The first days home were nice and chaotic. It was awesome to see everyone in church again. I still have jet lag which is why I'm writing this at 2:00 am. My impressions of America after 14 months in Romania are it is very luxurious and very busy. It's impossible to not get caught up in running around and driving all over.
We don't plan to return to Romania in the near future to live. I'm almost sure though that Fedi will be returning to visit the great people we met. I want to get the kids settled in the new church school and get some kind of routine in their lives.
One last word about the money people donated. At the end, after we sold our house, we were able to catch up with giving all the donated money to the Romanians. This was my goal from the start. There were times when we were short that we asked the people donating if we could use some for personal use. Selling our house made it possible to give all that back. We left our van which has about a $4,000 value plus $1,000 cash for gas and maintenence in Attila's care for church and Bible study use only. ( It is their only way to church.) The rest of our stuff we gave to whoever we thought could use it the most. The $200 tire chains we gave to Attila, $250 chain saw to Lehel, $400 washing machine to Lehel's Mom, lots of miscellaneous stuff like blankets, pillows, pots, dishes iron, cleaning supplies, etc, etc, to Erika, Eboya, and Csilla. We left gas money of about $300 to Csilla and another couple to make it out to Carta twice a week to lead the Bible studies. We gave our cellular phones to Csillas neighbors. Heuni and Toto and Tony we simply gave $100 each too because we felt they had been a big help to us. I left all the hats, mittens, shoes, coats that we didn't need to go to gypsy families. The reason I want to detail this is because I want the people who donated to understand that it did go to help very thankful people out. We came here on our own, not with a mission organization. No one was there to see how we spent the money or to tell us what to do. We just used our best judgment.
It was hard to leave our friends there but we commit them to God. It was a privilege to get to know them and watch God work in their lives. I respect them for looking past Fedi and my mistakes and failures to see the great message of God's love we had. Most of all it was a great privilege to be a part of God's work. On this word my diary is finished. All glory to our God, Ruth

We are in London waiting for our flight to Chicago. The last few days flew by. We got everything taken care of. All our possessions were either packed in the 12 suitcases, given away, or thrown away.
The church had a touching service for us. We stood at the front while people took turns praying for us. After that several people stood up to wish us well and tell what we meant to them. It was sweet-sad and several of us cried.
At the train about 10 people showed up to see us off and help us load all those suitcases in the 3 minutes that the train stopped. Some of these guys almost came with us as the train started moving before they were off.
It was a nice trip. We had a sleeper car to ourselves since we had to buy 6 tickets.
We arrived in Budapest in the morning. A taxi took three trips to get us to the Nazarene church where we spent the night. Early the next morning we took another Van taxi to the airport. Everything has gone well and the kids are thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Last week I concentrated on school and packing. Still when Friday rolled around it seemed we would never get done on time. We have only 5 more days now. How do you pack the things you have to use everyday? I also need to leave this place back how we found it. Anyway after a little panic attack, Fedi came home, went through all the garage stuff and we made a plan to have the kids be at Csilla's the last day. Now I think we can make it.
Fedi spent the last 2 days getting Leventa set up to go to the prison.
Lehel's Mom did say she reinvited Theresa's neighbor to come and she said she wants too. I'm still puzzled why she told her not to come in the first place.
There were some stories going around that turned out not to be true. Theresa told us that her neighbor was going to get kicked out of her house. Could we give them $3,000 to help them buy a place? Supposedly they had the rest saved up. Now she confessed that her family is not going to get kicked out and they don't have anything saved up anyway. What a pack of lies to try and get money out of us. I've felt though that if people have to go to strangers for help there is something wrong with the stories they tell. People deserving help have no trouble getting it from family and friends.
Well on the not so skeptical side, the two couples coming to the Bible study have been true friends to us. They have helped us as much or more than we have helped them. If only these 4 ever become Christians I am still well satisfied even thrilled with the results.
There have been other rewards from our year here. Our faith is stronger from seeing how God has been with us.

Back safe and sound. I want to say a word about the house that we were confident we would be buying. When we talked to the owner with our offer it surprised us that he didn't take it. His asking price was $12,000 which he assured us was negotiable. We offered $10,600. He said he would go down $30 or maybe even $60 but that was all, quite the jump down. At the same time we had people tell us the house was really hard to heat and wasn't worth more than we offered.
We have heard of much cheaper sales that took place before we started looking. It seems that because we are Americans, people aren't budging or the prices are hiked up. If we don't find something we feel is a good deal we will have Attila keep looking after we leave and simply wire the money over. The house could be put in Csilla's name.
It looks like Leventa will take over Fedi's prison ministry. He was pretty reluctant because of a bad experience he had with prisoners a long time ago. Fedi talked him into it. Leventa speaks Romanian as well as Hungarian which is necessary for the prison. It would also mean a little income for Leventa through Bereans.
The Bible study continued on without us last week. Csilla, Jozsef, another couple, and Leventa are all pitching in. There have been only about 5 attending from Carta. Since Lehel's Mom asked Theresa's neighbor not to come, Theresa is not coming either. Fedi did talk to Theresa's neighbor and told her we are trying to find a place.
I've come to understand why people don't sell off houses that have been empty for years. First there is an uncertainity if the money that they get from a sale will hold its value or be devalued by another surge of inflation. Second is the lack of opportunities here to invest money in. It's been way harder to buy a place than I ever thought.

We are down at the Black Sea 1 kilometer form the Bulgarian blorder. There is a lot of Romania that we didn't see and since we have to pick up a friend at the Bucharest airport, we decided to combine it with a few days sight-seeing. We were told that this is a great time to go because room prices are cheap and the water is still warm.
The first day we went to the Danube delta and took a boat ride. It is supposed to be a beautiful bird sanctuary. We didn't see much because the boat we took was a transport boat that only went on the main traffic areas. He informed us of this after we paid. Oh well. We did stop at an interesting village on a small island. There were absolutely no vehicles or roads on this island. Instead it was a maze of paths with tall bamboo like fences around the houses. This plant whatever it is grows in abundance here. They tie it together to make their roofs, fences and in some cases the whole house. All their goods are shipped in and as we found out on our own boat a lot of fish was shipped out,
I was surprised how beautiful the Black Sea is. To be honest I expected the water to be kind of black. Instead it is a clear blue. The fist day there were about 1 foot waves but that night a storm increased their size. It was cool and even rained on and off but the kids swam anyway. In the evening a strong wind picked up making the waves ocean size. We all took a walk just to experience tha wildness of the shore.

Big fly in the ointment of our well laid plans. Yesterday something happened we didn't count on. Lehel's Mom apparently doesn't like a lady that has been coming to the Bible studies. She told Theresa, who is this ladies neighbor to tell her that she is not welcome to come anymore. To make matters worse, Theresa, wanting to spare her neighbors feelings, lied to her and told her that we all have stopped meeting until we find a new place. Now Fedi said they sat there at last night's Bible study feeling they are a part of this lie. Lehel is frustrated but it is not his house, it is his parents.
So we are back to thinking of buying a place here in Carta. To be honest it hurts financially. We are going back to America with a lot a debts and no job. This money would be a nice cushion of security. But there is a need here and I think we will be ok in America.
It does seem like it should not be necessary to buy a place as Leventa said. There are plenty of empty places around or the people that come should open up their houses. But we tried to rent a place,- there was such an uproar that the owner apologetically kicked us out. Lehel's bedroom has worked our O.K. but now we have this new problem with his Mom not wanting certain people to come. He Dad has also been criticized for letting us meet there. Also Lehel plans to be leaving sometime early next year to work in Sweden for a time. No one else coming owns a house as they are young, except for Theresa. She has already told us that she doesn't want us to meet at her house because of the problems she might have with her neighbors. If you ask me they are a bunch of wimps but I didn't grow up in this crazy village.
We went just now to look at the $11,000 house again. We plan to make an offer tonight. We won't put much money in it just enough to have one room that has heat to be used for the Bible studies.

Last night 2 couples and another man form the Csikzereda church joined our Bible study in Carta. Csilla and Jozsef have been coming regularly and also another couple. It has been a tremendous help. The atmosphere is really nice and we are thankful for their support. We plan to give gas money to them for the year to come. It is not a bribe, it is simply that they can't afford it.
We are also using donation money to have the teeth fixed on a young lady who comes to church. She is always very self-conscious of smiling or opening her mouth. Her husband said it has been a dream of hers but they couldn't afford it. She has already gone twice to the dentist.

Last night's Bible study was great. Leventa came and talked about the prophesies that pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. He concluded with the sobering message that even as these all came true so will all the prophesies about His judgment. There was a lot of questions afterward and then Csilla led us in a couple of songs. Afterward fedi talked to the care group about the pans we have finally settled on. We will leave the van with $1,000 of gas and maintenance money to Attila for church and Bible study use only. We will ask Csilla to arrange people from the Csikzereda church to come out weekly. There are 6 different men who could take turns. I hope they would be willing for the Lord's sake. We could give Csilla money for their gas.
We reserved our plane tickets today for October 16th.
Attila confirmed that yes Erika plans to be baptized as a Christian with time. With her though it is not the clear decision that we see with Attila. Attila says no matter what - his decision is clear. Erika is saying yes but if I wait maybe problems will smooth out.
Meanwhile right now the villages focus is on potato picking. The weather has been nice and hundreds of people are on the fields all day picking potatoes. Kinga's school class is spending the first two weeks of school picking potatoes instead of classes which I found rather shocking. In church and Bible studies in the evenings the people look tired.
We are going to give our couch to Csilla to use, the chain saw to Lehel, the wash machine to his Mom, and clothes, mitten, boots etc to the gypsies. The big items we asked to have back in the case that we return.

