Day 4

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Buna seara! (Good evening!)  We had an amazing day today!  We started the morning by attending the gypsy church.  I've said before how amazing I think their services were, and today was no different.  They started by reading Psalms 139.  A few of the verses really stood out to me as incredibly relevant to our trip: 

Psalms 139: 7-10
"Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

This is such a good reminder that even though we are far from home, God is with us and His hand is upon us!  One of the sermons, yes, there was more than one, focused on how we are all God's children despite the fact that we are from different nationalities and backgrounds. If only we could all really internalize this, the world would be such a kinder place!  

One of the things I love about the gypsy church is their music.  They all sing with such passion!  Even though I don't know the words to their songs, I can feel their meaning.  The teenagers sang two songs for us that were lovely.  I videoed a portion of one so you can have an idea of what it was like...

Another thing they do that I adore is at several points in their service they all pray out loud at the same time.  It seems so jumbled to our ears, but to God every prayer was heard individually! 

After church, we had leisurely lunch on the hill, then drove to Targu Mures to spend some time with the girls from the group home.  Another beautiful drive through the Romanian countryside!  Once we got to TM, before we went to see the girls, we made a stop at the mall so that Tim could pick up some paint for our work project. While we waited for him, Jessica suggested we get some Hungarian Bread, so we popped over to the kiosk and Dennis bought some.  It is unlike any bread we've had so far. I don't know that I can describe it, so I'll just show you the pictures...

Otherwise known to us as Hungarian Bread...

This is how they cook it...Dennis wants to make one of these to sell the bread in TX...

The finished product, we got one covered in cinnamon and sugar.

It is hollow inside!!

Seriously good bread!!! After that, we continued to the group home.  Here we hung out for a few minutes and chatted with the girls.  It was good to catch up with them and hear about how they're doing.  Then, we all went for a walk around downtown Targu Mures.  It was an absolutely beautiful day!  I can't post pictures with the girls in them, but I will post a picture from our walk.  This is an Orthodox Church on the square.  We went inside and it was beautiful.  You can go to my Flickr account to see more pictures from today.

After our walk, we went back to the group home and had a pizza dinner with the girls.  More time to hang out and catch up with them.  Finally, we headed back to Tarnaveni.  The views along the way were breathtaking...Here is one of my favorites, I love how the sun is coming through the clouds! 

Tomorrow we start VBS with the kids at Point of Hope!  Please be in prayer that everything will go smoothly and that the kids will listen and get something from the activities.  Thank you so much for the prayers so far, we can feel them working!!