I remember you!

The thing I both love AND hate the most about Romania is that there are about a gazillion intrinsically different cultures all found within a few miles of each other. The cities are each different from each other, the villages all have their own special dynamics, the country is different from the Suburbs, the Romanians are different from the Hungarians, the Gypsies are different from everyone, and the Gypsies have amongst themselves different tribes which in turn have different customs and cultural anomalies.

In Salaj I speak Hungarian, in Bihor and Cluj I speak Romanian. (Salaj, Bihor and Cluj are the different judets - or counties)

However this time I ended up TRANSLATING, which is good because it means that my brain grew a few more wrinkles and helps broaden thinking and communicating abilities, but on the flip side encourages headaches. ;-)
Anyway all that to say, I'm in Sancrieau right now :-D It has been SOOO nice to see the Hagiu family again, and hear Silvana's stories and Nicu's laugh.

The British Pest and Ramona took me to the train station and saw me on my way, both insisting that I call them when I got to my destination. :-) Yes, mom and dad!

The countryside changed from the outskirts of the Panonian plain into the rolling hills and small mountains of the bigginings of the Carpathian mountain range. I went out of the little room/car that our seats were in (think the train on "Narnia" and that's what I rode on) into the main 'hallway' of our car and opened the window and had a fun time feeling the breeze and watching the landscape zoom by. We passed lots of little villages with shirtless, browned men fishing or working in their fields, old women sitting on benches thinking their thoughts as we whizzed by, little kids looking up in surpise and waving and laughing when I waved back.

At each village the train would stop, and a conductor would walk to the door, watch to see if passengers were getting off or on, and then wave a yellow flag to the train driver (there is a technical word for it but I forget. BAH!) to signal we could keep moving. There were two conductors, and one had a very sour expression and said nothing the whole time. The other one wore a cap and suit and looked at me curiously as I was apparently the only passenger who so appreciated the scenery. Finally he asked in Romanian,
"Miss, why aren't you sitting down?"

Because I'm a hyperactive American who is totally jazzed to go work in a Gypsy village, of course! I thought. But instead said in Romanian,

"I just like to look out the window."

He laughed and said, "Then stay there at the window!" and would smile and shake his head whenever he walked by after that.

Silvana met me at the station and we hugged, and then began a rather nervous ride back to her house as she has only been driving for a few months.

The family was glad to see me but shy, and I was feeling a little shy myself. Nicu, Silvana and I sat at the kitchen table and tried to fit in as many updates as we could in a half an hour, and I emptied my bags of the vitamins, books and facepaints that I've been lugging all over kingdom come. Silvana was so blessed by the Ibiprophin I brought, as here one pill costs about $.75 at the least.

I brought a book on Gypsies by Jan Yoors which is awesome, and Silvana grabbed that right away, and another book on "Making Disciples of Oral learners" which Nicu gave a woot and grabbed as soon as he saw it. "MINE!" he laughed. "You know, I am like those birds on Finding Nemo! MINE MINE MINE!!"

(L2R: Silvana, Nicu, and Razvan, the pastor in Cluj)

I told them about my idea to write songs in the Gypsy style of singing to teach our Gypsies instead of telling them Bible stories. If a Gypsy is told a story, they will tell it again with exaggerations or important details added or forgotten. This is fine unless you are telling a BIBLE STORY. However, when they tell their HISTORIES, I think they SING it, and the tribe learns the song word-for-word, and it is told repeatedly unchanged. "Yeah, thats a good idea, but who is going to do the singing?" Nicu asked. "I'll do it." I said. I showed them the face paints I had brought and told them about my idea to teach the older Gypsy girls to do the face paints with us, and that way 'kill two birds with one stone;' that is, teaching the older girls the basics of holding writing utensils and also giving the kids a fun time.

"That's a great idea. Hey, do you want to take the kids ministry while you're here?" Nicu asked. "Uhhh.... sure?" I said. So... hey guess what. I'm the new kid's minister. lol. So pray for my Romanian language to grow incredibly so I can give the kids a fair telling of the Gospel!!