Fedi had a long talk with Erika yesterday with reassuring results. The best thing she said was that she considers herself on the road to being baptized as a Christian and her Mom know this too. She was under the impression that Fedi expected her and Attila to get married, baptized and to move into a house that doubles as a church in the next 5 weeks before we leave. I guess we had this thought as one of many options for the future but we never thought that it would happen in 5 weeks. We also never intended them to feel any pressure but were just trying to find a solution for their problems as an option for them to have. We also gave just as much thought to finding another missionary couple to come and vie here or also Fedi and I returning.
Anyway I do feel more peaceful now. It is clear that the kids and I have to return to take care of responsibilities we have in America. God will show us any other action we need to take at the right time. Even though we feel responsible for these people actually it is God's work. He started it and He has a plan even now.

The first couple we talked to can't replace us. Fedi and I are racking our brains about what to do. The second couple we just don't know that well. It still feels like we are abandoning the Carta people at a crucial time.
Attila is exhausted from the cow business. He also needs to go in and have a stomach surgery as soon as the cow season is over, about the end of October.
Erika returned form Hungary full of conflicts. She is discouraged from the constant uproar in her family over her interest in Christianity. She has tried to have both peace in her family and go to the Bible studies by sneaking to them. Now with Attila wanting to be baptized she is seeing her dream of a Catholic wedding slip away and she is not happy. At this point I don't think she is glad Attila wants to be a Christian. I pray for her daily though I feel frustrated that she only looks at the problems instead of all the benefits of Christianity. It also seem she cares more her Dad's opinion more than the man she plans to marry.
Lehel is asking a lot of good questions. He and Eboya come regular and seem very interested. Also Theresa the Christian lady comes every time. Lehel's Mom and his aunt also come regularly. Thersa brings a young lady with her occasionally. That's the main group along with Attila and Erika but there are visitors almost every time either from Carta or from Csikzereda.
Lehel's Mom has been a big help with the house hunting. We looked at one yesterday that has possibilities. It is only about $11,000 but would need about $5,000-$7,000 more work to make it livable. (I like indoor bathrooms)The yard though is charming.
If we can't find someone to replace us, we were hopeful that Attila and Erika would get married, live in the house, and hold the Bible studies there. That would solve their problem of no place to live and also give us a fixed point for a Christian witness in Carta. But Erika is not ready for this.
Fedi and I are so unsure of what to do. I wonder if I should go home, try to sell the rental house, tidy up the horse business- maybe sell out- and come back for another year after Christmas. The problem is that we care about these people. Will someone out there please tell us what to do!

Again it seems a lot is happening fast. We have decided that the kids and I will return to America in about 6 weeks. Fedi will come also if things are wrapped up here. Several things are happening to lead us this way. Dad is scheduled to have open heart surgery Nov. 3rd. We have a rental house that needs work and Irma and Sandor are hoping now that our house here is sold and the year we committed too is up we will return to take care of our own yard and rental stuff in America.
We have an empty= house to move into in America. It's junky but my standards are lower. I'm thrilled with a hot water heater and a heating system that we don't have to chop wood for.
Meanwhile we are looking daily for a house here. It will mean for us a financial loss but a spiritual gain. The Bible study group needs a place. They need to know that we really care. We are also trying hard to find a couple to live in the house and continue on holding the Bible studies. We have 2 families in mind. One we have approached already and we are waiting for their answer. It would also mean that we need to support them monthly, prob ally about $100-$150 a month.
Leventa has not worked out to take over. We have been disappointed. We thought he would commit to at least one evening a week as he at first enthusiastically agreed, Instead he only makes it about 1/2 of the time.

Well we got the brakes fixed yesterday with the parts Dad sent. That is a relief. We also went to see two houses for sale before the Bible study. They were both a disappointment to me. The problem is they are set up with barns and outbuildings that we don't need but lack what we do need. We want a small living area, a big room for the Bible studies near a bathroom, with central heating. In the better place that we looked at yesterday every room has it's own wood-burning stove for heating. I don't want to try to keep up five different fires in order to use the house. We will keep looking and keep praying. The God that helped us this far has a plan.

Yesterday was the closing for our house. The money should be here in a day or two. Fedi is still running around doing odds and ends to help them secure the house.
Joan and Tim left us. They seemed happy with the dental work they had done here. They were able to do some sight-seeing but it was limited because we were so busy moving and our van still has very bad brakes.
Bad brakes or not we still took several trips taking the Carta people to church on Sunday. A new man came that Attila had been witnessing too. Also the Bible study is going consistently well. The people coming are really interested.
Now the big news. Attila came yesterday and told Fedi that he wants to live a Christian life. He wants to be baptized. Wow!! For him this is a costly move. He told Fedi that his Dad has lied and cheated in the cow business that have together. Attila plans to use the money that he will get at the end of the season for taking care of the cows to make this right. He also told Fedi he knows he needs to marry Erika or stop seeing her. They don't have a place to live though if they get married. If we can help somehow we will.

We're moved! Attila came with his trailer for the big stuff. Joan and Tim were a big help with packing, and patching up things and babysitting while Fedi and I cleaned. It was a bit upsetting to find find that they hadn't moved anything out of the house we were moving into except one clothes cupboard. Every kitchen cupboard and drawers was full of their stuff. I boxed some up and squeezed our stuff in. Also there is no wash machine. Otherwise, though, as I am finding places for everything and getting organized I am very pleased. It has a big fenced in yard with nice grass. They left the beds for us which we need also.
Tuesday evening Fedi and I went up to clean. We were glad we did. There had been the biggest flash flood of the year. It had washed our little foot bridge out and since we weren't there to open up the underflow it had washed some of the side of the dam away. We are going up tonight to make repairs. We will leave the underflow open now.
Yesterday we went to see some tourist things with Joan and Tim. Fedi took them to a place that has a heavy, poisonous gas settled on the low part of a pit. People stand in it to help their arthritis, high blood pressure, and circulation. If you bend over and breath it you could die. It's a busy place with people standing there 30 minutes at a time. After that we took a walk up to a ski place. Lunch was at the park in Csilla's town. Then we went home to relax and prepare for the Bible study. Tim had it. I was Told it went really well.

In Brief. The moving was delayed bu a couple of days to Sept 2nd. Joan and Tim came on the train on Thursday. She got a lot of dental work done already but has more to do. We went on the weekend to the beautiful mountains on the way to the Nazarene church. We delivered the money from the Peoria A.C. church to help a lady there and spent the night at the church. The next day after church we headed home, stopped at the salt mine, and a souvenir place before making it home safely. We had terrible car problems the whole trip. At the end we limped home with barely any brakes and a battery that wasn't holding a charge. No one from Carta went to church because they had no transportation with us gone.

I'm getting behind because things have been busy. Just a few highlights for now.
Yesterday we found out that the people buying the house can come in about 8 days or at the end of October. Since the end of October is getting cold already to get the money to buy and remodel a cheap house in Carta we opted for the end of August. This means we have to vacate the house in 8 days, We spent about 20 hours wondering where we will be moving to until Fedi called me with the good news that he found a house we can rent. It's not easy here. You have to know people who know people. There is absolutely nothing for rent in the newspaper- only for sale.
So one we get all that settled we want to find a house in Carta to buy. I was hoping to stay around $15,000 but it may have to go to $20,000
Lehel sold his car so we went back and forth 4 times taking people to church and back. 6 came from Carta.
I am packing and doing normal house-hold chores.

Heuni's sister Abigail has been here since Monday. Now yesterday Arpi, Maria, and their daughter Anna came to spend a few days with us. This morning a man came to build a wood burning stove in our house. he will stay here too for a few days. The house is full. I like it.
Arpi and Maria went down to help with the Bible study Wednesday. They had a lot to share and it went well.

Hey guys, I think we sold our house!! We made an agreement with someone. There is no money down but they are flying in on the 31st to buy it. Their relatives came to see it today and loved it. I e-mailed them to see if we can rent it from them until we get something else. I hope that will work Ok. Anyway we got a good price. Love, Ruth

Yesterday was eventful. We had someone come to look at the house for their relatives from England. Just a few hours after they left we got a phone call that they want to buy the house. Fedi settled on $32,500. There is no money down yet but they are thrilled and we are taking it as a done deal. We have about $26,500 in the house not counting Fedi's labor so we are happy.
This house is a very hard one to sell. It is too far from the village for a Romanian to commute to work. Gas and maintenance of a vehicle is too expensive for them. The price of the house is also too expensive for 99% of the Romanians. So this left the international market. Way back in April on a whim I wrote an ad on a real-estate web-site on the internet. At this point we weren't sure of our plans so when Iii got to the end of the ad and saw it cost $79 to activate, I just let it be and forgot about it. At the end of June, the real-estate company e-mailed us that they will give us a free 2 months and they activated the ad for us. That is how the house sold. God has amazing ways.
Erika has had a better time of it. She seems happy and has not reported any more problems with her Dad. She did have a financial blow yesterday. Her calf ate some bad mushrooms and died. They stayed up all night trying to save it so she is very tired.
Sunday the four didn't come to church. Attila had to work but Lehel simply had a party to go to. Lehel's brother and girlfriend came though and the Christian lady I wrote about earlier. We aren't discouraged,

