It is the end of our 11th and final day in Romania. As I write this it's 11:45 PM local time and we leave for the airport in Bucharest in 4 1/2 hours. Our flight to Munich leaves at 7:15 and the odyssey ends in St. Louis at 5:15 CST (GMT -6). That's 21 hours from get up to touch down--a long day by any standards.
Today in Romania was full as well. We all had church services to attend in various villages that started at 0930. Each group provided a speaker, a song or two and had a story and craft time at the village churches. I had the privilege of speaking at Maranata, which is Pastor Vasile's church here in Campina. Bruce, Josh and Chris spoke at the others.
By 1:00 we were all back at the Vasile home and having lunch, which was, yet again, amazingly good. The aftermath of that was naps all around. I think that today was the day when everyone started to feel some of the exhaustion that has been creeping up on us each day. We have been so busy and so fully engaged in the ministry work that we didn't notice it. But now that we have begun to wind down and look forward to returning home, the adrenaline has ebbed and we're running on fumes. Thank goodness we don't have to drive the plane.
The evening service saw us all gathered at Maranata in Campina for a celebration service. All the pastors and their families from the village churches as well as the people who had served as volunteers during our Bible clubs were there. There was much singing in Romanian; each team gave a report on how their week went and then did a song; then all of the Americans and the Romanian volunteers sang a song together in English and Romanian. Once all of that was finished Bruce preached about what it means to be devoted to the gospel of Christ and to the fellowship of believers, using the last 15 verses or so of Acts Chapter 2. How do we stack up when we compare ourselves to the first century church?
We spent a lot of time after the service hanging around at the church and talking with the friends we made during the past 10 days. It's hard to believe we can feel so close to people we've only known for such a short time, but we've shared a lot during these few days, and we share a common love for our Savior; and we labor together for the cause of Christ. It's funny, but we shared a lot of email addresses with the younger friends we made. I don't know why, but I didn't expect that. I also made a couple of new Facebook friends. Weird, huh?
After church we had a late supper (around 9 PM) and took some photos. Emi Vasile had taken the photos from the past week and made a slide show for us with full written commentary. It was quite hilarious; especially the parts where he was picking on Dan. This is a very special family, the Vasiles, and I know that in the days and weeks to come, after returning to America, I will miss them a great deal. And I hope to begin making plans right away to return next summer. Maybe Sandi and I can come together. I hope so.
It's after midnight now and we are all packed. The kids are still running around outside. Some of the adults are sleeping and some (like yours truly) are not. I hope to catch a couple of hours before we have to leave for the airport, but we'll have to see how that plays out. This should be the last post from Romania. Maybe I can provide a wrap-up tomorrow night if I can stay awake long enough. I know I speak for all of us when I say that we are very anxious and excited to see all of our loved ones again.
Until tomorrow.
Mike
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