We heard a car coming and Silvana said it was Fery, our Gypsy brother who is one of the chieftans of the village and year-old, zealous Christian/Pastor-to-be. Quickly we stuffed all the vitamins in a bag and put it in a corner and cleared all the books into a nice pile. We then went to the door and greeted the 6ft 3 inch tall bear of a Gypsy man who bounced out of the red sports car.
"Pace Domnului!" He thundered. (Pace Domnului: It means like Peace of God with you, and yes Ramona I know my spelling and grammer suck. ;-D)
We laughed and returned the greeting. He shook Nicu's hand and gave him a bear hug then caught sight of me.

(Fery is the big guy in the plaid shirt reclining on the grass. His son is sitting on the guitar case)

"Hey!" he yelled. "Aren't you that girl from the States who was here last year?" I laughed and nodded. "What! You liked the Gypsies so much you just couldn't stay away, hunh?" he laughed and walked up and the next thing I knew I was envaloped in a huge crushing bear hug. "Welcome back!"
I thanked him and tried not to show that I felt like my ribs had almost been broken. Love hurts I guess. ;-)
His brother had to go to Timisoara that night, and Feri was picking up Nicu so they could drive together on the way back. It was four hours one way, and the would be driving all night.
They left and Silvana and I talked some more before I took my stuff to my room and then came back down for a bath. We went to bed after midnight as we were so busy still catching up that we lost track of the time.

(me on the stairs up to my room, in the loft/attic. The window leads to the kitchen)

Nicu didn't get back until 6:30 AM, slept for two hours, and then we all got up and got ready to go to church at the small Calvary Chapel in Cluj Napoca, which is an hour drive away. The Church was started by a Romanian, an American was sent from the States to help out, and the church grew some, but the American had to go back to the States and now the Church consists of Razvan and his family, another family, a University student, and the Hagiu's go every other week. So... its a teeny tiny church plant. But it was sooo good. I was able to understand the concept of the Sermon and actually helped Razvan out when he was trying to use an example from the movie "Princess Bride" and forgot Wesley's name. Hehehe!!! See! "Princess Bride" is such a classic, they use it in Romania even for SERMON illustrations! Made my day, anyway. I love that movie. Okay back to the mission work... :-D

(a street in Cluj Napoca. It's FILLED with miles of apartment blocks)

It was funny because again when I walked in, Razvan and his wife were like, "HEY! Aren't you that girl who was here last year? Welcome back!"

Razvan said I looked like a girl he met once at the Calvary Chapel Bible college in Hungary, and that both that girl and I were "like queens" in our mannerisms. I think he was trying to say graceful. I've gotten a lot of compliments on how beautiful I am since coming here, which strikes me as funny because I've always considered myself good looking or pretty but not BEAUTIFUL or GORGEOUS or anything. SO pray that I don't get a big head!!!

(To the Right is Anca, Razvan's wife, who said my Romanian was excellent and to not be afraid of talking, even if my grammar was terrible. lol)

After Church we went to the mall or "Cornea Shop" to find a female Parakeet for Naomi (Nicu and Silvana's daughter) and her male parakeet, and ended up looking at a dog show that was there. I liked the Chow's the best. :-) We couldn't find a healthy bird, so Silvana bought us ice cream and then we dragged Naomi and Leo - their son - away and drove the hour back to Sancrieau for a brief lunch of sandwhiches. Naomi and Leo and I played "I spy" in Romanian, which helped me in learning some sentance structuring and different words for colors and things in the car and outside. I learned "Yarba" means grass (not how you spell it) and "Yeo vud" (again, phonetic spelling) means "I spy/I see".

After a quick lunch, Silvana, Nicu and I climbed back into the dilapidating Dacia and made our bumpy way to the Gypsy village in Sacueau.

(some guys relaxing in the shade while we hammered out a conversation with Lemoia's help)

Silvana and I found Lemoia, a woman who became a Christian last year when I was here, sitting in the shade with some guys.

"Do you remember her?" Silvana asked me.

"How could I forget Lemon!!" I asked, calling her by her English name.

"Hey... I remember you!" Lemon said, her eyes lighting up with recognition. "You are that girl... from America, right?" she asked. Silvana went to go find someone but said I could stay and Lemon and the guys insisted I stay with them. So Lemon translated my broken Romanian into better Romanian or Gypsy while the guys asked me where I was from, if I spoke Spanish (most of them have been migrant workers in Spain, and Silvana said all foreign lanugaes are Spanish in their minds) how old I was, if I was married, how much it cost to fly to Romania, how many hours I was in the plane, did I like Romania, etc. I was glad Lemon was there because when they started asking if I was married Lemon gave them a long look and they changed the subject.