Fedi found out the last minute Friday that Leventa couldn't come to the Bible study. It ended out to be just Fedi, and three old ladies. Lehel came home about 9:30. Fedi did say it went really well. I was happy he got to spend some time with these new ladies. Right now there is just so much farm work. Attila is having trouble getting enough sleep. They( the 2 couples) come either to church or Bible studies at least 2 times a week so they have been faithful. Three times is maybe asking too much of them.
Fedi also continues to help Edda build his house.
We went Saturday to the dentist. I have needed some work done for a couple of years that I kept putting off. It went well. His waiting room and office were nice. His equipment was good. He spoke excellent English and explained everything he was going to do even letting me know that the numbing shot was from a single use needle. He did careful work. The numbing shot worked perfectly and the total cost to have a bridge done where I was missing a tooth was $200. Joan is coming to Romania to have some porcelain crowns put on. The cost here is $50.00 a crown. In the States it was $600 a crown. She figures it will pay for her to have an interesting vacation. I know we can't wait to see them. Anyone would be welcome to come and stay with us to do this if they have dental work to be done.
We have someone very interested to buy our house. We should know within 2 weeks if they will buy it. But we absolutely can't move Home yet. Not until we see that the people who are interested are getting the encouragement they need to move forward. Otherwise to me it would feel like having a baby and then abandoning it. We thought we had the problem solved with Leventa but now we are not sure if he is just too busy to commit to this. Another thought is to buy a house in Carta. There is one for sale that would cost about $15,000. We could have the Bible studies there and then see if there is someone from Budapest who would be interested in this as a mission field to take over and live in the house. I am not worried about persecution. The people against us only talk and there are quite a few people that have let us know they are friendly to us.
Fedi and I have decided there are 4 categories of people in Carta. Those who are coming to the Bible studies. those who are vocally against us, those who are so afraid of their neighbors opinions that they won't even wave to us since we tried to start Sunday services and those who are not necessarily interested in the Bible but want to have freedom of religion and so are for what we are doing.

Wednesday's Bible study was good. I took Steven with me and left the other kids at home. He promptly fell asleep. Again it was the four plus Lehel''s Mom and a new lady. She, her husband and son are Christians. She moved to Carta four years ago. She said she has been praying since she moved for a church to start in Carta because it is hard for them to make it into Csikzereda. They have also suffered for being Christians. Their neighbors threatened to smoke them out of their house. She said she has felt so much hate that she wasn't sure if it was God or Satan that gave them this house. Anyway, I think she and her family will come whenever they can.
Fedi talked about faith, hope and love and about how we should handle those who come against us. He gave one illustration that I thought made the point. He asked Attila to stand up, took his hand and swung it at Erika. Then he asked Erika, "Who are you going to be mad at, Attila or me? These people don't even realize that it is Satan that is working in them to be so hateful."
Fedi gets nervous before the Bible studies. He tries hard to prepare but he feels inadequate. I see God helping him though. Fedi keeps saying he wishes a real missionary would come and take over. I guess neither of us really expected results.
Tonight Leventa said he will come.

Lehel and his Aunt cooked a big pot of goulash for us again for Fridays picnic with the mission group. Last time we did this we were surprised with a group of 30 and barely had enough food. This time we ended up having way too much. I passed out about 4 gallons of left over goulash.

Later the group went down to Lehel's to have the Bible study. People have trouble making it up to our house. As it is, they work until dark so it has been starting at 9:00 pm and ending at 11:00 or 12:00. I let Rebekah go this time since there was a girl from Alaska there. She spent the night with us and was a joy to have. Rebekah especially liked her. Besides the mission group and us there were 7 people there. We now have three old ladies that are coming occasionally.

On Saturday, Rebekah went with Kristin to take a hike with the mission group. We did odds and ends in the city and then used the last of Annette's money that she had sent last fall, with the order to go out to eat, to do just that. We had Csilla, Jozsef and a neighbor couple along.

Sunday morning we went mushroom hunting. We came back with a big bucket full. There are big, edible mushrooms all over these hills. Some are as big as plates. As you can tell from the fact that I am writing this, we did pick the edible ones. The kids really got into finding them.

Lehel drove the four into church and we took his Aunt in. Oh yeah, Lehel wouldn't take any money for his car or gas to take people to church. It's worked out great for him to have this car at this time.

Now up to yesterday. Fedi and I got our courage up to go to the dentist. We both need quite a bit of work done and things are very, very cheap here. He will start the work on Saturday. Fedi then left to help Edda with his house and I did some e-mailing. We seem to have one person pretty interested in our house. We have been e-mailing back and forth. If we sell we won't leave this Bible study group until we have someone to replace us.

That's it for now. David, I didn't get your address on the first part I sent. Can you get it from your Mom. Kristin, This is part of a diary I have been sending since we got here. I will put you on the list to send it to since you now know some of these people. Ruth

Erika is having more family problems and is getting discouraged. She told Attila that no one will talk to her and her family is against her. Attila said he will not turn back from what he has learned about God because he has an inner peace.

Leventa brought a group of about 10 people from Hungary and America to Friday's Bible study. They all shared their testimonies. Fedi said it was nice, but the new family didn't show up again even after being especially invited. We are starting to think they just talk a lot. Lehel's Mom stayed for it though.

It seems that some of the momentum for a church is gone. We are doing what we can think to do, but the opposition took me, anyway, totally by surprise. People are just so scared of what their neighbors think. One comment Erika's Dad made was that he was born poor and worked all his life to be accepted by his neighbors and now Erika is ruining this.

Fedi and I are trying to not feel so much responsibility for results. I wish, though, people would understand the value of having peace with God.

On Friday we will have this mission group of 12 up first for a picnic and then they will go down to Carta again for the Bible study. It is such an awesome feeling to see people learn things from the Bible for the first time and to see their interest.

Oh yeah, Mom will be interested in this. A couple of days ago we ran into a nice lady from our English class. She has taken in 2 of the kids from the orphanage that closed down in Csikzereda. The kids looked happy and well.

The Bible study last night was great. Lehel's Mom came for the third time in a row. His brother and girlfriend came and a neighbor of theirs came for the 2nd time. Attila's brother Robbie came also so there were 8 people there.

We had it at Lehel's house. The atmosphere was great. I could not understand a lot of it, but I could see the interest on the people's faces. They all participated. By reading the verses as Fedi flipped through the Bible, I could follow along at least the basic idea.
(I have to quit typing now but I will finish with Thursday later.) Love Ruth

Sunday was nice. We cooked hamburgers and corn on the cob out on the grill. The kids were excited to have an American meal. In the afternoon a guy we have been exercising with brought up two men to discuss the Bible with us. When they got here we discovered they were Jehovah witnesses. Bummer.

Anyway Lehel's Mom and a neighbor asked to come to church with us. We picked them up and met Attila, Erika, Lehel and Eboya at church. They came in Lehel's car. Speaking of which, we want to give Lehel some donation money to keep using his car for church in Cszereda. He has had some maintenance costs and gas. Maybe that's what God would have in mind for the time being rather than starting a church in Carta. Lehel bought this car recently from his brother.

We also gave Leventa $75 dollars for August and John from the prison $60 for July and August.

Fedi continues to go every Thursday for a Bible study at the prison. He said last Thursday they had a pretty solid Bible study after they got a fight that broke out settled down. One man got mad because another one was monopolizing the conversation.

Today was easygoing. Steven and Anni spent the night taking turns vomiting. I didn't feel guilty at all about lazing around in the afternoon. They are better today. Ryan and Rebekah did some school.

We drove in for Fedi to have a Bible study in the prison. On the way in, the brakes started to grind again. So now, after the prison we need to look for parts and find a way to get the girls home form Heuni's. Getting a horse wagon is looking more and more attractive.

Last night Fedi had a Bible study at Lehel's at 5:00 pm. The new family couldn't make it again, but said they would try on Friday. As is, the two couples came plus Lehel's Mom and a young boy. Fedi felt it didn't go so good. He said he felt so tired and drained. Sort of maxed out. We will try to have Leventa come help on Friday.

We did get some threats that have not worried me at all since they are a bit laughable. A lady told Attila they are sending a bulldozer up to bulldoze our house down. I think people talk just to make some noise. No one in the whole village owns a bulldozer. The gas alone, getting it up to our house, would put a dent in their pockets and they would go to jail. The mean-spiritedness does surprise me though.

We got a beautiful rain yesterday and I started the refrigerator back up. A propane refrigerator would be great here, but we don't want to take the time or spend the money to get one. E-bay had a good selection, but all in Germany. Romania doesn't know that there is such a thing.

Fedi did some car maintenance first, new brake pads. Then he went down to get Erika and next will head to Csikzereda (Csilla's town) to help with the house again.

He got home about 10:00 pm last night after having a good long talk with Erika's Dad and Attila. Erika's Dad agrees with everything Fedi is saying from the Bible, but he is very afraid of what the neighbors think. One of his comments were "you will be leaving, but we have to live in this community". But the talk was good and it broke the ice.

After that Fedi had a great talk with Attila. He told him that he is just now starting to understand what Jesus's death on the cross means. He said the Bible has many good life teachings as is, but put in that also faith in God and it's great.

Today we took the girls up to spend 2 days with Heuni's 13 year old sister, Abigail. Fedi ran into a lot of acquaintances in his hometown so it took all day.

Yesterday morning was very discouraging. We expected people to come up for a Bible study, but no one came. Erika couldn't come because the Catholic priest talked directly with her Dad about the cult she is involved in and her Dad was furious. Attila called and said he had hay to cut. Lehel and Eboya are not getting along, we think, and since Attila wasn't coming, Lehel didn't either. The two new families that said they were going to come didn't show either. Fedi and I were really down.

