Copii ("children" in Romanian)

Today was our last Sunday at proDEO. We got to serve in Children's Ministry for the first and last time. We love the kiddos here! They are sweet and so fun to play with. It's pretty hilarious trying to communicate with kids that don't realize that we don't really speak their language. One of the funniest memories we have is with Luca, the pastor's son. He's about 5 years old. One day we were at the park and ran into him there. This was a while back, so at this point, he really didn't comprehend that we didn't understand all of what he said. He knows we don't speak much Romanian now. At the park, he basically started lecturing us about how we shouldn't drink out of the public water fountain that we had just drunk from. All we could understand was that he said something about how there was bacteria in the water. His lecture doesn't hold much weight, but it was hilarious hearing him go on and on about why we shouldn't drink from the fountain. Oh, and we must tell you that our first introduction to any children was when we met Luca and Vlad (a 2 year old) during our first week here in July. Upon entering the apartment, Luca started crying and saying that he didn't like Americans and didn't want us to be there and he didn't want to talk to us. By the end of the night, we tickled him and we were his friends.

This first picture is of Luca & Serafim.


Next, I must tell you about Ruxi! She's my favorite...I know, I shouldn't have favorites, but she wins!!!! I liked her from the very first time we met, yet it took over 2 months before she warmed up to us. We didn't have a lot of interactions with the kids during that time, so 2 months is understandable, I suppose. She didn't like the fact that we couldn't really communicate, but during the church picnic in September, we had plenty of time to play and do other fun things with her. Since then, whenever I catch her attention she gives me this adorable smile and her big brown eyes are gorgeous! How can you not like this little girl? Oh, and I must mention that she is a rock star diva.



This next one is of Filip. He is obsessed with super heros right now. I think Spiderman is his current favorite. Just ask him and he'll turn into Spiderman in 0.5 seconds. We thought these two photos were hilarious in showing their about to be crying faces :)



How can you not love this little face?!



This is Ana, Filip's sister. The last couple of weeks, we have gone over to play with Ana and Filip and to teach Ana a little English.

Finally, it's us with Luca, Ana, and Filip!

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Christmas Event

In our last few weeks, we have been helping OSCEC plan their annual Christmas event. This event will take place on December 11th at 6:30pm. In the two weeks prior to the event, OSCEC, along with students from another church, will be going into the dorms for the first time this year. They plan on caroling to the students on various floors, handing out a survey, talking to the students, and giving them a small gift. Hopefully we will get to go with them on the first night - this coming Wednesday.

The event itself will consist of games: cardboard tree decorating contest, white elephant gift exchange, carol singing contest, various scenes woven throughout the evening about how we often hide the meaning of Christmas with all the hussle and bussle of the season, and finally a message about "unpacking the meaning of Christmas."

Please pray for them as they go into dorms, for divine appointments with students, for softened hearts, and for people to be drawn to the event and ultimately to the Lord! Pray for the speaker as he prepares the message - that it would be God-centered and that he would clearly explain the gospel of Jesus Christ, for this is the true meaning of Christmas!

"This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15).

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Lasagna with Radu & Andreea

Last night we got the joy of hosting two of our close friends for dinner. Radu and Andreea came over for some lasagna (Paul's favorite, and I would dare to say it's Radu's favorite too!). We love these two crazy kids that got married last month. We met them in 2006 at our first English Camp and despite our lack of Romanian and their lack of English, the Lord blessed this relationship and we really do consider them two of our closest friends here. We love them and if you have met them, I am sure you understand why! They are often kind to and considerate of others. Just the other night, after an OSCEC event, they offered to take us to the grocery store, knowing it would really serve us. There really are countless other ways they seek to serve and bless their friends. Oh, and I must mention that they brought me flowers last night. I don't know what they are called in English, but Radu referred to them as "Pom-Poms." I'm sure you can see why in the photos below.

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We're moving back home

I believe that most of you who would be reading our blog already have heard this, but I wanted to let everyone know that Cris and I will be moving home on December 6th, and will live in Knoxville for the immediate future. This was a hard decision to make, but we really feel that the Lord is calling us to go back to America at this time. We love all of our friends here in Romania, and are going to miss them very much.

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A Beautiful Day in Craiova!

