Serving Romania

We did this about 1.5 years ago.  People could post questions, about anything, the ministry, life in Romania, our family, etc….and we answered them on this blog.  Some really good questions came in, and I noticed that people seemed to respond well to the 2-way communication thing.  Plus, it gave us insight into what people are curious about over here.  So, I think it’s time we did it again.  All you have to do to post a question is leave a comment on this post, or any other post for that matter.  We will see the question, take note of it, and begin answering them shortly.  So…ask away!

Some more photos of the kids and us…to keep the grandmas, sisters, and sisters in law happy.

ADRIANA

CAITRIN

SEBASTIAN

Dang, these kids are cute!

Romania has sweet and sour cherries and we like them both.  Generally I (Jon) prefer the sweet, while Becca and the kids prefer the sour variety.  Dr. David has about 17 sour cherry trees near his house and this year, like 2 years ago, he gave us a tree to pick for ourselves - last summer we were in the States during the harvest and missed out.  Below are some photos of our harvest day this last Saturday.  What did we do with all those cherries?

- We made homemade sour cherry juice concentrate.  We mix about 1 parts concentrate to 5-6 parts water (Still or sparkling) and add some lemon or lime juice for a great drink.  It’s also good for making homemade Cherry Coke or Cherry Pepsi!
- We preserved about 10 jars of cherry jam.
- We made a bunch of homemade cherry fruit roll-up snacks for the kids.
- We made cherry torts.
- We preserved a sort of cherry topping - good on ice cream - or other desserts.

So, for the photos…click to enlarge.

Romania is a land of contrasts.
- Large mansions with granite counter-tops next to small wooden shacks with no indoor plumbing.
- Eight dollar gallons of gas sold near 1 dollar pounds of fresh cherries.
- 6 figure automobiles on the road next to Eastern Bloc produced cars with side panels made of compressed wood fibers (Trubant), or even horse drawn carts, or maybe both.

This photo above is a prime example.  Click on it to enlarge it.  I assume it’s from Bucuresti, the capital.  In it we see a Ferrari (that costs more than a house) being pulled by a Daewoo Tico (that costs less than a skateboard) using a rope.  Notice the contrast of the debilitated housing in which the young man likely lives, and the sheet metal garages he is planning on putting his luxury automobile in.  Contrast? yes.  Funny? only for a minute because there is a sad reality behind the mentality and it shows up far too often in far too many places.  Unacceptable excesses in a land of incredible needs often camouflaged by surface level cover-ups.

The grandmothers of our children will not appreciate this article…so if either of you are reading, stop.  The following article is from HotNews, an online English news paper in Romania.  We don’t need stats to tell us what the article below makes plain.  Even our Romanian friends will admit that driving in Romania can be risky business.

What is strange is that just 1.5 hours away in Hungary, the driving is relatively calm, relaxing, and safe.  Roads are well marked, there is ample road lighting and reflectors, there are margins, turn lanes, people stay in their lanes, they signal, they let you merge in, etc.  Romania is not quite that way.  I used to drive a lot in Tijuana and I think that is the closest comparison I can make.  There are two main issues.  1) road conditions and lack of infrastructure, 2) the very aggressive “I’m-the-only-one-on-the-road-and-I-own-it-so-get-the-*&#%$-out-of-my-way” attitude of many (but not all) drivers towards all vehicles (big and small) as well as pedestrians.

For example.  We live on a very small street used by only 6 families.  It’s a dirt road in very poor condition with only about 1 foot of extra space on each side of the car.  Because we live in the first duplex on the street, everyone must go past us to get to their place.  2 of our 6 neighbors drive like complete maniacs up and down the street to get to their houses….like their pants are on fire or something.  A few weeks back I had to go have a little “discussion” with one of these neighbors after I saw him fish-tailing up the street while one of the kids was on the drive way.  I was firm and not so polite.  I told him to cool it because this is not a highway.  His response was that he was in a hurry.  I told him “I understand, I hurry too sometimes, and you have my permission to hurry all the way until you reach the beginning of this street of ours….then you slow down, understand?  There are 4 kids (our 3 plus 1 from our neighbor) who play out here sometimes.  Drive slower!”  He promised to do so.

Then, I was at a store about 2 weeks ago, and I saw something I had never seen before and I had to buy it.  A sign that says, “Attention, children”  So, I hung it on the fence in front of our place that faces the road hanging out on a stick so that you almost feel like you are going to hit it when you drive by it.  So far, they seem to have got the message, at least going up the driveway because you can only see the sign from that direction.  Then they drive like blazes coming back down.  Maybe I need to purchase another one and put it facing the downward direction too, just to be clear.

So anyway, below is the very short article that prompted the tirade above.

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Romania is among the European states with the highest number of road accidents

de Sorana Mihailescu, transl/adapt. C.B. HotNews.ro Luni, 22 iunie 2009, 10:23 English | Archive

Romania is listed among the European states recording a high number of road accidents, according to a study published on Monday by the European Council for Transport Security, France Press agency quotes. Road accidents claimed around 39,000 lives last year on the EU’s roads last year.