"You are so beautiful." Lemon said at one point.

"Thanks, so are you!" I replied. She really is. I don't have a good picture of her yet, but she is a GORGEOUS woman, and very polite and graceful. I think she is only about 23 or 24, but she loves the Lord and became a Christian through her home and her mom being delivered of Demonic Oppression and attacks.

(Me and Bubba)

Silvana called us up the hill for the Church service to start and I saw Bubba and Feri. "Bubba" means Grandmother in Gypsy.

"Do you remember this girl?" Silvana asked Bubba.

"Of course I do! How is it possible to forget her! I remember you, you came to my house and drank my coffee and took some video clips of you playing with the kids."

"Thats right! And I watched that movie a lot when I was in the States and thought of you." I replied.

"Do you want some coffee now?" she asked. I asked if she had any and she handed me her cup of coffee. I prayed for protection against any diseases or anything and drank deeply. You know on Hidalgo when Frank is in the tent of the Bedoin Sheik and downs the coffee, and the sheik asks of its too strong? Frank says, "Back home we toss a horseshoe in the pot, and when it stands up straight, we say it's done." That about describes Gypsy coffee. Toss a horseshoe in the pot along with a bag of sugar. ;-) But it was good, and I told Bubba so.

Feri saw me and said hi, and that he had only gotten three hours of sleep like Nicu.

"That's what you do when you are a Medical Student!" I teased. He laughed and agreed and we started church. He had trouble staying awake, and at one point one of the women got up and started hitting his legs with a small stick. He laughed and sat up straight, but later reclined and I saw his eyes closed. He opened them and saw me staring and smiled and sat up.

After the service Nicu was hit with nausea and a headache, so we went back to Sancrieau. As soon as we walked in the door the pipe to the toilet, which had been leaking before, burst. Poor Nicu spent the next hour or two trying to fix it and we had to turn off the water.

"Do you think it is interesting, Rachel, that Nicu feels fine the whole day, but as soon as the service is done he feels sick. And this pipe bursts the moment we walk in the house? Now the only thing missing is for the landlady to come and see her bathroom like this." Silvana told me.We both were thinking the same thing: Spiritual warfare. Praise God the landlady DIDN'T come, but we all went to bed at 10. I ended up praying for a few hours for protection and for some friends. Fear hit me as soon as I left the house and I knew I needed to pray for the Hagiu's and for myself. So prayers for this would be appreciated!!

(The ladies talking after the service)

This morning we prayed for the British Pest as he is going through a rough time and Nicu and Silvana prayed for God to bring him here to Sancrieau so they could meet him and talk with him.
"He sounds like an interesting guy. I would like to meet him and get his perspective on things." Nicu said.

We also prayed for Feri. The car broke on his and Nicu's way back, and now two of his brothers and trying to make some sort of scandal about it.

Feri is one of five brothers, and was the most feared of all of them. Even the rich Gypsies feared making him angry. Now he is a Christian, and it is a huge testimony amongst the Gypsies in this whole area. He is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but God is using him mightily with Feri's childlike faith and deep generosity. Please pray that God will protect and strengthen him through this time and keep him from backsliding. His brothers have cut his electricity and are harrassing him. But no one dares to do anything serious to him, because they know what he was. An example would be a dog irritated him once, so he took a buzz saw and cut the animal in two.

Ok time to get off the computer. Quick recap, Prayer requests are:

~God to continue to use Silvana, Nicu and me amongst the Gypsies. To educate us about the Gypsy ways and His ways, and give us HIS wisdom and discernment. We really need discernment.

~Protection, strength, and blessings on Feri and his immediate family. And that his brothers will come to know the Lord.

~For my friend the British Pest, that God will bring him here. He - my friend - has seen some very very bad examples of Christianity, and I want him to see the Hagiu's and their faith and joy. He needs peace and Joy, and he wants to hear God's voice clearly. So pray that God speaks to him clearly in the next week.

