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.

I forgot to write about Fedi’s talk with the political group. It went well. About 20 people were there and they listened attentively to the gospel. Afterwards, Leventa commented on how disillusioned they were with the Catholic priest in Certa. They had questions & positive comments for Fedi. He told them mostly he wanted them to read the Bible for themselves to check out what he was saying. Fedi has started to read a book about the Catholic church to have better answers for people.

Yesterday Fedi was taken in to the police for questioning concerning an armed robbery that took place. (Hey - and you all thought our rent income was supporting us!) It was a case of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jozsef was taken in too. With Fedi though, the questions got a little personal - Who was taking care of our affairs in the U.S.? Fedi’s answer - “none of your business”. Jamaica was stamped in the passport. They asked how could he afford to go to Jamaica. He said he was earning plenty of money. Fedi said the minute he stepped in the door they started yelling at him. First to close the door - how could he be so rude as to leave it open - etc, etc. They also found a couple of more things to yell about later.

I think it unnerved Fedi a little. I grew up securely in America where most of the laws make sense and good people never get in trouble with the law. Fedi grew up here - when it was communistic and the police didn’t have to make sense. He told me if anything would happen - get out of the country before I try to help. I am certain though there is nothing to worry about living here. For one thing, Romania is trying very hard to be accepted in the European Union. The past unfairness of the police is one thing that is keeping them out. Present day unfairness by the police to Americans? It’s not going to happen!

The funny thing is this morning Fedi went to the prison for ministry. I told him it’s all a conspiracy and some how my Dad’s involved!

Rebekah started repenting. She had so many questions, comments & hints that I finally said “Rebekah do you want to go ahead and commit your life to God?” We were eating with the other 3 kids, they all had their own opinions & comments to offer, some which made no sense. We had a prayer time in which Rebekah very sweetly thanked Jesus for dying for her. She will be 12 in 2 days. I liked one comment she gave a day later - “being a Christian makes me feel so safe”. She can’t wait to tell Sarah Sceggel & Sarah Reinhard. I guess the thing for us to do is to give Chuck a call. Fedi was happy to hear Rebekah’s news and had a nice talk with her when he got home. We had the church pray for her.

Attila (the horse owner) came yesterday to deliver the 2nd load of wood we paid for. Fedi is a little disappointed because he promised us hard wood and gave us pine. He also showed up at noon to work for the day, but he did say he would come to church on Sunday. Believe me, this time I’m not going to stay home to make room in the car!

Attila (the cow owner) on the other hand seems to be coming closer to opening his heart up to God. We are still using his jeep to get up the mountain. Plus we get the milk from his house every other day so we see him a lot. He thought he found an employee to milk so he could come to church on Sunday, but he didn’t show up the second day of the job.

Friday we took the day off school. Since our car was still broken it was a good time to treat the kids to their first train ride. We rode 30 minutes to a beautiful mountain village, walked around & had lunch before heading back. This village is also a spa with warm water springs so there were a lot of older people there for cures. We got back in time for Fedi to go to the village evangelizing.

Saturday we went to the kids program and then to Heidi & Eda’s for lunch. We went with Csilla & her girls to a ski slope. It was Csilla & her girls first time on a rope tow. The slope was great for beginners and the kids had a great time. The sun was bright & the view was terrific. After the sun went down though the temperature dropped fast. It was another -20 F. night. Last week the temperature went down to -27F (-33C). When it’s that cold, we come home shivering, gather around the stove for a little while before snuggling way down in our covers. Fedi always makes the fire first thing but it still takes the house a while to be tolerable. Since then though it’s warmed way up. Spring must be on the way, it’s almost March.

Rebekah’s converting is bringing up the necessity to think about future plans. I guess she can talk to Chuck on the phone. I also gave her a deke to wear for church. As far as our moving back home it is so far out of our control that we would need God to not only lead us but to also do things to make it happen. I do want Rebekah to be baptized in Peoria.

Erika is here again. This morning she handed the Hungarian Bible, we gave her, to me to ask me to show her where to read. She also had a good talk with Fedi last night.

The kids & I stayed home from church so there would be room for Attila (the horse owner) and his family in the car. It was boring & lonely. I hit a low point with being discouraged when Fedi called to tell me they went to pick them up and Attila was passed out on the couch - drunk. There was no time to go up the mountain and pick us up by then.

God is really wonderful though. Rebekah & I had a nice talk. I was for some reason telling her how at one point in my life I questioned God’s existence and how I worked through that. The next day she told me how relieved she was to hear that. She said she had been having thoughts like that for awhile and somehow what I said was just what she needed to hear. She also asked me what does repenting mean. Maybe if we hadn’t stayed home the talk would not have happened.

Fedi also came home with some encouraging news. Attila (the cow owner) told Fedi that he has started to pray like Fedi & his words were “things are happening”. He asked if he could pray anytime like when he milks the cows. He said he prayed for one cow’s udder that looked pretty bad and it got better.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend Erika came back from Hungary and has cleaned for me again. She is also showing an interest in the Bible. She always stays the night. In the morning when Fedi & I read the Bible she joined in.

There’s more - Attila’s (the cow owner) brother Robbie, invited Fedi to come to present the gospel to a political group he is in. He will do that tonight. Leventa said he will go with him.

When Fedi showed the tape of Jesus life about 6 of the young kids came. They commented on how little the tape had in it about Mary.