Against 2007, the figures dropped by 8.5%, but the EU wants to see the number of fatal accidents reduced to half. If the rhythm is maintained, the EU will need seven years to meet its aim.

The streets in Sweden, Great Britain and Switzerland (countries that are non-EU or partial EU member) are the safest in Europe, after the roads in Malta. Here there are less than 50 dead for each million citizens. Norway, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Spain, France, Denmark, Luxemburg and Italy are among the countries with a low rate of road accident fatal accidents.

On the other hand, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Greece, Poland and Lithuania are close to 150 dead people in road accidents for each million citizens.

Several countries considered to have dangerous roads reduced the statistics considerably. Estonia is one of them: -33%, Lithuania: -33% and Slovenia: -27%. The European researchers explained that the improving is due to the economic crisis and to the increased fuel prices. Despite this, in Romania and Bulgaria, the rates have gone up.

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” - Robert Frost

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I am not sure I agree with this statement or not. Perhaps I agree with part of it. The part about not losing self-confidence. But I am not sure I agree with the part about losing our temper. Are there some things worth losing our temper over? Yes, but course most of the things we lost our temper over are silly.  In fact if there are things worth losing our temper over, shouldn’t they be those things we know the most about (i.e. - education)?  It makes much more sense to get upset about something we understand or can control, than about something we don’t understand or cannot control.

Just today, I was in the middle of a very long email to a Dr. here in Romania, and the page just changed…while I was typing. I lost everything and had to start all over again. I hit my hand on my desk out of frustration. That’s silly and I realize it. But there are things worth hitting our hands on the table for…or things worth raising our voices over…or things worth getting red-faced about?  And what does education have to do with controlling those emotions?

There are somethings in the world that we have a responsibility to get angry about.  Any emotion other than anger is completely unacceptable.  I can think of a bunch, but I don’t want to ruin your fun.  Can you think of some?  In what situations is anger totally warranted?  Jesus showed anger at appropriate times…even in the temple, i.e. - the middle of church.  Jesus didn’t sin in his anger or unjustly bear his anger on others because of his own short-comings.  Any anger expressed by Jesus was expressed because of a justifiable cause and was borne down upon those justly deserving the emotion.

Jesus was indeed confident in himself (actually in himself and his Father).  He was and is the only person able to have complete self-confidence and he also has complete “education” or understanding.  We would expect in that case, to find no anger in Jesus.  Of course there are those who believe Jesus was never angry and they will use every means possible to try to show that.  But from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible and everywhere in between, we find God angry, among other things of course.

The key for Him, and principle for us, is that God was and is only angry for completely justifiable reasons, and His anger is always and only expressed in appropriate manners.  As a disclaimer I should mention that our “appropriate manners” are more limited than His because we are not, all knowing, all holy, or all powerful.  If we don’t understand that we will be tempted to do stupid things like kill abortionists.  We should be angry about something as barbaric as abortion, but we have no legal or moral rights to take judgment into our own hands.  If an abortionist should be killed, he or she should meet their end by the just means of law, trial, and punishment once they are found guilty of homicide.  I use that example only because it is a current event and an easy one to stir emotions over.

In summary:  hitting desk because you lose an email - wrong.  Being outraged at a child who has been abused, or an elderly person who has been scammed, or a church that has become nothing but a marketplace (in Jesus’ case) - perfectly OK, and nothing less expected.

Today, June 12th, marks 10 years since the day of our wedding.  Looking back to that day I’m struck by a few thoughts.  First of all, by manner of appearance and beauty, Becca has scarcely changed, if at all.  I on the other hand…well, can anyone tell me what God does with all of that hair He reclaims?

The second thing I sense, is the quick passage of time.  There are moments when it feels like our wedding was only a few weeks ago.  No wonder I am surprised when I wake up in the morning and find 3 kids in my house, and I can’t remember who they are or how they got here.

There are many other things that strike me as I reflect on 10 years of marriage, but I will share just one more with you.
God’s grace is immense.  How in the world He saw fit to fill my customized order for a wife I will never know.
God - “You want what?!  Are you kidding?  Look at you.  I love you, a bunch; but, come on.  Not her.  Let’s be reasonable here, to say nothing about being realistic.  There’s lots of fish in the sea.  Let’s find one more in your ‘price range’ shall we?”.

That’s what I expected to hear from God, and indeed believed I was hearing for a number of years prior to our marriage.  But in the end, when my requests were “this and that, that and this, and a little extra this, and a bit more that” God saw fit to grant me even more than I could have imagined.  Solomon said that the love of his wife was better than wine.  Keeping with that imagery, I am sure that God dipped into his private vintage when he so generously offered me Becca as my wife.  And true to form, she has gotten only better with time.  As we might wish with all bottles of fine, expensive wine, the bottle of Becca’s goodness seems to be bottomless.  She continues to give, sacrifice, and serve, despite those of us on the receiving end.

So, with joy, I reflect on the past 10 years with my wonderful wife.  And with hope and more grace from God, I look forward to the next decade with her as well.