~For me as I take the kid's ministry. For ideas, wisdom while I work with the kids, and please pray for my language. The Grammar is hard in Romanian (not as hard as Hungarian tho!) and I've already had a conflict with Ramona when I was trying to say one thing in Romanian and she thought I was insulting her.

Okay time to get off the computer. God bless!!

~PrincessOuch~

Thursday church service, Friday Lunch

On Thursday Ramona and I went to Salonta, a suburb of Oradea, with a Romanian Baptist Pastor. The Romanian Baptist Church was GORGEOUS, and the service was very nice. Ramona played the piano while I sang "Miracles" from Prince of Egypt for the congregation. :-D If I do say so myself, she and I make an AWESOME team!!!
Me in the Balcony of the Sanctuary. Beautiful honey-colored wood was everywhere.
Pastor Galgis(h) took us to a small Gypsy church in the 'downtown' part of Salonta. Quite a stark contrast, dont you think? But you can tell the Gypsy pastors really love their church.
This little girl is the daughter of the pastor, and her name is Rahela, the Romanian form of Rachel. So we took a picture together. Also in the picture is her brother and dad.
Pastor Galgis(h) asked me to pray (that is him on the far right, in the blue shirt) and then he and the pastors sang a Romanian worship song for me. I prayed that the Lord would strengthen the pastors, protect them and all the Gypsies from the attacks of the Devil, and fill the Church to overflowing with Gypsies who loved God. From the overflow I prayed God would plant many more churches. Ramona translated my English prayer into Romanian, and each time I paused and she translated, a hearty "AMIN!" filled the room from everyone else in it. When I finished, all the Gypsies had tears in their eyes. It was very touching.
Pastor Galgis(h) also showed us the after-school English class he has as a ministry to kids in the neighborhood. They were very excited to have a 'real live' American help them with their pronounciation. As you can see, they weren't exactly the shyest kids I've ever met....
This little boy, Benny, was my favorite. He kept watching me when he thought I wasn't looking. he was also Hungarian, which made it difficult for Pastor Galgis(h) and Ramona to explain how to pronounce some of the English words, because the way they would explain it to a Romanian accent was different for a Hungarian accent. Since I speak some Hungarian, I was able to help him which was COOL. Once some of the kids found out I spoke Hungarian, a bunch of them popped up and started jabbering in Hungarian. :-D
Dee Klass. The class. :-)
A street in Salonta from the view of the Church.
The Sanctuary in the Church. GORGEOUS!
Pastor Domnisoara Rahela. ;-) Pastor Galgis(h)'s idea, not mine, so don't take ME to the axe! ;-)

The sign says, "Biserica Baptista Betel." Or, "Bethel Baptist Church"
The Walking Street in Oradea. :-) Where Ramona and I had lunch yesterday

Ramona and her delicious Cardon Bleu sandwhich that we bought for only 5 lei ($3.50-ish)
Me eating lunch :-D The sandwhich was as delicious as it was HUGE!!!There was some sort of Cultural festival going on while we were walking around. So now you get to see some traditional Romanian dress. :-)
Oradea at night from the view of the hilltop where Ramona and Corina live, and where the Orphanage is/was. (currently needs remodeling before they can take in more kids)The Catholic church where the British Pest and I went yesterday evening to see the gorgeous inside, and accidently got there just in time for Mass. Woops! It was awesome but all in Hungarian, so we didn't stay for all of it. But it was interesting. The singing was GORGEOUS!!

Okay well I am leaving Oradea at about 3 this afternoon and will arrive in Huedin at about 5. From there Nicolae will pick me up and drive me to his house where Silvana his wife will meet me and we will have a jolly time catching up until about 1 am at the earliest. ;-)
Aftwerwhich, we will most likely go to bed and wake up groggy but go to Cluj Napoca for Church and then one of the Gypsy villages in the afternoon. :-)

So please pray for protection for me as I travel alone on the train, and that God will use the Hagiu's and me mightily for the next two weeks as we serve amongst the Gypsies.
God bless!!!

