I love the new Picasa!

Picasa has been my quick photo editor/organizer of choice for quite a while now. Google just recently released Picasa3. Tonight was my first chance to play with the new features. How about thsi neat collage of my boys? This was yesterday evening out on a friends' ranch.

Blessed

We are blessed. No, we are extremely blessed. Don't worry about the transition of power that is taking place in our government. Look past the recessing economy and our shrinking savings accounts. Peer through defaulted mortgages or lost jobs. Even with these things going on, we are far richer than the vast majority of people in this world. Why? you may ask (or at least I do). All I can say is that is only for God to know. And to Him I am most grateful. I need Him to remind me every day how merciful he really has been to me and my family.

This holiday season - from Thanksgiving to Christmas - our family is counting our blessings and is trying to extend mercy to others just as our Father is extending it to us every day. Last Saturday we took our boys to buy toys that they in turn gave to children in need. At ages almost 2 and 3 1/2, this was not a natural task. They wanted to keep and open the toys they bought at first. But the giving happened at the end of a Christmas parade in Austin. When the ropes dropped on the parade route, our boys ran up with the masses of people to load their toys in the backs of trucks and watch them drive away to those in need. When we asked Ethan later that evening what his favorite part of the parade was, he didn't say the big polar bear balloon or the Santa Claus float, or even the horses. He said - without prompting - "giving my present". I hope my actions warm the Father's heart as much as my son's warmed mine at that moment!

Instead of frivolous Christmas presents to several of our friends who are definitely in want of nothing, we are giving livestock. That's right: sheep, goats, chickens. No, we're not giving it to them. We're giving through World Vision in their name to the least of these (Matt 25:40) as Christ tells us to do. I'm not sure how some of our friends will react to this gift, but I hope they will receive the spirit of mercy and blessing to those who for some reason or another are not quite as blessed right now as we are.

I'm not sure what else God will lead us to do this season to distribute his blessings, but I'm excited and I hope I hear his voice he time he directs because I am so blessed (Acts 20:35).

Fluff - the mindless frontier

Ok. I just saw this little trailer and am a bit excited about a summer blockbust for the first time in a while. No, I'm not a true trekkie . . no costumes or English-Klingon dictionaries at my house, but I am fond of the old original series. I also like J.J. Abrams, who's directing and I like "Sylar" from Heroes who looks to be playing a young Mr. Spock!

the first begotten of the dead

I'm starting a personal study of the book of Revelation. And no, it's not that the recent election has me looking for signs of the Apocalypse. I've been thinking about it for a while and am finally starting. I'm really interested in the imagery of Christ in John's revelation.

And so, it begins with Christ - the firstborn of the dead - whose "head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters" Not quite the bearded guy in robe and purple sash.

Don't know how long or deep my study will take me, but I'm looking forward to it.

Disney World

Last week, my family and I returned from a Walt Disney World "Grand Gathering" vacation. There were 10 of us there:
Nathan, Sunni, Ethan, Seth
Nick, Pepper, Aaron, Jude (Sunni's sister and family)
Stephen, Britt (Sunni & Pepper's parents)

It was a good time for all, especially the 4 pirates who committed mutiny and took over the trip!

For many more pictures, check out the album on my family home page here:
http://bearspace.baylor.edu/Nathan_Atkinson/www/Disney%20World%202008/index.html

Or for those of you on facebook, you can find the album there as well.

Government bailout haikus

So the world's coming to an end, the government's gone haywire, and our retirements are down the tubes. What better way to respond to the insanity than writing haikus? Please contribute to the collection. I'll add them to the list.

Corps make bad choices
Pray for fed'ral take over?
What are you thinking?

Economic mess
Government clean up attempt
Socialism grows

Small government gone
Paulson's wool o'er Bush's eyes
Where's the GOP?

One global market
A New World Order coming?
Armageddon near

from M.D. McMullin:

country in a mess
o partisan politics
third party needed

(other haikus which are equally fun but do not apply to topic may be viewed in comments)

Romania Wrap up

Day 7:

Today was our touring day. After a long week, we were ready for it. We enjoyed work we did, but a little break at the end was nice. We spent the day shopping and touring the city of Braila. Braila has about 300,000 people in it. While it's not as modern as Bucharest, it is a nice city. It was very interesting seeing the old communist world as the foundation of this city with little spots of more modern times breaking through all around.

