June in Romania

Romania June 2009

We left for Romania on 12th June and spent the night at Mike and Nora’s as we always do. This particular visit there was a charity evening raising funds for MAF, who Mike and Nora work for. The entertainment was a group of 5 Christian guys’ and the wife of one of them calling themselves ‘The Tuesday Stompers’. They have not been together long but were really entertaining we had a very enjoyable evening.
It was an early start on Saturday morning to get the 8o’clock boat.
This was a really hard trip for David and me as I had not completely recovered from yet another chest infection. Fortunately we had not planned any screening for the first week because we had expected Cyril to be there with us but he is very unwell and was not able to come. This did give us time to rest and as the weather so, so hot we were thankful not to have to do anything.
We did go to Arad on Monday morning to look in on Holiday Bible Club as you will have heard it went really well with lots of children having lots of fun.
By the end of that first week we felt we had to do something. There is only so much sitting around you can do so we went to the old peoples home on spec and were welcomed with open arms to do another screening session for them. The old folk are such a joy to be with and there carers are brilliant too.
That evening we were invited to a BBQ at Adrianna’s home it was lovely sitting in her garden as the evening started to cool just a little.
Saturday morning we were invited for coffee with Anne Arthur, she works for the World Bank and has been a friend for many years although we are rarely in Arad at the same time, so we were pleased to meet up with her again.
We had not been in bed long Saturday night when the storm broke and the electric went off. David was going to see if he could get the generator working but I said not to bother because I was sure it would be back on after about half an hour…wrong, so David, in the pouring rain, went out and got it started. I was no sooner fixed up and the electric came back on. Just as David was on his way out to switch the generator off the electric went off again, the electric finally came back on around 5am having been off since 1:45am. Oh what fun it is in Romania.
Sunday afternoon we were invited to another BBQ, after the rain it was very much cooler but it did not stay that way. Although we did not see any more sunshine until the end of our visit it still got very hot again. I never thought I would wake up and thank God that the sun was not shining it was that hot. As I write this and it is the beginning of August they are still having temperatures up to 100F, phew.
On Monday we went to a new venue, this time it was a Day Centre, we spent the whole day there, David screening 48 people, we were tired when we got back but the rain that was falling was very refreshing.
Tuesday was a day for visiting we went to Pastor Ovi’s for a meal, then an evening out with our friends Kenneth & Kate who run the Street Kids Centre.
Wednesday we were at the airport to pick up Mike & Sarah from New Life Church,
who came out to help us with the screening, and Michelle from Humanity at Heart
who works with the charity in Petrosani. They arrived late due to a bird hitting the
wing of their aircraft on take off, they said ‘it was very interesting’. The plane had
to make an emergency stop and they were held up whist the plane was inspected
for damage.
After all that we had the longest journey to Petrosani, during which we saw some
of the heaviest rain you ever saw and the thunder and lightening was going on all around us. The memory of the storm clouds will remain with us for ever I think.
On Thursday we were at Aninoasa, well that was the plan, but when we went to Joshua to check all was ok we found there had been a mix up over the dates and they were not expecting us until Friday but Romania being
Romania they pulled all the stops out and we did do a whole day in Aninoasa
after all. This is a photograph of the new Church we are working in.
We were busy working when another storm hit with so much rain again, it ran
down the road like a river and reminded David and I of our visit to Chris &
Elaine Hurst in Mexico a few years ago, when the same thing happened.
Because of the mix up we did nothing at Joshua Centre so left around 10am
for Siria. We had hopped to take Mike and Sarah up the mountains in Petrosani
but it was so misty we called that off.
Saturday was another busy day screening in Cuvin. This little Church is doing a wonderful job seeing folk without us being there. It is such a joy to go there. Another joy of going there is they always insist that we have a meal with them and it is so good, the family are really hard workers in the Church although the father is in Spain working for the summer because the financial situation in Romania is really bad at the moment. Saturday evening we were at Ovi’s again. Wonderful. After getting back to Siria it was still very warm so we sat outside singing with Sarah playing an old guitar.
The plans we had for Sunday did not work out so we had a quiet day with yet another storm and more rain.
Monday was an exciting day……we were going to a village called Varias where the grandmother of the family I spoke of earlier in Cuvin, lives. The girls came in the car with us as they were going to translate for us. David had looked at the map and decided the route checked with the girls they said yes ok. Well we went down some very rough roads ending up on a dirt track when one of the girls in the back asked where we were going. It turned out they did not know the way to their grandmother’s village because they always went by train…..We eventually found Varias with the help of a young mum who put us on the right road. We did 75k and drove for 3 hours before we arrived there. We knew it was a village Church that meant an outside toilet and we have seen a few of those, so I was a little unsure about this. It was outside but really well kept so no problem, it even had a sink, soap and a nice clean towel outside. Once again we were fed, we were taken to a block of flats my heart sank thinking how many steps am I going to have to climb? Imagine my surprise when we were taken for the very first time to a ground floor flat. I spent the rest of the day praising God for His wonderful provision. After the meal we went back to do more screening leaving there around 5 o’clock. It took us about an hour to get back, now we know which way top go with the optoms in Sept.
Tuesday we were at Kenneth & Kates then it was back to Siria for our own BBQ before having an early night. It was to be a very early morning to get Mike & Sarah to the airport for 5am we said our good byes and were back just before 7 going straight back to bed for some lost sleep, it is always a strange day after doing that run. We have decided that we will get a taxi for the optoms when it is their turn to go back especially as the first 3 go back for the early morning flight and the next two arrive at 1 o’clock the same day.
Thursday saw us getting the house cleaned up and start on the packing, we went to get the car washed, it is still so very hot, we had yet another storm but at least the bad dirt was off the car. That evening the car was half packed before we went into Arad with Kenneth & Kate & their family, also our Mark to celebrate Kenneth & Kate’s Silver Wedding Anniversary, it was as lovely evening and very hot again. On the way back home the lightening was flashing all around us, thankfully the electric did not go off.
It was an early start Friday morning, I cleared up after breakfast David finished packing the car and we were on the road just after 8 o’clock.
The journey back started well and we made good time but then the rain came and the traffic got heavy so we called it a day and stopped at the hotel we stayed at on the way back last time, even to having the same room. It was good to stop earlier than we usually do because we were not so tired. We enjoyed a good meal and had an early night.
We both slept really well and were refreshed when we went for breakfast at 7:30, we were back on the road by 8:15 and made the 4pm boat and were back home by 7:30pm. It was so good to get back to some cooler weather although we understand it had been really hot while we were away.
Again we thank you for your prayer support it really does sustain us and keeps us really close to Father God because we are totally reliant on Him whist in Romania. We leave on the 9th September for the last trip this year. It is going to be a really busy one with 5 optometrists over 2 weeks and Mark and Jules will also be there towards the end of this trip to help David pack the house up for the winter. We really do need your prayer support this trip please, we have a lot of hard decisions to make and we really want to hear what God is saying to us.
God Bless you all. David & Beryl.