Last Sunday was a beautiful day here in Craiova. It didn't even seem like autumn, it was too warm! Paul and I wanted to enjoy the beautiful day the Lord provided, so we grabbed our books and headed to the park. Paul spent some time filling his head with theology (Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments), while I spent some time starting a new book (Knowing God by J.I. Packer). Let's just say that Paul hasn't been able to put Vos down since he started reading it! :) Hopefully I will follow him in his determination to finish books! Lately (the last year or so...) I have seemingly gotten distracted as I try to finish books. I know this isn't a horrible thing, and I'm not being legalistic with it, but alas, it's an area I would like to grow! Speaking of which, I actually finished "Keep a Quiet Heart" by Elisabeth Elliot last night! Woohoo! I highly recommend it (Thanks Sarah Duncan for giving up your copy of the book 2 days before we left the country!).

This is the same park we go to frequently, or at least try to go to frequently! Enjoy the photos!

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Home Sweet Home

Alas, we are back in Craiova!!!! Celebrations are seriously needed. We were basically in and out of town for 2 weeks working on all of the visa paperwork and following laws (leaving the country). We went to Serbia, like I already mentioned. All that we can do up until this point is already done. We went to Bucharest and gave our paperwork to the Baptist Union as a step in the visa process. Now we are in "waiting mode" as I like to think of it. The lady from the Baptist Union called Paul today about a minor detail, which gives us hope that our applications are actually being processed! Woohoo. From the Baptist Union, our information goes to another office (we'll refer to it as the M.C. for now) and after receiving a letter of recomendation, we can turn all of our forms into the police and then they will be the ones to issue us a visa, Lord willing.

This past weekend we went to a leadership conference put on by Willow Creek and in conjunction with an organization called BIG. Overall, it was alright and we were glad we went. We had some good conversations with a few others from our church that went to the conference and will hopefully have more continued conversations. With every message, there were some good things and some not-so-good things, but we just tried to be discerning. All in all, we are glad we went and hope to apply some things we learned.

Finally, Paul and I are in process of trying to start our conversational English classes: "The English Lounge." Creative, huh? Totally Paul. I am definitely not known for being creative! Anyway, we passed out fliers and talked to students today at the University. It seemed that some were geninuely interested. We are planning on going to campus again tomorrow.
There will be a general information meeting for the English Lounge this Thursday evening. Please pray that God would sovereingly direct us to who we should talk to and invite on campus and that students would come to the meeting on Thursday evening.

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Visa Process

Hello! Sorry it has been a while since any updates. Most people are wondering what country we are in! Currently, we are still in Romania. Today we went to Serbia for the same reason we went to Bulgaria (long story).

The visa is in process. We are going before a Baptist Union Board tomorrow to attempt to get a letter of recommendation from them which is needed in this whole visa thing. On Wednesday, we are going to Bucharest again (we went last week and ran around in circles for about 4 hours). We plan on turning in all of our paperwork after a month or so, we'll hopefully have an approval for our visas. There is still a chance we won't get a visa, but it is likely that it will be approved. Still, we want to trust the Lord and believe "The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord."

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Bulgaria

Cris and I went on an adventure on Tuesday. We went to Bulgaria! We got four pretty new stamps in each of our passports, and spent an afternoon in Oryahovo, Bulgaria. From our short time there, it seemed similar to Romania, except the signs used letters that we didn't understand. Bulgaria uses a Slavic alphabet, and they have symbols that look like a backwards N and a 3 as part of their alphabet, along with many other characters I can't make with me keyboard.

Anyways, we didn't know how to say any of it. It was interesting. We also got to ride a ferry across the Danube, which is a really big river. Razvan was our guide and driver and friend through the whole trip. He really served us. He espically served us with his language skills in Bulgaria when he started speaking English to buy a ferry ticket on the Bulgarian side.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

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A Taste of China in Romania

Yesterday was my birthday and I got to spend the day with my wonderful husband! That in itself was great and I loved it! In the afternoon we went to look for some form of art that we could hang on our lovely white walls. Then, we went to one of our favorite places in town, the big park. It is the most peaceful place in Craiova. We spent time reading our Bibles, praying, and enjoying fellowship together!