Tuesday English class was fun. I pulled Rebekah & Fedi down with the skis & back up again. I took the beginner class of about 25 kids, Fedi took the more advanced kids and the later the adult class started with 4 teachers from the school attending. I had a lot of fun with my class, Rebekah was a big help again.

There have been some interesting developments in the orphanage I visited in Dec. It is now closed down because of lack of funding. The babies are all going to the employees as foster kids and the American sponsors are trying to get money to pay them a monthly care fee.

This place was never intended to be an orphanage. An American who was arranging adoptions for other Americans set it up as a halfway house for babies no more than 9 months old until they could be adopted out. Now the Romanian Government has stopped all foreign adoptions. Some of the babies are now close to 3 years old and considered not adoptable to Romanians. Meanwhile, the Americans were running out of money to keep the place going. The Romanian workers automatically assume Americans never run low on money so they thought the manager was mishandling it.

I see no place for Fedi & I to do anything yet. The babies are all being well cared for now. I also don’t see where we would have time to get involved with something so big.

There is a beautiful soft snow falling. This place seemed especially nice when we saw a big fox trot by our house this morning. We still are getting plenty of charge from the water generator even though it has cooled back down.

We had a hard time making it to English class. There were some big drifts to plow through and we had to shovel through a two foot drift for about 40 minutes. We were then about 40 minutes late for the English class. There the kids all sat though waiting. There were probably about 30 kids. We found another classroom we could use so we didn’t have to shout over each other. I really feel the need though for material. We will look in Csilla’s city.

Fedi went down on Monday to talk to the youth in Certa. He said there were about 12 kids from about 16 years old to early twenties. He told them his purpose here was not to entertain them. He said, though, if they were interested in hearing his message and coming to some Bible studies, maybe somewhere down the road some of the sports teams (hockey or soccer) could be sponsored. (This would not involve much money - maybe $50 - $100). For this he will see if he can rent something for occasional use. Renting is very cheap here. This is not the same as renting a place full-time. That would, of course, involve more money and commitment.

Lots to write about, where to start. I guess the most meaningful event was that Attila, the horse guy, plus Lehel and his girlfriend came to church. Leventa delivered a good message and the atmosphere was warm and friendly. Attila’s biggest comment was that he will be back next week. I hope he brings his wife. It was also Lehel’s girlfriends first time. She has to return to Hungary to work probably on Friday. Fedi said he could connect her with a church there.

Otherwise we have had about five beautiful warm days. Lots of the snow has melted and we have had plenty of electricity. Also, Leventa, Edith, three kids and Heuni came up for the weekend. It really went well. They skied and enjoyed the snow and beautiful weather. I cooked hash browns and eggs for breakfast, spaghetti for lunch, and just cold cuts otherwise.

I missed the kids program, because of it though. Heidi said it went well again with about 35 kids. Some of the teenagers have started to go to the Saturday evening church youth group meetings. Wow - what great possibilities! Yesterday I gave Heidi some of the donation money for the kids program. I meant to give her just $50.00 now and $50.00 later. I have trouble with converting the money though and accidentally gave her $125.00. My head was thinking 3 million = $30.00 instead of what is really is $100.00. It was a funny mistake and Csilla loaned us money until we have a chance to get back to the bank.

I’ve been thinking lately how God has every detail of our lives worked out. Fedi and I marveled at something when our car broke down. We had just been to the gas station. The attendant told us he needed a receipt for diesel in a certain amount and would we please gas up for that amount. We couldn’t squeeze it in our tank so he loaned us a container for extra diesel. When Fedi borrowed Attila’s Jeep - that container of diesel was necessary just two hours later.

Today a man is here and installing clothes cupboards with Fedi. They have been working all day. It will cost about $90.00.

Donation money - $70.00 to Leventa, $30.00 to John from the prison, $125.00 to Heidi for the kids program, and we loaned a man in church $150.00 to get his driver’s license. He has a better job possibility if he has his license. We thought instead of having him return the money he could use it for youth group activities in the church. He has two sons in the youth group.

The kids have been outside all afternoon. When I glanced out I saw they had a fire made. Steven just poked his head in and said they wanted to borrow a pot, 2 bouillon cubes and a spoon. I think they are planning to melt snow.

This brings up one thought of why we are way up on this mountain instead of in the city or village. If we lived in the city or village I could never feel safe enough to let the kids outside to play. They would probably be watching T.V. half the day and bored. Leventa said it is tough for his kids, they have no outlet for their energy and are sometimes pretty wild at church. They really seemed to enjoy the outdoors when they came to our house, so do Csilla’s girls.

There is another reason. We are very dependant on God for when we go home. If we were renting a place we could pack up anytime. Now we would have to find a buyer or renter for this place. It feels right though to give God the control and not worry about it. I do get homesick, but I can choose to wallow in it or simply accept where I am. God is so great. It seems that things are brewing spiritually and I hope to see people come to trust in the Lord.

As far as renting a place, not yet. For now Fedi said we would just take trips back and forth to get everyone to church. Sunday he went five times from Certa to Csilezeneda (Csilla’s city) and back for a total of ten times cruising the same road. It’s not exactly a highway either. I guess we could chalk up the gas at $3.00 a gallon to donation money. It makes sense this way. We will first see if they get used to coming and seem committed.

Borrowing Attila’s Jeep has given Fedi plenty of projects. He fixed the driver’s window so it rolls up and down normal. He spent about three days on the electrical stuff. It was rigged up strangely and only about ½ of it worked. We still have to wipe the inside wind shield with a squeegee constantly, but he did get the heater to work.