We stopped at an Eastern Orthodox church in the morning. They were having a service at the time. The church was beautiful inside - every inch seemed to be painted with murals and icons. It was quite different from a Roman Catholic church in that it was rectangular shaped (instead of in the shape of a cross) and had several pillars inside which each seemed to represent something specific - perhaps a saint or some "pillar" of the church. I'm not up on my Eastern Orthodox, but it was interesting. The other item I noticed was rather than statues and stained glass, all saints and images were paintings on the wall and ceiling.

During the time we were there, the entire service was being sung in chant by one man in the middle of the room. The priest performed some actions in the front and then walked through the room with his incense which he would swing towards each person who was praying. We tried taking a picture with no flash. It's a bit blurry, but you can make out the room pretty well. Notice also there are no pews or seats. Worshippers found stations around the room and stood or kneeled during the service.

The service (or the priest in particular) weirded Sunni out a bit, but I was very interested in it. The ancient liturgy that in many ways probably resembles the early church more than any other Christian faith present today is fascinating. It's sad, though, to see that the church over the years was not able to embrace the blessed assurance of salvation that Christ gives us. Over and over throughout the week when we talked to people about eternal life the response was always "only God knows. I try to do good things and hope that this is enough." The temptation to rely on our own works is so great. Satan uses our own vanity in so many ways. This creeps into Christian denominations across the board, but it has really taken a stronghold in the Eastern Orthodox church. We heard some about a renewal movement within the church in some areas, especially among the young. I pray that this is true and continues. For all the beauty and history this faith holds, it would be great to see the flaws in its doctrine removed.

After seeing the temple and shopping for souvenirs, it was time for lunch. We ate at an outside patio restaurant. Our table shared 3 "house specials" which were trays of traditional meats along with pickles and potatoes. It was pretty good. Meats included pork and chicken chops as well as a couple of sausage types. Here's a pic of our table followed by one of Sunni, Pepper and Dr. Marietta Walker on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant.

Next we went downtown and saw some of the government buildings. One of them was city hall. This is the building Pastor Peter was stationed in to protect during the Revolution of 1989. He was in the Romanian army at the time and they positioned him and several troops in the hall for 3 nights during the heat of revolution to protect it from vandalism. During his 3rd sleepless night, there was some confusion and weapons were fired. He was spared but 3 of his colleagues were killed as well as some other guards and civilians. This is a picture of the wall across the courtyard from the hall he was stationed in. You can still see the damage from the bullets that night.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking the city and shopping some more. We toured a traditional market where they sold all types of foods. Some of us sampled some cheeses. We also went and had ice cream, saw some of the beautiful fountains down town, and bought more souvenirs at a local mall.

That evening, we all came together again for a celebration dinner. The restaurant was on a boat in the Danube. Here are a couple of pictures: First Sunni and I, and then the whole team. It was a good day.

Wrap up:

At the end of a mission trip, people often want to know "what are the numbers". Typically, they are talking about salvations. Numbers are important because they are a tangible way to try and measure the success of a trip. I want to wrap things up talking about numbers. Maybe these will help tangibly measure the trip and provide more insight into the ripe mission field of Romania.
(you may see a big space before the table below. I'm not sure why blogspot is doing that)

~500	the number of patients we saw in 4 days of clinic
4	the number of locations where our teams set up clinic: a Gyn clinic in Braila, a clinic in 1 village for the first 2 days, a clinic in 2 neighboring towns (the 2 spots were 4 miles from each other) the last 2 days
~20	the number of people who prayed for salvation with one of our counselors while we were there
1	the woman who testified at church on our first Sunday in Romania. She said that she went to see some Christian doctors in a medical clinic 3 years ago. She did not accept Christ that day, but over the course of the next year He continued to present himself to her. One year later, she turned to him and has been a faithful Christian in that local church for the past 2 years. Thank God for his word that says some of us plant seeds, some water, some reap the harvest but it is God whole gives that harvest.
1	the number of knife threats we received while holding clinic in a village
1	the wife of the local Orthodox priest in that village to whom we were able to demonstrate Christ's love with a gift of vitamins for the children of her town
85	the number of women seen in 2 days of gynecology clinic
209	the total number of abortions reported by these 85 women
1	the child whose mother had attempted to abort but who is now being raised by that same mother and is a healthy ~7 year old boy. What great plans God must have for him!
19	the (small) number of years that Romania has been free of communist rule
1	the precious saint and church founder that we treated whose husband is a martyr for Christ at the hands of those communists
1	the number of state religions of Romania - Eastern Orthodox
3	the Evangelical pastors who we worked with this week and who now are hoping to continue working the soil and reaping the harvest in their Romanian towns
1	The great God we serve who holds the future of Romania and of this whole world in the palm of His hands

