Happy Easter... times two!

Happy Spring and Happy Easter!  We have been loving some much warmer weather, and I've gotten to celebrate my very first Easter here in Romania!  The state church of Romania is the Eastern Orthodox church, so they celebrated their Easter weekend last weekend.  The weekend before, the Hungarian Catholic and Hungarian Protestant churches celebrated their Easter, so we've gotten to enjoy lots of festivities both in our churches and out in the community!

One Easter tradition here is the making of floral wreaths to adorn the gates of village homes.  On the Monday after Easter, Hungarian boys will visit the homes of girls and recite poems while sprinkling the girls with perfume.  They'll also deliver handmade floral wreaths.  In return, the girls give the boys decorated Easter eggs.  It's a colorful tradition!  Here are some beautiful Easter wreaths that we found on the gates of homes in Gornesti!

This week, we've got some special visitors in town!  Paul's parents are here, along with two of their friends.  Paul's dad is doing some construction work on the church in Apalina and in our apartment, and Paul's mom is teaching some classes on parenting!  The other ladies are also teaching some classes for women regarding post-abortive issues, anger and forgiveness.  We're so thankful to have them here serving us and serving the people in our area.  We'll share some more pictures next week, but here's a taste of what we've done so far!

Paul's parents and their friends arrived to Cluj

Sunday morning church in Gornesti

Paul's parents teaching about being role models to the kids in our families

I drove the minibus for my very first time to transport a group of ladies to Gornesti!

Dinner in the Kalanyos home

Love,
Katie