~PrincessOuch~

Interesting

Without giving too much details, yesterday was wierd. I'm still not entirely sure about what I think of all of it, but it included Ramona and I exhorting a brother in Christ to not give up during a hard season in his life, lots of mean gossip about 'that Gypsy" Ramona and her crazy friends, (I guess encouraging a Christian brother isn't cool with the neighbor) and trying to get that sorted with Ramona's mom who didn't have an issue but is trying to protect Ramona and Corina from gossip, and watching Ramona try and teach her classmate English.
I wish I had taken pictures of that whole "English lesson" or taken a video of it, because it was HYSTERICAL. But I was too busy laughing and translating to think of it at the time.
The boy, Dani, was a tall Gypsy who looked like a Hungarian Gypsy by his build. He hadn't studied the lesson worth beans, and kept trying to engage our friend who we will call the British Pest - Ramona's and my friend from the international church - and I so as to distract Ramona from realizing how much he hadn't studied.
The BP (British Pest) was about rolling on the floor as Dani was pulling all the Gypsy tricks he could when it came to begging for mercy and understanding and excuses for not studying, and Ramona wasn't buying any of it. The two of them made quite a pair as Dani pleaded and explained and rubbed his temples and said how much his head hurt, and Ramona snapped at him about how it was such a pity that such a smart boy could be so lazy. At one point she even smacked him upside the head playfully and yelled at him for wasting such a good brain on T.V.
"Ooooh... you don't understaaaaaand. It's so haaaard. My poor heeeead!" he whined in Romanian as only a Gypsy can do. The funny thing was that Ramona is ethnically a Gypsy, and has a fiery temper that reveals itself and then hides unexpectedly like other Gypsies, but the education and wisdom gained from being raised in a godly family. So she was fully equipped to make him see the ridiculousness of what he was saying.
"You said you wanted to learn English so learn English! You are wasting my time and yours by not studying."
"But-"
"No buts!! If (the british pest) can come all this way so far from his home and study medicine and survive in Romania than you can at least turn of the telivision and study how to spell F-A-M-I-L-Y in English!!!" At which point she slammed the notebook down in his direction, intentinally barely missing whacking his fingers.
I and the BP laughed and he asked nervously if Ramona was planning on ever being a teacher.
"No offense, but I think I'll skip that class, if you do teach." he grinned. I nodded in hearty agreement. The girl is frighteningly intelligent, discerning, and kind. But also is a hard task master!

I was actually able to translate quite a bit of what was said for the BP, which was again exciting for me to realize how much God was blessing me with giving me what I had studied when I needed it. But again after I was done, my head was aching, and there were a few points later on when I would say a word or sentance in English, Romanian AND Hungarian all at once. Joy.
The day ended with me getting online and finding a friend who was going through a really rough time. Something he said made me think of psalms, so I quoted it for him, and ended up giving him about half of psalm 73. My friend asked for a moment while he copied the whole psalm down and asked for some more.
I was so amazed. This friend has really struggled with his Christian walk in the past, and if I had quoted psalms when I first met him or even a year ago, he would have shrugged it off nicely. But here he was, asking for more and finding beauty and comfort from David's Psalms!
It was really convicting for me, because I haven't been in as many rough spots as this friend has been. I've had my mountain top experiances and my valleys, like everyone else, but I think he's gone through more. A lot of times I don't know what to say because I know that God's grace is sufficient, but who am I to say this who has never truly suffered?
I remember when my friend was chatting me praying, "Oh God, what do I say?"
And then a psalm just came to me. I hadn't ever really put a lot of effort into memorizing it. But it came, and it was what was needed.
I have always believed in the sufficiency of Scripture - theoretically. But often when it came to the point of using Scripture, I was at a loss for what to say. I often let others do the expository explanation or encouragement while I prayed or nodded. But this was the first time when God showed me what to say and how to say it and where in the Bible to go. It was SOOOOO COOL!

Then the other amazing thing was that I was still feeling upset about the gossip from earlier in the day, and I told him a little about it. He turned around and encouraged ME with examples of where Jesus was gossiped about in the Bible for hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors.
I was floored. And greatly encouraged.
So it was a wierd day but good.
Today Ramona and I are going to a small city called Salonta to visit a Romanian Baptist Gypsy church there. I've been to the Hungarian Baptist Gypsy church but not the Romanian one yet. So this should be interesting. :-)

God bless,

~PrincessOuch~