Anni had a nice birthday and we had a nice time in English class. We stared with about 10 kids. Then a lady poked her head in with about 10 little kids. They are beginners. She asked when is the adult class going to be. Since the skill level is different, Fedi and I divided the class in half. He took the beginners. It was kind of noisy as my side did their thing and Fedi’s did theirs. It was also crowded. The kids though participated enthusiastically and we all had fun. Rebekah was a big help. She decided that she wants to be a missionary English teacher in a foreign country when she grows up. As far as an adult class, Fedi told them next week right after the kids class. We want to find some material and get some kind of a progression going. It’s another open door to make friends and witness. It’s also nice for Rebekah and I to be able to participate instead of staying home. The other kids just played there.

Fedi is running around to find parts for our Jeep again. He has some leads on having the parts made. The choices we had were to buy a Romanian Jeep - an Aro or Lada - which are really cheaply made and break down a lot, but have parts available or to buy a foreign made Jeep - much better made, but if it does break, it is very hard to come up with the parts. We are still borrowing Attila’s Jeep to get up the mountain and Csilla’s car in the city. Attila’s Jeep is not registered for the road.

Friday, our car broke down. When we were coming home from the village evangelism. I was with Fedi simply to get out of the house. We had Kinga - Reki and Heuni, Rebekah and Anni also in the car. The boys were at Csilla’s for a big spend-the-night party. Fedi had been hearing a sound and had the car at the mechanics that morning. He heard the noise, but couldn’t figure it out. Right before the car broke, that noise got real loud and then clunk. The car wouldn’t go anywhere when put in gear. So there we sat for awhile. Yes, I prayed and trusted and yes, Fedi stayed calm and thought things through. Problem Number 1, there are no towing companies to call, so we called Csilla who arranged for two cars - one to pick us up (the kids and me) and the other to tow our car to a mechanic. Problem Number 2 was that it was necessary for at least one of us to go home and not many vehicles could make it up the mountain. We had the dog, cat and pigs to feed and the fire to make so the pipes don’t freeze. The kids and I stayed at Csillas. Fedi and Heuni had quite a time making it up the mountain in the neighbors Jeep. The water line kept freezing up so they had to keep stopping to let the car cool down and sometimes to get water from the creek. They made it home at 2:30 a.m. freezing cold.

Saturday the kids and I went to the kids program. They had a total of about 40 kids again. There were quite a few teenagers. They divided the group into smaller and larger kids for the games, which went well. For the Bible story of Jesus calming the storm, Heidi had the older kids do a skit. It went great. Heidi is trying to have the teenagers not from church go to the youth group activities that they have on Saturday night sometimes. It would be a great next step for these kids. Again though, I don’t really feel like much help.

Saturday evening, since we were at Csillas still for the night, Joan, Mom and Dad and Irma all took advantage of the clear phone line. The kids and I all got to visit. It meant a lot to me. We also learned that the family all chipped in to donate money to us. It felt so bad. I know how hard the American’s work. All we can do is again commit our lives to God to do His will.

Sunday we went for church in Fedi’s hometown of Vhalhitas and to Heuni’s family for lunch afterwards. They had been inviting us for awhile, but we hated to not go to our church as we had new people coming with us. Attila has to milk cows and Erika is in Hungary for two weeks. Lehel didn’t come the last two weeks because we didn’t go. (Last week we were snowed in.) But, I am praying and we will keep inviting them and others.

Yesterday as we were piling into Attila’s Jeep, the other Attila’s wife and two kids rode by in their horse wagon. That gave Fedi an opportunity to ask her if they would be out of a house now that the old lady died. She said no, that the house had been willed over to them. I think they said that next week they would come to church with us.

Tuesday
Anni’s birthday. Rabekah made her breakfast in bed and she gets the day off school. We are going to town for the English class and then to Csillas. She has made a double decker cake for everyone of our birthdays. We will go case the market for some presents.

Fedi said the Catholic Priest went to the Kindergarten teachers and told them since we weren’t Catholic we had no business handing out presents for Christmas. (Lehel’s mom is a Kindergarten teacher) Wow, what an arrogant attitude. I guess he thinks he owns the town. Anyway he has me a little ticked off. He better watch it or we might start praying for him. (

Fedi will be officially allowed in the prison on February 12th. It took about four months. It’s an open door that could be fruitful. We still have Dad’s money just sitting there for the prison. My hope is Fedi will get to know the needs of the prisoners and their families so this money is used in the best way.

We made it skiing yesterday after school for a couple of hours. Lehel came with us. After we dropped him off, we stopped to put all four chains on. Lehel came back out to tell us something his mom said (she is a Kindergarten teacher.) The school director told her that he now regrets letting us pass out the Christmas packages and wants to watch that we don’t reach the kids (I think with our message). He saw the Christian literature before he gave us permission. What changed? I know some people write us off as a cult and I know the school director is friends with the priest. It’s a little discouraging. Fedi doesn’t understand the suspicion.

Attila, the horse guy, may have some problems. He has been living with his family in an old ladies house. The agreement (which is normal here) was that they can live there as long as they take car of her, now she died. Fedi will stop by and see what is the situation and see if there is some way we should help.

We took the other Attila (cow rancher’s son) with us to Metro. His water pump had gone out. We loaned him the money from Dad’s prison fund to get another. They had been hauling water from the well for their 11 milk cows and using the outhouse. I know they are good to pay it back.

