Romania journal #1

What a week of mission in Romania! So much happened, I'm going to publish my daily journal on here for those who want to get a feel for the experience we had. All comments welcome...

Day 1 - So that's day one. What a long day... Left home at 3:10a.m and have flown twice, caught a bus and then a train. Warmly welcomed by church Pastor Marian and his wife Mariana. His story of faith involves coming to faith after his son had been badly scalded and the doctors had given up hope and even said, 'only God can save him now'. So though not believers, they prayed and their son miraculously pulled thru'.

Tomorrow we attend their church service which should be interesting. Fortunate to find ourselves sleeping in the pastor's house; Gwynneth and Rachel have a bed, Charlotte and Monica, our guide, have a bed, while Terri and Claire have chosen the tent in the yard, from where they can hear all the wild dogs, of which there are loads, yelling and yelping, as well as the incessant racket of the crickets' chatter.

Tom and I are on a hard floor with Jacov a 23 yr old from Finland. He's been 4 weeks in Slovakia already, here for a short while then he's off to Bosnia. Another guy, David, from Basingstoke, is stopping off here on his way to Moldova tomorrow. Monica is a great girl. 23 yrs old, a Christian 5 yrs, difficult home background, she's preparing for mission work in Kosovo, then possibly Afghanistan. She's going to be in UK for several months training, in London and Birmingham, starting later this month. Already we are hoping that she will be able to visit Bethany during her stay.

We had a nicely prepared meal of chips, egg, tomato and cheese, washed down by much water. Tom and I have very basic sanitation, to say the least, whilst the girls have luxurious facilities in comparison.

We are who knows where. You've heard of the middle of nowhere. Well, we're in the middle of the middle of nowhere. Place called Padureni. Good luck finding that on a map!

Moments of the day...
1. On arrival at Bucharest airport, Charlotte wanted to gather us together and pray a prayer of thanks for a safe arrival. What a girl!

2. Terri experiencing flight for the first time...much squealing, squawking, with dial turned up to eleven.

3. Terri discovering travelators- cue more squealing, and laughter and mocking from Tom/ 'Terri can't do travelators.'

4. Gwynneth giving Rachel and I a fright on the plane. Rachel thought she was being sick. I thought she had suddenly burst into tears. Truth was she was choking on her boiled sweets. She was ok. We laughed.

Good night campers!