Lots to write about. Thursday Fedi went into town to go with Leventa to talk to two mayors about showing the video of Jesus life. These are little villages where the Catholic priests wield a lot of power. The mayors need their permission. It went well, at least they said they would talk to the priests about it and they seemed open for the idea. There is a group though, that goes door to door, including Fedi, Leventa, and some of the young kids from church with the sound track from the movie on tape. They don’t need permission for this. Leventa is really fired up for this mission. Friday that is what they did again.

Anyway, later Thursday, Fedi met this old man who has had a prison ministry for years. He and his wife are very poor, no refrigerator, car, phone. But they have tracts bundled up all over in their house. He said the prisoners need tooth brushes, soap, and toothpaste, etc. We have a bunch of this stuff Uncle Ed gave us so we will give it to him. He pays to copy all the tracts. His wife sews donated rags together to the proper size for sheets for the prisoners. They really have been self sacrificing. Fedi can be of a big use for the translating. This man speaks only Romanian. There is a man from Hungary who wants to help him but he speaks only Hungarian. Fedi spent some of the evening translating between the two. The old man, his name is John, will try to get permission for Fedi to go in with him. We told Dad about this development and as I told Fedi, he was pretty fired up. He told us to use donation money to help this man and he will send up more. Well he doesn’t need to do that yet, we still have $1300 left. Monday we plan to give this man some. Prison ministries can be effective, I think, because the people there are lonely, away from family and friends. They are appreciative of help. They are currently being punished for something, so a change of life could be tempting. Anyway, it’s a big open door. John told Fedi they had been praying for an American connection.

Friday, Fedi worked on concreting the shed for the waterpower. I did school with the kids. In the afternoon he took the girls with him to buy some more concrete and then to evangelize in the evening. I think Rebekah won’t keep going with him though because she says all she does is spend hours standing and waiting.

With Sarah Reinhard converting and now two more girls from Rebekah’s class converting, I know she is giving it some thought. I don’t think she feels any conviction of sin, though, or fear of hell. Here in Romania only married women wear head coverings. I think, though, if Rebekah converts it won’t be a problem for the pastor to explain to the church why we are doing it different.

On to Saturday. A huge day! Fedi had arranged for some help with the waterpower. Csilla, Jozeph, and the girls came first. Then, Leventa, Edith and their 5 kids and another man. I helped Csilla make a Hungarian gulash and salad for lunch. Later Arpi and Maria came to spend the afternoon as originally planned, though. One other young couple from church showed up with their two little boys. This was Annika (the T.V. reporter who did the home schooling interview) and her husband who is an engineer. They stayed for supper too. Supper was the customary cold cuts, bread, salami, cheese, and different spreads.

Fedi seems really happy that so much got done and to have so many friends around. The men worked hard. The kids all played happily together (all 13 of them). Anni and Reka caught a baby mouse. They played for hours with him until he finally died. Reka cried. When they started to let the dam fill up, it lowered the water in the creek so they ran around catching trout, crawdads and a kind of bottom dweller fish. They put them in the pond we made. We have had a big pile of concrete sand in front of our house since we moved in. The kids all made elaborate sand castles and fortresses with paths and tunnels. It is all decorated with moss and flowers and fall leaves.

Speaking of which, there are beautiful flowers growing all over these mountains and thick soft moss.

Steven woke up Sunday morning, looked outside and was shocked that the sand castles were still there. He is used to the beach I guess.

Fedi went to morning church at Arpi and Maria’s church in his home town. I am too tired from yesterday. We will all go to evening church together.

Well the kids are sled riding again. Just and inch or so. The waterpower is doing great so we are snug and warm. Csilla, Jozsef, and the girls are here again. Fedi and Jozsef left to get firewood with the neighbor’s tractor. They stayed up till almost 2:00 A.M. working on shelves for the garage and arranging places for the wood.

We had our first kids club meeting. Despite posters and advertising on the local TV, no outsiders showed up. There was great support from the church though, and Heidi said next week she will visit some families she knows and give them personal invitations. If just a few kids would show up then it could be that word of mouth would make it snowball. They really did have the games and program nicely organized and the gym they rented was a nice size. So, no giving up yet.

Fedi has a hitchhiking ministry. Hitch hiking is common here. Ladies, old men, people with kids, young people, every kind of person hitchhikes. Usually they try to give you some money, but Fedi always hands them a tract instead of taking their money and asks them to read it. Yesterday we picked up a very dressed up old gentleman. The kids got a kick out of him because he gave them all graham crackers and kisses. He was very cheerful. It’s a good way to meet people.

There was another break in at the cabin on our drive. It’s only about 200 yards from us but not visible from our house. The evening that we discovered the second break in, Fedi called me from the city to say he wasn’t able to finish the papers for our extended stay and he was thinking of spending the night with Csilla so he could finish in the morning. It sounded logical to me then. A couple of hours later though in the dark, Gino started to bark at something outside. I thought I saw a flashlight down by the creek and chickened out. Fedi came home for a short night and left again in the morning.

Sunday was an all day event at the Baptist camp. It was a day of the year set aside for Thanksgiving. There were two baptisms. It was very nice. I was low on sleep though and the after service was so crowded that we had to stand. I got too tired. The kids just played outside so they were fine.

