Last Week

April has just flown by. Debbie- a friend from our church was here last week. She had a chance to visit and work with most of our ministries. While she was here she was able to do a short devotional with the elderly at church as well as a lead a really great talk on the 10 steps of prayer with the Veritas staff. It was really neat because we were able to see that prayers can be written, spoken aloud, silent, or sung. You can sit still and pray or you can walk and pray. Debbie also had a chance to cook vegetable sarmale and bean soup with Mama which was a lot of fun.

I am glad the time she was here went well because the day she arrived started a little rough. I went with Nolan to pick her up at the airport. Nolan and I really enjoyed some good mommy-Nolan time. We had an uneventful trip from the airport to the train station and even enjoyed a little McDonalds while waiting for the train. When we got out to the train I realized I couldn't find my wallet. I went and looked around at McDonalds where a guy come up and told me he thinks a couple guys had stolen it. I called Maurice and told him to call our bank and cancel our credit card. By the time he called, which couldn't have been more than 45 minutes from when it was stolen, they had already tried to use it 3 times. Unfortunately in my wallet was my VISA permit for Romania, my driver's license, and some money. I really thank God though for taking care of us. Our train tickets were in my pocket and so we still had those and Debbie had money to help us get home. Our church ATM card which allows us access to all our funds for Romania was back in Sighisoara. God gave me a sense of peace about all of it- they were just material things and he was taking care of us. We had a nice trip on the train but almost had a longer than planned trip. When we got to Sighisoara we were waiting by the door of the train but when we stopped the door wouldn't open. We had to rush to the other end of the train. There was a conductor there but the train was starting to move away from the platform. She was trying to wave the engine down to stop, Maurice was calling to tell me that my train was pulling away and where was I, and Nolan was starting to panic that we were stuck on the train. The train finally stopped at the end of the platform and were were able to get off. Nothing like a little excitment to end the day.

Construction Update

I just wanted to give everyone a construction update. For the past two months I have changed my focus from working on the Tsigmandru church to working here in Sighisoara. This basically began when the teen group came from Pearce. When they were here we started working on the apartment that the Church of the Nazarene owns here in the Baragon area of Sighisoara. No one lives there, but there are various clubs and prayer meetings that meet there five days a week. When the teens were here they scraped a type of calcium coating of the walls in three rooms and the hallway. These walls were then coated with a light coat of plaster. I have been sanding, painting, and laying carpet in theses rooms. Just this week I started to tear apart one of the bathrooms. I am currently pulling tile off the walls, scraping the calcium off, and beginning to change out the bath tub. It is hard, difficult, and time consuming work, but also very rewarding in the end. I am including some before and after photos of the other rooms and will soon do the same for the bathroom. Maurice

Thunder Snow?

Easter sunday was a beautiful warm day and the following day was even more beautiful. The spring flowers were already popping their heads up. It was about 70 degrees that afternoon. That Monday night Mel and I were at Monday night dinner when there was a huge crack of lightning. When I left for home it was just starting to snow and by the time I got up the street the snowflakes were even bigger. I took the boys outside to show them and the snowflakes were about the size of silver dollars.- Karen

Easter Sunday (Number 1)

I say Easter Sunday number 1 because here in Romania the majority of people here have not celebrated Easter yet. Orthodox Easter is April 27th which is when our Church here will celebrate Easter. Hungarians and Germans celebrated Easter on March 23rd. Let me tell you a little bit about how we spent March 23rd. At 7 am I climbed the stairs to the German Church on the hill for the sunrise service. This church is over 700 years old and has a crypt underneath of it. The service was all in German but it didn't matter- it was still beautiful. At first we all stood in a circle around the inside of the church while music was sung and the pipe organ was played. Then we slowly filed down into this small little crpyt where there were candles on the floor. It was so peaceful and really helped to picture what Christ's tomb might have been like. After a small service we each took a candle and walked back up into the church. We stood in a circle again and sang joyful music to celebrate the resurrection. Afterwards everyone was invited to the Lutheran priest's home for Easter breakfast. Breakfast was simple but beautiful. In America everything is pastel colors for Easter but here it is bright colors. At each place at the table was a bright red egg and the whole table was decorated in bright yellow, red, and orange. The red dyed egg is to symbolize the blood of Christ. It was really a blessing to be included in the German celebration of Easter.

Nolan and Liam knew that it was Easter in America and so expected that the Easter Bunny would come and leave some Easter eggs outside in the yard. I found a couple of eggs at the store and hid them in the backyard. The boys really had fun looking for them and were perfectly content to only get two eggs each.

After church we went out to Saes with Emil, Liana, Lian, and Andre for a gratar (grilling). I have really come to appreciate Romanian "gratar"s because they are so much simpler than grilling out in America. When we got to Saes we worked out in garden cleaning up dead branches and raking up all the dead stuff from the previous year. This all gets put in a big pile and burned. Once it is burned down enough the grate is put over the coals and the meat is cooked. Along with the sausage and cremwurst we ate some radishes and apples. The boys had a lot of fun. Nolan helped Emil and his cousin haul wood for over an hour. Emil calls Nolan "harnic" or hardworking. I can't say Liam is the same. He would rather just play.- Karen