Romania 2010

Sunday May 30, 2010,

I left Haus Edelweiss at 5 this morning to get to the airport. I made it to my gate with plenty of time to spare. My seat was 7B, in the middle. I went up to the counter to see if I could possible move my seat assignment and also asked if it was a full flight, the answer was “Yes” to both questions. But they took my ticket and said that they would see if they could do something. About 15 minutes before boarding I received my ticket back, 1A. Since the flight was only 1 hour and 25 minutes I figured row A seat 1 coach. It turned out to be Row A seat 1,1^st class. So if does pay to ask I guess.

Vasili was there to drive me back to the church. This makes the 4^th time he’s come to pick me up. It’s always good to see him.

By the time I got to the church (where I will be staying and teaching) the service had already started, so I went to the balcony to see the rest of the worship service.

I met several people I knew from when I was here before and we spoke after church was over. I was good to familiar faces in Romania.

Oti Bunaciu picked me up for lunch after church. We went to La Mama a Romanian restaurant. This is like the third time I’ve been there and I love it.

Tonight I will bring a “greeting” from TCMI and from their brothers and sisters from America especially Mountain Christian Church.

The church Providence Christian Baptist Church is in pretty much a Gypsy or Roma neighborhood and they have a mission to the gypsy, mostly to the children, but also to the whole neighborhood. The church supports a school here called “Project Ruth”. It provides programs for the children in education, literacy, health and hygiene, vocational training, meals and more. There are grades 1-8 and has accreditation status with the government as a private school for the poor and underprivileged.

Church started at 6:00 and was over around 7:30. I gave a greeting also. I have pictures of the mandolin orchestra and the worship team.

There are three college students from the States over here working with the kids in Project Ruth. We went over to Oti’s house for some pizza from Jerry’s Pizza. ‘Nough said. It was good to see Oti’s wife Cammy also. We didn’t get back until after 11:00. Needless to say, it’s been a very long day for me. This is coming to you on Monday because they shut the wireless service down at night and I wasn’t able to access it.

Friday

The inlaid wood shown on the back of the last pew in the church at the Stift.

I did have two pieces of dessert, Pam made sure that the last piece was finished for me.

A house with a thatched roof.

Some of the views in WeinerWald.

Our apartment. Nice and cozy.

Yesterday turned out to be a very interesting day. The morning was taken up with trying to get Easy Worship (I believe that is called an oxymoron) to work correctly. Two problems really: 1.I can get my videos to work, but then after the video when I try and go back to the next slide I can't seem to find it. It's a PowerPoint presentation that I've uploaded into Easy Worship. B. Once I get past slide #53 all the slides look like slide #53 in the preview and live section on my computer, but on the screen is the next slide with the correct words on it. The problem is I can't see a preview of the next slide they are all showing slide #53. Weird!

So after all morning trying to figure out that stuff (still not resolved) Pam and I decided to take off and find a quiet place for lunch. so we headed off into Wienerwald the Vienna Woods. We found a nice Hotel/Restaurant called the Schusternazl the Cobbler/Shoemaker. After lunch we just kind of drove a little around. Pretty scenery. We wound up back at the Stift to purchase some items for the granddaughters.

Here are some pictures of our apartment and yesterdays romp through Wienerwald.

TCMI 2010

Well Pam and I made it to Austria without any problems. We got to the main campus (Haus Edelweiss) around 10 in the morning. In the afternoon we both took a nap. Cathy Kissling took us to the Happy Chinese for dinner since we had no food in our apartment. I had the Happy duck, and i know I was very happy. Can't say the same for the duck though.

When we finally went to bed it was around 10 last night. I didn't wake up until 10 this morning. I can't remember the last time I slept 12 hours.

So right now Pam and I are working on our classes. I leave for Romania Sunday morning around 7:30. Class for me will start on Monday around 10 AM.

Here are some pictures of rainy Austria. The last one is of Debbie Poer picking us up at the airport yesterday. The rest are from the balcony off of our room.

John