Monday-big workday on the waterpower. We got the shed in place.

Tuesday. We went in town for the T.V. interview on home schooling. First we got to an internet club and did some emailing, then the interview-no big deal- then we left the kids at Csillas & ran around getting parts for the hydro power. It was hot and tiring. Later we picked up Csilla and went to find a couch. We are having one made that I am excited about. It will cost about $200, and folds out to a queen sized bed and with an extra mattress for a child. There are drawers underneath for storage. It is just what we need for guests. I planned even in America to set up a guest room from the donation money. So now we have used $910 from the $2300. We should be getting our first guests this weekend. At church last week the pastor from Fedi’s home town said his wife was really discouraged from work and would like to get away. They are great people and I am excited to have them.

We got home and there were people there. It was the surveyor and the former owner getting the exact coordinates and boundaries for our land so we can complete the final paper work. We were walking the boundary with them when the cow rancher’s son Attila came up the hill. He said his bull had rammed the former owners car. He really did. It was parked in the meadow by our house where the cows pass through and he rammed it at least 3 times. We have been staying away from him because he even comes up to our yard sometimes. The kids are careful though and there is always plenty of warning that the cows are coming because several of the cows have bells.
Oh yeah, while we were in town we saw the tiniest humming bird. He was just a little larger than a bumblebee. He didn’t seem scared of us at all as he went from flower to flower. We examined his teeny-weeny feathers and beak…fascinating.

Today Fedi found a big beetle while he was digging. We looked it up in Anni’s science book and there it was. It is called a mole cricket. His front feet are like the moles claws for digging. Then he has a pincher on them for cutting small roots.

I keep making progress with Hungarian. Every time we go anywhere, if we see anyone we know it’s a twenty- minute conversation. I always just stand there and try to pick up words.

We had a big day yesterday. Fedi had to take some car parts back to the place where we bought the jeep. It was $75.00 so too much to waste but it was also 4 hours away (the roads are slow). Well so as to not waste the trip we decided to visit the Salt mines and pick up some supplies at Selgros (like Sam’s Club). The Salt mines were closed but the trip was still interesting. We inched our way through 4 or 5 sheep herds and 2 cow herds in the road. One herd of sheep was actually lying down on the road while the shepherds had a drink at the outside café. We stopped to buy a sheep skin to decorate the cabin, $15.00. I want the cabin to be functional for living but also charming. Maybe it would make some money as a vacation-rental place. Some Romanians have money. In fact, it never ceases to amaze me what I know they earn (next to nothing) and what I see that they buy and possess. How do they afford these things? Lots and lots of them have cell phones. A lot of them have cheap junky cars but there are a good amount of nice cars too. Except for labor, prices are comparable to the U.S.

The kids are still sleeping so I want to try and catch up. I’ve had a wash machine and stove for about a week now. It makes a big difference in how I feel about the place. Now I feel organized enough. I’m not exactly a pioneer woman.

Yesterday Fedi was gone all day getting parts for the car. The kids and I went on a hike and got lost. It was the strangest feeling. I thought I had a feel of where we were on the mountain but ended up going in a circle when we tried to get home. That’s when I started to get worried. It was also getting late and even started to drizzle. Finally we found a pretty well traveled horse wagon trail and followed it up hill for about 20 minutes (in exactly the wrong direction). Then knowing we needed to be going down and not seeing where this trail would start heading down as I thought, we turned around and in a fast pace going down soon came to the place where we first started our hike in unfamiliar territory. We made it home after 7:00 p.m. shortly before dark. I was very thankful to God and feel it was a lesson learned. The kids didn’t seem too worried but they were getting tired as we hiked almost 3 hours. These woods have a wild feel to them. Just knowing there are wild boar, wolves, & bears keeps you on your toes.

The kids seem to be adjusting fine. The difference in food has bothered Ryan a bit but Steven is devouring everything. Having no TV really hasn’t seemed to bother any of us. In fact, I think it has been good for us. I know I get the dishes done nicely every evening out of sheer boredom.

If Fedi is gone until late as he was the last 2 nights I get a little scared and lonely. The problem is I can’t lock the doors and have lights at the same time. The generator we have is not vented so we have to have the garage doors wide open when it is on.

It is good though, to see the kids happy and Fedi happy. Fedi is talking to people about God, making friends and supporting the little church here. Friday, Fedi will go with a group from church door to door again to evangelize. Rebekah goes with him. Otherwise, we have no plans. It’s more just doing what we see to do every day and waiting for God’s plan to unfold.

The waterpower is probably two weeks away from being done. We are making the dam for the little pond more elaborate than first planned and Fedi has been delayed by car repairs.

Well I got a washing machine and stove yesterday, plus some pans, blankets, and even peanut butter. Life is good!!!

On Saturday, Leventa and his wife Edith came to spend the day with us. Their car broke down a short distance from the house and they walked the rest of the way. After lunch Fedi and Laventa went to look at the car and Edith and I looked at each other. I knew she was panicky about her husband leaving her alone with me since communication was a problem. Well we took a walk and then fried up some meat our neighbor brought us and actually got along pretty well with the language. It was not a bad 4 hours.