Numbers are an attempt we make at measuring the success of our efforts but numbers alone don't always mean much. They definitely don't reveal a complete picture of the lasting effects from our time in Romania. They also don't fully describe the present situation. But many still like to use them.

I listed numbers of all types above to show that just counting salvations does not really say much. I also listed them to leave some lasting impression of the mission field we were in for those that may think in numbers more than in stories. Finally, I listed numbers to reveal that no matter how staggering some of the negative numbers were (209 abortions, only 19 years out of communism, the fact that the country is under 1 state religion), the final number holds supreme: that our 1 God is in control of all.

Our trip to Romania is one I will never forget. I'm thankful to God that he allowed me the privilege of serving Him and his children there for this one small week!

Romania, Day 6

Today was the last day of clinic. We split the teams up again. Sunni, Pepper, Larry, and Debbie stayed at the clinic here and saw Gyn patients while the rest of us went to a little village just next to the town we were in yesterday. The team that stayed here said they saw 54 patients - that's with one doc. So, they were very busy. We say 112+ with 2 docs and 2 nurses that were seeing patients on their own at times during the day, so we were busy, too. Both teams seemed to have had good days.

Sunni and Pepper said that in the two days of Gyn clinic, the total number of abortions by the women they saw was over 200. It's mind boggling how often that is used as birth control here. I asked if we were just losing something in translation and if those could have also been miscarriages, but they were not. It's very sad. However, today was not need as dark with oppression as they felt on Tuesday. Many of the women who came in today and had had several abortions in their past have since become Christians and serve faithfully in the local church. It was encouraging to the team to see the forgiveness and renewal in these ladies' lives.

In our group, we again had a good day full of patients who were eager to see us and continued to ask when we'll be coming back next year. That was nice. As has happened each day of clinic, at least one person brings us grapes plucked straight from the vines in their yard. Today it was a whole bunch of green grapes. Here's Kerfoot enjoying one:

There are two stories I want to tell about today...or maybe 3.

While I was serving in the pharmacy, several children came up to get stickers we were giving out and to play around with us. Two in particular were cute because they were wearing their school uniforms and were brother and sister. So, I had to take their picture. Then they had another liitle boy with them who I assumed was a younger brother. In fact, he was their uncle. His mother was their grandmother. She seemed very pleased with all of her children and was excited for me to take all of their pictures. Later I heard the rest of the story. That woman had mothered 6 (I believe) children in the past who were all older. Her youngest son came later in life and she tried to abort him. He survived. He seems perfectly normal physically. However, she told this to Johnny in triage and pointed at him standing next to her as she told the story. So, he had to have heard it. So, we're praying extra for him and the great plans God must have for his life.

Here is the little boy:
And his niece and nephew:

Later, Dr Kerfoot was making a house call and I got to go with him. It was just around the corner to the home of a woman we saw in the clinic. She wanted us to come see her dad. This man is 92 years old. He was in the Russian army back in WWII. During his time in the army, he would trade cigarettes for bread to get enough food. After the war, he and his battalion were just dismissed from the army. They weren't returned home - just dismissed. So, he and 10 others began the walk back home to Romania from Slovia - about 1500 miles. They started in February. It took them 3 months. This was through the snow at times and all the harsh conditions and without boots as they had worn out apparently. Before he left for the war, he was married and had one son. When he got home, he stayed faithful to his wife and they had 3 more children. He continued working as a farmer in this village of Romania. It was quite a story. We went to see the man because he had an infected place between his nose and eye that really needs surgery to be removed. He doesn't want to go to the hospital. In fact, he doesn't want to walk at all now. He fell 4 years ago outside and hasn't been out again since. Dr. Kerfoot talked with them a long time about his need to get up and stay moving. He gave him some anti-inflammatories to help with the pain so he can try to start standing again. Who knows if he'll do it or not. The story was really interesting, though, just to think about all this man has been through.

