More about Easter

Sunday was Easter in Romania.  As mentioned in the previous blog, since the vast majority of Romanians are Eastern Othodox, Easter is celebrated according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar. 
Last Thursday we celebrated the Last Supper at our church with worship, communion and a foot washing. It was a simple yet very moving commemoration of our Savior's great love for us.
Friday, the two of us decided to attend the Good Friday service at the Greek Catholic Church since we know the priest's wife there and she had invited us to visit sometime.  (Yes, Greek Catholic priests, unlike Roman Catholic priests, are free to marry.)  Even though we didn't understand everything, it was interesting to listen to the mass chanted in Romanian and watch them go through their ritual.  The building is interesting also, new, modern and very beautiful.

Looking up into the dome of the Greek Catholic Church

 Saturday, three of our neighbors gave us colored Easter eggs and special Romanian Easter treats.  We were pleased that they shared their delicious traditions with us.  Easter is a big holiday in Romania.  Good Friday and Easter Monday are both legal holidays and families spend time together enjoying traditional food and being with each other.  Most Easter meals include a lamb dish, eggs, and a sweet bread with either a cheese or fruit and nut filling.

Our neighbors gave us (clockwise from upper left) nut and apple-filled bread, chocolate cake topped with cheese cake, cheese-filled bread and colored hard-boiled Easter eggs.

Pastor's wife Gabi Hosu interpreting for Mike

Sunday morning was cool and rainy, but attendance was good at church.  Earlier in the week, Pastor Simi Hosu had asked Mike to preach, but he came down with a chest-cold on Thursday and by Saturday evening could not speak well at all. God answered our prayers, though, and Sunday morning he was able to preach a strong message with a strong voice. 

Today, Easter Monday, the town is quiet as everyone takes a day off.  We are still thinking of our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ and the resurrection power he gives to everyone who believes.  Happy Easter!  Paște fericit!

Easter on April 28

Easter is celebrated on April 28 in Romania this year.  Over eighty percent of Romanians are Eastern Orthodox, so they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ according to the Orthodox calendar. (It is interesting, though, that Christmas is celebrated on December 25 here.) So last Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday.  After church we and a few others were invited to Mery's house for lunch.  Mery loves to cook and have guests over and she told us that she wanted to celebrate Easter two Sundays in a row.  We learned some interesting Romanian traditions.

Palm Sunday Dinner. Our hostess Mery is fourth from the right.

Notice the colored eggs in the middle of the table.  The meal began with everyone taking an egg, turning to someone else at the table, saying Hristos a înviat! (He is risen) to which the other responded Adevărat a înviat! (He is risen indeed).  Then they tapped their eggs end to end to get them to crack.  Everyone then peeled their egg and ate it. 

Some people not only color their eggs, but paint them with intricate designs.  They sell these for Easter decorations at fairs like the one that is in the street not far from our house.

Not only is Easter Sunday a holiday, Good Friday and Easter Monday are also public holidays and many businesses and offices are closed.  Due to the holiday, we will not have our regular Friday Romanian lesson this week, but our teacher promised us extra homework so we don't forget what we have learned.

Our church, the Open Bible Church in Gherla, will have a Maundy Thursday service this week with a meal and a foot washing.  Sunday morning will be a special Resurrection Day service.  The Orthodox and Catholic churches, however, have Easter services that begin Saturday night at about 11 pm.  After the mass, the priest lights candles parishioners have brought as a symbol of resurrection light.  Then at midnight, the priest announces that Christ is risen and the Easter celebration begins.

It doesn't matter which week we celebrate it, we are thrilled that Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed!

On Nancy's Walk

A house being re-roofed.

 Both of us like to exercise so that we can be as healthy as possible.  Mike likes to run and I (Nancy) like to walk.  Here are a few pictures from my recent walks.  Above is a picture of a house being re-roofed.  Almost all the houses here have tile roofs which are quite durable.  They do need to be replaced occasionally when the wood rafters holding the heavy tiles wear out and break or dip too much.

Brave roofers

 It looks like the roofers have to be acrobats to install the new rafters.

Walking on the dike along the river

 I have found a path I like on the top of the dike along the river.  The scenery gets greener every day.

Flock of sheep

 I saw a flock of sheep in the distance along the way.  If you look closely, you may be able to see the shepherd standing to the right of the sheep.  There are a lot of sheep raised in Romania and mutton is the traditional Easter meal.

Grazing along the walking path

I passed the flock of sheep, walked further down the dike, turned around and walked back.  I was pleased to see that the sheep had moved closer to the path and that there were some little lambs among them.
We are enjoying living in Romania.  It has its challenges of course, (please pray that we can get our car's title changed from Hungary to Romania without problems), but the country is beautiful nonetheless.

Residence Permits

Mike displaying his new Romanian residence permit

Last Friday we received our Romanian residence permits.  We are rejoicing and praising God.  Here is why:
On March 13, after three hectic days of getting papers together and paying fees, we turned in every document needed to the immigration office in Cluj.  During those three hectic days and many other days before those, we relied on the help of many people including Mery, Gabi, Pastor Simi and Pastor Teo to help us collect all the papers we needed.  We were very relieved to have everything turned in on March 13. The official who took our documents told us that we should expect our permits to arrive in thirty days and to come back then to see if they were in.  Our only concern was that foreign visitors can legally remain in Romania for only ninety days at a time and our ninety days were expiring on April 8, only twenty-six days after we turned in our documents.
When we told our Romanian friends about the situation, they said not to expect the permits to arrive in less than thirty days since government offices move very slowly.  They were not worried for us, but did not want us to get our hopes up.
In spite of being told to wait thirty days, we decided to check at the immigration office last Friday, the twenty-third day of our wait.  When we did, the clerk calmly looked through the file of permits and pulled out our two cards.  In just a couple of minutes, we had our permits.  Praise God.  He can even make slow government offices move quickly.

Spring is Here

Stork in a village in Romania

We saw a sure sign of spring this morning on the way to our Romanian language class in Cluj.  We saw several storks in their nests.  It is exciting to see that they are back from Africa.

Ladies' meeting. (Our pastor's wife Gabi took the picture.)

Another sign of spring is that the Monday women's meeting was held on Mery's veranda.  It was warm enough to meet outside to eat, pray, and study together.  

We ladies ate balmoș, a traditional Romanian dish that is something like polenta with cheese in it.  Mery also added sour cream, so it was even more delicious.  After we ate, we read the last chapter of the book we have been studying, Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer.  Nancy read along in her English book as they read it in Romanian. The time of prayer afterward was powerful--these ladies know how to pray!