cities of Sibiu, Brasov, and Sinaia. The history and beauty were incredible! There's not enough room here to share it all but you can click on the city names above to see their local websites. We also toured two castles, Bran Castle (often called Dracula's Castle) and Peleş Castle. Click on these links to see more. And if you'd like to see some of our pictures, click here for a gallery. The mountains are part of the Carpathian chain that runs through Romania. We took ski lifts to the top of one area...2000 meters up. It was quite awesome! God's country, right here in Romania. Scott

 

April 4, 2006 – Tuesday – Today we spent our morning in language study. We are sure we are making progress but sometimes it just feels like we are not. I asked our tutor, Alina, if a brain transplant was possible for me. :-) Many people are patient with us as we attempt to use our Romanian. But then sometimes we run into…well…some not so understanding people…like when we paid our phone bill this morning. The rolling eyes and not-so-muffled laughter after we left the counter were not encouraging.

Last Friday, I helped with one of the children’s Bible studies led by one of the ladies in the church. I enjoyed the interaction with the kids. They are so patient with me and my bad Romanian speaking.

On Saturday, we had lunch with Laura, director of Oaza, and her daughter Claudia. It was such a beautiful day we went to the park along the river for a walk. It felt so good to have the sunshine on our faces! Spring was everywhere…children playing, vendors selling treats, restaurant owners painting iron fences, and even a large group of men enjoying several rousing games of chess. It was good to give Laura and Claudia some quiet time together as well as being with them ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday afternoon we received a notice that we had a package at the post office! How exciting…it was a complete surprise! After spending a while trying to figure out which post office was holding our package, we arrived home anxious to see the contents. Lydia was out helping with the Bible study for the youngest children in the church so we waited until she returned. It was filled with goodies from home! It gave all of our spirits a lift.

 

 

We’ve had to purchase a lawn mower…well, sort of a lawn mower. The electric mowers are not made well and the gasoline engine mowers are far too expensive. So, we went with the old fashioned hand-reel mower powered by Stephen Dunn! We told him it will be good exercise and great for muscle building…he isn’t buying it! :-)

We are also still waiting on information regarding our Visas. We have been told twice that the “paperwork is being faxed” from Bucharest, but it never shows up. God has helped us not feel too stressed about this thus far, but we must admit that impatience is beginning to build. Please pray with us for the person whose desk holds our Visa paperwork. Pray that she will feel energized and excited about her job and that she will get our Visas going as well as other papers on her desk that are waiting for other people. We’re trying not to be selfish. :-)

Wednesdays and Thursdays are very busy with Scott's men’s group, Christian business person meeting, language study and Bible study. This Friday we are taking a trip for two days to Brasov, traveling with a friend and her family (Click here and here for a couple of Brasov-related websites). We will be staying for the first time in a European hostel and touring some castles. Look for pictures soon. A guy from the church will be house and dog sitting for us. We are really looking forward to seeing some of the Romanian countryside. We really hope for good weather.
Please pray for the young man who is house sitting for us. He is being displaced from his current home and has not been able to find another place to live which he can afford. Please pray he will find the Lord’s provision.

We’ll write and send pictures when we return! Ciao! Paula