It has been several weeks since Christmas, and I regret that
I haven’t already written about all that has happened here in Romania. However, I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to
reflect and think on the holiday season.
First of all, I must say how happy I was to return to
Romania in December. I enjoyed my time
in Hungary…it was a great time to catch up with friends at Word of Life
Hungary. It was also a great time of
rest (which looking back on the busy holiday season was a bigger blessing that
I thought). I arrived back in Romania on
December 17th. Almost
immediately, I was back on a full day busy schedule! Christmas here is full with programs and
activities, much the same as in the States.
However, here most of the activities happen all around the five days
around Christmas. I told many of my
friends here that we also have a lot going on during the holiday, but our
holiday starts almost at Thanksgiving and things are spread out a bit more. I will try my best to get everything into
this update…with more to follow about New Years and the last week.
In Apalina: I arrived back to see the kids from the school
program for a few days before their holiday began. It was good to be back with them, even though
the numbers were smaller than on a normal school week. Most of the kids weren’t even going to school
that week. I also worked with the
youth/teenagers from the church on a skit for the Christmas service here. The youth were going to do a skit about the
life of Christ and his ministry while the kids were going to act out the birth
of Christ. I played Jesus in this
skit. Attila gave me the task of
creating a video and music to serve as a background for our skit (which we
acted without words). I had never done
anything like that before, but it was a fun learning experience, and I love a
good challenge. We acted out the skit on
the Sunday before Christmas Eve. Many
people were touched by the skit, and Attila was able to follow it with a great
message. Also in Apalina, we gave out shoeboxes
to the children. We gave out over 300
boxes (and could have given out more if we had more boxes to give). The kids were so thankful, and for most of
them, this is the only Christmas gift that they receive. This year we also received some bags of food
from a Dutch ministry. These bags were
packed with many non-perishable food items that for many served as their only
food for the holiday. As we passed out
the bags, we also visited with the families and had a time to share with them,
hear about their life, and pray with them.
In Gornesti: Zozo and Attila made something of a competition
out of seeing who I would go Christmas caroling with. Here in Romania, the tradition is to go
caroling on Christmas Eve. It is also
the tradition that after caroling at a house, the family will offer snacks,
drinks, and money to those who came to carol.
I had told Zozo in November that I would go with him this year because I
went with Attila last year. Zozo also
asked me to come and join a group for a mini-concert on Christmas Eve in
Gornesti. That team consisted of Zozo,
Isti (Zozo’s brother), their friend Attila (a different Attila), and me. We spent several days practicing songs and
praying together for the concert. One of
the songs we planned to sing was Silent Night.
I shared with the group our tradition of a candle-light service, and they
loved the idea. I bought tea lights (the
only thing I could find in bulk at the last minute) and we ended the concert
with Silent Night and candle-light. I
think it’s a new tradition here! J After the concert, we prepared for
caroling…and I mean marathon caroling!
We started around 10:00 and I arrived back home at close to 5:00 in the
morning. Oh, and I forgot to mention
that here, the tradition is to have church services on Christmas day and the
day after Christmas. With Sunday being
the day before Christmas Eve this year, that means that over four days from
December 23-26 we had 13 church services.
I forgot to mention that I was a little bit tired after those four days!
J But all in all, it was a very blessed
week.
On a personal note, I enjoyed spending Christmas with my
Romanian/Hungarian family. Attila and
Adel are so good to me, and they didn’t fail this during the holiday. We ate together on Christmas Eve and
Christmas day, we exchanged gifts, and we just enjoyed being together…that is
when we weren’t serving somewhere. I’m
also thankful for Zozo and his family for inviting me to eat with them on Christmas
Eve after the concert. I also got to
spend some good time with Jeno over the holiday. I’m so excited to see how he is growing and
taking on new responsibilities in the church.
I will follow this with some pictures of the holidays. Thank
you to everyone who is praying for me and for the work here in Romania! May God bless you in this New Year!
