Monday. Lehel came to church yesterday. He seems very open. The service was perfect, evangelical and clear. On the way home he told Fedi he knows there is an emptiness inside him and he wants to come back. Praise the Lord.

There is something happening in Certa. Fedi asked the church to pray for this village, which they promptly did. The Friday meeting with the young kids there went bad as we expected. For some reason the leader is bent out of shape over Fedi being there. They actually called for a vote of hands for whoever would go against anything Fedi tried to do in Certa everyway possible. Lehel reported all this to us. He said there were 24 young kids there. No one raised their hand to go against Fedi or for the next poll who was for him. I think they can’t understand, like us, why this aggressive overreaction? It’s possible they feel their leadership is threatened. It may have a backlash though because Lehel said that another guy wants to come to church just to prove he is open-minded.

The Catholic priest in Certa is being very helpful to us by being a first class jerk! Fedi was told he owns 5 cars and is having a minivan custom made for him. “You devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers.” Attlila the cow rancher’s son said he beat a little girl black and blue because she didn’t do well in the religion class. Still, Fedi hears constantly “I was born Catholic and I will die Catholic”.

Yesterday we took our first fun trip since coming here 4 months ago. We drove 2 hours to get to the Salt Mines, going off information that they are always open; only to find that there was only one bus going in at 8:00 a.m. We got there at 9:00 a.m. Some guys told Fedi to just hitchhike at the entrance and there was a chance one of the miner trucks would pick us up. It worked like a charm. The kids all got their salt blocks that they intend to give to their friends in America.

Fedi has been discouraged. He had given the cow rancher’s son his personal Hungarian Bible since they had had some good talks. Now this week he was at their house and the subject of the Bible came up. Attila’s Mom said “Oh that Bible, I used it to start a fire.” Major let down!

There is one guy-Lehel, 25 years old, who has been 100% for Fedi trying to organize the young kids in Certa. He said he wants to come to church. Some of the other guys have been almost aggressive to Fedi. One of them said to Lehel “Are you on his side or ours?” (This was the president)

The Christmas packages for the school children are held up at the Hungarian border. They will most likely get here after Christmas.

Oh yeah, on the way home from the salt mines, we came to a car broken down with 4 people we know. They were on their way to visit someone in the hospital about 20 miles away. It was on our way. We squished the 4 of them in making 10 in our little jeep. Then Fedi dropped them off, took us home, turned around and drove back to the hospital, picked them up, took them back to their car to tow it to their place. Then all the way home again, maybe 150 miles round trip on bumpy roads. He stayed in his hometown for a while so Heuni could fix the cord on the laptop computer. He got home at 1:30 a.m.

My refrigerator has a defect. The magpies have discovered the food on the windowsills. They ate their way through at least 1 kg. of sausage, plus bacon and cheese.

I am at last getting some kitchen cupboards. We had a guy from a different church give us an estimate. To custom make the cupboards with the counter top is $180. Thank you Judy (my oldest sister) for the money you donated for this, plus the money you sent from the horse business. Next will be the clothes cupboards, maybe in January. I think this will be cheaper.

Our car is having more trouble. It is slipping out of gear. At least, except for parts, it is cheap to have a car fixed here.

Wednesday - last week we took a trip to Metro for Christmas presents, food supplies, and things for the prisoners. The captain of the prison told Fedi that of the 800 prisoners there are 200 that have no one on the outside to give them any basic supplies. So we bought disposable razors, soap, laundry soap, toothbrushes, & toothpaste to make up 200 packages. Fedi got word a couple of days ago that the prison officials will let them hand these out personally on Dec. 23rd along with Christian literature in the appropriate language (either Hungarian or Romanian). So Dad’s money should be well spent so far.

We are having trouble keeping our personal money separate from the donation money. Things get intermixed so much. Now we lost the receipt from the Metro, so I don’t know exactly how to separate that. I know besides the prison stuff we paid to fill Leventa’s car up with gas as we needed it to haul stuff and we paid for John’s personal food supply that he bought at Metro too. John is the old man who has had a prison ministry 2xs a month for years. He came with us. He is a good man and has faithfully served the Lord for years but he keeps asking Fedi to buy him a car. He doesn’t even have enough income to pay for the gas. Oh well.

I would like to change our policy in regards to future donations (if any). We will try to keep our life-style lean and mean and try to help wherever we see a need, as much as we can, but the money donated might actually go to car repairs or stuff for the kids. In defense of this, we have allowed our selves almost no luxuries and Fedi has worked hard to spread the gospel. In fact, he has been so busy helping everyone else out that I asked him to stay home more.

Anyway, Heuni watched the kids for us. He and Thomas (a man from church with a family who asked Fedi for work) stayed home and insulated the pipes for the waterpower. Heuni cleaned and cooked apple crisp for us when we got home at 11:00 p.m. We paid Thomas $30 for the 2 days, plus fed him. They were fun to have, but they both got a bad stomach flu the last day they were here. A couple of days later I got it too. Without going into details…. it was bad!

School is wrapping up for the boys. Ryan recently finished his 2nd grade Math book. I let him burn it in our furnace. Anni got hopeful and said “Mom if we run out of firewood and the house is really cold will you burn mine too?” Problem is she is only ½ way through.