Things looked up some though when Attila and Lehel stopped by. Attila told us that even if we leave, he will stick with God. He also said one family was heading up to our house, but he told them to wait until we get a little more organized. As we drove from our house, we stopped and talked to some neighbors. They told us by all means not to give up. They said there are more people than we know that are interested. Then we went to talk to the family that was heading up and they said if Attila comes up on Wednesday, they will come for sure.

Now Fedi is going to talk to Erika's Dad. He is really nervous.

Last week, Friday and Saturday, Fedi spent the day helping a man in our church build his house.

Fedi had quite a day yesterday. On the way home from taking David to the airport the car started acting up. He thinks the fuel filter is getting clogged up. He made it home though, but had to leave in 30 minutes to go down to the last Bible study in the Carta House. The owner came, as he said he would. Fedi said the subject was on Christian attitude, peacefulness and love. The owner of the house said he wants to bring his family to the next meeting, on Sunday Morning, at our house.

Anyway, Fedi called me at 1:00 a.m. to say the car just wouldn’t go anymore, halfway home and he was just going to sleep there until Attila passed him on his way up to the cows, about 5:00 a.m. Attila dropped him off and he crawled into bed very cold. I woke up him at 7:00 to go to the prison. He took the bike down to the car, shook the fuel filter out some, which helped and drove to the city. He just called me from there to say the Bible study was really good at the prison and he got a call from Robbie (Attila’s brother). He told him the mayor would like to have a friendly meeting with him at 7:00 p.m. tonight. He also said there is another family that we know that wished the owner wouldn’t have caved in so easily and would let us stay at the house in Carta. The poor guy can’t win.

Fedi just got home from the “friendly” meeting with the mayor. There were about 15 people there. It was the Catholic priest who had asked for the meeting, Fedi found out when he arrived. It was not friendly, but more of an attack. The Catholic priest told him the Bible isn’t for normal people to read. Fedi told him in James it says if we ask for wisdom, God will give it to us. The leader of the city youth group said Fedi just wanted to buy people things to get them to join his religion, but he is not for sale. That’s what comes from trying to be nice I guess. There were mostly suspicious questions asked by the priest in a derisive tone of voice. He told Fedi that our religion might work in America, but not here. They said they will check to see if what we are doing is legal. They told Fedi he is disloyal to his country and his religion he was born in.

But the good side to it all, Fedi said he definitely felt God’s presence and help with his answers. He said God helped him keep his cool. And now, that things are stirred up, another family said they want to come to one of the Bible studies to hear about the Bible. I think this Sunday Morning at our house there may be some new faces.

David left today. We’re going to miss him. He was consistently helpful and patient with the kids. Also, since he was here during all this uproar, we asked him to tell people to pray for us.

Soooo much to write about. On Wednesday - Fedi went to Bucharest to pick up David (Sceggel) from the airport. Leventa came to Carta to have the bible study in our place. He said it was great, five people were there. They all prayed and participated.

Friday - Fedi went with David for the bible study, again, it was good.

Saturday - we had 30 young people up for a picnic. It was the evangelical group that was spending a week in Csilla’s town, plus young kids from the two Baptist churches. There were water fights and lots of guitar playing. It was really nice.

Sunday Morning - Fedi was really nervous about going down for the first church service. I had trouble understanding it until we went down. We stepped out of the car and a neighbor lady started yelling at us from across the street. She told us the Catholic church as been around for 560 years in Carta and we should all be ashamed of ourselves. She was really worked up. She joined two others on the street and continued to be angry. Meanwhile, people were coming to the church. Leventa arrived with a group from Csilla’s town to support us. Robbie (Attila’s brother) came. He is a bit of a hot head. He heard the lady yelling at us and he yelled right back for her to leave us alone. It got bad though when he lost his temper and threatened her. Then, everyone settled down.

The service was nice. Leventa had the service and there was a guitar player for the music. Erika was upset though, she told us later that she had a confrontation with her parents. They said how can she be so selfish as to make them look bad to their neighbors. OUCH!!

That evening after evening church in Csilla’s town, many people prayed for her.
Tuesday - Erika came with the happy news that her Dad had made peace with her. She also had read in the Bible that said “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake” before her father talked to her and felt a peace.

Tuesday, late morning, we found out more about persecution. We passed the little house in Carta on our way to town. There were people there. It was the owners with some bad news. They said that there was a town meeting that almost ended in a fist fight. They told the owner they are going to bulldoze his building down if he lets us use it. He told Fedi if it was a disco or a strip club there wouldn’t be any problem. He doesn’t understand their attitude, but wants us to quit meeting there.

So, now what? Mom and Dad called us Tuesday to say the A.C. Church also prayed for us on Sunday. It gave me a feeling that God has control.

The owner did say we can get together one last time on Wednesday and he would try to come also. We asked him if we could buy the building. I think it would be between $1,000 and $2,000. If so I would put insurance on it and ask the friendly neighbors to keep “watch”. It is smack-dab in the center of town, so anyone breaking anything would be in trouble with the law.

Yesterday, we took the 1:00 p.m. train in to Csilla’s town for lunch at Edith and Leventa’s church. They had a group of 8 there also. They are here for 1 week for an evangelization. It was nice to talk to the 2 Americans. Lehel and Eboya came also. They said it was great to be with other young people who were Christians. It was a full and nice day. After church, we bummed a ride from Mickey and Lehel. The people here are very conscientious about how many passengers a car is legal to have, so we have to take two cars usually.

I felt sick most of the weekend, so it was nice it turned out quiet.

Friday, Fedi went down for a bible study and to organize the books at the Carta House. He didn’t need to help Attila at all this weekend as Lehel and Attila’s Dad are. In the afternoon, Csilla’s husband and another man came to work on the chimney for the grill. I did need to cook them supper, plus coffee two times. Other than that, I laid around. I was so relieved not to have company this weekend.

Saturday, we finally got some rain. It surprised some people cutting hay in the meadow and they ran up to our porch to take shelter. I was feeling better, so after lunch we decided to go berry picking. We had surprising good luck. Up higher from our house we kept finding patches of wild strawberries. There weren’t too many, 5 - 6 here and 5 - 6 there, but the flavor of those little marble-sized things is outstanding. We weren’t planning to go far, but Fedi started to find some ripe blueberries. We knew of a place higher that was loaded with blueberry bushes so we headed up. Bonanza!! They were ripe and loaded. We picked and ate, picked and ate. It started to get stormy again so we all went into a cave for awhile. We cut it a little short because of the weather and our lack of water, but we plan to definitely get back there in the next few days.

We got back and sat on the porch swing reading Rebeka’s science book. The berries were divided and consumed. Fedi made a big fire in the grill just for atmosphere. God has really blessed us.

Well, we got the house in Carta. Fedi came home on Monday from talking to the owner and said he would give it to us rent free. He just wants us to say a prayer for him. The owner’s Mom listens regularly to a Christian TV station broadcast from Hungary and says she wants to join us. It’s a really cute log building that used to be used for an office. It is small, but it has an upstairs also. It is a very visible location in the center of town.

Tuesday was sure frustrating! We got up early to catch the train into town since we are still waiting for the water pump to arrive from America for our van. Fedi helped Edda with his house for about 4 hours and then somehow a 10 minute job working on the radiator of our car ( it also sprang a small leak) stretched into about 4 hours. The problem was, he waited for Zoltan to come, he was late, then he ate first, then the work was done at an Alabama pace. The culture here almost drives me crazy sometimes. If you meet someone you know in Peoria, you know they have something to do, they know you have something to do, so you do a quick greeting, a little visiting and move on. Here they think you have nothing to do. Even if you tell them you need to get going, they literally insist you come in for a coffee. You could tell them your kid broke his leg and you have to rush him to the hospital and they would say “oh, but come on for just 5 minutes for a coffee” - which really means an hour.

Now, since we are not using a refrigerator it’s been a little tricky keeping fresh food on hand. Gino has been well fed from salamis that are spoiling before we can use them up.

We are expecting Attila’s brother to come with his girlfriend and 7 year old girl for lunch and then have a bible study in the evening down at the new house.

A word about donation money: we gave Leventa $80.00 for July. Other money is just here & there. A man got married who was recently converted in our church. We gave them $15.00. They did not even have one flower - no special clothes - nothing at all extra other than someone brought pretzels & juice after. We caught a ride home Sat. with Zoltan. His fuel filter and fuel pump went out on the way. We bought new ones for $15.00. He had no money. Sunday we got a ride home with Arpi & Marie - really good people - only he didn’t have enough gas or money to get us home. We put in $15.00 worth of gas. We also have made a habit of putting $15.00 every week in the church donation box - about ever since we have arrived. Fedi spent between $70.00 - $100.00 (he can’t remember) helping set up the exhibition for the prisoners artwork. Fedi is going in weekly to hold Bible studies. He has between 10 - 15 men normally and they wait anxiously for him to come.

Fedi talked to the man who owns the little building in Carta after church. He said we could have it but didn’t talk price. Fedi is going now to meet him. We are excited and nervous about what this could mean in Carta.

Well, we had an awesome Bible study Friday. Leventa & Edith came up too. Attila asked two main questions; How do you know what religion is right and what to do if all the neighbors think you are in a cult? Leventa was able to answer these questions very thoroughly by telling his own example. He went to Theology school, was a priest in a reform church, converted and then left his own church to find a true Christian church. Lehel also has some good comments.

