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Online Journal - March 2006 Archive
March 29, 2006 - (Wednesday) - Today I traveled with some guys from our men's fellowship group out to some of the surrounding villages. It was a spontaneous event, so I didn't have my camera (what else is new?), but one of the other guys took some great pics. Click here to see the gallery. Scott
March 30, 2006 –
(Thursday)
– The weather has
been great here which has helped not
only
our spirits but the spirits of the community too. On Monday, it
was 68 degrees F and it seemed that people were coming out of
the woodwork. On Tuesday, our family spent the afternoon working
in our backyard. We have permission from our landlords to cut
down some dead trees and prune up the ones that remain. We have
only a small hack saw and some hand pruners, but Scott and
Stephen certainly know how to make a mess!
☺
We also proved to be great entertainment for our neighbors.
Getting outdoors is good for all of us.
Last Wednesday evening, we had the privilege of attending a church located in a gypsie community of town. We really enjoyed worshipping with them. Their pastor, Jackie, came to Romania 8 or 9 years ago from a career as an aerospace engineer, and she now leads or oversees three churches ministering to the Roma (proper ethnic term for "gypsies") community here in Romania.
Last
Saturday, we helped
Oaza
(orphanages connected to our church) open
a new house. Several of the teen girls have moved to this house
which is right next door and on the same property with one of
the other houses. The house was built by UK mission teams over
the last year or so. Scott was asked, along with Pastor Nelu, to
pray over the home and then
Scott anointed the home as a symbol of the presence of the Holy
Spirit. There is still some clean-up work to be done in the
yard, so Stephen practiced tearing down a cement wall with a
sledge-hammer. He said it was a great workout!
Stephen and Lydia are trying to join the church youth group. Breaking into a group of teens is difficult even in the States but add to that a language and cultural barrier…they are going to keep trying. Lydia also wants to help with the Friday childrens’ clubs that another lady from the church leads.
Stephen and Lydia are both finding their internet school a challenge. It takes up a good part of their day and they really miss interacting with other kids their age. Neither one feels ready though to join a local school…talk about difficult!
We’ve reached a point in language study where we feel frustrated with ourselves. Please pray that our brains will get through the wall and we will feel some progress in our daily interactions with community people.
Scott spoke Sunday
on the importance of encouraging one another (1
Thess. 5:4-11). In our short time here we have sensed a need
for this practice in the Romanian culture and since Sunday
several others have affirmed that encouragement and building
each other up is a growth area for many Romanians, Christian and
non-Christian alike. Pray with us that a spirit of
encouragement can be seeded and brought to life in our church
community and then beyond.
I want to tell you that your thoughts, prayers, emails, and notes are such an encouragement to us! I met the postman at the gate last week to receive an envelope and I think I encouraged him by smiling and thanking him but when we opened the package and read the notes (from some Sunday School children in Ohio), we were then encouraged. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, emails and notes…we couldn’t make it without you and the grace and strength of our Lord. Paula
March 16, 2006
(Thursday) - It has been unusually
cold
here (so they tell us) for March
(snow showers the last three
days), but today we saw a few signs of Spring
impending upon us.
I took these in our backyard. We also saw some tulips, daffodils
and iris beginning to spout in some of our neighbors' yards. Let
it come!
And while I was out taking pictures, I thought I'd capture a couple of panoramas of our street to give you a feel for our neighborhood. Ours' is the orange house in the middle of the second picture. Scott
March 13, 2006 (Monday) -
Guess what arrived today? Boxes of books!
We
shipped our books via M-Bags with the United States Postal
Service on November 30, 2005. We were told to expect 8-10 weeks
for arrival—today makes 3 ˝ months. Oh, and two boxes are still
MIA (Missing in Action). Not to fret, though…other missionaries
here have received such shipments 4-6 months later. And one
missionary couple we know is still waiting to receive Christmas
presents for the orphan home they oversee; the presents were
mailed from the USA in Sept., 2005. Gotta love the
postal system! Scott
March 12, 2006 (Sunday) – I cannot believe it has been a little over two weeks since our last journal entry. In fact, today is our 2nd month anniversary for living in Arad, Romania. There has been a lot of activity going on over here and yet in some ways we feel no further along. At the end of February, we moved into our house. It was strange how much the apartment had become our place of comfort in the few weeks we had been here. The two new upstairs bedrooms of our new home were not quite finished yet when we moved in, but we had to leave the next day for Budapest anyway. So on Wednesday morning (March 1), after one night in our new “pad”, we left for our European FM office in Budapest, Hungary for Missionary Orientation.