Fedi had another meeting with the president of the young group in Certa. They have been talking a lot about Fedi maybe renting the gym and organizing activities. Fedi told them if he can’t have a Christian message then he won’t spend any money there. The president didn’t like that. He told Fedi that he shouldn’t tell them they couldn’t smoke or drink in the building. Well anyway he is going to meet with some people Friday to decide what they want. There are some of the young people that seem to really want Fedi to do something but for some reason they operate as a group. Well Friday will tell.

We hiked up yesterday to get the Christmas tree. We had plenty to choose from. We hauled a 20-footer home. We decorated it with aluminum foil balls stuffed with paper towel after we saw the price of Christmas decorations-much more than the States. It turned out beautiful.

It’s cold. The milk was frozen solid out on the window ledge. I am keeping the fire going strong. We have about 1 inch of snow so the kids are all out sliding down the hill on plastic.

Fedi went in for the last thing on the list to get our car legal again. What a relief that will be. Now we can take a trip down to Metro (like Sam’s club) to get basic food supplies, Christmas presents, and supplies for people in the prisons.

The kids program was nice yesterday. I counted 11 outsider kids (not from church) 7 were gypsies and 4 Romanians. They played games and then sang songs and had a Bible message. Fedi dressed as St. Nicholas and handed out candy at the end.

The village evangelism also has picked up a bit. Some Fridays it’s on, some off.

What is really another possible development is something in the little town by us. Fedi was telling the cow ranchers family about the Christian center in Peoria. They told him that there is a Gym in Certa (pronounced Kurtza) that is not being used for anything. They must have talked to some people because yesterday Fedi was called twice by a young guy who apparently has organized the young kids (teenagers-early 20’s) that someone might be wanting to start a Christian club and they like the idea. This man is not a Christian but his Aunt is and goes to our church. I guess it all depends on what price the Mayor will put on renting out the gym. We told this guy not to let him know who was interested because if they know it’s Americans the price doubles.

Fedi got home a couple of hours ago a picture of total frustration. No the car did not get legally registered yet. He went to get the final and last thing taken care of (he thought) and was told that “oh yea, sorry but you do need one more stamp and to get that you have to type out 3 more forms and to get photocopies of each”. AAAARGH! He rushed around getting all that done until 2:00 p.m., ran back again only to be told that they closed at 1:00. Through all this he is (like everyone) treated rudely. Anyway, as he told me all this and knowing what we have already gone through it hit my funny bone. It was hard to stop laughing. It has been a 2-month process so far. America - I Love You, with your fast license and registration service, and $15 easy drivers licenses.

I read today a little about David Livingston, missionary to Africa. It inspired and humbled me. It shows my faith for what it is…very tiny and weak. But there are some things I can choose to trust God for now. It’s not a worried, hopeful, don’t think about the problems, kind of trust. It’s staying fully aware of the problems and still praising and thanking God because he is so great, kind of trust.

Someone named Thomas is coming up for the rest of the week. He is out of work, has a wife and a baby. He asked Fedi if there is anything we have for him to do. I think Heuni is coming too, so they can both stay on the couch. It folds out to a queen size bed. We may pay Thomas out of the donation money.

As the cold hits and construction slows down more and more men are out of work. It’s tough, really tough on the families here.

We aren’t getting anything out of the waterpower today with the cold. So we run the gas generator and go off batteries.

The guests from Bucharest did not come which was a big relief to me. It seems that if I do the school, well the house gets dirty, if I clean the house, well then the school is done sloppy. Fedi has more to do than we thought possible in America. There are a lot of open doors for ministry plus the house needs a lot of work. So the extra help I had hoped to get from Fedi not going to work has not materialized. In America I had a dishwasher, dryer, microwave and convenience foods. The school was done more thoroughly. Still the kids are learning other skills. Rebekah and Annie are helping with cooking and dishes. Ryan went in the basement and made a manger out of wood entirely himself. He sawed and nailed and measured. I was really impressed. He goes around quoting Fedi on “Yep, this pine wood burns fast.”
Heuni has been here again since last Thursday. He fiddles and fiddles with the water generator. It looks like he is able to get a charge from even low water. If so that is great! Fedi won’t have to keep shutting off the pipe to let the pond fill up every other hour.

Csilla and Jozsef and the girls stayed over Saturday and Sunday. And yesterday Leventa and his whole family came for the afternoon and evening. I am very, very glad for the couch.

Saturday we went to the kids program. It went well. There were about 8 little gypsy kids as well as 4 other little girls (anywhere from 5 – 14 yrs.)

There is something interesting happening here. About the same time Fedi and I came to this little church another missionary couple from Hungary came. They are fairly newly married. Now another missionary couple has come, also from Hungary. That makes 4 families counting Leventa in full-time ministry with a little church of about 25 or so. All of them, except Leventa, arriving in the last 4 months - strange.

Speaking of Gypsy’s, this is a whole other fascinating culture within Romania. They are visible all over but they have a completely different way of life. The women and children have very colorful clothes. Their skin is dark. They are dirty and they beg. Some of them have houses but some of them actually have the covered wagons. I saw one wagon with a grain bag sticking out for the horse so he can eat as he walks. Fedi usually gives them something but the problem is they always ask for more. He gave one lady a salami and she, instead of saying “thank you”, said “well, you can’t expect me to eat this without bread!” They are known for selling good brooms made from sticks. We picked up a few. People like them and they sell easy. There is much more to write about them. The men like big moustaches and big hats. They are known to be dangerous with knives. They are very musical.