Sunday was nice. We went to morning service at the Baptist camp. This is a beautiful building with sleeping quarters and about 4 buildings in all. Obviously, American dollars at work. After the service we went to Arpi and Maria’s house for lunch in Fedi’s hometown. He had been avoiding going there and was dreading it. I didn’t know why until he finally admitted that he was ashamed of the jeep we bought. Different mentality than I’m used to but I don’t want to be critical. Anyway, he didn’t see anyone he knew except for the Pastor (Arpi) and his wife.

I listened closely to 5 hours of Hungarian conversation and picked up a few words. This couple had been very nice to Jozsef and Sandor so they talked a lot about them. Their daughter Annika was going away to boarding school and was crying. Boarding school is common here for the higher grades because transportation is a problem. It’s rough on the kids.

Today the 2 men are supposed to come. I am trying to work out at least a ½ day of school and also prepare for them. Rebekah has done very well since we started school. She just plugs away to get it all done.

The sunset coming home was beautiful yesterday. The scenery and timeless atmosphere make this place amazing. The people log with horse and wagon as they have for 100s of years. They make bread, garden, milk cows, and live like they always have. The improvements the rest of the world takes for granted are to expensive for most of the people.

Fedi and I at $600 a month have 3x as much money as most people here but I don’t have the skills to cook like they do and I’m not willing to let my kids suffer nutritionally or be subject to their health care system. And washing clothes by hand is the pits!

Well anyway the logs were delivered yesterday to make the dam, pipes, and the frame for the hydro unit shed the day before so this week should show good progress.

It’s been hard to keep in touch with people from the states. We still haven’t gotten to an internet for e-mail. Fedi has been too busy and when he is gone I have no car or if I go with him we have all the kids and it seems hard to get on the internet with 4 kids to watch.

Well we used a good chunk of the donation money on the Pastor’s utility bills. He was $710 behind. It sounds irresponsible until you find out his income is $100 a month and he has 5 kids. We sent them money a year or so ago and he used it to start a funnel cake business with his wife. The agreement was that if the business does well, they will pay the churches utility bills. Well the next month they were handed the bill and apparently the business has not done well. They also charge a high interest on overdue utility bills so it gets almost impossible to catch up.

Fedi is in his element here. He helped some people with logging on one of our walks. There poor little horse worked so hard to haul huge logs up. Fedi was able to tell the cow rancher’s son about Christianity. With no TV he has Bible studies with the kids in the evenings.

Next week we will work on the waterpower. It has taken a lot of time to have oak timber cut to make a dam and to price and have material cut to make a secure shed for the generator-inverter, and batteries. We are going as cheap as we can. There are also 2 guys that Leventa said, need work next week. So we will let them stay in our livingroom and see if we can keep them busy.

Speaking of busy, I need to get the winter things out. There was frost on the grass this morning and it hasn’t warmed up much.

Well we both had frustrating days yesterday. Fedi, again only accomplished about 3 things on his list of about 8 or 9 things. Things are slow and definitely not customer oriented in Romania. We need to lower our expectations. It means he has to go back today again. I knew things would be much more inconvenient here as far as no dishwasher, dryer, now still no refrigerator, washmachine, or even shelves to put things on, but I thought Fedi would be around to help me. I’m trying to do school full-time now and finding it hard.

On the other hand, we went on a awesome hike yesterday evening. The view was terrific. Fedi showed the kids so many interesting things in the woods. We all loved it. I woke up this morning in a warm bed (still just mattresses on the floor), had a good coffee and fresh bread, how can I be so unthankful to God? There is also a sense of rightness about where we are. It seems right to be here, is the best way I can say it.
Today Fedi is going to meet someone else at the pastor’s house to tell them about home-schooling. There is an interest in this among the Christians here, though it is now illegal. I don’t see how these hard-working Romanian women could find the time for this though. On Friday Fedi is going with the pastor to evangelize in a town. The Catholic priest there has refused to let the Jesus film to be shown there but Leventa thought they could go door to door with the sound track.

Well I need to go get our fresh milk now and I think the kids are waking up.

Well we finally got a rain last night. I’m glad because everything was so dusty. It did mean though that Fedi very nearly got the little jeep thoroughly stuck in the mud. I’m glad he insisted on 4 wd. He must have had some angels pushing along with me because it looked hopeless.

This morning woke up pretty grumpy. The inconveniences of no refrigerator, washmachine, or shelves or cupboards were getting to me. Fedi has to be gone all day again today. He was home only 1 day last week. It is necessary things he has to take care of like finding the little jeep for us. We bounce all over in it but it seems strong and dependable. So I need to be thankful and patient.

It cheered me up when we went to get the milk. The Rancher’s wife was there. She had cooked us some delicious donuts yesterday and today she gave us 2 different kinds of cheese made from their fresh cows milk. My admiration for the Romanian women is huge. Her kitchen is a little lean-to, open on 2 sides with a wood stove.

Yesterday we returned Agi’s car to her. They live in a little village. She has 6 brothers and sisters. It seems to be a warm friendly family.