Saturday

Well, Pam and I are at the Vienna airport waiting for our flight to DC and then home. I went up to the desk to see if it was a full flight and if they needed any volunteers to be bumped. No such luck. Last time we fly Austrian, I asked and before we knew it we were flying 1st class from Vienna to DC ... very NICE.

This time it's coach. At least Pam has an aisle and I have a window.

Well they are calling our rows.

see ya later.

John

The cooks are preparing lunches that the students will take with them on their way home today.

We had 62 students, so that's a lot of bags with sandwiches in them.

Gwen. Such a dear sweet lady. But I almost gave her a heart attack the other day. Our room has a balcony above a setting area. There are some tables with umbrellas and under the balcony there are some benches. It was after dinner and everyone was just relaxing. It looked like it might start raining and everyone was talking about it. So I got a glass of water and started sprinkling water on one of the stw's. He started singing, "Rain drops keep falling on my head..." But he was the only one getting "rained on". Then I decided to get a little bucket. I filled it only half way and then dropped the water on a spot where there was no one sitting. Well when the water hit the ground it made a big splash and a big noise. I didn't know it at the time, but Gwen was sitting under our balcony. Well when the water hit the ground she jumped out of her seat. And yes, I later went down to make sure the heart defibrillator had worked correctly. No, no she was fine, is fine and so is our friendship.

This is the set up for our last dinner together with the students. it was very nice.

For the past two days it has been raining steadily. But at least it was the heat that we had several days ago.

It was really unbearable. so everyone is liking the rain and the cool air. No one is complaining about it at all.

Well, it's the last day and so... the final exam. One of the students is taking it in English, so that will be an easy test to grade. the 6 others will have to be translated.

Right after the final is over we'll have lunch. And then we will all gather together to pray for the students as they leave for home. Some are driving some will be taken to the airport and some to different train stations. All my Belarus students are driving back home. Take a look at a map of Europe and look at the distance. Also, something that Americans are not at all used to when we travel that distance is that as some of these students go through different countries they will need what is called a transit visa. That would be like a tax posted to allow them to travel though the country. My students traveling to Belarus will go through the Czech Republic and then through Poland and finally into their home land. They are the lucky ones, they will not need a transit visa for any of the countries.

We had our bonfire last night. It was a time for singing, and roasting marshmallows. A lot of the eastern European students have never had marshmallows before. It was a new treat for them.

This is Ion giving his testimony and Violeta translating for him. Ion's testimony is actually a continuance from last year. It's kind of like the sequel. Last year he told us that the Orthodox priest was after him and his family and that he (the priest) would make sure that Ion would be dead within the year. That year was up two weeks after we saw him last year. What follows is his account since then. He told us that the priest was in an accident and was in the hospital. Ion went to see him. When the priest saw him the priest had tears in his eyes. Ion told the priest he was there because he loved him and that God loved him. I thought that was very interesting. Here was this Baptist minister telling a priest of the Orthodox church that God loved him.

It was also at that time that the priests son started coming to the church. The son told Ion not to mention to anyone that he was coming to the church. Ion told him that he really needed to tell his father what was going on. and now that his father and Ion were talking with one another this might be a good time for him to tell his father. A couple of weeks went by and the son showed up at church with a huge smile on his face. He didn't have to tell Ion anything, because Ion knew what the reaction of the priest was with his son. Now that the accident is over he is no longer a priest. So there is hope that he might come to church now. In fact there is a new young priest at the orthodox church and he and Ion have already been talking with each other. This priest has invited Ion to preach at the orthodox church sometime. Ion mentioned that this will probably happen sometime soon.

onday

Rehearsal. We had Americans, Belarussians and Bulgarians on our worship team.

Lean who designed and put all the decorations in the room for that 'sacred place' for us to hold our communion worship service.

Jesus

Scripture reading in three different languages. English, Albanian and Russian.

All the songs we sang we encouraged the people to sing them in their own language if they knew them. We had English and Russian on the screen.

This is a student from Moldovia playing the Nai, the Moldovia national instrument. We know it as a Pan flute.

This was Sergie from Terhan. He gave a testimony.

This is Vidjai a gypsy student from Moldova. Lera is translating from Russian to English for him. When Sergie was speaking she was translating from English (which he said was not very good, but we did all understand him) into Russian.

This is my class around the communion table right after the worship service on Sunday.

This is a picture of all the people who were here for session 3. Actually that's not quite true. A group of Romanian's went to Vienna for worship in a Romanian church there.