Monday - still snowed in. People have been concerned and we have been getting a lot of phone calls. Yesterday we heard a tractor made it up so we thought we could make it down by following in his tracks - yeah right. We made it only about 100 feet farther than the first time. The snow actually clogs up in the middle of the car so bad that the tires spin on air. We had to dig out under the car. It was another harrowing experience making it home - we slid down one hill totally sideways. Now the news has gone back and forth leaving me unsure how much we should conserve. This morning Csilla said they found out the snowplow was coming up and might actually be on the way. Now we found out the tractor that did make it up said the snowplow won’t make it. He said the drifts were six feet in some places and he had to continually attach his winch to trees to drag through. (Most of the streets here are tree lined)

We heard more news about the storm on the radio. I guess Greece and Bulgaria were very hard hit - villages were cut off from electricity and the outside world. Six people died in Greece.

So back to taking stock of provisions. It still looks good for 4 or 5 days. I miss having milk and we may have to use napkins for toilet paper, but that’s about it. We have plenty of flour, so I have been making bread. We may butcher one of our little pigs (we’ve been wanting to anyway). Really, we are not usually this stocked up, so I thank God this came at a time that we were. (We had just been to Metro to buy basic food supplies.)

Monday afternoon - Attilla and Lehel made it up on Attila’s tractor. We gave them such big smiles and waves. He towed Fedi down in our Jeep breaking trail. In some spots they cut through the field. Fedi bought gas for the generator, chains for the back tires and most importantly, toilet paper. Attila followed him back up and had to tow him 4 or 5 times through bad areas.

Tuesday - We decided to try and get to English class. It went well with all four tires having chains. It felt good to get back to people and civilization. Fedi had fun in English class, it was just seven girls and us. The school has a classroom for them with a big wood burning ceramic oven. Otherwise the halls are not heated and about the same as the outside temperature. The bathrooms are outhouses - really disgusting and really cold. It went well in spite of having only one English textbook for all.

Coming home we had an awesome experience. We saw two huge elk only about 50 feet in front of us. They were not far from our house. We spooked them and one cut up left and disappeared in the woods. The other ran in the meadow in front of us - plowing through the 2 feet of snow, before cutting across the road and climbing up the other side of the valley. They were as big as horses with 4-5 foot antlers. WOW!

It snowed about 3" in the night. Today it started back up again. Fedi, Anni and I hiked 2 kilometers down to where 2 men are staying, taking care of livestock. The one man told us some surprising news. This storm was much worse East and South of us. A train was buried by an avalanche. The army was working on digging it out. He said 10 counties were totally snowed in and no traffic was moving. Our own road, he said, was not passable even for a tractor though one horse sleigh made it up. They said some places the snow was up to the horses back. We have plenty of food, gas for the generator for 4-5 days and enough firewood for at least a week.

Well we are officially snowed in. Yesterday we were going down to Certa in the evening to get bread and milk. The kids were being pulled on the skis. Our Jeep has been making it through the foot of snow we had O.K. though for some reason it would fish tail all over and we went in the ditch already. This time though we rounded the curve to get out of our valley and were hit by a blast of wind. This is about 2 kilometers from our house. We got the kids all inside the car, tried to go a little farther and got stuck in a drift. The wind was incredible, so we rocked the car, shoveled, and in about 30-40 minutes were able to get the car turned around to go home. It wasn’t going to happen that easy though. In that short of time our tracks that were about 8" - 12" deep had totally drifted over. It was dark by then. The kids were praying. There was a cabin I could see before it got dark that I thought we could break into if we had to. But by backing the Jeep up and gunning it forward we would plow through another two feet or sometimes more. So we kept that up. It seemed to be slowly getting better until we got to the curve where our valley starts and could make progress. We had to keep the speed up though and almost went into a bad ditch when the car fishtailed big again. We got to the log bridge going across our creek and ran off the road. So again we backed up and went forward over and over. Finally home safe and sound. I don’t know how long we will be stuck here. The road is drifted over for about 5-6 kilometers.

Well we got a foot of new snow over the last 2 days. It is beautiful. I would love to get so much that Fedi has to stay home but unfortunately our jeep makes it through about anything and Fedi had to leave early this morning again. Rebekah calls it the extreme family car. For 2 days no one made it up our road. Finally yesterday one horse drawn sleigh came up. Soooo we aren’t the last people alive on the earth after all.

I had trouble sleeping last night thinking about the donation money. It is a responsibility. I went back about a month ago writing everything down to make sure what has been donated goes to benefit Romanians. Fedi and I have gotten a little behind, but I think we will get a Tax Return (we have every year), also Horsemeister is looking pretty good (go Judy go!) and maybe we will get sent money for the kids from George Bush again in late summer.

Judy, you sent money that you said was from Horsemeister and from you for us, we bought the kitchen cabinets for $150. Rachel the $50 in Dec. for the kids, we got the kids all a 2nd warm coat from a used clothes place as their others were too rough to wear to town. Your other $100, $50 we gave directly to Leventa & Edith. Diane you sent $200 recently, we will use $100 for donation (I’m not sure yet what and the other you said would be for us, so we are finally getting clothes cupboards made. (We still have everything in suitcases. It’s actually a good system. I put all the laundry on my bed, open up all six suitcases and start tossing. Then I close the lids J. Actually I fold Fedi’s and mine and the kids fold theirs later. Others, gave for Christmas, Thanks so much Aunt Jinnie, Mom and Irma. Again, I feel that Fedi is being a light for the Lord here in Certa and I hope that justifies us not giving anything in return for Christmas, etc. (Oh yeah, Beth we couldn’t use a check here, thanks so much for trying.

