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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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 Craio...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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