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.