It was all so encouraging, that the next day, when our car broke down in Csiksereda (Csilla’s town) as we were taking Leventa & Edith home, we weren’t too down. We came back up the mountain with Zoltan & Rosie. Neighbors of Csilla’s who came for a picnic and to spend the night. We will be without a car for about a week and a half until the water-pump we are having air mailed from America arrives. I have had lots of overnight company. Csilla’s family is also here, Leventa & Edith just left, Zoltan & Rosie slept downstairs. Before that we had the English class and the family of Fedi’s classmate.

This is the 4th of July; one of my favorite holidays in America. My family is all camping, watching fireworks and swimming. Fedi is also homesick - for an AutoZone. If it wasn’t for seeing spiritual progress in our friends, I would really want to be home.

Yesterday we drove down to go to a display of the prisoner’s artwork set-up in the civic center. There were speeches given and people were dressed up. They said this is the first time anything like this has happened in Romania. Afterwards, Fedi & I went to pump some iron. A month membership with a personal trainer was for both of together, $6.00. What a woman does to please her husband. There I was - 43 years old with all these muscle bound young men, lifting weights.

Before that, actually I forgot to say, we spent about an hour at the internet club trying to get information for Eniky. She called us from Bucharest Airport and said she found out that no one would be meeting her in New York to take here to the orientation site for exchange students. Now - what’s a young girl supposed to do - alone, arriving at 11:00 P.M. with little English skills and only $50.00 in her pocket. Aunt Jinny gave us information on a safe & cheap way for her to travel and also we found some one else who was going to try to meet her.

In Carta, we stopped at the old man’s house to give him some money for the funeral. He told us they had enough after all & didn’t need it anymore. We wanted to get home, but it was impossible without being incredibly rude. They wanted so bad to be nice and quickly brought out coffee & whiskey and cake. They thanked Fedi over & over. All those evenings when Fedi came home so late & told me he couldn’t be rude, he wasn’t exaggerating. There was no way out of this one.

The next day, we stayed home mostly. Fedi & Lehel worked all day on the bridge - replacing the whole thing. They did a great job. I had to drive to Csilla’s town to give Leventa his spare house keys. They were locked out.

In the evening, we had a great Bible study with Attila, Erika & Lehel. It was Attila’s first time praying out loud that day. He concluded with “that’s it. Fedi told them that anytime they wanted to make the commitment to become a Christian, the package was there for them. Attila said a year ago they had zero (0) chance to even know this was available to them. Erika has made a comment similar to this before also saying that she never knew there was any other possibilities other than the Catholic religion.

There is a building, not very big, that is empty in Carta. We’ve been talking about trying to rent it and open a Christian library/bookstore. It’s pretty easy to get free literature - lots of Western European countries send it in. This would also give us a place in town to hold Bible studies. Leventa agreed join us and take over if eventually a group kept up meeting regularly. I feel there is a chance to start a church here. For almost a year Fedi has been getting to know people, making friends and talking about God. Some people are interested. Attila & Erika are key people in this town. They are hard workers, don’t smoke or drink and have good reputations. They may draw others in also. Erika has already been talking to her Mom about the Bible. Lehel & Eboya are coming regularly to Bible studies because they are friends of Attila’s.

At the same time we have our house for sale. We had four people on the internet e-mail for more information. If it would happen to sell before we are ready to go, we will rent something. Rent is cheap here.

We are hoping to have a Bible study tonight again. Attila stopped by and said he would try to make it but just finished milking in the morning, he gets up about 4:00 A.M.; then he has to go and cut the hay in one field; most of the people do it by hand with a scythe though some have walk-behind mowing machines; then he needs to pick up the dried hay in another field; this is with pitchforks and usually horse drawn hay wagons and there was something else he said, but I forget. Fedi will go to help him a little.

The old man’s (that we give rides up & down the mountain) wife died suddenly. They asked Fedi to collect pine branches to put around the casket. This morning he left early to drive the relatives to Csilla’s town to pick out a casket and then bring the casket back. He also asked for some help with money. Fedi said it’s a bad custom in Romania that after a funeral the family is expected to pay for everyone’s meal at a restaurant. If you don’t go-it’s disrespectful, if you do, it places more hardship on the family.

Lehel & Eboya came to church, but Attila & Erika had company.
We found out that some of the orphanage kids actually got placed in our little town of Carta. Most of the families here are decent people.

The English class (5 girls & 1 boy) came - spent the night and left Sunday afternoon. It was nice. We kept the Christian Witnessing low-key because the kids are only 13 years old and their parents only gave permission for an English camp. We did pray at all meals though & had a campfire talk on Evolution and Creation.

We dropped them off, then one hour later picked up Attila, Erika, Lehel & Eboya for church. Eboya asked for a Bible now after listening in on a few Bible studies. I think these four are very very open. They are coming up again tonight for another Bible study.

We just returned home after spending 5 days in the city. We switched houses with Leventa & Edith and their 5 kids. Their apartment is on the 6th floor directly above the market. It was very convenient for food. I think their kids enjoyed getting to spend time in the mountains and my kids like having TV & lots of new toys. We walked in the city square in the evening. Lots of people hang out there - of all ages. We stopped where a man was selling cotton candy for about 30 cents. I laughed so hard tears flowed when he started the machine, misjudged the amount of sugar, and pieces of cotton candy began shooting in the air & floating down on the people sitting at an outdoor café. Fedi bought some food for some of the ever-present gypsy kids. Two of them had a squall and the one that looked about 5 hit the one that looked about 3. There are, of course, never parents present for these kids.

We have a very low charge now from the water generator. It would be enough if we had a propane refrigerator. It’s an unknown commodity here, but I saw some on E-bay in Germany. The problem is in order to get it we need to get our windshield fixed - about $300.00. Another one of Romania’s incomprehensible laws is you can’t cross the border with a cracked windshield. Our other options are to do without the refrigerator (we get fresh milk delivered daily) or to run the gas generator occasionally to charge the batteries.

Oh-yeah, speaking of Romania’s wacky laws, last week we went to a busy office to check on the transfer fees if we sold our house. The lady there, very business-like informed us if we sold our house for say $30,000.00 the minimum amount we can report in order to cheat on the taxes is ---------here she flipped through some pages and showed us the exact amount written down that we are allowed to cheat. I asked her couldn’t we get in trouble for doing that? - she said it has never been recorded that any one has every been penalized. What I wonder is who sat down & organized the amount you are allowed to be illegal by?!?!?!?

Anyway - home, sweet, home. Now tomorrow Fedi’s adult English class is coming for a cookout. Put the food for all this entertaining down to donation money. Then - maybe - hopefully - life will find some kind of normal routine.

Our company left yesterday. It was an old school friend of Fedi’s, his wife & their son. Fedi talked with them until 2:00 A.M. about the Bible. He said they had a lot of questions but didn’t seem open. The next day they left just as we were starting a Bible Study with our 4 faithfuls. (Attila, Erika, Lehel & Eboya)
Now we have a day to ourselves. Mostly we are cleaning to get ready for the kids from Fedi’s English class. There are 6 coming up for 2 days.

We just finished a great 2 weeks with Mom & Dad. I hope they made it home alright and the trip wasn’t too hard. We went to places in Romania Fedi & I had never seen and some of these places were spectacular. We drove up a mountain road with so much snow that at the top people were still skiing. There were big waterfalls and streams everywhere from the melting snow. The road was barely open. In places, rock slides or deep snow cut it down to one lane.

Other days we just relaxed at home. Mom & Dad are so fun to vacation with. They never complain. They laugh & joke around all the time. As long as they are physically up for it they are ready for any adventure. We took them on a horse wagon ride up from our house. It turned out to be more of an adventure than I ever intended. It was scary! The horses charged up the hills, running and bouncing over boulders. At one point Mom & Dad’s bench fell down in the wagon. After we made it up & sat looking at the view for a while Mom said, “Oh Well, I guess it was worth it. Down hill was better, the horses went slow.

We called ahead and went to visit the orphanage run by Americans, that has been in deep financial trouble. Some other ladies showed up just as we did. They were from social services there to place the kids in foster homes and to close the place up. Since the employees and temporary manager were very distressed with this situation, Fedi asked them to hold off for 2 weeks if we gave them some money, to see if there was a better solution. They said if we would give them $300.00, to at least make sure there would be enough food & diapers for the kids they would wait. The temporary manager was so thankful, but it turned out that the manager in America was not. She (Debbi) never told the temporary manager or the workers that they wanted to close the place up. All they knew was that they were behind paying for diapers, the telephone was cut off, the electricity was off, but it got temporarily reinstated. The workers had not been paid for about 7 weeks, and the gas company was coming the end of the month to shut off the gas. We asked them why didn’t they call the managers in America & they said they had no way to get hold of them except e-mail and they weren’t replying. We did finally get ahold of Debbi, as some one in our church knew a European telephone number where the people could contact her and leave a message. Debbi called us the next day and boy, was she mad at Fedi for interfering. Oh-well, I figure if she would have just stayed in contact with her employees, they would have known that she wants to close the place down, so it’s really her fault. Dad said he would ask Ken Hoerr if the A.C.’s would be interested in the orphanage. But in my mind it needs too much money, too fast. May God bless & help these kids wherever they go.

Dad caught a bad cold the last couple of days. Bummer, because otherwise I think he felt pretty good while he was here considering his heart condition. It was just so nice to spend time with them. It made me think of heaven - because there we can be with the people we care about all the time.

Fedi left this morning to purchase 5 computers for the educational department at the jail at a cost of $100.00 each. So that’s $500.00 from the donation money - plus $300.00 for the orphanage. Dad agreed that we need to keep the guards on our side in order to gain better access to the prison. It does look like they will start letting Fedi in once a week now instead of every other week for the Bible studies.

