A Redneck in Europe - Romania Part 2

Sunday

I preached this morning. The church is very beautiful. It has lots of natural light and great acoustics. The whole thing is round. Their choir sang and there was testimony time. It was from a lady who had been to the clinic 2 years ago, and over a year she became a Christian. They sang a couple of songs that we knew the tune too.Leslie Brotherton interpreted for me. She is our missionary in Romania. Her family goes to Rose Heights. We worked well together. I preached from the book of Mark.

After church the team was taken to different homes for lunch. I went with Johnny J, John Mark and Wayne A to the home of the pastor. It was about a 2 block walk through this beautiful park. People walking around, there was a band (brass and drum) playing in the park. I saw a little kid driving a “CARS” car. The homes are late 1800 model; some have been re done and are great. Other are need some T.L.C... The streets were cobble stone. The pastor's house reminds me of a southern American type, formal sitting and dinning room. The pastor has traveled lots. He had many books from around the world. On top of one table and shelf were books about Texas. Mamma Mia (the pastor’s wife) his daughter who is about 20 and her husband hosted us for lunch. Soup, bread, meat, potatoes, rice, noodle/bean things, water, ice cream, plums and grapes. Served on beautiful china and dishes. They would make great southerners by their hospitality.

We walked back to the clinic and I took a nap. I preached the Sunday night service again from the book of Mark. Leslie again interpreted for me. The people are so friendly. Most of the team stayed behind at the clinic to prepare the supplies and bag up medicine and get organized.

After church we had a late supper.

Monday

We got up early and had our breakfast. We loaded up in several cars and headed out into one of the rural villages about an hour away. We set up clinic in a Baptist church in a village about an hour from here. We saw maybe 50 patients, not many.

I met the wife of a martyr. Her husband had been in the Romanian Army under communism. Some how, someone shared the gospel with him and he got saved. He came home and shared the gospel with his wife. They soon helped to establish a bible study in their home. From this bible study, the church were working in was formed. Her husband and her were persecuted and tortured by the communist. The man responsible for the death of her husband was head of the local communist party. After her husband died, the man that tortured him died a painful death of cancer.

Wayne and John were threatened with a knife by the local bar owner. He apparently was not happy with us being in the village.Sunni (M.D. Ob/Gyn) treated a patient in a horse drawn wagon. This village is like a peasant village. I don’t say that to be mean. They are just very poor. They still get around with horse drawn carts like they would have 100 years ago.

Kerfoot and I made a house call to see an 88 year old lady with a broke him that has been broke for 4 years. Because of her age, they would no operate on her. They were very friendly people. There was not much we could do. I met her son, my first Romanian red neck. Learned about his wine operation and his vodka cooking. They showed us around their house and farm. They have a vegetable garden and were cutting up a tree that they had delivered from the mountains for firewood.

I saw a lady herding turkeys. No kidding. She had a stick and she was herding a flock of turkeys down the road.

When I discovered the out house I did not drink anything the rest of the day (12 hours) and held my but cheeks until I got back to the clinic. I was not squatting over a hole. No sir ree. Maybe if I had no choice, I would, but I had a choice. Yes I have been in the mountains, camped all over and have done my business in the wild out doors. But OMG!!!

I think I only took BP's on 2 people who did not have high blood pressure.

I sat on the ground at lunch and ate a sandwich with hot mustard. We were sitting in the churches vegetable garden. On the fence was a dead chicken hanging by his neck. We figured that he either committed suicide. He could have been playing with some friends on the roof of a near by barn, daring each other to jump off and he did not make it. Or someone killed the chicken as some sort of hex? Either way, it was a topic of great discussion in the garden.

I did get to see 2 gypsy girls, teenagers. You can spot them by the red and orange dresses they wear. They were beautiful as were their dresses. The gypsies are hated here. They are an ethnic minority. Apparently they were originally brought to Romania from India as slaves. They were later freed. They are treated here worse than blacks in the American south in the 60's. After we left the clinic, we stopped in a small town. I got a 2 liter of Pepsi and drank it in 40 minutes on the ride back to town. I was so dehydrated.

On the road back we saw a guy on the side of the road laying down next to a bike, we stopped to see if he was hurt. He was just drunk.

I saw corn fields harvested with combines and in the same field, a guy with a sling blade and a wagon and horse. What a contrast.Supper tonight was spaghetti with little smoky sausage, egg plant spread and hard bread (the common type here) and I drank 2 liters of water before I was able to go tinkle.