Personal Note to Joan,
Happy Birthday, thanks for the Calendar. The kids and I have strained our brains trying to find the hidden names on it. I keep reading your birthday notes and can’t believe how old everyone is getting, including me. I wish I could see your big belly.

Mom, I got your birthday card, thanks so much. You will be surprised at what I bought with the birthday money you gave me and how happy I am for it. Clothes hangers! Now I can get rid of the stick that all our church clothes have been draped over. The goofy thing has fallen down 3 or 4 times anyway.

Diane, Thanks so much for the birthday card. Happy Birthday to you, too. The money you sent was unexpected and very generous. It will pay for our clothes cupboard. I owe you back for that ($100). The other $100 we will find a need for, maybe something for the kids program. Anyway, I loved reading your news.

I miss all of you too, but I hope it’s all for a good purpose.

Well I decided since I was starting to look so healthy I better start a diet. I don’t see much low calorie stuff around though. Lettuce is not available and I haven’t had a salad since I got here. They do have pickles, sour cabbage etc. The bread is my downfall.

We are getting a heavy snow this morning. Fedi left early. He called me about 5 minutes ago to say our 1988 rust bucket of a jeep just pulled a BMW out of the ditch.

Yesterday was fairly warm. Because it was Sunday we saw probably 4 horse drawn sleighs full of people enjoying a ride. The streets stay snow-packed for months in the villages and the common way of getting around for people with kids is to pull them on wooden sleds. We stopped at the school one day when the mothers were picking up the Kindergarten kids. There were about 10-12 sleds lined up.

Well the guy with the horse (Attila) and his wife said they would come to church in 2 weeks. He is grateful for Fedi giving him work to buy hay for his horse. His price was right – that was about the standard, its just people normally don’t hire it done – they do it partially themselves. We would have also except Attila needed the money. He said since we are helping him this way some of his relatives will chip in to help him with the labor so he can get it done in one day and not two. He also said several of his friends and relatives want to meet us and get to know us. Yeah, I know their motives will be suspect since they see us helping someone but still there are starting to be many, many open doors. It is almost as if there was a break- through and people have decided to trust us.

Attila (the cow rancher’s son) and Erika came to church Sunday. It is really more of a discussion group on Sunday morning. The main service is in the evening. They both liked it and want to come back. Fedi asked Attilla if he had any questions and he wanted to know where Mary fits in and why we don’t pray to her. The church gave him all the right answers – from the Bible. Attilla said he would love to come to the main church service but it will be necessary for them to first find an employee for the milking.

Same day. The heavy snow is continuing. We have at least 6 new inches on top of the old 5. The kids are all outside. The question is if Fedi will be able to make it home tonight if it keeps up this heavy. I’m not worried about us getting snowed in. We have plenty of food, firewood, propane, and gas for the generator. It may be fun for a couple of days. There is one thing I’ve been attempting and I am determined to do before I leave Romania. That is to roll a snowball down a hill and watch it get bigger and bigger. My early attempts have taught me that the hill has to be pretty steep. Another day of trying showed me that the snow has to be pretty wet. Maybe the third time will work.

Oh yeah – I missed the kids program since we went to Fedi’s Grandma’s village but Heidi said 40 kids came. The gym they have rented might get too small. She is doing a wonderful job and several of the parents and young kids from the church are helping. I don’t know what I can do to help as the language is a problem. But we usually show up – play with the kids, help with the games and do a little English with songs or Bible verses.
If Fedi didn’t know the language, I don’t know how much good we would be doing here. He has really done a great job, (Praise to God), of making friends, witnessing and helping people, but not letting them take advantage of him. He has also been reading to the kids out of the Bible every night after they are in bed. They love it. If he gets too busy and leaves us alone too much, I let him know.

Speaking of busy, this week is looking that way. Fedi left early this morning to go help distribute more presents at other schools, he also had to go to the police since I accidentally washed his extended stay permit and his passport in the wash machine. He had a few more errands also, but I forget what they are.

There is one thing funny to me here. It’s the lack of interest in the weather forecast. No one seems to ever know when a snow is coming. Or they might hear something on the TV or radio but they never talk about it or even seem to be interested. I think it is because not very many people depend on cars for transportation to work. There are no school busses that I have ever seen. Everyone walks. People here always seem to enjoy the snow. Fedi and I are always taken by surprise because the radio reception is so bad we don’t listen to it and no one has ever called us to let us know the forecast.

Fedi and I are tossing around the idea of renting something in Certa as a logical next step. He is getting a lot of people interested in coming to church. Transportation is a problem to Csilla’s city where the church is. We can squeeze probably only 2 more people in our jeep. (More in an emergency but it is illegal.) I know they could hitch hike but right at the first, when they are just checking things out, we want to make the way as smooth as possible. It’s possible they wouldn’t come if they are expected to hitchhike, find the church, and arrive alone with only strangers there if we haven’t arrived yet. Please any readers, pray that we will have definite guidance. Fedi has looked at some buildings. He also has the idea of renting a gym more for the teenagers and young adults to have a place to meet and play sports. The problems are that the buildings he has looked at need work and also I am having trouble seeing where this will help people come to the Lord. We need more information on the cost and more prayer before we do anything.

Yesterday we went to Fedi’s grandma’s village. It was his cousin’s name day. Every day in the Catholic calender has several names listed. People name their kids from this list. Then, not only do you celebrate your birthday, but also your name day is celebrated.