Yes, it is that red. If that's really red. Her lipstick is anyway

Ken and Carol Cooper friends of ours from Nesconset NY came to visit us. Ken is a retired air traffic controller and he and Carol are in Germany right now. Ken is teaching new software to air traffic controllers from all over Europe. They've been here a year and have two more to go. We haven't seen them in about 7 years years. Pam and I were glad they had the chance to come down and visit even if it was for only two days.

We went to Baden on Sunday afternoon and heard a concert of Austria music. They were very good.

A statue of a young Strauss.

The class had prepared hard all week long for the worship service on Sunday. We took some time out of class to plan it all out. Everyone had different responsibilities assigned to them. We had to find people who were willing to give a testimony, Oleg's job. Someone to give the communion thought, Andrei's job. We asked a student from Poland, David and he did an outstanding job. People to make the power point slides and also for the two videos we used. Misha and Sergie M, did this for us. Someone to make sure that the communion was ready. Luda and Sergie T did this. Dmitry had to make sure that our special music was ready. But it was the class as a whole who planned it and we all put it into practice on Sunday morning. When everyone was there, we had over 100 people in the room. The singing was in .... I guess at least 4 languages if not more. We did have students from several different language groups. That day We all had a little taste of what it will sound like in Heaven. We may worship our God in different languages; we may worship our God with different worship music and styles, but one thing is clear, we worship ONE GOD and He is our audience of one.

Friday

Most of the students and the STW’s went to Vienna today. It’s our first and really only day off in the two weeks we are here. We will have class again tomorrow. And even though there are no classes on Sunday we will have a worship service in the morning and then a big lunch. Sunday afternoon we do get a little break and take anyone who wants to go up to Baden. It’s about 18 KM (11 miles) up the road from here. Mozart composed an Alleluia for the small church there. Beethoven lived there for awhile while he was writing most of his Missa Solemnis. It’s a very interesting little apartment he lived in for that time. Then it’s back to classes again on Monday – Thursday with the final that morning.

Pam and I decided to stay back on campus today instead of going to Vienna. I know… VIENNA… how could you NOT go? We have gone in the past many times, not that makes a real difference anyway. I have some paper work to finish up for the Sunday service and Pam had some work for her class also. And it’s going to get into the low 90’s today and in Vienna (in the flat lands) it’s going to get even hotter. But the real reason - there’s a pool here!

Since I’m going to be a little busy on Sunday and the rest of the week, let me tell you a little bit about our worship service for Sunday. It’s my class’s responsibility to plan the worship service. I really would love to plan one AFTER the students have taken the whole class, but…

We have an international worship team made up of 2 Americans, a Bulgarian, a Moldovan, a Belarusian and a Belarusian pianist; A special from the Moldovan group and the Bulgarian group, and a testimony all leading up to the central point of the service - communion. We are starting the service with a video with scripture reading in three different languages while the video is going; and the most different idea? No preaching. This will be a first for most of the students especially when most of the students are used to having at least 2 sermons and a worship service that lasts for a good 2 hours.

When we finally finished planning and wrote the outline up one of my students asked why we are having such a short worship service. Then I explained to him about how we have 3 services in a row and why we have 3 in a row. And with a little smile on his face he just shook his head in disbelief.

Communion will be real different also. We are planning to put a table in the center of the room with all the chairs (all 102) around it facing the center. Then when it’s time to partake everyone will come to the table and take a piece of bread and a cup and go back to their seats and take them when they are ready. Most have communion once a month and then it’s handed out like most of our churches do in the states.

Almost time for lunch.

Thursday

Well I finally had some time to talk with him again. I guess the best answers I can give are that they are not as black and white as I thought they might be.

I was asking the wrong questions. It isn’t so much about being a Christian and trying to stay Muslim, it’s letting the love of Christ change you from the inside out. He gave me an example of this. A woman became a Christian awhile ago and she came to church wearing her traditional Muslim garb. Several months later her clothing began to change. Nothing was every mentioned to her about having to change.

He also mentioned to me that he has been with several Arab pastors who have said that a Muslim convert can and should keep all their cultural habits including going to a Mosque. He does not believe this should be. So here we have two different view points about Muslim culture and the Christian way of life. I think it also has to do with the fact that he is in Tehran and the other pastors are in smaller towns thought out Iran.

Wednesday

The photos in order:

Oleg my one and only student from Russia. Everyone else is from Belarus.

