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!

Kitchen Remodel - the final chapter

Finally!

On my last post you saw how we were almost there. Well, we finally got there and have been enjoying our new kitchen for a week now. In fact, we inaugurated the new space last Saturday with a party for Sunni's aunt who recently earned her master's degree. The kitchen definitely held us all more comfortably and provided a better flow: two foundational needs we were trying to meet. The rest, as you can see below, was just icing.

Bay window area - same table but new bench cushions and pillows, and new light fixture

Professional 36" dual fuel stand alone range and vent hood, microwave, granite countertops

A view from the back door:

And from the other direction - note the small desk and display shelves on the right

Cabinetry

Stained island with sink and dish washer

Small display nook

And just as a reminder, where we started:

Triathlon update

UPDATE:
Because of Hurricane Ike, the Rose City Triathlon has been postponed for a week. So, I have another week to prepare for my physical destruction!



I went to the clinic last Saturday and completed my first triathlon . . . well, not officially. We did go through every stage but then stopped in between for others to catch up and then go over the transition area so that we could see the fastest and best way to switch from swim to bike and bike to run.

Swimming 650 meters, biking 14 1/2 miles, and running a 5 K (3.2 miles). It kicked my rear, but I had fun. So, I've signed up for the real race this Saturday morning. It starts at 8 am at Lake Tyler West. Award ceremonies are at 10:30. I hope to be finished by then, but we'll see...

swim, bike, run

Tyler is hosting its first ever triathlon in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking about doing it. I've always wanted to do a triathlon but never had the nerve. This one is a "sprint", who's parts are all the shortest distances relative to other triathlons. They are gearing it particularly to be beginner friendly, including having a couple of free clinics for beginners to get us used to the course, the lengths of each leg, and how to transition from swim to bike to run.

I'm going to one of these clinics in the morning. We'll see how it goes. The swimming leg is what has me the most nervous. I know how to swim, and have a decent stroke . . . just not that far at one time. I figure if I stop biking or running, I still won't drown. (was that a joke, you ask? So do I!)

I survived Hurricane Gustav!

We've been planning a Labor Day weekend vacation to this little beach resort near Gulf Shores AL for a long time, so when news of Hurricane Gustav began appearing, we were very bummed that we might have to change our plans. However, we hadn't had a vacation since February and greatly needed to get away, and since reports were that it may not even hit until Tuesday (when we would be back home) and that the location would be west of us, we went for it.

Our vacation was a blast. The boys had lots of fun. The resort is extremely kid friendly elegent at the same time. So, the boys felt right at home and we didn't have people in cartoon costumes all around us (though we are looking forward to going to Disneyworld in a couple of months).

Though we were originally scheduled to check out on Monday and begin our drive back home, we stayed the extra day while the hurricane hit so that we wouldn't be driving through the middle of it in Mississippi and Louisiana. Then we drove home all day yesterday. We thought about driving home a day early, but we had heard that all of LA was without gas and the roads were a mess. So - much better to be holed up in a comfortable resort than stranded on a highway with 2 toddlers! Some of Gulf Shores evacuated, so all the gas stations were empty on Sunday. I think that is what made us the most nervous, but they were selling gas again by the next evening - right after the storm hit.

All in all, we're very glad we went and now we have an even better story to tell. The resort was a beautiful southern style grounds with large oak trees full of Spanish moss, magnolias, duck pond, croquet lawn, pool with water slide and beach style entry area, and of course the beach itself.

We took tons of pictures, and I haven't gone through them all but here are a few:

Mom and the boys sitting on one of the grand trees on the grounds:

Building sand castles in a sand castle building class they had:
Dancing to fiddle music in the lobby. For the rest of our stay, they were known as "the dancing boys" by the staff and some of the guests.
Here's Hurricane Gustav - not too bad where we were. There were several of us crazy folks out there on the sea wall taking pictures. We were somwehat protected by being in Mobile Bay instead of directly on the Gulf.