As the evening came, we ventured onto a restaurant that Paul has tried to take me to on our past two date nights: The Golden Dragon. Yes, it is indeed a Chinese restaurant smack dab in the middle of Craiova. You can imagine the experience...

We walk in, typical Americans eating at 6pm - no one else in the restaurant. We asked if they were open, they were. This place was nice --- they even brought us a warm washcloth to the table to wash our hands before our meal. Paul ordered some lamb dish (lamb is one of his favorites!) and I ordered Pui Shanghai. Thankfully the menu was both in Romanian and English...very very simple English. My dish was translated "fried chicken." Haha, that is exactly what I got! We thought by chance it might be like Empress Chicken or something, but it wasn't. It was worth a try. It came with some sauces on the side, so I had fun creating a delicious "shanghai" flavor! We learned a few things:
1. Rice is not included
2. The tea is authentic Chinese tea - also Paul's favorite!
3. We're going to have to experiment a little with the menu, but we do think we'll find some things we like.
4. Fried ice cream literally means fried ice cream. It does not include vanilla ice cream with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled all over it. It is actually a rare delicacy...think: CORNDOG. Ice cream pop (on a stick), fried in batter, served on a plate with a spoon and two little orange slices. I couldn't stop laughing and desired so badly to take a picture so I could show you all! Paul thought it would be disrespectful, so I didn't. I will let you use your imaginations.

Overall, it was quite an enjoyable experience and we will definitely be going back sometime in the future. I don't think we will be getting fried ice cream again.

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Two of Our Friends Got Baptized!!!!!

These are our friends, Razvan & Ale who were baptized last week on Saturday the 6th. It was so encouraging being there to celebrate with these two dear friends as they proclaimed their faith in Christ and commitment to follow Him.

Razvan was saved after camp in 2006 and has matured in the Lord ever since. He is one of the top 5 joyful people we know. He loves his Savior, Jesus Christ! We knew Razvan before he was a Christian and have seen a genuinely transformed life. Razvan's decision to be baptized caused him to incur a significant sacrifice. Yet, knowing there would be a sacrifice and opposition, Razvan esteemed Christ as more valuable and proceeded with his decision to follow Christ at the cost of losing all else.

Ale grew up in the church, and doesn't know exactly when she was converted, but has grown much in the Lord the last couple years since being at proDEO. Her dad died a week before she was baptized. This loss, although significant, did not have any effect on her commitment to Christ and desire to be baptized. It is a joy to be her friend and get to know this girl!

Here are a few photos of the event.

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Apartment #2

Well, as many of you know, we moved recently. There was a situation that came up that required our past owner to move back to Craiova for a while, and she needed her apartment back. We understood and began to look for a new place. This apartment is still near the center of town, but about a 10 minute walk, which is great for us because we generally meet students in the Center or the big park. The location is wonderful and a bit more peaceful that where we were previously. Also, this apartment is a little bit bigger, which will allow us to be more hospitable, something we are both very excited about! Right now, we have one couch and enough room for another. Another missionary family in the city are offering to let us borrow an extra couch they have for the duration of our stay. What a huge blessing! Once we get that down their 4 flights of stairs, across town, and up our 4 flights of stairs, we can have more people over! I vote for Dutch Blitz (a popular card game here) and some hot chocolate! Enjoy the photos!


Kitchen
Balcony Living room: photo 1
Living room: photo 2
My husband, drinking cappuccino from our pretend mugs
Bedroom

Our overstuffed bookshelf :)Bathroom

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By the way...

I jsut saw two well-dressed men in their 60's here in downtown Craiova. I only mentioned their dress, because to the best of my knowledge they weren't beggars. Anyways, one of them was playing "Yesterday" by the Beatles on his flute, while the other was laughing and doing interpretative dance. Also, they had been at it for more than an hour. The songs changed, but the dancing really didn't.

Just a simple observation from Craiova.

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New Apartment

Hey everybody!

As of today we found a new apartment in Craiova. It is a little further from downtown, (but still really close,) and in a newer building. It is a bit larger, and we will have the ability to host more people in our home now. That is exciting for Cris. We really want to thank the Lord for this place, because it was a good price for what we found. It should have been more expensive, but we are only going to pay slightly more than we are at our current place, and it is larger like I said before.

