Romania Reflections - Part 7 - June 20 - Back to Cheresig

Monday we headed back to Cheresig.  The Raby part of the team split in half.  I went to a church in the town of Ataes.  The daughter stayed to play with the kids.  This pastor covers a lot of ground on Sunday.  He has four churches that her circuits on and then a school in Cheresig.  He wants to build a second school in a place that would be near two of his churches, but they are not finished yet.  When asked, he said it was a toss up of what is important -- the churches are needed so the gypsies have a place to worship but the school would do more long term work in guiding the children and giving them a chance for a better life. 

This particular church looked alright from the road, but it wasn't finished.  The bathrooms still need to be added on in the back. Everything is stone or brick in Europe, I think I saw maybe five stick built structures the whole time I was there.  Everything else was stone, brick or steel.  In this case the back wall was not finished because the bathrooms were not added yet, well it had rained and cause water damage to the plaster in the sanctuary.  So we fixed it.  we didn't get the painting done but the plaster work was left to dry.  Then we headed back. 

Once the VBS was finished we walked into town as the kids wanted to show us where they lived.

This is a kitchen of one of the homes  we entered.  It wasn't much and there was only two other rooms, a living area and a bedroom.  Couches and beds were in all rooms for sleeping at night.  Like a lot of European houses there was a courtyard where there was a garden and chickens and an outhouse.  If there had been more trees, I would have sworn I was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Some of the gypsy kids with 'Bagshot Row" in the background.  Trust me I felt like a giant among hobbits given the height and size of some of the dwellings although I never did find Bag End.

When we got back we ate in an open air restaurant.  I really like this about Europe, I know we have open air stuff, but it is either along a highway or parking lot.  The Europeans isolate them so they are quiet. 

Turned in and got ready for a new place.

Next: Children of the Promise - Day 1
Previous: Worship in Oradea



Romania Reflections - Part 6 - June 19 - Worship in Oradea

Former soviet project housing.

Sunday was worship in a foreign country.  We went to a church that was contemporary and I understand that this is actually very rare as most churches are more traditional.  I could see it was a younger crowd as well.  Did not understand a word of the worship, but the praise teams spirit shown through anyway.  The guitar player was particularly good and the actual leader reminded me of a younger Chris Jane.  The spirit was there regardless of the language barrier and  it was an outstanding service.  The part I did understand was the preaching because Tom Eggum our leader did the speaking.  I didn't have to listen to the translator.  Tom gave an excellent message on the importance of reaching people with both practical and spiritual ministry together.

After service we went outside.  That's when I snapped two pictures with my camera.  The one at the top is right in front of the church as you step out the door.  It is a bunch of former soviet housing projects.  In fact we were surrounded by them. 

The I turned around an snapped a picture of the church.  The sanctuary/gym for the school is the part with all the windows.  This is the first of God's ironies I discovered -- a church/school. special education facility run by Christians in the middle of former soviet housing where no Bibles were even allowed before.  I reminder that with the passing of time and the hand of God, things change and no dictator or political system can stop either God or the freedom he brings.

The rest of the day was spent resting and we visited both a market and ate in a restaurant that serves wild game.  I decided to have the local venison and it was very good.  There is more to this day, but I want to save it for the end of this series when I talk about the lessons learned on the trip.

Next: Back to Cheresig
Previous:Cheresig - Learning Day

Welcome to the rabydtheologian2.com

Well it is official, the new web address is rabydtheologian2.com. 

I have been waiting for this moment to post like an expectant father and now it is official - registered domain name all my own.  The full features should be available in a couple days.

The content will continue to be the same: theology applied to real life.  This blog represents an effort to see Christianity be relevant to a world that no longer thinks it is.

Blessings and thanks for all the support.  The posts on my missions trip to Romania will continue in a few.

Romania Reflections - Part 5 - June 18 - Cheresig - Learning Day

June 18th was Cheresig, Romania.  This was a far different place than Lazareni in large part because the children were more respectful in some senses.  What they lacked in the enthusiasm the made up for by being really attentive and participatory.  The facilities were a little better as well with school and church together with actual bathrooms and running water.  If Lazareni had running water I bet we would see a marked improvement in the community overall.  The Cheresig program goes all year long so we knew we would be back on Monday as well

My original plan was to be on the construction crew for this day but all they were going to do was look over the site and get supplies so I stayed and observed for the most part I did talk to two of the teachers and learned a great deal about what was going on. 