We have done about 3 Bible studies with Lehel, Eboya, Attila & Erika. Our plan is to keep it up on Wednesdays and Fridays. Attila & Erica mentioned a couple of times how much they liked it when Dad helped too. Fedi has been giving them good teaching, but I think it is good for them to hear the same things from other people too.

We are expecting a couple and their son to come today to spend the night a few days. On the weekend we plan to have an overnight weekend here with about 4-5 girls from Fedi’s English class. On Monday we will switch houses with Leventa and Edith and his 5 kids so they can spend 5 days in the mountains & we will hang out in the city. Then on Friday when we switch back we need to prepare for a big picnic here with the adult English class and their families on Saturday. After that we can relax a little and get the kids school going again.

Fedi came home about 12:30 a.m. He said the bible study was great; three new people came; Lehel’s mom, his niece and the building owner’s mom. Also Robbie (Attila’s brother) wanted to come but Fedi forgot to call him on the time, so he showed up at the end. He told us of about 3 others that want to come also. What is happening? Fedi said they talked about the sower and the seed. After they were done, some of them started gossiping about the village priest, so Fedi read to them about the women caught in adultery and how Jesus said the one who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.

As they were cleaning, Lehel put a rock concert tape in to play, but Fedi said no, he wanted it to be clear what this building is all about. It’s very visible and it would be a bad start for sure for the villagers to hear that kind of music coming out. Remember even though the four who have been coming regularly have not made the commitment to be Christians yet, and they know it’s a definite step they need to take. They’re funny though. They are cleaning the building and helping get it set up, and talking about how to invite people to come.

We can’t do anything there this weekend. Attila’s employees, the family that takes care of 120 cows and milks 30 of them, up in the mountains, needs to go to their hometown for the weekend. Attila really has to help. Fedi will drive the milk down the mountain once a day and help milk. The families oldest boy is staying back to help also. I’ve been wanting to take the kids up to visit with their kids, but it’s too scary. Fedi definitely has to be with us. They have been chasing bears away regularly from the cows. They also have about 5 big dogs for protection and they are dangerous for strangers also.

I stayed home with the kids. They are trying to make an ant farm. They have everything set up and ready, but it’s necessary to find the queen. After about 2 hours of trying they came running in yelling. They found the queen. She must have been injured with the digging though, because she died. They want to try again. Hey - with no TV, even I sat for a long time watching these little ants lifting huge pieces of sand (in comparison with them) to make tunnels.

Yesterday was a big Catholic holiday in Csilla’s town. It has been going on for centuries. I was told it started in the 1400's after a war ended. It made me very impressed with the Hungarian people. They came from all over- 500,000 people. We passed groups walking on the road - holding up their village signs. Some were 2 days walk away that we passed. Busses galore came from Hungary. All this, to climb a hill, sit on the grass and listen to a church service. Below the hill a street was blocked off for people to sell things - about 2 kilometers worth of trinkets, food, souvenirs, etc. On top of the hill though it was very quiet and serious. We overlooked this huge crowd of people sitting on a hill, it took about an hour to climb. There were no restrooms, no concessions & no chairs. And no entertainment other than a Catholic service proclaimed over loud speakers. I’m impressed with the people, but not the Catholic religion. So many thousands made such a big effort and then they are told to praise and pray to Mary. God sees their searching though.

Fedi spent last week building our bed. He got it done and it is beautiful. We are now off the floor.

Heuni & his Mom, Dad & Sister all came for the weekend. Heuni & his Dad messed around yesterday and today with the settings on the waterpower. They tried to install an electric heater as we have so much water now. We are not sure if it will work though. Heuni’s Mom & I wandered around during a break from cooking, collecting peppermint leaves for tea and itch weed. Itch weed makes a delicious creamed vegetable. It tastes like a mild spinach. Also, Lehel & Attila came to visit. I was shocked at how much weight Lehel had lost in Hungary. They all plan to come to church tomorrow. Thank you Lord for probably the 100th time for the van. It looks like we will have 4 extra people.

Thursday, we played the tourists and drove about 3 hours away to a spectacular valley. Probably it would be better called a gorge. The road had steep cliffs on either side and a rushing river next to it. We drove through it to get to a lake. It had a very large dam. What was note worthy about this huge mountain lake was the garbage floating all along the shore and even in the middle. I told Fedi that the Romanians sure know how to protect themselves from tourists. I also told him I didn’t think we should bring Mom here because she would probably have a nervous breakdown trying to pick up all the garbage.

We found out yesterday that Anniku, (Jozsef & Sandors) family friend did get the visa to go to America. This is an exciting opportunity for her. It’s a visa offered only to college students for the summer that allows them to work & earn some money. I like Anniku a lot. She strikes me as someone who is not at all materialistic and also someone who is very attached to her Mom & Dad. These are the very reasons though, she might not like America.

Oh, Yeah, Attila got his cows moved up to the upper meadow. On the day he moved them. (He has about 120 cows now - 30 are milking) 3 big cows and 2 babies wandered into our yard and stayed around for about 2 hours. As no one showed up to claim them & Attila said they weren’t his, I had the kids herd them back down to the road where they would be more visible.

We have had 2 days of steady rain. It’s hard to mind the rain when it means I can keep running the refrigerator. As long as the creek stays high we have plenty of electricity. Eventually I would like to get a propane refrigerator from an old camper somewhere.

We’ve been seeing quite a few village parades and festivals now that it is spring. Each village has their own take on the national costumes and has their own centuries old festivals & traditions. There is a community spirit to the villages. Usually, we see parades with everyone in their national costumes. There is usually a rinky-dink band playing, horse wagons and horse riders.

We are all excited about Mom, Dad & Justin coming to visit.

Boy am I worn out after a busy weekend. On Friday, we took the kids swimming at a pool in Csilla’s town. Saturday, we did the kids program as Heidi and Edda were gone; then we went to a junk yard for a van seat for our van, after that it was necessary to drive Csilla & Jozsef for an overnight work party, as their car was broken. We got back just in time for Fedi to lead the young-group Bible study, then rushed home arriving right before some company came to spend the night. Sunday, we entertained the family & couple that came. Later Csilla’s family and a neighbor’s family came for a picnic. We got everything wrapped up just in time to rush to church.

Attila (cow) wanted to make it, but had to spend the day fixing up an old shack where the family he hired will be moving. It looks barely livable. He put some boards over the dirt floor, but at this point there is nothing but 4 wooden walls & a leaky roof. No door - not even an outhouse - only a little stream about 50 feet away. Of course, no lights, no beds, stove or table yet. It will be interesting to see how they make it. Today Fedi helped him put up the fence for the cows, since Attila is so overwhelmed. He said he should get the notice any day to move the cows to the upper meadow and he has to be prepared. As of now they have 30 milk cows to care for and more keep coming. I keep trying to think of ways to help this family. We told Attila they can come down to do their wash or take showers if they want.

Sunday was great!! I love the van! We picked up Attila & Erika and Lehel’s Mom & Dad to first go to a baptism of a 92 year old man. He is related to Lehel’s Mom & Dad and also a family in church. His mind is sharp though he can’t walk around any more. He gave a really nice testimony. It was good for the people we brought to see. Lehel’s Dad especially seemed open. His Mom has not had a good relationship with the church relative and maybe not ready to jump into anything. Erika seems really joyful. I think she is open to everything she is hearing. I would call her definitely “a good-soil”.

Two of the people who will be baptized also gave their testimonies. One man who, one year ago was such a bad alcoholic that he lost his family and job, told how God and the church helped him at his lowest point. He has done well ever since & has his family back and a new job in Mickey’s logging business.

We also had a lot get done on the house having the men here to help all week.

I think I entirely forgot to write that Fedi used the donation money to give Easter packages to 140 prisoners. I think it cost about $150.00 because he had things left over from Christmas.

We’ve had guys from the church here since Tuesday. Mickey had no work in his logging business. I don’t know why - maybe his tractor was broken. Fedi & I were talking about that & how he would sure like to get someone up here to work on re-doing the concrete of our porch. A light went off and our porch is now done. Of course we had 3 guys spending the night the last 3 nights so there was plenty of commotion.

We traded our jeep for a minivan, plus they gave us about $1000.00. We are really happy. For winter, if we stay again, we plan to give the (cow) Attila $500.00 to use his 4wd jeep when the snow is too deep.

The weather has been beautiful - in the 60's during the day & 40's during the night. The village people are hard at work planting potatoes. The city people just stroll around in the sun in the city center in their nice clothes.

Lehel called.; He is coming back from Hungary. He is broken up from his girlfriend now. I hope he will come back to church. (Later note: all rumors - they are still together)

Attila & Erika continue to take steps of faith. Erika reads the Bible with us when she stays here and has good questions. Attila has had some good talks with Fedi. He said he is trying to trust
God with the details of his cow business instead of getting stressed out. He had a couple of bad days when someone tried to steal a calf in the night. He also didn’t like it when Erika cried at church. He said he didn’t know what was wrong, but she was fine. I think she was touched by something that was said; which, if I could just understand anything, maybe I could figure it out.

The orphanage got a surprise “inspection” and the manager is kicked out. Hopefully that will solve the problem, though I know there are still money problems.

Attila & Erika asked to come to church. During the service & prayer time, Erika started crying. She really wants Jesus in her life and was prayed for. We are very, very encouraged. Also Kinga stood up to give her testimony. They are going to have baptisms in May, I think, and Kinga and Jozsef are included. Kinga’s testimony was very nice. I can’t wait to hear Jozsef’s because even his wife was surprised that he wanted to be baptized. He doesn’t tell anyone anything personal.