It is also the Lord's providence because now we have a rental contract in our name, which is a requirement to get a visa to stay here in Romania. Our current apartment contract is in Razvan's name because they signed it before we arrived in Romania to help us out. We were going to have to re-write the contract anyways. We are also a little closer to the big park, which is something that I wanted very much. I should be able to go for runs much easier from this apartment.

Marius, our Romanian friend who was helping us while we were searching loves the place and is surprised at the deal we are getting. We're pretty excited too. We'll post some pictures of the place once we move in.

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Honoring My Husband :)

I meant to do this before we went away to the mountains for the weekend, but I don't want to pass up the opportunity to honor my husband, Paul. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness to the Lord for the gift Paul is to me. There are many things I could say, but I will try to be concise.

1. One of the biggest areas Paul has served me in is dealing with my sin. There seem to be ceaseless ways in which I sin against Paul and as I go to him repeatedly, often with the same sins, he is eager to forgive. Paul is truly aware of the grace and forgiveness he has received through Jesus Christ and loves to extend that forgiveness to me! The Lord has used Paul to give me a tangible understanding of how God deals with the Christian's sin. Continually, we go to our heavenly Father, knowing we have sinned against him, and continually and eagerly He forgives us because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross! God doesn't condemn us for our sin because He has already condemned Christ in our place. Paul excels in demonstrating Christ's never-ceasing forgiveness. For this, I am so thankful. I know the Lord more intimately in this way because of Paul's example.

2. Paul follows the Lord and submits his desires to Him. A little over a year ago, Paul felt the Lord calling him to come to Romania. His desire was to submit this to the Lord. One of the ways he did this was to seek the counsel of our pastors in our local church. He used their discernment and wisdom to evaulate if coming was the Lord's will. He was very humble in this entire process, submitting this desire to those who provide oversight for our souls (Hebrews 13:17). We are so thankful for our pastors!

3. Paul is a man who desires to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who are dead in their sins, rather than have the comforts of this temporal world. This statement is not intended to minimize the need for gospel-centered local churches to exist all over the USA, nor to imply that going overseas is any more noble or for everyone. I am simply saying that I am thankful for the desires God has given Paul to proclaim the gospel to the nations. And, I am thankful the Lord has called me to follow Paul wherever he leads. Paul is a man who is intentional about losing his life for the sake of the gospel. In John 12:25-26, Jesus says, "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyones serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."

4. An area that Paul has been growing in immensely is a desire to serve his wife. We are so selfish by nature that it is only the Lord who has given Paul a desire to serve others and to consider others more important than himself. Paul desires to grow in the biblical command to husbands found in Ephesians 5:25, 28-29, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...in the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church..." Consistently serving others does not come naturally or overnight. God is at work in my husband and I love being able to watch how the Lord, by His grace is consistenly changing my husband to be more like Christ!

Paul, I love you!

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Babysitting!!!!

YAY! We got to babysit last night for another missionary couple in Craiova that has four kids ranging in age from 5 months to 5 years old. They have been here since July 15, so we have actually lived here longer than them! They actually plan on staying longer than us though. They are a couple from Ohio, I think....and have come to work with a church here. We've only been able to interact with them three times total. The first was their "Welcome to Craiova" dinner, the second was at an American missionary prayer meeting last week, and the third was last night when we watched their kiddos! It was a blast! We were so excited to be able to interact with kids and actually communicate with them again. It's been too long! We would love to watch some of the Romanian kids in our church, but it is a little difficult to watch kids who you cannot communicate with yet. We basically played Uno, CandyLand, and just hung out. I did manage to magically turned into a slide with the three oldest ones and gave piggy back rides and snuck into the monster cave. I love kids - they are so creative.

We were just excited that we could serve another couple in allowing them to have date night and build into their marriage. They haven't really had a babysitter or time alone since they got here and haven't really realized it. We are really thankful we could play with their kids for a few hours in order for them to spend time away and focus on their relationship. Yay for marriage!

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La Multi Ani, Paul!

Hey everybody, I wanted to tell you all how I celebrated my birthday this year. On August 28th, two days before my birthday, my very sweet wife planned a surprise for me with many of my friends in the park. We had fun there, and I thought that was the end of my celebration. I thought this because we spent my 23rd birthday, August 30th, in the mountains celebrating our good friends Radu and Andreea. They are getting married on October 11th, and they invited us to the mountains for the weekend with some other friends of theirs. We totaled 24 people. The weekend was a blast, and we will post more about it later.