Vicky, the soldier, and Dr. Kerfoot:

The other story is about our time tonight once we got back to the dorms. All the Romanian people that we've been working with all week shared dinner with us, as they normally do. Then they pulled out a keyboard and we had a time of celebration for what God has accomplished this week. We sang many songs together, each in our own tongue, from Awesome God and Above All to How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace as well as a few Romanian songs we didn't know but were blessed to hear. God's presence was awesome in the room. It was so great to hear voices of multiple languages singing in unity. It was a foreshadowing of a bit of the heaven we have to look forward to. What a great way to end this week.



Pastor Lucian, Pastor Peter, Leslie, and Johnny. At the end of the evening, we said our thank yous to each other and Johnny gave each of the pastors an offering from the mission team

Tomorrow we take it easy, do a little touring, a little shopping, a little eating. Then it's back to rest before a midnight ride back to Bucharest for a 6 am flight back home on Saturday morning. So, this will probably be my last post until I get home. It's been fun journaling the trip.

Romania, Day 5

Today felt almost like normal. It was much more like the mission trip days I'm used to from my past trips. We saw 147+ patients in about 10 hours of work. People were happy we were there and were asking us to come back again. They were loving and gracious, or shoving and jealous - but at least they wanted us there. What a difference a few miles make. The town today was much bigger than the village we were in yesterday. So I guess because it was big enough that not everyone was in everyone else's business that the town wasn't as controlled by the powerful few in the same way. Or maybe it was something else. Maybe it was just purely God's mercy on us knowing the last two days we had been through. By the end of the day we were physically and mentally drained, but not spiritually. It was a good day.

Not to say that all was roses. We saw an outlandish amount of people with sky high blood pressure - people that the docs would have escorted directly to the hospital had they been in the States. Sunni saw a woman who was 45 and had an abortion a few days ago. She was very sad about it, but had felt helpless to do anything else at the time after having 6 grown children and not having gotten pregnant for years. Sunni and Stephanie were able to pray with her and counsel her.

At the end of the day, Sunni and Johnny saw a 75 year old woman whose daughter had died 14 years ago. She was alone in the world and by the way she was grieving, you would have thought the daughter had just died yesterday. For 14 years, she had let her grief overwhelm to the point that she had had a stroke not long ago. Johnny said her grief really touched him - the fact that in the past 14 years she had not heard anyone tell her that God also lost his only child and that he knew her pain and was there for her. That in fact, a whole family of God was there for her. He did share that with her today, and hopefully she took it in.

We did see several Christians today - many who go to the local pastor's church in this town. This pastor has been working with us all week and he now has over 100 new contacts that he can connect with in the coming days from the seeds we planted today. There were also 6 people who received salvation, which I believe brings our known total to around 12-15. I'm never big with numbers because it's often hard to define a truly changed life in the few moments we spend with these precious people. I am trusting God to continue to move in lives and bring forth a harvest that these local pastors and church leaders are able to reap soon. I don't think I mentioned that in Sunday service a woman testified in church that she had come to a medical outreach through that church a couple of years ago and was witnessed to that day. Over the course of the next year God watered and cultivated that seed and she came to Christ. She's now a faithful member of church, but it took a whole year - long after the team of medical missionaries left - for God to complete the work that began that day. So, hope is in the air. I'm very happy about having come on this trip. It has been very different from all the other mission experiences I have had but it has been rewarding in its own way. I know I will not forget much of what happened this week for a long time.

We have one more day of ministry tomorrow. We'll be splitting up again so that Sunni and her team can do gynecology one place while the rest of us visit another spot. We expect tomorrow to be just as busy today, so we need strength for this final day with the teams split. I know God will give it.

Here are some scenes from the day:

these kids loved one another. They were either hugging or dancing a vast majority of their time in line.

Brother Bullet, Vicky, and Lucian (translator and local pastor) with a patient in triage

Pepper and Wayne guard the door to triage. These people were pushy!

One of our patients today

Alex (translator), John Mark, and Alise tie balloon shapes for the kids....yes, we saw many more kids and young people today, which was nice.

Stephanie and Sunni with a patient

Today's team in Pastor Peter's church, which was just down the road from the community building we served in today.

