“You know, we’ve been on a lot of adventures together so far,” I told Sam at some point in our recent travels. It is true, and we both feel incredibly blessed for all the wonderful adventures we have been able to experience together so far in our marriage.
Our most recent adventure was a trip to Moldova to visit some friends. Moldova is a small country to the northwest of Romania, which was at one point a part of Romania. The official national language of Moldova is Romanian, which is nice for Sam and me, but previously the national language was Russian and many people still speak it, which neither of us understands. Thankfully our hosts spoke perfect English, which is always a blessing for us.
Our journey began Friday afternoon as we took a Blabla car to the Bucharest train station, which is about a three-hour trip from Craiova. Our driver dropped us off at the edge of town, so we walked to the nearby metro station and rode the Romanian subway to the train station. I had packed us a picnic supper and we ate at the train station while we waited for our train, and at 7:00 we boarded a sleeper train headed for Chisinau, Moldova.
My first time on a train of any sort was when I first moved to Romania, and this was my first experience on a sleeper train. Sam and I had our own little room with two benches and a small table. We opened the window and read and studied for a while, and before long we began to try to go to sleep. Neither of us slept much, but it was enough to feel rested, and much better than sitting upright all night. We crossed the Romanian/Moldovan border at 3:00 a.m. and we had to go through passport control and customs right there on the train. It was a good experience, but we were very thankful when we arrived in Chisinau.
We had a wonderful few days with our friends in Moldova. Actually, we had never met these friends in person before, but it is amazing how God’s perfect plan for His family brings so many people together and we are able to have common fellowship through Christ.
Monday afternoon we boarded the train again to return to Romania, and we arrived in Bucharest at 6:00 a.m. We got coffee at a McDonalds in the train station and read, studied, and began our morning at a table at McDonalds. We didn’t have any food left, so we walked to a grocery store to buy some fruit and bread for breakfast, then we walked to the Palace of Parliament.
The Palace of Parliament was begun by the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, but not completed before his assassination in 1989, and it is one of the largest buildings in the world. We took a tour of the palace and we were amazed at all the ornate details, marble, gold, and the massive size of everything. I was intrigued to learn that 99% (or more) of the materials for building were sourced from Romania.
After our tour we ate lunch at an Indian restaurant. Our first date was to an Indian restaurant in Tampa, FL, and we both love Indian food. We were quite pleased to find a place to get some in Bucharest!
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening studying at a coffee shop and visiting a friend from Bucharest before heading to the airport!
Part of my family arrived last night for a two-week visit to Romania! Daddy will join us next week. We had night filled with more adventures in a taxi, on the train, and again on another taxi before we finally arrived home, thankful and exhausted.
Now we are ready for many more adventures in the next two weeks!
We know that God is the one who causes growth; He is the one who gives the increase, but it is sometimes easy to be discouraged when we do not see apparent growth or increase.
We have lived in Craiova for almost six months, and as of now the church has no new members and no regular visitors. We have events and studies, but often no one comes. Sam passes out hundreds and thousands of flyers, posts countless posters, and we advertise regularly online, but the results we have seen are few.
And it is easy to get discouraged.
It is hard for me to see Sam work so tirelessly every day, studying diligently, coming up with new ideas and methods for reaching people, and getting out of his comfort zone to get out and talk to strangers in a country where he is unfamiliar with the culture and unaccustomed to the language, and not be discouraged for his sake. Sometimes I think, “Don’t these people see how passionate he is and how hard he is working? Why won’t they respond?” But I know this is the wrong way to think. I am thinking too much in physical terms, expecting to see a tangible result of spiritual efforts. No amount of effort on our parts will force people to make the decision to turn their lives to Christ; that is up to them and God. All we can do is keep diligently sowing the seed and give the rest to God.
The gospel is still growing in Craiova, whether or not we see the results with our eyes. We have heard countless stories of conversions that resulted from a single small seed planted years ago. With so many seeds planted all over the city, from flyers to posters, to events and conversations, we pray that one day one of these seeds will grow in someone’s heart and prompt them to turn to God for help and salvation.
Yet even if one of these seeds does not take root, the gospel is still growing. Sam and I have both grown so much from this experience, and we continue to learn every day. We are learning to rely on God and His timing, not our own plans and ideas of success.
And He is causing the growth.
Before we were going to talk together, I wanted to write down some thoughtful questions about their beliefs. Questions I wanted to know, questions I think others would like to know so I got my pen out and jotted them down. I wrote down questions like, “How do you explain the gospel of Jesus Christ?” “How do you authorize your worship? Bible? Creeds? or Tradition?” and “What is the biggest threat to your church today?” I had seven questions in all. I kissed Julie. Then I started walking down the apartment steps.
My friend Adrian scheduled this meeting for me after I told him I have been trying to talk to an Orthodox priest without success. He was the translator. Walking into the church was not the most welcoming. It was quite dark and candles were lit. The painting of the saints covering the walls seemed were dark, flat, black. There was a girl in the corner with her head on a shelf and her hand on an icon. She just stood there leaning.
Mihai had to leave the conversation for 20 minutes to bless some food for a walk-in believer. After he returned we concluded our discussion with the main threat of the Church. “What is the main threat for the church today?” “Peace,” he replied. No one has peace today and that is what everyone looks for. And because they don’t have peace, they aren’t able to live right. It’s like a tree which can’t bear fruit because the winds are pressing against it. The world needs peace. With that, I asked if we could talk next week about worship, baptism, singing, and icons. Lord-willing Adrian will visit Mihai again next week.
