Well, it turns out that I am a prophet. If you read the earlier post from this morning, you will note that I signed off by saying that we would have fun and pie today--we did both.
We started the day by sleeping in (those of us who wanted to), which was fine by me. Breakfast at 9:00 was followed by a quick trip into the city to grab a couple more souviners and, thank the Lord, a Diet Coke. They have been difficult to come by on this trip and I was jonesin' a little bit. The call it Coke Light in Europe. I also picked up a football jersey--Romanian national team; very cool.
After we returned from the market, we went straight to the picnic, only it wasn't in the forest as I mentioned in the earlier post. Apparently the forest is quite popular and has limited space, as we were ejected from our spot by a group that got there ahead of us. We are nothing if not flexible, though, so we moved the entire operation to a field very near the Vasile's home that offered limited shade, but a very fine football venue; and the Romanians do love their football. However, it turned out that someone knew of a better spot near Mislea which is were our Bible club was yesterday. It really was a great spot for the barbecue with plenty of shade and a nice breeze. It did not lend itself to great football. The grass was rather tall and there are these ankle and shin eating plants that are interspersed throughout the area. They have these razor sharp thorns that ravage the flesh of clumsy Americans and adroit Romanians alike.
(As a quick aside, I am assuming that everyone knows that when I say 'football' or even 'futbol' I am referring to soccer. But, as you probably also know, everyone in Europe calls it football so while I'm here I call it that too because I want to be really cool. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.)
Anyway, after the football game (and yes, I did play) it was a short wait until lunch was served. And it was, indeed, all meat plus baskets full of grilled bread. It was barbecue heaven and very tasty. I didn't count everyone who came, but I'd guess we had at least 50 people attend; all either pastors and their families or volunteers who helped us throughout the week. The groups often overlap.
By mid-afternoon, the party was winding down so Chris and I went with Timi and Dan Vasile back to Campina to set up goals for a real football game at the field where we had begun the day. Part of doing that was to go by Dan's work and pick up wood frames that would serve as the goals and load them on a work truck that was there and haul them to the field. Dan had to drive the truck and his brother, Timi, is not old enough to drive so I ended up driving Dan's car from the work place to the soccer field. How about that? I got to drive in Romania. And then I drove the car back to the house after the game.
I discovered that Dan Morris, in addition to being a pie maker extraordinaire, is a good footballer. I am not, although it turns out that I'm not half bad as the keeper (that's soccer talk for goalie). We played for at least a couple of hours then made our way back to the house for showers and supper.
Then was the highlight of the day: Dan's pies. He had made a very large apple one, but the real killer was the 2 blueberry pies. I don't even like blueberries and these pies were incredible. A lot of it had to do with the local berries they picked up from a vendor along the highway a couple of days ago. These berries are smaller that the ones in the States and firmer and sweeter. I can eat many of them and they make a spectacular pie. I thought we were going to have to sedate Lucy before we could even get the pieces passed around. That girl likes her some pie. And she eats faster than any human being I've ever known.
We have church in the morning so we'll be scattering out to go to the various places. Chris, Josh, Ken and I will be speaking again. Pray for us as we prepare to deliver God's Word. Tomorrow night everyone meets at Pastor Vasile's church, Maranata, here in Campina for a celebration service and Bruce will preach there. After that, it's only a few hours until we head for the airport and begin the long journey home. I know I speak for everyone when I say that we miss our families and are very grateful for being allowed to come on this trip and be blessed by this service. We are excited to be coming home.
Maybe one or two more posts before I pack it away for the trip. Pray for peace.
Mike
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