Romania, Day 4

Today, our team split into two teams. Most of us returned to the same village we went to yesterday. I won't name the village or any other locations we go to to maintain some privacy for those we are working with. The rest stayed at a clinic in the city that asked for a gynecologist to come and serve for a couple of days. Many women here are in need of that service but cannot afford it themselves. So Sunni, Debbie, Larry, Joyce, and Pepper stayed at that clinic. The clinic where they worked serves the poor, but does not have a gyn. Here are a couple of pics of the clinic.

Debbie, Larry, and Joyce in the entrance area.

Sunni in one of the exam rooms. As you can see, the facilities were excellent.

I think the day was a hard day for this half of the team. There were 2 large issues they came across time and again. The biggest was that many women had had multiple abortions - up to 6. It is obviously an accepted form of birth control here, which is sad. None of the women really seemed torn by this issue or showed any remorse, which was even harder. Sunni would try to talk to them about it from a health standpoint but said she felt powerless from a spiritual or emotional standpoint because they showed no emotion or regard. This was a non-issue for these women. They weren't there because they felt distress from having had one or regret. It was just another line on their medical history. The other issue was that Sunni saw many women who were experiencing infertility problems. There were a couple of times where the 2 cooresponded and Sunni pointed out that having had an abortion is a risk factor for some infertility problems, but many times they did not. It still stuck out to me that these were the two major issues of the day.

Larry and Debbie talked with the women after their visits. They gave them gifts and offered to pray with them as we always do. They said there were several that seemed dark, like they were overwhelmed with burden but at the same time blank to emotion. Time and again they felt like they were talking to brick walls. One woman in particular seemed "dead inside" Larry said. Like I said, I think it was a hard day for them.

In the village, the day was lighter in my opinion. It seemed like we saw many more patients, though at the end of the day the count was not significantly different. In the 2 days we were there, we saw 112 patients. We did see more men and children today, however. We also didn't have any of the issues we had the day before. Many of the patients were still widows. Their chief complaint was always that they were lonely because they live alone. Here is one of these sweet women.

And here are some other sights of the village life.

A man and wife bringing their field gatherings in from the prior day's work:

Children trading their gifts:

As I mentioned, we did see more children today. In fact this whole group (and a few more not seen in the picture) all came in right after school. They were all healthy but enjoyed seeing the visiting Americans and appreciated their gifts of tooth brushes, soap, and gloves or hats. It was so fun to watch them all run outside and start negotiating trades with one another. Some things just are the same no matter where you go in the world.

Here is a picture of the village team at the end of today, including the local pastor and some congregants. We'll have to get one tomorrow in the next village when our whole team is together again.

One of the things that was most encouraging today was when the local pastor asked us for a list of the people who had come to the clinic. He wanted to go visit them, share the love of Christ, and invite them back to join in the services. Johnny mentioned that he may visit people multiple times, and he immediately replied oh yes, I will visit them 20 times if they allow me to. This was very encouraging, especially after seeing the women who were sad about being alone because maybe we helped give that pastor a way to show them there is a place in their own village where they can find love and belonging.

Tomorrow we come together again and head out to work with the pastor of a church in a different village. I'm looking forward to being together with my wife again and to seeing what God brings our way.

Romania, Day 3

I've never seen such oppression in a single place before today. I've also not seen the grace of God in such a full and unique way as I saw today.

This morning we headed out to a village about an hour's drive away from Braila. I don't recall the name. We're going back tomorrow so I'll try to get it. We learned last night in a debrief that Romanian Evangelical Christians, especially in the smaller villages can sometimes have it pretty hard. You see the Eastern Orthodox church is the church of Romania. About 95% are Orthodox. The church has a strong arm in the government as well, especially in villages. In fact, we weren't even able to go to the village we had originally planned to serve in today because the priest said he didn't want us there. In our meeting last night we learned that many Romanians are taught that Evangelicals are anything from just simply weird to a cultish group of people that drink one another's blood and steal bodily organs from your children. The people do not want to associate with them for fear from these stories but also fear of threats that the orthodox priest will not bury them when they die, so their soul will never make it to heaven. Well, it was one thing to hear the stories and another to see them in action.