We cooked potatoes and meat on a metal disk outside on the fire. It was delicious. The girls made funnel cakes. This is dough wrapped on a smooth wooden cone shaped thing, dipped in sugar and turned over hot coals. There was also the usual beer and wine. This didn’t bother us any until it came to the horse sleigh ride. We piled about 10 of us on their sleigh and they hitched their two horses up. The driver had too much to drink though and kept going too fast. Fedi had him slow down after he almost dumped us.

They took us up to the whiskey factory. There was this contraption that looked just like the stills in the old bootleg days in America. It was interesting, but alcohol is a huge problem in this village. Not only did several of Fedi’s relatives get drunk, but we saw quite a few men staggering around on the street.

Fedi’s Aunt’s Mother-in-law, who is eighty was there. She is a sharp lady and very sweet. She gave me the customary 2 kisses on each cheek and exclaimed how good I looked since I gained some weight. She said 12 years ago when she saw me last I was thinner and didn’t look near as good. Fedi was cringing and I was laughing up a storm. The older people here really, sincerely think that chunky people look healthier.

Well we are winding down the school week. Yesterday the kids and I skied down to Certa about 8 kilometers or 5 miles. The road was a slippery gentle slope and mostly we just slid down in the most relaxed way. Fedi followed with the car and pulled the kids with ropes on the one area that was uphill. The kids really enjoyed it. In the mean time it started snowing and overnight we got another 6 inches.

The guy with the horse stopped by after new Years. He said he couldn’t afford to feed his horse and might have to sell him. So tomorrow Fedi is paying him $140 to bring in 2 loads of firewood. He will go and buy the hay directly with this money because Attila (the guy with the horse) goes to the Taverns and can’t be trusted with the money. We could have gotten the firewood much cheaper, but this man has two small kids and is a hard worker.

We also, boy do I feel funny writing about this, hired a girl to help with the housework and cooking 2 days a week. I know I’ve let the schoolwork slip trying to wash the dishes by hand and cooking from scratch. I also have to keep the fire going. Anyway I’ve told Fedi a lot of times if he could help about ½ a day it would do the trick, but it’s just too weird to have him trying to do housework. And he has stayed busy. Boy does it go against the culture too. Now, in winter, a lot of the men are out of work. You see them all the time talking on the street or hanging around at the tavern. At the same time I see the women washing clothes in the stream going by their house in the village. I’m sorry, but the longer I am here the more I respect the women and the less I respect the men.

Anyway, this girl is Attila, the cow rancher’s son’s girl friend. They are both planning to come to church on Sunday. I hope we can also be a light to Erika as she helps me out. It will cost us about $60.00 per month. Half of me regrets it already, but the other half really enjoyed being able to concentrate on the kid’s school and do a good job on it.

Oh yeah, on Tuesday afternoon we went to the English class in Certa. They gave us the floor. Many of the kids were Anni and Rebekah’s age. After class they surround the girls. It will be nice if they can make some friends.

Well we finished our 1st school week back pretty good. On Thursday we got done with school fast and drove about 15 miles to a ski slope. It was just one rope tow with a T bar but it was a good level for the kids. It was a big success. They loved it and the total cost for the 6 of us for the afternoon was $3.00.

On Friday, we again did a fast school, really just a ½ day. Then we met Fedi down in Certa (Jozsef picked us up) and helped pass out the Christmas packages to every school child there – about 400. There were shoeboxes full of nice things. It was really cool to be on this end of the charity that organizations send to Romania and see the kids enjoy the presents. It was heart warming to think of the generosity of the people who made up the presents. Most of these came from England. It also helped Fedi and I get a better reputation and get better known in Certa. We told them probably 20 times it wasn’t from us but we got thanked over and over anyway. A teacher who teaches English asked if I would come and help her. So Tuesday the girls and I will spend one hour there.

Speaking of reputation, we keep hearing these ominous rumors from some of our friends that some people don’t like us being here. Yesterday evening, (It is Monday morning now 1/12,) Attilla (the cow rancher’s son) told Fedi that if anything should happen he could count on Lehel and him to help us. What?! What would happen? He told Fedi to just stay away from the taverns when the guys get drunk. Not hard – Fedi never goes by them. But the great news is Attila wants to come to church with us next week. He said his girlfriend Erika will come also. Lehel is coming steady. We are praying – praying – praying. Attilla & Lehel are both serious minded young men.

Saturday – We went into the kids program. 21 kids not from church came. They played games, then sang songs and heard a Bible message. This time only 3 were gypsies. It seems to be going well. Heidi is really putting her heart into it. I am not sure how I can be of help except moral support, but Fedi is helpful with organizing things.

In the afternoon we dropped the kids off at Csillas and went shopping. In the middle of the city there was a man drunk, sitting in the snow. Two policemen were trying to talk to him. Fedi looked closer; it was his uncle. So he helped him up. The policemen said the storeowners said he was sleeping in the snow. We had a time driving him home because he couldn’t give us good directions.

Csilla and family spent the night Saturday.

Sunday morning Fedi spent the whole morning trying to thaw out a frozen water pipe. He finally succeeded about noon. The rest of us did a little skiing here (walking up – sliding down) and then we went to church.

Donation money. Fedi gave Leventa and family $100.00 for January. $15 to a couple in church who had a sick baby. If you bribe the nurses they will let the mother stay in the hospital, otherwise not, and we will give the old man his $35.00.

Today Fedi is meeting with John (the old man) at the prison to turn in all the paper work to start a program of Bible studies. Hopefully it will be approved.