Thank you Becca for all you’ve done, all you are doing, and all you will continue to do to be an exceedingly good wife.  The inside of my wedding ring bears an inscription: “…my cup runneth over.” - - how true that is.

“The church is the sleeping giant here.  If it wakes up to what is really going on in the rest of the world, it has a real role to play.  If it doesn’t, it will become irrelevant.” - Bono

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I like Bono for some reasons (mostly related to U2’s early albums) but I dislike him for others (mostly related to his sunglasses and U2’s musical direction since the mid 90’s).  While I am not so sure that Bono is the best person to look to for advice or authority on issues of the Church and Scripture, he has a good point in this instance.  The danger is that this quote could be taken the wrong way.

WRONG WAY or WRONG UNDERSTANDING: If the church doesn’t become relevant and begin to get with the program of what’s going on (i.e. - get on the boat with all the social changes in society - the feminization of culture, environmentalism (earth worship), homosexuality, legalized/commercial drug addition, just to name a few) they will miss the chance to make their mark.

This perspective or interpretation of Bono’s statement is wrong for a number of reasons:

#1 - the church does not have to become relevant - it is already relevant.  The Bible, and therefore the church, has much to say about every topic that has ever been thrust upon mankind since the garden of Eden.  The Bible is always relevant.  The question (and I think this is where Bono is right, is that the church must “wake up” to the fact that it has some very important, relevant, and right things to say about the complete chaos going on around us and in the lives of so many.

#2 - we are not to “get with the program”.  Frankly, “the program” is demonic.  The church is not called to express any of the current trends in a Christian manner or with a Christian twist.  I will avoid the touchy issues and deal with environmentalism.  What is the churches role?  That may seem like a good question, but in fact it shows how irrelevant we feel we are.  The church does not have a “role”, it has the answer!  As if there was this huge problem, and the church might have some perspective to offer, or might help be part of the solution.  Let’s just start a church recycling program, or ask the church members to drive fuel efficient cars.  The fact is that whether we will admit it or not, the church holds the key to issues like environmental problems.  Because the Bible give us the proper framework for understanding the proper relationship between Creator, created, and creation.  God is creator, we are created, and we live in creation.  When we understand the flow of relationship, and the responsibility we have to be stewards, we neither error on the side of domination or submission under creation.

Does that make sense?  But to view the situation as “the world has a problem.  The world has a solution.  The church needs to help.”  is a wrong starting point.  This is the way we should approach it.  The world has a problem.  Man is the problem.  God made both the world and man.  God has the answers.  God has given the answers to his people.  We need to teach people about him and implement his solutions.”  That kind of thinking can be applied to any problem, from environmental concerns, to the breakdown of the family.

The problem with so many of these issues is that the church has been castrated and no longer produces the testosterone to step up to the plate and speak boldly about such issues.  A few people I know come to mind, unbelievers, who have been very vocal about their stances on issues like abortion, kids, birth-control, prescription medication, gender roles, and homosexuality.  The ironic thing is that not only are they bold in their opinions, but those opinions line up with a Biblical perspective.  And yet, too many of us as believers, have been brainwashed into thinking that it’s almost illegal to speak the truth on such issues.

I am not proposing we hold signs outside of various establishments or on street corners.  I am proposing that we start in the pulpit, and at our dinner tables, talking plainly about the issues that we face today.  And that as a result of that, we speak plainly to the outside world, and make decisions accordingly.  While at the outset, we may appear to be the only insane ones in a world of normal, highly tolerant, educated people, over time society will be forced to recognize, at least in part that God, His Word, and His Church, ARE relevant in this backwards world.

If we fail at that, we will be written off as irrelevant.  Much like the sharp knife that is lost in the back of the drawer - it could be very useful, but it is overlooked and hidden.  The difference is that someone mistakenly placed the sharp knife in the back of the drawer.  It’s not the knife’s fault.  Whereas we as the Church have relegated ourselves into obscurity on purpose, motivated by fear, cowardice, and a lack of anything to say.

Back to the original quote.  The church must wake up (i.e. realize) that it does indeed have a very significant role to play and that role is to speak sound Biblical truth to the issues going on in the world.  That is the only relevant thing to do.

I have been getting in trouble for not putting up pictures.  So here you go.  Click to enlarge them and see a description.

“Joy is the serious business of heaven.” - C.S. Lewis

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What an amazing and yet simple statement.  And the interplay between words of lightness (joy and heaven) and heaviness (serious and business) is brilliant.

I cannot remember where I heard it first, but I have certainly heard it more than once: “our situation was so difficult, so stressful that we had no other option than to laugh.”  We have all been though trials and circumstances in our lives, to greater or lesser degrees, that place enourmous stress on us.  For our family, the adjustments required to move to a foreign nation, live on support, and work within a different cultural framework created plenty of stress, and a few trials as well.  And I think we are learning, although God keeps raising the bar, how to find joy as a serious occupation.

We find testimony to this in the letters of Paul, where joy becomes a discipline for him like many of the other godly disciplines: something to be practiced, exercised, and invoked,  despite the circumstance, or perhaps rather necessitated by them.