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.