In addition to being a better situation I would have to say that part of the success of Cheresig is also due to the vision of its pastor who not only oversees the school but is pastor of four gypsy churches in the area.  Makes for along Sunday for him but you can tell for a quiet guy, he has a real passion for these people. 

It was here that we learned that there are indeed somewhat of a caste system to the gypsies.  I suspect that in this room there were several different ones.  Some were the poverty level gypsies but others were at least moderately middle class.  Doesn't stop the prejudice though.  In any case the school gets a major amount of its support from sponsorship.  A gypsy is still a gypsy to everyone else.  There is also an upper class for gypsies as well.  In short, for a gypsy it is a hard road but not an impossible one but they do need some help.  This is particularly true for the girls who are under tremendous pressure to get married early instead of pressing their education further.

This day was more VBS stuff and a picnic and it was one of those 'best day of the year' things for the kids.  I also learned a lot about how they farm. Most people in the country in Romania do at least some agriculture.  In the case of this village, which is not all gypsy in population, most of the gypsies own a cow and keep it in their home somewhere.  During the day they hire a single man to take all of them out to graze.  At night, each cow goes back to its home.  Although we did see some tractors, we saw a lot more of the horse drawn stuff as well, particularly wagons.  We held the picnic next to one of these fields near a river which when we first arrived had a whole herd of cows in it.  If we saw a horse, it was staked out not in a fence.  In fact, it was extremely rare to see a fence. 

Today I will be honest, I spent a lot of time talking to one of the teachers and learning.  When we got back to the hotel, that same teacher thanked us and prayed a blessing on us.  It was very touching and one of the better moments of the trip.

Next: Sunday Worship in Oradea
Previous: Lazareni   

Romania Reflections - Part 4 - June 17 - Lazareni - Culture Differences and Prejudice

Patience, Courtney, Kristen and Dani with a bunch of children in Lazareni, Romania.

June 17th really has only one word -- 'Lazareni'.  This was the name of the Gypsy village that we ministered in the majority of the day.  For the children of the village it was their last day of school before summer recess so part of the treat for the kids was us.  I have never in my life felt like a rock star until June 17th.  Mobbed and constantly asked to take photos, I think we all got used to culture issues fairly quickly. 

The school in Lazareni is made up of kids who are sponsored by people who are connected with Hope 4 Kids and DJ and Kathy got to meet their sponsored child but almost all of them are sponsored by someone in the US otherwise no school or education for the gypsies here. 

There were basically two lessons learned very quickly when you work with the gypsies.  1) They are culturally a very open group of people and 2) they are the most discriminated against people in Romania. 

Culture and missions have not always gotten along.  Western missionaries have made some pretty big mistakes in dealing with other cultures, most notably when forcing a certain culture to change into a more western one.  The mistake is to assume because you are a Christian and you nation is 'Chrisitan' your culture is also 'Christian' and everybody else's culture is thus wrong.

We had several cultural shocks: 1) How young some of the mothers were.  I would say there were a couple mothers in their early twenties -- they had three or more kids.  It is normal for a gypsy girl (particularly in a poverty stricken village like Lazareni) to get married at a young age.  We heard of one girl who was 12 and expected to get married before the summer was over and have a child by the next year.  2) Some of our younger team members got a front row lesson in breast feeding.  It was nothing for the gypsy mothers to basically pull down their shirt and feed their baby.  It is simply the norm in this culture. 3) The kids were not bored even though they had no computers, video games or the Internet.  They seemed more happy than the ones in the States even though they are probably more poor that a lot of people in the world.

This was a great day of fun.  When we arrived the kids were doing their final end of the year program for their parents and we got to watch too.  We were in the biggest building of the three for the school and I am pretty sure the fire marshal would not have approved.  Part of the team painted the inside of one of the other buildings while  the rest of us did all sorts of stuff with the kids, VBS style.  T-shirt decorating, nail polish for the girls, temporary tattoos for the boys, games and so much more.  One boy latched on to me and seemed to be determined to beat me in a test of strength.  Even with several friends he failed but he never gave up.  All in all it was a great day with games and food (have you ever had corn on pizza?).  The best day of the year according to many of the children.

