Beautiful, Historical Romania

This week we took a few days of vacation in celebration of Mike's birthday. We decided to see more of our country and took a trip to Brașov and Buchurești.

Bran Castle

Near Brașov is Bran Castle, one of many castles that claim to be the inspiration for Bram's Stocker's famous novel Dracula.  We, however, were not so much interested in a fictional character as in the history of the castle.  It was built in the 1300's at the direction of the Hungarian king for protection of an important mountain pass at the border of the Hungarian Empire.  It also became important as a collection point for taxes on goods being brought into the area from out of the country.  The castle was in continual use until the mid-1800's.

Mike in the courtyard of Bran Castle

In 1918, Transylvania became a part of Romania and Queen Marie of Romania fell in love with the castle.  She renovated it into a royal residence and after her death it became the property of her daughter Ileana.  The communists, however, forced the Romanian king to abdicate in 1947 and the royal family had to flee the country leaving behind all they had including Bran Castle.  After communism fell, the property was returned once again to the heirs of Princess Ileana who have turned it into a popular tourist attraction.

Nancy just had to buy a few things at the Nansy convenience store.

We took an afternoon and walked through the old town of Brașov.  There we heard about the Black Church, so named because it had been burned twice, leaving it black.  The sad part was that Hungarian soldiers were the ones who burned it the first time along with the rest of the city.

Palace of Parliament in Buchurești

We spent one day in Buchurești, walked around the old town there and then toured the Palace of Parliament.  The building is the second-largest in the world, cost three billion dollars to build, was constructed almost entirely of Romanian materials, and houses the Romanian Parliament, Supreme Court, and many other government offices.  The Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu began work on the building in 1983 intending to use it as a residence for himself and his family as well as for government offices.  It was meant to be a showcase for his leadership but was only 60 percent finished when he and his wife were kicked out of power and executed.  The Romanians decided to complete the building since it would have cost more to tear it down than to finish it.  The building now stands as a monument to democracy and freedom.

The room intended to be used by the Communist Party is now used for various meetings.

The staircase down which Nicolae Ceaușescu was to make his grand entrances.

A glimpse of the Carpathian Mountains

During our trip we drove through the beautiful Carpathian Mountains that fill a large part of Romania.  What a joy to see God's amazing handiwork. What He has made is much better than any building and brings glory to the One who is greater than any person or history. 

Dumneavoastră vorbiți româna?

The Romanian language is quite interesting.  We have been studying it for a while now, first in formal classes and now on our own. We are understanding a lot of what is spoken, but not everything, and we speak very little.
There are some things about Romanian that make it easy for us.  It is a Latin-based so there are a lot of words that are the same or close to their English versions (super=super) and many facets of the grammar are familiar (Word order does not vary a lot from the English word order).  Knowing Hungarian has helped us some since there are a few words that are taken from that language as well (The word for work is munka in Hungarian and muncă in Romanian).
Some things are taking a while to get used to, though.  Adjectives usually come after the noun like in Spanish. Also like Spanish, all nouns have a gender--they are either masculine, feminine or neuter. (Băiat frumos=beautiful boy and fată frumoasă=beautiful girl) What is completely new to us is that the definite article (the) is attached to the end of the word and agrees with its gender and number. (Băiatul=the boy and fata=the girl, băieții=the boys and fetele=the girls) And that is just the beginning of what we are learning.
All this to say, please continue to pray for us as we study the Romanian language.  We are very happy that we are learning, but we have along way to go to be able to communicate as we would like to.
O zi bună! (Have a good day!)
Oh, the title of the blog is Romanian for "Do you speak Romanian?"  Dumneavoastră is the polite form of you used when speaking to strangers or superiors.

Filling In

Our pastors, Simi and Gabi Hosu, are on a much-needed and much-deserved vacation.  Before they left, they made arrangements for a Sunday morning speaker and worship leader, for translators to help Mike lead the Tuesday men's Bible study and Thursday prayer meeting, and for technical support (the couple who run the sound and video are gone these two weeks, too).

Brother Gigel

 Sunday morning was great.  One of Simi's long-time friends from Dej, just ten kilometers away came.  Brother Gigel led worship with the accordian (at Pastor Simi's request) as well as with the guitar and gave a short message. A few others from the congregation also participated with short words from the Scripture and with song.  It was a beautiful service and we appreciate Brother Gigel's ministry.  The young men who ran the video and sound did a great job, too.

Last Tuesday was a bit more challenging.  The translator that was scheduled to come to help Mike with the men's Bible study was unable to come.  The back-up translator (who had no idea he was the back-up translator) did not arrive, either.  Thankfully, Mike had prepared questions and comments ahead of time in Romanian and one of the men who was there helped a lot with managing the discussion.

Andrei translating for Mike

Thursday, the scheduled translator again was unable to come, but another young man was at the prayer meeting who graciously volunteered to translate for Mike. The young men did an awesome job with the sound and video Thursday evening, too.  Most of the time was spent in prayer and God was present, praise His Name!

Mike made sure to ask Andrei before he left the service Thursday evening if he would be willing to translate for him at the next men's Bible study on Tuesday.  Andrei agreed.  What a servant!

We are continually reminded that we are totally dependent upon God.  He is the one who works in the hearts and minds of people and it is his words we are to speak.  We thank him for the favor he is showing us here by providing so many people to come alongside to us to help.

Sorry, We're Closed

As a general rule, Romanians receive four weeks of vacation every year and most people take at least some of that time off work during August.  That means that in summer, and especially in August, life changes a bit here.  Attendance at church is unpredictable.  While many regular attendees may be gone on vacation, there are often visitors from out of town or even from out of the country.
August also means that our town of Gherla is a bit quieter and the streets seem to be emptier.  The two of us try to take a date night (or afternoon) once a week.  The last couple of weeks, though, the restaurants we chose were closed for two weeks of vacation!  We also found that a couple of small shops we tried to visit were closed with signs on their doors announcing when they would be back from their summer holidays.

The Hosu family at a conference in May

One good thing about summer vacation is that people seem to be calmer and happier when they return. Our pastors, Simi and Gabi Hosu, however, have felt since they became pastors that they could not be absent from the church over a weekend.   We are very happy that this week they decided that since we are here, they can take a longer vacation and be gone next Sunday, too.  May the Lord bless them and give them much needed rest and relaxation.