With 3 doctors, 2 nurses, a respitory thearapist, and many help staff, we saw a grand total of 54 patients today. When we have groups this size, we normally see 200-250 and have to tell many to come back tomorrow. A vast majority of these were widows that go to the local Baptist church where we set up clinic. It got so slow at one point that several of us stood out in the street and tried to catch the attention of passers by to invite them in. Some would stop to talk but some would hurry along the road. It wasn't too hard to catch their attention and at least share a word of love with them. Their modes of transportation were mostly foot, bicycle, or horse cart. Here a picture of Sunni and Pepper taking one for a spin:

As you can see, some people did stop to at least talk to us. The couple on this cart were coming in from a hard day in the fields. They stopped for the photo op and a brief meeting with Americans, but when invited inside, they started moving quickly again and called back that they were not sick.

Others stopped but said they were embarrassed to come inside because they were dirty from working in the fields all day, so Sunni started making "horse calls". Here she is with Leslie, one of the missionaries, taking care of an old couple:

Wayne and John Ervin went out this morning and tried hanging signs on light poles around the surrounding blocks. About 4 bars down from where we were (we're told alcoholism is prevalent in the village. In fact many of the ladies that came to the clinic were widows and several said their husbands died from alcohol related deaths), a drunk man came out and started cursing Wayne in Romanian. He tore down the sign. So, Wayne just smiled and moved on. A little bit later that day the same man rode by on his bicycle, stopped in the street in front of the church, pulled out his knife and yelled "I hate you" at Wayne and those outside at the time. He had learned this phrase in English by that time. At least 2 other times that day, the same man rode by the church shouting out Romanian curses and "I hate you" in English.

Across the street and a couple of houses down was a for-pay clinic. We learned from the local pastor that it was run by the Orthodox priest's wife. She was standing outside most of the day calling people to her that would walk by and saying something to them. It was apparent that it was about us because they would then hurry by the church and not enter. So, Johnny decides we should bundle up a bunch of children's vitamins and take them to the clinic as a gift from us. He and the pastor went over to ask permission while I got the vitamins ready. She said that the would accept the gift, so the three of us went back to give them. She took the box and then proceeded to open several of the vitamin bags and smell inside as if she was suspicious of poison. She kept asking "what is this here?" and made us dig through the whole box so she could inspect every bag. Finally the local pastor opened one of the bags and popped a vitamin in his mouth to show her they were safe. She huffed at that but took the box. So we told her it was nice meeting her and to be blessed and moved on our way.

Much of this oppression is of course rooted in greed. The priests get paid for every service they perform - births, weddings, deaths, etc. This is their livelihood as well as their political power at stake here. But to have their people living in fear is just sad. We pray that God's perfect love will drive out this fear and hope that tomorrow more in the village will now have heard that we didn't drink any blood or steal any organs and will perhaps come to the clinic.

There was another level of oppression we came against today, but before I get to that, here are some lighter items:

Wayne had another foe to contend with today besides the knife wielding drunk. One of the sweet ladies of the church stayed around all day long. She kept trying to sneak into areas that she shouldn't be in or just stand in small spaces and obstruct traffic. It wasn't out of malice, but it became inconvenient at times. Wayne would kindly escort her back to the waiting area, but she was bound and determined to be in everyone's business and get exactly what she wanted. At the end of the day, Sunni took a picture of Wayne and his arch rival. Here they are:

The church was a small building, and we used every inch of it for our clinic. So, lunch shifts were taken outside against the wall and next to the garden where they were growing pumpkins, corn, assorted peppers, and some other small crops. Here are Pepper, Sunni, Larry, Joyce, and Debbie enjoyed our packed sandwich lunches.

Pepper did great today. This was her first day on the job with a medical mission trip, and she took on several duties including giving out gifts of gloves, scarves, and socks; praying and witnessing; and a little bit of pharmacy. Here is my apprentice pharmacist at work:

One of the few kids we saw today was a boy named Nicolae. He came by with an adult in the morning but stayed outside, so I went out and talked with him. He would only nod or shrug his shoulders when I asked him questions except when he told me his name. Later this afternoon he came back and actually saw the doctor. He's perfectly healthy but we were able to show he and his parents love and to give them some vitamins and gifts. While he waited he kept hanging out by the pharmacy and giving me winks and grins every time he caught my eye, so I of course had to get a picture with him:

As I mentioned, many of the patients we saw today were widows. Several of them came with such joy and wanted to give us gifts. We received several bunches of home grown grapes as well as some fresh home made pastries that tasted like donut-holes. They were delicious. Here is one of these women coming into the church:

As I also mentioned there was another level of oppression we had to face. Communism ruled Romania until 1989. We met today the matriarch of this church. Her husband has been a communist soldier and accepted Christ while he was a soldier. When he was able to come home, he led his wife to the Lord and they started this church in their home. The communists soon found out and tortured the man pretty severly to the point that he suffered great stress and ilness and eventually died. After his death, they came back and persecuted her as well. She is old now, but has remained faithful to God and to the church that continued to grow into what it is today through all of this. We were so blessed to get to serve her today. Sunni said that if the only reason God brought us all here was to serve this saint, then that is enough. She's right. If the Lord is willing, we will never experience such persecution ourselves as we heard about and saw in action today. So to spend time with faithful saints like this who are barely known on earth but will be kings and queens in heaven is such an honor.

Someday, when you're walking the streets of heaven and bump into a sweet Romanian woman who is crowned with jewels you've never imagined could be so brilliant, ask her name. If she smiles and says she is Min Vaselica, then you will be able to experience that honor as well.

Romania, Day 2

OK. This setup is awesome! Of all the mission trips we have taken, this place is hooked up! We just finished organizing medicines and gift bags (soap, creams, gloves, tooth brushes, etc) for the medical outreach that begins tomorrow. The mission clinic here in Braila has its own pharmacy space that is pristine, well organized, and has an automatic pill counter! Since I normally serve as pharmacist on these trips, this was a particular bonus for me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning of the day.

We began this morning with breakfast on the 4th floor dining room. Breakfast was a choice of cereals, fruit, breads, juices, and coffee. We also had our daily group devotion. Dr. Kerfoot Walker led us this morning on the Matthew 25 passage about when we serve the least of people we are serving Christ himself. He pointed out the obvious that this may be why we are here this week but challenged us that this should be a regular action we should be doing at home as well. Very nice.

Right after breakfast, we had some time so we took a stroll down to "the beautiful blue Danube". Here's a shot of the river here in Braila:

Then it was time for church. We walked the 1 block over to the church, which is beautiful. It's quite a large Baptists church here - the building that is. The congregation was maybe 100 this morning. Romania is 95% Eastern Orthodox in religion, so there are very few evangelical churches. This church is one of 2 baptist churches in Braila, a city of 300,000. I was nominated to introduce the team to the congregation, which I did. I described our team of 16. Here's a paraphrase we're made up of 3 doctors, 2 nurses, a respiratory thearapist, medical assistants, pharmacy workers, ministers, but most importantly servants of Christ. There are 2 things we are not, unfortunately.
1. We are unfortunately not able to speak Romanian so we are excited to partner with the missionaries and church leadership as they interpret for us and as they are able to minister to the people who come to the clinic in ways we'd never be able to because these are their country men - their neighbors.
2. When this week of ministry is over, we are not able to stay and live here amongst you. We are trusting God for a harvest of souls this week. But we are also trusting you to to reap and care for this harvest after we are gone. We trust you to reach out to those who are new in Christ. No matter who they are or what they've done they are now brothers and sisters in Christ, so we are trusting you to welcome them into your house of worship, to love them, to care for their needs, and most importantly to disciple them because they are part of this family of God. Will you partner with us?

Some nodded. I answered "yes" for them and thanked them.

Then Larry gave the sermon. He spoke on Jesus becoming like man. In Mark, it tells that just after he is baptized and even though the people are there in expectation: some perhaps of a zealot leader, some of miracles, some of preaching and teaching, he leaves to the wilderness to face Satan. In Hebrews 2:14-18 we see that he did this to "share in our humanity" and face death so that he could destroy it so that we may be free. It was a good sermon.

After church, the team split up to eat with different families of the church. Sunni, Pepper, Alisa, and I went to Carmen's home. She is a single woman and a great cook. Gabby also came with us to help translate. She's 17 and lives at the orphanage. We think the story is that her parents are house parents at the orphanage because we know here dad is also a minister in a nearby village. Anyway, the food was great and so were these two women. We talked about christianity, the orthodox church, communism (which just ended here in 1989) and even Transylvania and Dracula. It was fun.