Tom Eggum invited many of us to walk and see the chief problem of the village -- their water source.  It is a small shallow spring fed well about a mile hike away from the village.  Water is a thorny problem for Lazareni.  They have sunk wells up to 1000 feet and nothing.  The spring they have is shallow and small.  The only real way they could improve the water situation is to pipe it in.  

   

Lazareni's water source for the whole village.

This is where we got a our lesson in prejudice.  Guess what the odds are of getting this pipe put in? Zero.  The politicians promise much but do nothing.  Because this is a gypsy village it can expect nothing in the way of aid.  What our main ministry was for the most part was to show people some compassion who very rarely receive any.  In this case, it was to give the kids some affection and attention despite the fact that bath night was non existent and has been so for quite some time.

In short, Lazareni has only enough water to do basic dish washing and on occasion laundry.  The one mile trek to get the water means that it is rationed carefully.  There is no running water so no toilets (out houses) or sinks or irrigation, etc. Hygiene is almost non-existent.  In short during our ministry there was an odor that was a combination of many body smells.

One of the funny moments for me with this, at my daughters expense, happened because of this.  My daughter has had one wish since planning this trip: to hold a Romanian baby.  She got her wish.  During the program one of the young mothers handed her a baby.  It was naked (a girl) because there is no extra water for cloth diapers and it smelled bad.  My daughter looked like she was going to gag but she held out and remained her sweet self.  It does; however, illustrate the problem for Lazareni.  It is not that they want to be that way, they simply have not the resources to change it and no where to go because of prejudice.

That night, when we got back most of us wanted to take a shower and then felt guilty for doing so.  The children of Lazareni did not get such a luxury, but we gave them hope that things can be good for a little while.  This would be the whole team's one and only day with Lazareni but it was a powerful one.  The dental team would return, but the rest of us would not return.

Next: Cheresig
Previous: The A Plus Team

Romania Reflections - Part 3 - June 16 - The A Plus Team

Team Romania 2011. 

One of the largest concerns I always have when ministering in an unknown situation is who I am working with while I am doing that ministry.  I need not have worried at all as these are some of the best people I have had to work with ever.

June 16 was a travel day.  We left Budapest after our 'family time' and drove three or four hours to the border of Hungary to cross into Romania at Oradea.  It was a long trip and most took naps.  The scenery was a cross between North Dakota for flatness and southern Michigan for tree lines and farms.  Me: I found further use for my Kindle.  I am pretty sure everyone was tired because they got little sleep the night before.  At the border, we turned in our passports and after a 15 minute wait crossed into Romania.  Oradea, Romania: which was right across the border, would become our second home for the days to come.  Our hotel, the Continental would be our place of residence. This hotel had bigger rooms but for the most part was similar to the first one except the color of the rooms.

That night we ate dinner at an Italian place.  I had Pizza and have to say it was different.  I am not sure but I think the sauce was actually ketchup and the cheese was real stuff.  It was good but I noticed some green stuff in the cheese.  It is here that I got to know the team better and throughout the rest of the night as we headed to Oradea's walking street for ice cream.

The Team: (if you go back up to the picture and go left to right bottom row then top row you can follow along)

Bottom Row
Tom - Our leader, been going to Romania for 38 years.  More on him later

Courtney - part of the dental team.  First class lady built like an athlete.

Daniel Jr (on Dani's lap) - 5 and a half (emphasis on the half).  Great young man.  I am impressed how much at five he would take in stride.

Dani - college student and a wonderful smile.  The gypsy girls loved redoing her hair.

Nick - I loved this guy.  He had a lot of energy and on one occasion (which I will talk about later) was a real help to me.  The gypsy boys loved him because he looked a lot like them.

Daniel (in back) - Great guy.  The best thing I can say about this former army airborne and pro football player is that he is a great father.

Dr. Kelly (middle) - Dentist. Daniel's wife. Great mom. 

Jasmine 'Jazzy' (front on lap) - Jazzy turned seven on this trip.  A extremely cute girl and I think she knows it.

