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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