It looks like we found a van. The man said he would trade us for our jeep. It is not 4WD but we will worry about that later. We don’t need 4WD until it snows and then only on the mountain. We can buy an old jeep and not register it just for the mountain, or maybe we can work out something to borrow Attila’s jeep. I will be sooooo happy to have more room.

Fedi went today to run errands and also to give a man in church $100 from the donation money. He works with Mickey’s new business, got hurt and has been off work.

We exchanged wash machines with Csilla & it works!! No more washing clothes by hand. Life is good!!

Our car is fixed and running well. Now we plan to advertise it. Also, the creek is down some so we were able to clean the silt away from the pipe and get our electricity going again. Most of our pond filled up with sand. This shouldn’t bother the waterpower much and the kids think it will be great to play in when the weather is warmer.

Attila & Erika came to church for the 3rd time. He told Fedi this was the best time of all 3 for him. He is a little worried about the summer because he got the use of the government land for the summer, which means he has to take care of everyones cows that want to be there. He gets half of the milk but it could be hard to arrange enough employees. He had a lot of people tell him they are bringing their cows and he is worried this one family won’t be enough.

Well, the orphanage. We called Linda from the U.S. who helps manage them. She said the information we have is wrong and the other employees are telling her things are OK. Could the lady in our church be exaggerating? Or is the manager - who is the only one who can speak English - so is the only one Linda talked to otherwise lying and stealing the money? We left it that the lady in our church that works there should get signed statements from the employees if things are that bad and we will fax them to Linda. Also we did not give the $200 because even the lady from church said that now they were sent some money and have food this week. Linda said they are scrounging around for money left and right. Now that all foreign adoptions are stopped, their source of income is also stopped. Unless the A.C.’s want to run an orphanage in Romania, I don’t see any way we can help.

Until our new garbage hole is finished, we have been taking our one bag a week to the city dumpsters. I asked Fedi if this was OK and he said “oh yeah, the gypsies are going through it as we throw it in”. The next week I was with him and sure enough as soon as he threw it in, two gypsy girls moved in to check it out.

Also, I don’t know if I wrote yet that the storks are back. They return every spring and make their huge nests on top of electrical poles on unused chimneys. We pass by a few nests frequently and have given them names. We see Ethel & George the most. They are often standing in their nest rearranging the sticks. The kids often mimic Ethel saying “George, how can you leave these sticks all over our living room!?!”

Also, the Kookoo Birds have got their voices back. Fedi said they don’t leave for the winter, but they lose their voices until spring. Now we hear them all the time to the point of wondering when someone is going to turn that kookoo clock off!

The orphanage is back in the picture. They didn’t pass out the kids to the workers as I was told. A Romanian law won’t allow that without the families being approved. I have to say, I agree with that. Now I just learned the situation has gotten very bad. The workers have not been paid for two months. They are feeding the kids (18) tea and crackers. Heidi went there and said 5 of them were sick and they had no money to buy medicine for their fevers. It has become very complicated since the American owners of the orphanage are hard to get ahold of. The heartbreaking option is to report this to the government, which means the kids will be sent to the state orphanages. My understanding is these are bad, but at least there is food. We will give $200 to a lady in church, who will buy food from the donation money. Tomorrow I want to try and call the Americans who own this. They had 3 orphanages and one has been closed already.

Mickey’s business is off to a rocky start. Their tractor keeps breaking down and his worker has been off work twice with injuries. He has become scared about being able to pay back the money he borrowed (about $15,000.00). I really wish him well though - he hired two people from church, which means 3 families will have an income if he makes it.

The pregnant cat that wandered into our lives delivered four babies. They are beautiful. Two calicos, one black and one black & white. I hope this will be a fun thing for the kids. Ryan, Steven and Anni are fine. I’m a little worried about Rebekah. She learned that her two cousins were taking a vacation in Gulf Shores and “ouch”! I’m worried she is getting a little depressed being here without friends, and feeling left out. I told her to pray about this & she said she has been.

We gave Leventa $90.00 for April from the donation money.

One bright spot. We have been praying with the cow Attila that he can find an employee. He did and he is so happy. It is actually a family with 3 kids. Their oldest is an 11 year old girl and then 2 younger boys. They will all help. They said their 7 year old boy can milk 3 cows by himself. They plan to move with the cows up to a high meadow 2 km up our road for the summer. They will take care of other peoples cows also & Attila will get half of the milk.

Well, we found out why no water was going into the pipe for the waterpower. So much silt has poured into the pond that where the pipe is, it filled up about 2 feet. The underflow though is still pouring out water so there the depth is the same. It is impossible to fix now with the water pouring so wildly over the whole dam.

Easter is finished. It was very thoroughly celebrated. Monday was cute. We drove to town with Ryan & Steven all prepared with their perfume bottle and poem. They quoted “Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you, please give us an egg when we are through”. They first visited Erika, then the horse Attila - because she has about a 6 year old daughter. There she sat all bedecked out, alone in the room, with a basket of eggs on the table by her. The boys said their poem & then she bowed her head down to get her hair sprayed. The streets were full of groups of boys carrying sacks & perfume bottles. They looked mischievous. We saw about a 12 year old boy holding a big water pistol behind his back. Some houses gave chocolate and some money. We visited a few more houses and then went to Csilla’s town where our girls had spent the night. We were greeted at the door by 4 sweet looking girls - Kinga, Reka, Rebekah & Anni. They waited all day there as different boys, neighbors & friends came.

It has rained quite a bit and our dam is in danger of breaking. The creek is huge. Fedi made a diversion canal, but it doesn’t take enough water. For some reason our filter is completely plugged up and we can’t get down to figure out what is wrong, so no waterpower either right now. We have been praying about this.

The Saturday before Easter, Romania has some charming traditions. On Thursday we saw every one walking to church carrying branches. Friday is fish day. They call it “Big Friday”. On Sunday everyone - I mean everyone! - eats lamb. Monday the boys of all ages go to the girls houses of all ages; spray them with perfume and say a poem. Fedi said by the end of the day the girls are a stinky mess! The boys get colored eggs for their effort. I’m going to have Ryan & Steven say “Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you”!
For about a month now, our driveway has been too soft to drive on. It should dry up soon but in the meanwhile we park on the road. This means, we tromp through a soggy meadow, cross a raging river on a narrow log bridge, then climb a slippery mud mountain up to our house. The worst is we usually forget a flashlight so we wake up the kids sleeping in the car when we get home late, and do all that in the dark. Actually it’s not that bad - the river is only a 5 ‘ wide creek and the mountain is only 50 yards up to our house. But the soggy meadow and the dark are true.

Yesterday, Fedi & I drove 90 km up to where our car part is being made. They ran into a snag and said we needed to come, pick it up & take it to another place to have something on it dis-assembled and then return it to them to finish up. When we got there though they said now it was necessary also to re-do a part of it and maybe it would be ready next week. We are looking for another car to buy and sell this one after it is fixed. Meanwhile, we are still using Csilla’s & Jozsef’s.

We also had a disappointment when the men finished raising the chimney, our fireplace still doesn’t work.

The kids are enjoying the warmer weather. They go outside as soon as I let them and don’t come in unless they are hungry, it gets dark, or they fall in the creek. Rebekah is running around pretending with the rest of the kids. I guess 12 years old is the age you switch from grown-up to kid to grown-up.

We’ve been seeing the cow Attila a lot as he is doing some work on his land next to us. He would like to get out of the cow business. It is too much work. Fedi asked him why he and Erika don’t get married and he said that they don’t want to live with in-laws and are hoping to wait until they can have something on their own. They have been together 5 years.

Our house is buzzing with activity today. Erika is here. The horse Attila needs money again so he came up to get wood for us. Fedi told him that the first load is to make up for what we gave him last time and after that we would talk about more money. He has been drunk almost every time we see him in town. There are 2 guys here working on the gutters and chimney. Later today, the couple (Zoltan & Andrea) will come up to practice English.

Yesterday, we ran into Robbie, the cow Attila’s brother. He said his political group is renting a storefront in town. They want Fedi to come on Mondays to have Bible studies. Talk about an open door!!! We also took the horse Attila’s wife & sister to church with us on Sunday.

So far it’s been a busy weekend with beautiful weather. Fedi spent Friday digging a new garbage hole. Our other one filled up after 7 months. We have much less garbage here. Then in the evening we went into town to a restaurant with 3 others couples. Our neighbor in America sent money and told us to go out to eat with it. The prices are cheap enough that we invited friends too. For the eight of us with drinks & desserts it came to about $50.00.

On Saturday we went to the kids program and then on a picnic with Heidi & Edda. They took us to a beautiful mountain lake we had never been to before only about 15 miles from us.

Edda is planning to build a house this summer and is looking for help from Fedi. He wants to do the upstairs in wood-framed which is almost unknown here. He is a university professor who has had work in U.S. and also in Hungary doing research. They have more money than other Romanians. He said he has calculated the cost of building his two-story house at about $20,000.

I got Fedi out of bed by taking advantage of April Fools Day and telling him there was a bear outside. It would have never worked so good in Illinois.

Monday, I went with 3 other ladies to a health club. By splitting the cost, we were able to rent the pool, sauna & hot tub for $2.80 each for an hour and a half. I was a little reluctant to go as it was a far drive & I’m a little shy around the Romanians without Fedi there to translate, but it went really nice. This was about the 4th time I drove a car in Romania. It felt very adventurous.