Anyways, on Saturday evening we were playing futbol, (soccer for you Americans,) and were nearing the end of them game. A player on my team was open in front of the goal, and I wanted to get the ball to him. The ball was bouncing and my back was to my teammate. I intended to pass the ball to him by kicking it backwards, over my shoulder, to him. I’ve done this quite a few times. Right after I kicked the ball to pass it to him, I felt like I was punched in the face, and saw the ball bouncing at my feet again. I tried to pass it again, but nothing happened, and I’m dazed, because I just kicked a soccer ball into my own face. Less than one minute later we ended the game tied, and my team called on me to kick a tiebreaking penalty kick, which I missed, because I still couldn’t see straight, and we lost. Right after that, we all went inside, and I was surprised with a cake, and a bunch of Romanians singing to me on my birthday. I was really thankful, and surprised, and I still had no idea what was going on.

Here are a few pictures. Notice that my nose is big and red and it looks like I’m about to cry. I wish that this was evidence of thankfulness flowing from my heart, but really I had just taken a ball to the face, and hadn’t had time to compose myself yet. It’s a fun memory, one of many that we made this weekend.

It was a blast, and I’m very thankful to Radu and Andreea for surprising me during their celebration. More on the weekend to the mountains will come…

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We're Moving!

Well, we just got word that we need to move out! The owner of our apartment is moving back to Craiova and needs her place. One thing that is encouraging is that there really are evidences of the Lord in this situation. The first is that in order to apply for our visa, we need an apartment contract in our name. Because Razvan and Oana were so kind to find a place for us before we got here, our current contract is in their name, so we would have to get that changed anyway. The second is that we will probably get a bit of money refunded and the owner is going to help us pay for the agency fee, (which we had to pay to get our apartment) since she is the one who is breaking the contract. The third is that Paul and I would really like to live closer to the big park. Currently it is about a 25 minute walk, but we go there at least 4 times per week. It is a great place for spending time with the Lord, as well as exercise, and meeting students. We love it!

I just spoke to Olivia (one of my best friends here) on the phone and she is also planning on moving soon. The plan is to go apartment hunting together!

We know the Lord will provide for us, but please pray we can find a place soon. We have three weeks to move out. Basically, we need to move out before the Festival of Tabernacles (a retreat taken by proDEO from September 19-21), and then when we come back from the retreat, we need to leave the country because our 3 month visa expires on October 1. That would be another prayer request. We can't do anything to progress with our visa application until we get this new apartment contract in our names, then we need to make a trip to Bucharest to get some form, and then do a few more things here in Craiova. Sounds complex, I know.

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Pillowcase: The Return

Around five minutes ago, a man came and knocked on our door. He told me in Romanian quite a few things, but the only things I understood were the words for "downstairs" and "balcony." He handed me a pillowcase.

He handed me THE pillowcase. This pillowcase has been outside hanging on his balcony since July 18th. It has been through sun, and wind, and rain, and thunderstorms. It withstood engineered attempts at its retrieval. (Read our post about that if you missed it, it can be found here: http://steeleromania.blogspot.com/2008/07/adventure-of-pillowcase.html) I'm not sure if the owner has been on vacation or what, but after 41 days outside, the pillowcase is home. The above picture is of our victory celebration. The pillowcase has been wrapped around a bolt, which caused its strange shape.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Only Christ Crucified

Chris Moore encouraged Cris and I recently with this scripture.

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

- 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

I have been meditating on the passage off and on since Chris Moore shared it with us yesterday. I think it was the Lord that encouraged Chris to share this passage with us, because I believe it needs to be the motivation for all our interactions with both the believers and non-believers here in Romania. We want to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified so that the faith of those we interact with might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The primary subject that Chris Moore was discussing with us at the time was evangelism. ProDeo evangelizes differently than Cornerstone does. Cris and I are considering which differences are good, which are not good, and trying to determine how we should act. This scripture answers our question. It is not about methods, be they Cornerstone’s or ProDeo’s. What is important is that we make what we know Christ and Him crucified, and forsake the wisdom of the world. Christ crucified is what we know. It should be all we know. I want to be an idiot in all other things relating to evangelism. All I want to know is Christ crucified. This glorifies God. It takes the faith off of the strategy and puts in onto the Lord. (I’m not advocating stupidity in how we share the gospel, because how we share matters. What I am advocating is that we put our eyes on our amazing God and not on any particular strategy when we share.)