I want to write about Leventa and his family since a bulk of the donation money has gone to him. Leventa fits the role of who-ever wants to be a leader let him be a servant. He runs around helping whomever. His wife stays at home with their 5 kids. He has a meek personality and tends to let people take advantage of him. He used to be a teacher, is highly educated but education tends to get you nowhere in this country and he is not especially proud of it. His sermons are good and teaching is right on track but not delivered in a tremendously powerful way. The pastor before Leventa had a powerful, charismatic personality and the church missed that, I heard. My opinion though, is that it is better not to depend on a person. I think Leventa is right for this church.

Well the dust has cleared. The company has all gone home and we are back to school. Csilla and family (4 people) and her neighbor and family (4 more people) stayed for Fri-Sat. & Sun., to ski. It was actually quite nice. We had so much food left over from New Years and we had paper plates, cups & silverware left. It made cooking and dishes a snap. The neighbor lady was the one who had arranged for us to borrow the skis from the school for practically free.

The scare with Ryan really shook us up. A couple of things I didn’t write about at first. About a week before this happened Fedi told me he had a dream that Ryan had died. I had a dream the same night also that Ryan had died. Normally I wouldn’t pay dreams any attention but I still watched Ryan pretty close that day. Before Ryan went to sleep that night (right before he woke up with croup) he said he wanted to have a prayer (New Years Eve). When he was done he said he felt much better. I know during the whole crisis the church people kept praying for us. There didn’t seem to be anything else we could do.

Well on a different subject, Lehel came to church again. There was a prayer time after when we divided up into groups. I asked him if there was anything he wanted us to pray about and he said that he would find his way to the Lord and that his girlfriend and he could stay together.

Fedi went to town yesterday for some errands and ended up staying at the hospital with a man who is a house guest of Leventa’s. He is a little strange and the Doctor concluded he was faking it. There is no “benefit of the doubt” here. She yelled at him to get up and walk across the room. Fedi was pretty mad because he made Fedi practically carry him up and after he couldn’t get away with it he walked just fine. Fedi got home about 10:00 p.m.

This morning Fedi needed to go in to take Lehel’s father too the hospital. He is not faking it. While in town Leventa’s funnel cake business had run out of propane so Fedi went to get more. Unfortunately he said it was not close by. I only mention these details because Fedi is busy since we arrived but it’s with a bunch of little things.

I love having kitchen cabinets. It’s great to have a place to store things and a counter top. It makes the cabin look charming.

Fedi and I are trying to recover from the biggest scare of my life. Two nights ago as we were praying in the New Year with about 40 guests, I was told to come upstairs quick, something was wrong with Ryan. He was in the bathroom throwing himself around and gasping for air. He couldn’t get enough to breathe. He had been having some chest congestion and a croup-like cough as had Annie and Steven. I had put him to bed upstairs. For about a full minute I didn’t know what to do except to try and hold him and calm him down. His eyes were wild though and he wouldn’t listen to me to hold still. Then I opened the bathroom window and held him up to the cold air. That gave him enough air to calm him. Beth (another one of my sisters) had told me before when her son Chad had an emergency with croup it would always get a little better when they would take him outside to go to the hospital. A doctor had told her the cool air would help temporarily but was not good in the long run. But temporarily was necessary.

We carried him to our room and had him lie there very still and just keep breathing. It still came hard and rasping. Others tried to call doctors but this is a stupid country with stupid ways. No one could get through, Romania doesn’t have enough phone lines and probably everyone was calling to wish everyone else a happy New Year. When we finally could get through the doctor’s babysitter answered and said they were at a party somewhere and it was impossible to reach them.

One person in our house said they had an inhaler at home. At the time we thought it would be better to go and get it rather to move him and go to the hospital. The people were telling Fedi under no circumstances should we go to the hospital. They would admit him, not let us be with him at all and the treatment would be very questionable.

It took Fedi about 1½ hours to come back with the inhaler. I watched every breath he took. I was so afraid he wouldn’t make it. There were about 6 people from the church in our room. They prayed for us. When Fedi came I hoped Ryan would be OK. The inhaler though, didn’t seem to help much. At one point Ryan said he had to go to the bathroom, jumped up to go, there was someone in it (we still had about 40 people there) so he started back to the room, then back to the bathroom and it was too much. Again he couldn’t breathe enough; again he went into a panic and threw himself around. I again grabbed him and lifted him up to the open window and tried to calm him down. It worked enough again to calm him so he could get enough air. I kept telling him that his only job was to relax and breathe, not to move. We would do everything for him. We changed him slowly as he had wet all over and put a pull-up on. I did everything slow because I wanted him to stay as relaxed as possible. The pull-up was a good idea because he had to go again. He wanted to get up but obeyed us when we told him to just go in the pull-up.

He had stared to run some fever so I gave him Motrin. As it was taking effect and his fever was breaking we decided to take him to the hospital. His breathing was unchanged still rasping and hard. He was dropping off to sleep on and off. I told Fedi to wait just a little more for his fever to drop. I was afraid just getting him dressed and down to the car would be too much for him. Plus it was almost morning and I was hopeful he would improve enough so we could move him better.

He was kind of funny too. I was watching every breath but I told Fedi I have to go to the bathroom. Ryan forced out the words “Mom, go to the bathroom, you always tell me to go, now I can get you back”. Another thing that was touching and funny. An older lady in our church kept telling Ryan how much God loved him and not to be afraid and that Jesus would help him. Ryan kept smiling and nodding and finally told me “Mom, it’s a little hard to keep smiling so long.”