Fedi is staying home more and starting to work on our house. We found someone that will help us raise our chimney with a tin insert so we have hopes that our fireplace will be functional next week.

We just had a couple visit us for a couple of hours. They are trying hard to perfect their English so they want to come to our house sometimes. Fedi and I had a good chance to share our faith and make friends. Their plans are to work at a restaurant in Greece for the summer, for which they need to speak very good English. They told us, as have other people, that in Greece it is possible to take a very cheap vacation.

Well, we have a new week. The weekend was nice. We went to the kids program Saturday and then to Fedi’s home town for a couple of things.

The kids program is staying a steady 30 - 40 kids. We are getting to know the kids that are coming steady. There are more gypsies coming again. This means things are usually wilder. They are often disruptive and fights even break out here & there. But they also listen to the Bible story and sing with enthusiasm. They sometimes wait for hours outside the building for the kids program to start.

At Fedi’s home town - we took some money from Jozsef & Sandor up to some good friends of their’s named Arpi & Maris. Their daughter Aniku is going to America to visit Jozsef, Sandor & Irma. In the little I have gotten to know Aniku I have been impressed. She is a very sweet Christian girl. She can get a visa because of a program for university students.

After their house we stopped in Hueni’s. We don’t see him so much now that he has a job. He fixed our computer for us, as it was broken. His mom is in Hungary right now. She goes there to clean for 3 weeks, then stays home for 3 weeks( I think). It’s the only way they can make it. Heuni’s dad is an electrician with the highest training possible and he earns about $100 a month.

We still have loads of waterpower. It saves us a lot of money on gas for the generator, but it gives me more work. I wash the clothes by hand since our wash machine does not work on the batteries. We want to try to trade it for someone’s older model to see if the wiring will work with the transformer we have.

Fedi left this morning again to try and have the part made for our jeep. The place that made it before went out of business. They made it wrong anyway. We are keeping an eye out for a bigger vehicle too.

English class on Tuesdays is fun but the spring weather has the kids kind of wild. My class ranges from 20 - 25 beginners. The school provides us with a heated classroom and the kids just come from word-of-mouth. I think they enjoy it. There is no risk to me of losing my job, so I feel free to have fun with them. Fedi has the more advanced kids and later does an adult class.

Church was a blessing yesterday. It seems to be such an effort to get there, but it is always worth it. Leventa was gone so 3 or 4 men shared Bible verses and thoughts. Later they had a discussion on Church unity and a prayer time together. Csilla told us that the Baptist Leaders are expecting Leventa to document his ministry time and he needs to log in 40 hours a week to even get the $50 they dropped his pay to a month. I think it’s time for Leventa to look for a normal job and still be a minister on the side.

We are having another snowstorm. It is beautiful!

Fedi went to the prison again with John (the old man). He has sort of given up on Fedi buying him a car. There is a group of 10 Germans coming here to help with the prison. He told Fedi he was going to ask them to give him money for a car. He asked Fedi, what does he think he should go for, 2,500 Euros (about $3,000) or 3,500 Euros (about $4,000)? Fedi was taken aback, but said “Well, as the Spirit leads.” Anyway, it gave me a good laugh. Fedi did at one point pin him down on why he would need a car - he really doesn’t. The bus is actually cheaper than the gas alone would be for him. We have tried to tell him how much repairs have been costing us for our car.

Oh yeah, Fedi gave John $100 from the donation money for the month of March.

Well, our car is making our life interesting again. It didn’t get done Sunday, so we stayed home. On Monday, about 6:00 p.m., the mechanic called and said it was done and he would bring it up. Fedi said, Great, because we were running low on food. We decided to walk part way since our driveway is very muddy. Well, we walked and walked and finally decided to give him a call. He said he drove out the drive and everything locked up again. So, it’s back to square one. We walked back home, planning to use the last of our potatoes to make french fries. Fedi said this was the season to catch frogs, so he would go out to try and add frog legs to our dinner. We got a little goofy and started making “F” sentences like - fearless Fedi will find frightened frogs fast for food. Well, the frogs had nothing to worry about, but the french fries tasted great alone anyway. Csilla offered to bring up some food, but Fedi will go shopping tomorrow with Attila, so we didn’t see the sense of it.

We have about decided to try and find another vehicle. We want something bigger anyway, besides all the problems this one has had. We will advertise it after it is fixed.

We just returned from Budapest. I wanted to get out of the house so when Fedi was being urged by two different people to go to a Christian conference in Budapest, he took us all along. It was nice. There was nothing said that was anything striking, but the time away and the spring weather that’s here now, has given things here a better perspective. Our accommodations were basic - toilets and showers down the hall, but the beds were clean and comfortable and the price was right - $12.00 a day for room and board for the 6 of us. The food was sandwiches - every single meal. It was a special price for the people attending the conference.

I was surprised how well Hungary is doing financially. It felt like we were in the states. Nice cars were way more abundant than old cars. I only saw 1 horse wagon the whole time we were there. In Romania, it is normal to pass 10-15 every single drive.

We splurged on Kentucky Fried Chicken, but came away with sticker shock when the price came to $30.00. I looked everywhere to buy a pair of shoes for myself, but I think I must be the only one around with size 9 feet. No store carried that big of shoe in women’s.

Erika stayed at our house while we were gone. Going up our drive the car got stuck in neutral. Hey, it’s been running now for two full days, so it’s time for it to break again. Erika really wanted to get home, so I walked with her down the road until a horse-wagon picked her up to take her down the mountain.

There has been some beautiful spring weather here while we were gone. As a consequence, of course, the creek is huge. We have the under flow (for draining the pond) and the water power wide open and it is still going about 3 inches over the overflow. The only danger, if it gets much higher, is flooding the meadow. So far - so good though.

Attila & Erika both went to church last Sunday. They both said they liked it. I am very hopeful for them.

While in Budapest, we arranged to have an ad put in the paper, advertising our house as a vacation house for rent. It would be a lot of work to get it ready, but if it goes, it could mean something to do with this house to provide some income for us and some jobs for some of our friends here. It would not be too hard for us to move out for a week to one of these other summer cabins near us (I think we could rent one ourselves for next to nothing). I know if we had to do this constantly, it would be very inconvenient, but for a few months it may be necessary to get this set up. The ad will show us if there is enough interest to make it work long-term.

We also found some salad dressing while we were in Budapest. They have started to have lettuce at the market occasionally, but this is the first store-bought dressing we have seen.

Oh yeah, a couple of weeks ago, when the meadow was one flat, untouched blanket of snow, someone (probably a teenage boy) did donuts all over it. The funny thing was, that it was a horse wagons track. I would liked to have seen the sport horse that did it.

Beginning of March
Well, I lost part of my journal. Nothing huge happened. We got our car back after one month at the mechanics. It lasted a week. During that time Fedi was gone from morning to night helping everyone and their brother. On Monday, he went to the Baptist Camp with Leventa and another missionary for a meeting of Christian workers. It was less than inspiring and not worth his time. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he drove Micky around, trying to help him get his logging business going. Thursday he went to another town to help another missionary with something they have going. On Friday and Saturday, same city, different missionary. Enough was enough for me; praise the Lord our car broke again.

This time, it took about 10 days to have all the same parts made again and get it put back together. We drove it up to park about 60 kilometers away so we could take the van to Budapest. It got us home okay, at least after Budapest. Our mechanic told Fedi, if he wasn’t ashamed, he would have cried the last time it broke.

Well, we have plenty of waterpower again. Yesterday was so beautiful & warm we went on a hike. In many places the snow was still 2 feet deep making it pretty challenging to walk through. We followed bear tracks for awhile (they were not very fresh) and saw where the elk had been eating bark. We saw plenty of elk droppings but not the shed antlers we were looking for. All in all it was a great hike. On the way home some big clouds rolled in - we heard one huge thunder before it started to pour down - SNOW - On one steep hill down Fedi & I were plowing our slow way through when the kids tried to roll down. It worked so good for them as they stayed on top instead breaking through, that I rolled down too!

Yesterday evening was strike two with Attila (the horse owner) and his family coming to church. They told us this week for sure a couple times. We waited outside their gate & knocked but only the kids looked out. I’m not too discouraged though. I see Attila (the cow owner) and Erika both taking steps of faith. Also Rebekah is doing well.

We are using $500.00 of the donation money for something I feel great about. Fedi is giving it to a man in church who is starting his own business. He used to be an alcoholic who beat his wife. Since his conversion - maybe 3 or 4 years ago he is a totally changed and humble man. Micky and his wife have 3 kids in a small apartment and the new news is there is one more on the way. They are starting a logging business. His wife just lost her job as she used to work in the orphanage.

We will also give Leventa $100.00 for March and John more than normal. (I’m not sure how much Fedi decided on for John)

Oh - we got our car back yesterday. We had been borrowing Jozsef’s car for the streets and we had to have repairs done on it twice and Attila’s (the cow owner) jeep for the mountain. Fedi has worked on the electrical mess on it for over 30 hours. It hurt his pride to have to give up and hire someone, but enough was enough! At least if we are back to our car we don’t have to keep repairing two other vehicles. The Romanian made cars are made so weak. If you roll down the window, chances are good it will get stuck. I pulled down the sun visor and the dome light fell off! Most of the doors don’t shut right. One thing you never see on the roads in Romania are rusty cars. It’s not legal. I mean even a little bit of rust is not seen because you can have your driver’s license taken away. While our car was sitting in the shop for one month we had the man paint it. Cost was about $85.00 - $90.00. It was starting to look bad and when we had it inspected to get registered they let it pass but said we would need a paint job soon. So, call it a necessary luxury, I guess.