The
train ride to Budapest was a great opportunity for us to
practice our language learning since a nice Romanian gentleman
rode with us in our compartment. We learned a few new words from
him as we searched our dictionary and struggled to communicate.
We spent 3 days with our European Area Director,
Jerry
Coleman, and several other new/newer missionaries from
Europe:
Marvin and Lisa Klein (France),
Josh
and Suzy Farjardo (Spain),
Ron
and Joann Pieper (Ukraine), Lynette Sykora (Slovakia) and
the Budapest team (Marcie
Huson, Jan Coleman,
Julia
Toth, and Paulo Bettiol). It was good to be with others who have
been or are experiencing the same
types of transitions we are. Stephen and Lydia enjoyed swimming
in a
Hungarian bath
house…hot baths outside in the middle of winter! Scott had
the fun
of watching a hockey game with David Coleman (Jerry’s son)
playing starting center. Me? Well, I have a very funny story
about getting locked-in a hallway in an apartment building.
J
I also found a great coffee house that serves white hot
chocolate so thick it is like pudding! On Saturday, we returned
to Arad, and, to our pleasant surprise, it felt like coming
home.
Monday (March 6) we spent our day running around town trying to get as much done as we could with the car since the 30-day tags expired on our car on Tuesday. We found out just the week before that we cannot register our car until we have our Romanian Visas (we were told earlier that we could register it without our Visas).
At about midnight
Monday night, we began smelling smoke in our home.
After a thorough search we were surprised to look outside and
find our trash burning out on the street. Earlier
that day the landlord had cleaned up all of the construction
debris—wood, plaster, paint/paint supplies, etc.) and placed it
on the curbside for pick-up. Those two trash cans plus our bags
of
trash created quite a sizable blaze…oh for marshmallows,
chocolate and graham crackers! We awakened the kids and, not
having a garden hose, formed a fire-bucket-brigade from the
kitchen sink to the trash pile using every pot, pan, and pitcher
as water buckets. It was a little unnerving but we laughed
throughout
the experience. We are thankful for God’s protection! The night
before our car had been parked where the trash burned. The
melted trash can and pile of ashes has been the talk and sight
of the neighborhood, and we still do not have new trashcans from
the trash drivers.
Wednesday (March 8) was the traditional Romanian Mother’s Day. Originally instituted by the Communist, Romanian men and children now honor mothers (and women in general) with flowers and specially-made ribbons. The sidewalks of the city were packed with tents and tables filled with sale items for mothers, and walking was nearly impossible for all the shoulder-to-shoulder shoppers. Restaurants are also packed on this evening. One interesting note: Romanians do not have a Father’s Day on their calendar. Hmmm.
The last several days have been spent trying to set-up office
space in our new home, place our few belongings amongst the
landlord’s furniture, get internet service running properly, and
ordering beds and wardrobes for the kids bedrooms. Our hot water
boiler system isn’t working properly so we get hot water for
showers in 30-second intervals.
:-)
We also learned that Pepsi in Europe seems to have more “fiz” than in the USA. This discovery came when a 2.5 liter Pepsi bottle exploded all over me and the kitchen. We had Pepsi dripping from our 12 foot ceilings (as well as from everything else in the kitchen). Scott so thankful to have his first experience at mopping a ceiling! J
This evening as a family we prayed and anointed the
door posts of our home (using genuine Spanish olive oil given to
us by the
Fajardos—missionaries to Spain), marking it as God’s
provision and possession, a place where only His Sprit may
dwell, and inviting the Holy Spirit to
do
His will in our lives and all those who enter. The kids had the
idea of anointing the backdoor as well knowing that “sometimes
the enemy tries to get in through the backdoors of our lives.”
Lydia anointed and Stephen prayed here. We plan to have a
blessing event sometime in the next month and invite the church
to join us. Since planning this, we have been told that
“christening” a new home or car is actually a Romanian
tradition. Paula