We left about 6:30 to go to the hospital. It went smoother than I expected. Ryan stayed calm as we dressed him, carried him to the car and for the bumpy ride down the Mountain. We tried over and over to call a doctor, as we were afraid of the hospital. No luck. At the hospital though everything went smooth. The lady doctor first gave him a shot to help him immediately and let us use an empty room to rest him as the shot took effect. They treated us very well. After he recovered some we left to try and fill the 4 prescriptions she gave us. We went to 6 different pharmacies and couldn’t find one open. Ryan was starting to get worse again so back to the hospital we went. They let us again go to the empty room, gave Ryan some medicine and put a humidifier on. He stared to do better again. There was no paper work for all of this except they wrote down our names. The total cost including the tip that Fedi gave them that had them treating us very well was $25. I wish we had gone hours earlier, but I was afraid to move him.

At home he was still rasping, but better. I got scared once more when the loosened up phlegm almost clogged his airway again and he almost went in a panic again. All I can think of now is Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Lord.
Still Jan 3rd
I know I got a little behind over the holidays, so I want to hit some highlights of the last couple of weeks and catch up.

On Dec. 22nd Fedi and Leventa drove to a town about 5 hours away to pick up some Christian Literature. Fedi donated $100 from the donation money for this. He got home about 1:30 in the morning after having a run in with a telephone pole. It was raining on already ice-packed roads and impossibly slippery. The next morning he rushed to fix the leak in the radiator from the accident, as he had to get in to pass out the packages to the prisoners at 10:00 a.m. The rain had changed to snow and we had about 8 inches of beautiful, sparkly snow. The kids and I went with him since I had to do some Christmas shopping. Fedi was worried about the damaged fender. If the Police see damage on a car you have to have an accident report with you or you can get a ticket. They think you may have hit another car and not reported it.

Fedi made it only a little late. He passed out the packages, was able to give a Christian message and to talk with the guys later. He did say though in order to donate the packages to the prisoners he had to fill out a form, have it copied 3 times, have them notarized and pay about $12. Goofy law.

Christmas Eve dawned nicely. No place we had to go, beautiful snow and Christmas presents to unwrap. It was great. We hiked up in the untouched snow to a gill with some sleds and did some extreme sled riding. It was so steep it was tough to get up. The first few rides went like a big snowplow. Not too fast but throwing snow all over. After that though we went so fast on the packed down snow that we always rolled at the end.

Christmas day Rebekah woke up sick, so I stayed home. It gave me a chance to clean as we were expecting company the next day. Fedi took the other kids in for a Christmas dinner at Csilla’s and the church service. The kids put on a play and I was told my 3 younger kids sang Away in the Manger very nicely for the church. It was also kind of funny because some organization had donated packages of toys for the kids in the Romanian church. There were my kids lined up with the rest, getting their missionary packages for the poor.

The next day Csilla and family plus another family came to play in the snow and spend the day. Rebekah seemed better in the morning, so I left her with Anni and hiked up with them up to the meadow. They had brought skis. Ryan and Steven got to try them out and they both liked it. When we got back though Rebekah had gotten sicker. The poor kid was miserable. She had fever of almost 104 and different aches all over. I was worried enough that I called Spark and Rhonda’s and talked to my cousin Peter Bossart M.D. who was staying at their house. He said the muscle aches were from being dehydrated and I needed to push the liquids more. I did this and also dosed her up good with Motrin and Tylenol. She was better by the next day.

We spent the next few days getting ready for the New Year’s Eve party. Ten of the teenagers came a day early to help get ready. I also got Kitchen Cabinets finally on the same day. It looks so nice now to have somewhere to put things. Wednesday morning most of the people showed up. Fedi and I had to go in to get the food we bought from the donation money and a lady in church cooked up. It cost about $175. Anyway the day progressed nicely with the people having fun in the snow or all over the house. One guy brought his guitar and jammed it up with some great songs; we knew some of them in English. At about 11:00 we all (45) of us squished in our living room for a church service. Our neighbors came too. These were 3 young couples, most of who had never been to an evangelical service before. Leventa gave the service; we had some more singing, and then a time of prayer at about midnight. That’s when Ryan’s emergency happened. I don’t know what all happened after that but when we got back from the hospital the house was all cleaned up. Everyone was pretty much still there but they all started to make their way home as the day progressed. The last ones finally left in the evening. We kept Ryan close and concentrated on watching him. Fedi and I and Ryan slept down in the kitchen where we kept a pot of water going to put moisture in the air. We had a fairly good night. Every time I woke up to check on him it seemed his breathing was a little better, less noisy and stressed. Before we went to sleep I was still scared. Mostly because Fedi and I were so exhausted (we did not sleep at all the night before) that I was worried we wouldn’t notice if he had trouble.

Now I am up today. Csilla, Jozsef and the girls plus the same neighbor family that came after Christmas came for the day and to spend the night. We all went skiing down the road. (Csilla and I took turns staying with Ryan and the other 2 little kids). I forgot to write about something that has me excited. This lady that came with Csilla is a schoolteacher. She had arranged for us to borrow some left over skis that the school system had for almost nothing ($12) for 6 sets until April. Now our whole family is set. It was really fun. Fedi pulled us with ropes up the road (by now it is snow packed) and we skied down. The pace was perfect for beginners. Fast enough for a thrill but not at all too fast. Rebekah came in and said “That was so fun!”