Misha

Violeta my translator

Irena and Andrei

Dzmity and Svyatlana

Anna

Siarhei and Alena

Class

Siarhei and Liudmila

Katsiayna

I'm missing Oleg. I'll see if I can get a picture of him tomorrow.

This morning over breakfast I had a conversation with a student from Tehran, Iran. This is his second class here. From our conversation I found out that he is the lead pastor of a church right in the city. I’m thinking it is probably a registered church because he does meet in a building. He also talked a little about the underground church in Iran.

I really would like to talk with him some more, I have a lot of questions. When a Muslim becomes a Christian should they discard all their Muslim heritages? Can they keep some and discard others? Can they be a Muslim in culture (if there is such a thing) and still be a Christian? And it’s all because of this class called Perspectives!!!!

Tuesday

David and Ania. David is a student in Pam's class and both of them were in my class when I taught it in Poland in 2006.

Two students that decided to take a dip in the pool. I have to tell you, it's the beginning of June in Weinerwald (in the mountains), that water is COLD!!!!!

Sorry this will be short, but after a full day of teaching, I'm a little tired.

I'll try and take more pictures tomorrow.

If you can understand Russian you might know what they are yelling at each other. It's just a friendly little game!!

Well all day today the students started arriving. Some by train, some drove here, and several took a plane. We have students from Moldova, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran.

We had a meeting of everyone with the students sitting down and the STW's. the LTW's, permanent staff and the professors all around them.

After the introductions of everyone to the students we had a prayer time for the students.

Here is Tony Twist and Nicolea from Belarus and Yulia doing the translation for the two of them.

After our part of the meeting was over the STW's were able to to relax after their first full day of preparing and working.

I'm not sure but I think Yulia and Pam are discussing who should start teaching the first day of class tomorrow. Let's see Yulia has her Dr.s degree now....... But I know one thing, I'm getting in the middle of that discussion.

Sunday

Pam and I had a wonderful day at the Haus in Weinerwald. We ended it with a communion service with the short term workers, long term workers, the professors and the permanent staff. Tomorrow the students start arriving and Tuesday we start teaching. A word of explanation:

Short Term Workers (STW's) are people who come over from the states and work here for two weeks while the students are here. They cook, clean, service the rooms, and do maintenance work on the grounds. The come in on the Thursday before the students arrive and get settled in and learn about their responsibilities so they can be ready for the students.

Long Term Workers:(LTW'S) These are people who come over for around 3-5 months of the year and assist with the short term workers and the permanent staff.

Permanent staff: These are people who live here all year around. they work in the office and help with the administrative side of things. There is also a permanent staff person in charge of the kitchen, someone in charge of maintenance, someone in charge of house services.

Professors: there are a couple of professors who are on staff here as permanent professors, but most come from the states and then there are several who come from several east European countries.

On Monday the students start to arrive, by train, car and plane. by tomorrow night they are all here and then on Tuesday we start teaching out classes.

Bucharest airport

While I was at the airport waiting to catch my plane to Vienna, a group of US Army personnel came onto the concourse. There were probably around 200 of them, all wandering around. Some of them went to a pay phone to try and call home. I went up to three of them and just handed them my phone and asked if they wanted to call home. It was a great experience to watch them call and say hello to loved ones back home. When I gave the phone to one women, she just looked at me and said, "Really, I can use it?" She was calling her girls back home in Alaska. No pictures though, I just wasn't thinking!!! DUH!

Last day

There were several American here working with Project Ruth. This morning we went to an historic site where they placed houses from all over Romania from different eras. Here I was reminded of Anatevka. I kept looking for Tevye and the fiddler on the roof.

Inside one of the houses. this was a one room house.

another house with a thatched roof.

This Roma man was there for 30 minutes trying to rip apart a mattress looking for money inside. he finally walked away with nothing. This was taken right in front of the church building.

The other side of the Danube is Bulgaria. We were taken to a restaurant in Romania on the Danube. Very good fresh fish. I had carp, but they spell it a little differently here. Here it's spelled crap. Okay take your best shot!!

Thursday June 3rd, 2010

Long day of class. Right now I have 5 preachers from 3 different church backgrounds (Brethren, Baptist and Pentecostal) trying to put together one worship service. HA. This is fun to watch and listen to even if I don't understand Romanian!

tin roofs

This photo came from 2006 notice the tar paper roof.

This is from yesterday. Notice that not only is there a new tin roof, but they also building some extra rooms on to the house. No building codes that's for sure and yet the church sits around 10 minutes away from the center of Bucharest.