“The wives are the ones who really go through the difficulty. They are the real heroes.” I heard this statement as one man was giving a missionary report. I thought, “What do the wives do? How can they be called the heroes?” Well, after the last 4 months I am learning what he meant. Living in a different country is disorientating. The culture is unusual. The way of life is unfamiliar. The attitudes are different. Julie is facing this all and I’m trying to help. Going through this, I have thought about how to think about difficulties and want to share some thoughts that have helped me.
Our first few months were difficult. At first Julie would share her trials with me and I would try to think of ways to encourage her. I know guys like to problem solve rather than empathize so I was trying to listen. Though I didn’t know what to say, it was hard for me to keep quite. I thought it would be more encouraging to say something wrong than to say nothing at all. I said things like “It would get better” and “God is our rock, we just need to trust.” Then some days got better and some days got worse.
Eventually my line “things would get better” had to stop because things weren’t getting better. It has been 4 months already and things are just as hard as they were before. Also, the line “God is our rock, we just need to trust,” had to go. First, if you know Julie, then you know she has trust and she is not lax about faith. Secondly, the line had to retire because it assumed with more trust everything would get better. This idea is dangerous because of its corollary: if things are bad, then you are not trusting. This is not true. This is not biblical.
After studying the Lament Psalms in my seminary class this week I began to realize how comforting they are. In these psalms the writer tells God of his distress and then he calls on God for help. Calling out to God in distress, a kind of complaining, is biblical and it can be used as a device to depend on God. Sadly, we often portray faithful Christians as those who have everything figured out. Yet Lament Psalms show us we can be confused, feel hopeless, and still place faith in God. We don’t have to suffocate by the expectation of internal harmony; we can be have hope in spite of our strife. So I think the right way to think of difficulties is that it is okay. It is okay for things to be difficult. God will either take away the difficulty or he will give you the strength to bear it. People who overcome difficulties are heroes. While I am here in Romania, not suffering in comparison to Julie, I can say she is the real hero. She is conquering much every single day.
We now live in Craiova!
We knew our contract for our current apartment ran out on November 3; so about two weeks before that deadline we began looking for apartments in Craiova. We did not know how quickly we would be able to find something, but thankfully we knew we could live with Sam’s parents again until we found a place.
One Wednesday night before our normal weekly trip to Craiova I looked at apartments online and made a detailed list of different places I thought would work, their addresses, price, and distance from the city center. But when Sam began calling the owners on Thursday morning every. single. one said the apartment was not available. I’m still not exactly sure what happened or why the apartments were still on the website, but maybe something was just lost in translation. After our study we got back on the website and began searching more, hoping to look at some places before we left since we only made the two hour trip to Craiova once a week typically. Sam found a listing that looked like it might work! The pictures looked nice and the description said it was very near the center, which is just what we were looking for! It was also in our price range, so we called the owner and we were able to make an appointment to go see it.
As we made our way there we were surprised at how long it took to get there, and it was not very near the center at all. The apartment was nicely furnished, just as we saw in the pictures, but it had a very heavy smoke smell in the whole apartment, especially in the bedroom. I was sorry to be picky, but I really did not think we would be able to get the smell out and make it work.
We still had a little over a week left though, so we made plans to try again the next Thursday.
However, on Monday Sam randomly decided to look at new listings on the website. I was in the kitchen cooking or cleaning and I heard him talking on the phone. He had found a new listing near the center, but there were no pictures. The agency working for the owner sent him a video of the interior and when Sam showed it to me I could not believe it. It was near the center, reasonably priced, and extremely nice! Sam called back the agency and told them we were interested, but there was already someone else who was scheduled to look at the apartment that afternoon. Sam told them that if he did not want it that we would be there the following day to see it.
The rest of that day and Tuesday morning was back and forth. The other man did not want it, then he did. Then the owner did not want to rent to him because he could not speak Romanian. Since we cannot speak very well either we did not think there was a chance of us getting to rent it. But Sam tried and sent an email to the owner, telling her our story of why we are in Romania, explaining our Romanian speaking abilities, and asking her to let us rent from her. The next morning the agency called saying the owner agreed to rent to us, before even having met us! We began packing right away and brought a load up to Craiova that afternoon.
We feel incredibly blessed for everything to have fallen in place so nicely and we are so thankful to God for answering prayers and helping us through it all!
Here is a tour of our new home!
This is the entryway/foyer when you first walk in the door.
This is our lovely kitchen! It is a little smaller than our last kitchen, but it is all really nice and I have enjoyed cooking in it so much so far.
This table can be extended to twice the length, so when we have guests we bring it into the living room and extend it, but when it is in the kitchen it is extra counter space while I’m cooking.
Here is our living room! Since we just moved here and we are just getting started we have been having worship services and Bible studies in our apartment. The spacious living room with lots of seating has been great for that and we are really thankful.
I also have my desk in the living room, which I have really enjoyed. If we ever need this table it can be easily cleared off and moved, but it is nice not having to clean up my books and papers for every meal.
This is Sam’s desk in our bedroom. He has also enjoyed having a real desk. So far this set-up has been working really well for both of our studies.
Here is our bed! We love our “Peters” pillow and tree painting with S+J on the tree.
So far we are settling in nicely in Craiova! Now that the apartment is all unpacked and cleaned it is nice to have a comfortable place to go while we are getting used to everything. We are still taking a trip once a week back to Severin to stay with Sam’s parents and meet with the brethren there. For the first two weeks we drove there on Saturday, spent the night and worshipped with the brethren in Severin Sunday morning, then come back to Craiova for our services at 5:00. Last week we traveled to Severin on Friday and Sam’s parent’s came back with us to spend the day in Craiova and return on the train.
Right now we are encouraged and excited to be here in Craiova and we pray our work here will be pleasing and glorifying to God!