Kristen - also part of the dental team.  Big brown eyes and a fabulous smile.  Why is this girl still single?  Apparently there are some really stupid guys where she lives.

Top Row
Nancy - Unofficial den mother.  She had never been out of the country before either.  In fact she had hardly been anywhere in her life until this trip.

DJ - Former college Professor who is retired.  He was the construction guy.

Kathy - DJ's wife.  College Provost and wonderful lady. Runner.

Ed - me. I was the only pastor in the group.

Patience - my daughter and the greatest 17 year old on the planet.

Sarah - College student and the one person who really befriended my daughter.  I think she holds the record for the most naps taken on the trip by one person.

Aaron - Great young man.  High school student.  Impulsive at times but that kept things from getting dull.  He and his sidekick Dani along with Phil made things more interesting at times. 

Armani (head) - I cannot say enough about the heart of this guy. If there was a guy on the team with more of a heart for the gypsies, I do not know who it was. 

Phil- Phoenix firefighter.  A somewhat twisted sense of humor at times which I liked.

Carmela - I had several morning conversations at breakfast with Carmela.  This is a wonderful woman with a real heart for her job running the sponsorship program for Hope 4 Kids.  She had to leave a little early and we noticed her absence immediately.

Just a note: Daniel, Kelly, Armani, Nic, Jasmine and Daniel, Jr are all the Wright family. 

It was Carmela and Tom that would dub us later in the week as the A Plus team.  They were impressed and looking back on it so am I.  We did a lot for 19 people and we were small enough that there was some family elements to our relationships at the end.

Next: Lazareni
Previous: Falling in Love with Budapest.

Romania Reflections - Part 2 - June 15 - Falling in Love with Budapest

Buda Castle - Budapest.

Now anyone knowledgeable about me knows one thing concerning me and cities.  I don't like them.  In fact, most of them I detest even being near them.  I hate traffic, crowds and the whole noisy business of being in cities.  The only city in the US I remotely tolerate is Grand Rapids, Michigan and that is truly just tolerate because it is the city I am most familiar with and it is THE city of West Michigan.

All that said -- I have fallen in love with a city - Budapest, Hungary. 

Why? Because it is a beautiful city, rich in art, culture and history.  It has traffic and even here European drivers are crazy, but I never once felt inconvenienced by the traffic, you can walk everywhere.  There were few crowds and those mostly were congregated around street performers.  It was not noisy.  The old stone buildings seem to muffle sound so well.  It was completely unlike any city I have been in with a charm that is truly unique. 

We arrived in Buda-Pest (originally two cities on opposite sides of the Danube River) at roughly 11am June 15th and after an hour getting through customs, gathered out bags, got into a shuttle and were taken to our hotel - The Mercure.  Our room was small by American standards, but looking back on it it hardly mattered because all we used it for was a place to sleep and shower.  It was here that we were introduced to three things that were different.  1) Light switches are much lower like I had to bend over a bit to hit them.  2) Toilets that flush on a timer and well I like them.  In my entire time in Hungary and Romania they always worked and never got clogged. 3) In order to get the electricity to work in our room we had to insert our key card in a slot. 

We met the rest of the team later, introduced ourselves and then went to dinner. 

We ate at a restaurant called Fatal which is down a walking street alley.  We did not starve in fact many of us did not finish our meal as it was a lot of food.  Meat and homemade noddles kind of stuff that sticks to your ribs.  It is here that we also met two of Tom Eggum's friends that are missionaries in the city.  They took us on a walking tour of the city as dusk gave way to night.

Matthias Church where Hungarian kings were crowned.

We saw so much: Buda Castle, the Chain Bridge, Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion.  We stood on top of the Bastion after taking the tram ride up the side of the  hill and you could see the whole city.  By then it was night time and to be honest I liked the city even better at night.  We did a lot more walking and sightseeing and rode the subway back to the hotel.  I am pretty sure we didn't see even a small part of what there was to see.  The Hungarians have definitely renovated this into a top tourist destination in Europe and they are continuing to improve it.  Somewhere along the line, I fell in love with a city, unfortunately it is over 4000 miles away.

Next: The A Plus Team
Previous: Expectations and Travel.