Romanian Adventures Part 2.

I'm going to start categorizing so we can get through this in some semblance of order! Today will be the churches! :)

One of the first churches we went to was a Gyspy church. This was the church with the kids that stole my heart. :) 

I loved the kids at the other churches too, but there was something about this group of kids that got at me; maybe because I had more time with them than some of the other groups... I'm afraid I caused a rumpus and taught them wild hand-games and made them far too loud....but it was all in good fun, and they loved it as much as I did. Besides--hand-games like thumb-wars, and the slapping game and Down-By-The-Banks--don't require much translation, which was a boon as I didn't want to bother Cristi and they didn't speak much English. :) 

This was also the church where Matthew earned the nickname "Justin Bieber". Every tween-aged girl in that church wanted their picture taken with him...and only him. Cristi and I came up with the nickname almost simultaneously, and it stuck for the rest of the trip! Here is the evidence of that night:

Hahahahaha. Oh m'gooooodness. We had so much fun teasing Bieber about that night!

The churches we were working with (and staying with) are Baptist churches, and I found the depth of passion for Christ in these places extremely inspiring/challenging. It isn't easy not being Orthodox, as the Orthodox church is the one that the government supports, yet the believers in these churches are so joyful and faithful...some of the most courageous people I have ever met. 

We were staying in apartments in Pastor John's own church, which was really neat. It's a huge echoing building all built of tile and cement and glass (they don't believe in wood construction because they don't last long enough) so we would go stand at the very top floor and sing down the stairwell. Our favorites were "The Misty Mountain Song" and "Pentatonix: Somebody that I Used to Know". Such fun. We even got some of the songs on recording, which is pretty neat. The guys loved to play around with photography on the various levels of the church building in the evenings! They are really good with the cameras and effects if I do say so myself. (Credit for all these photos is going to Daphne Edmonston, Daniel Tate, Matthew, and Justin Wright.)

Arad was a beautiful city in it's quiet, patient, turbulent, long-suffering way. :)

Each night we would visit a village church. (if we weren't at Bethel) Some were near to Arad, others we had to drive a distance. I think we visited 7 different churches, all told, some more than once. We made lots of friends this way, and I loved going around to all the different towns! That is one thing you don't usually get to do. The people were so hospitable, and always prepared a meal for us and served us: they wouldn't let us help them do a thing. So sweet. At one village we even got to eat in the mayor's office...Christi enjoyed his momentary prestige. ;)

          

I enjoyed every village for a different reason...some for their natural beauty, like Cladova, others for the people we met. :) The last several churches we visited were overseen by the same deacon, so we got to know he and his family a bit. His daughter is an Audrey Hepburn lookalike, I think! :)

Her name is Bianca, and she speaks far better English than she gives herself credit for, and she's an excellent translator! Actually, her voice is so nice and clear that I found myself often thinking she'd be perfect for a How to Learn Romanian computer program. :D Wow...me and my mind. 

Christi or Pastor John would start off the services with a prayer and a bit of speaking, then they would pass the torch off to us, and we'd do songs and testimonies for the next hour or so. :) It became a daily challenge to try to remember which songs we'd done at which churches, trying not to repeat ourselves too often. At the churches where we did two services, we sometimes had to rearrange so the same group of people wouldn't have to hear the same songs twice. :D It was definitely a mind-game, and toward the end we stopped caring. ;) After all, poor Christi had to translate many of the same testimonies/ mini-sermons over and over. Actually, it was a funny sensation, having the opportunity to retell the same stories of God's faithfulness in my life over and over...I tried to word things differently each time, and ended up gathering several testimonies to rotate so the whole team wouldn't die of boredom. :D 

Christi liked to make us laugh in the middle of services (or would accidentally do so) so we all learned when it was safe or perilous to look at him up there at the pulpit. Once or twice he would be listening to us and translating, and we'd give a spin to our story that he wasn't expecting, and he'd bust into laughter... like the time I used the same opening I had been using for my usual testimony, but launched into a story of God healing my terrible temper as a kid...he gave me this brief, hilarious, befuddled look and then busted out laughing. :D Thankfully it was just a children's service in a tiny church so no one minded. :D

Ahhh....good times. Good times.

All right, then. There you have a post about the various churches. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about Touristy-Things! :)