In the afternoon we were supposed to have some free time to relax before another team meeting and then church tonight. However, Leslie and Stephanie asked that Sunni go with them to make a house call on an 85 year old woman who had a bad eye infection that was not going away. I went with them. Well, remember "the least of these" up at the top of this entry? In almost every way this woman would be considered one of the least of these in this world. But I tell you we spent the next 45 minutes in the presence of Christ in that small 2 room home. Angela sang hyms to us. She prayed with us. She quoted scripture to us. She laughed with us. And when we were leaving, she proclaimed a blessing on us and on our children. Oh, and her eye was fine. The infection seemed to be all but gone. She does have glaucoma in one eye, but she's doing pretty well considering. That short time spent with her was such an unexpected blessing this afternoon.

When we got back, we had our meeting and then some of us decided to stay and sort medicines and gift bags so that we weren't staying up all night while the others went and heard Larry preach again at the church. Apparently his sermon tonight was on the faith of the 4 men that lowered their paralyzed friend down through a roof in a house for Jesus to heal him. It was because of their faith that their friend was healed.

And with that, we are expecting with faith that we will see great things the rest of this week.

Romania, Day 1

26 hours ago, Sunni and I boarded one of the Rose Heights church vans with 14 others and began our long passage to Braila, Romania. It is here and in a couple of surrounding villages that we will be holding medical outreaches in cooperation with 2 missionaries from Texas and some of the local churches. We will also be participating in church services and evening outreach meetings while we are here. I thought I'd try to journal a bit at the end of each day here on the blog. We'll see how it goes.

So, as I mentioned, this day has been totally consumed with travel. We left Tyler Friday morning at 10:30 to catch a 3 PM flight from DFW to Amsterdam...arrived in Amsterdam at 7:10 am (just after midnight Texas time) and then caught another flight to Bucharest, Romania at 9:40. After that flight we had customs.

Customs is always a concern spot for us, especially on medical outreaches because we bring in our own medicines and supplies. Of course we keep all of our ducks in a row with documentation, only non-expired medicines, licenses, etc, but it can still be a hairy spot. Today was a breeze, however. Praise God. One of the inspectors asked Sunni what we had. She told him gifts and medicines. He asked if we had documents. We said yes, and were about to get them out and he just waved the whole group of 16 through with no bag checks.

From there we boarded a bus and took another 3 1/2 hour bus ride with another hour stop in the middled for dinner to finally get to Braila. It's 8:30 PM here (12:30 in the afternoon at home). We've all only catnapped off an on during the last 26 hours so we're all headed to bed. Speaking of the beds, our living quarters are plush! There is a new christian mission clinic in Braila that we will be using. The upper floor is "dormitories". Now when I saw dormitories, think Hilton Garden Inn rooms all opening into a central lounge space with free high speed wifi and in pristine condition. It's nice. I haven't heard the whole story, but I believe its construction was coordinated through a Christian dental mission outreach group in the Dallas area and pretty muh paid for my a single donor.

So, at the end of the day I'm thankful that though the trip was long, it went smoothly. I'm thankful for our nice clean, plush quarters. I'm thankful our boys are safe at home and havinI also enjoyed KLM airlines, which I'd never flown before, some Dutch chocolate in Amsterdam, and - though I never eat there in the States - a McDonalds double cheese burger here in Romania. Romanian McDonalds are much nicer than in the States: leather chairs in a cafe style setting, everyone (except for 16 weary travelers) all dressed up. But the food tasted the same. Here's looking forward to trying some home cooked Romanian fare tomorrow with some of the local church families.

A few snapshots of our day's travels in Romania:

Mickey D's

One of many Eastern Orthodox churches in Romania

A wedding

Onlookers

My first Romanian friend - just passed him on the street and he asked me to take his picture

Rose City Triathlon

I finally participated in my first triathlon this morning - after a week's postponement from Hurricane Ike. It was a great experience. I really had a fun time. Best of all, it didn't kill me! So, I think I'll do it again sometime.

Here are some pics of the race. For more, visit my website photo album here.

Getting set to start - don't you like the cap? It was a bit cool when we started. The water was 76 degrees and the air was cooler than that.

The start: I think I'm the white cap that is above the water right in the center of the page (click the picture to enlarge)
Swim leg was 650 meters

Moving to the bike: 14.1 miles

And the run: 5 K (~3.2 miles)

High Five from my biggest fan!

And the finish

1 hour and 37 minutes later, I was one tired dude but very satisfied with my first effort. I'll let you know when the next one comes around!