It is a temptation for Cris and I to see differences between ProDeo and CCK and think, “It would be much better if ProDeo did this like CCK does it.” Sometimes we might be right. Sometimes we are probably wrong. Cornerstone is ten times larger than ProDeo and is in a different country with different challenges. There must be differences. However, that isn’t the point.

Here’s my point. If everyone here said, “Ok, we are going to start evangelizing just like CCK, and we are going to run our campus ministry exactly like VFC,” what would happen? Maybe they see growth. Maybe their campus ministry doubles, and their evangelism becomes more fruitful. If this happened, what would the result be? ProDeo could say, “Cornerstone and VFC really have good ministry ideas, and they were really helpful. We want to be sure that we use this wisdom to make our church stronger.” I could leave and think that I have done a good job. I supplied wisdom that led to the growth of ministries, and now something like Cornerstone Church of Craiova exists. Is this success?
No! It is not success. I don’t want to encourage a church to look to ministry methods for solutions to their difficulties. I want to encourage ProDeo to have faith in the power of God and NOT in the wisdom of men, or of churches, as wise as that wisdom might be. I want to see a faith in the power of God to yield increase to this church and this campus ministry. I want to encourage ProDeo and OSCEC to have faith in the power of God. I hope they encourage me to have faith in the power of God. I pray that it is both. I want to be an encouragement to the church that the gospel (Christ crucified!) is the power of God to salvation. This is how our time here will be fruitful. We have the opportunity to be an encouragement to a healthy church to continue to bank all of their hope and trust on one truth: Christ and Him crucified.

*To the Romanians: this is a temptation of ours, not a goal. We know Cornerstone’s methods, and we believe them to be good, and they are good for a church of ~600 in America. Some of Cornerstone’s methods would not work here. The above section is a reflection of a temptation of ours if everything worked perfectly. The point is that even if proDeo became the church that did everything the way we think is best, (which is based only on our experience,) the result is not the proper one even if it did work perfectly. Our faith MUST be in God and not in methods, whether it is CCK’s, “How Good Are You” tract, or ProDeo’s “3 ‘P’s of evangelism. Both methods are good and helpful, but they cannot be what we trust. God must be who we trust. I pray that my point has been communicated effectively.*

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Craiova vs. Oţelul Galaţi

I was able to go to my first European soccer game yesterday with my friends Stefan, Ovi and Emi. It was the hometown team Univeristatea Craiova vs. Oţelul Galaţi. Oţelul was in first place when the match started. They are not the best team, my Romanian friends tell me, it is just early in the season and they have played a few good games. It made for an interesting game to watch, and was a new and fun experience for me. Here is Stefan as he eagerly yearns for the game to start.
Ovi and Emi are here also before the start of the game.
Craiova's stadium can hold around 40,000 people, but it is under repair. As a result, this game was played in the second largest stadium in town, which only holds around 10,000 people. The enitre stadium was sold out, except for the visitor's section, which might have had 20 people in it.Many people prefered to sit on the hill side than in their seats.
Before the game started, fans were waving this banner. I couldn't read what it said from my seat. However, is was fun to be a part of a passionate fan base at a futbol game.
Here a member of Oţelul tries to tackle Costea (#10), the best player on Craiova's team.

A rush for the ball. (You can see the ball, it is just over the stands in this picture.)This is a foul on Oţelul that wasn't called and sent the crowd roaring, because they wanted a penalty.

In the end, Craiova won. The goal was scored on a header in the second half. I didn't have my camera out at the time, so there are no pictures of it. It was pretty. Anyways, we won, and the team played pretty well. It was a fairly slow game, because Oţelul was primarily trying to play defense. They rarely tried to attack. There weren't very many chances for either side, but we got one, and that's all that we needed.

I enjoyed it. I've wanted to go to a European futbol match for a long time, and I got to yesterday. This isn't the English Premiership, bu it doesn't matter. I really enjoyed myself, and this still was a high level of play.

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