Praying for Revival

God has been stirring the hearts of the members of the Open Bible Church in Gherla to pray for revival.  Several prophecies concerning revival coming to Gherla were given to the church at different times over the past year or so through different people from different places.  Then recently, some church members have begun talking about praying for the promised revival to come.  That talk has turned into consistent prayer times individually during the week and Sundays before church. 

We don't know what revival will look like here, but we do know that we as a church and as a city are in need of more of God.  Believers need to become excited about the God we serve and many, many people are in desperate need of salvation.

Will you pray with us?  Will you pray today that the Holy Spirit will fill every believer in Gherla with new power and boldness to share the Gospel?  Will you pray that God will soften the hearts of non-believers so that they will hear with eagerness and faith about the Savior who came to bring them eternal life?  Thank you!

Garden

Our garden is looking pretty good this year. You can see our sweet corn with the tomatoes next to it, and squash beyond them. In another part of the yard, we have some cucumbers and we have already enjoyed radishes and lettuce earlier this spring. We have never had the opportunity to do much gardening in the past, but we are learning now that we have the yard and the opportunity. Along with the vegetables we planted, there are plum, cherry, and apple trees in the yard, grapevines, and bushes with currant berries. We did not plant these so in a way I feel like the Israelites because we "eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant." (Josh. 24:13). Life is good because God is good!

Cherry jelly, cherry jam, plum crisp and mini-plums.  Yes, God is good!

Japanese Tea House

Last week, we went to the nearby city of Cluj and met with Katsutaro Kawai to discuss ministry opportunities with him.  Brother Katsu is a missionary from Japan who has worked for more than 20 years in Romania, ministering to university students and in various churches. Last fall, he visited the Gherla Open Bible Church with his wife and their Japanese intern who are both from the Open Bible Churches in Japan.  We ate lunch with them and enjoyed our time together.

For the past ten years, Brother Katsu has operated a Japanese Tea House near the main university in Cluj.  He uses this business primarily as an outreach to the university students.  Since the COVID-19 outbreak, all restaurants were closed, so Brother Katsu is using this time to make plans for future ministry.  He invited us as his guests to the tea house and he and his Romanian employee Malo served us delicious Japanese tea with Romanian pastries. 

Katsu, Malo and Mike

We had a wonderful time discussing ministry and encouraging each other in the Lord.  It is unlikely that we will be able to help much with the ministry in Cluj since our schedules do not work together well at the moment, but we praise God for the testimony of faithful servants like Brother Katsu.

On a side note, there are tables available in the tea house where guests sit on the floor, but our hosts were gracious to us and allowed us older Americans to sit at a regular table.

Turda Salt Mine

Last Friday we took a day off and went with Pastor Simi and his family and another family from the church to a salt mine about an hour from Gherla.  What an interesting place!  Salt was extracted from this mine beginning probably during the time of the Romans until the 1930's. 

From the entrance to the mine we walked down about six stories of stairs to the highest level of the mine.

Here we saw a pulley system used to lift the salt from the mine which was originally powered by horses.

The first miners brought the salt up in baskets.  Later, rails and carts were used.

This is a picture of a wall of salt with streaks of other minerals.  The rock is shiny and translucent. The salt from this mine is black because of the impurities in it.  After refining, it is white.

An enormous amount of salt was removed over the centuries from several deposits.  The room we visited is a huge, bell-shaped area over thirteen stories high.

In this room is an amusement park complete with Ferris wheel, mini-golf, skeet ball, billiards and ping-pong. 

Down a few more stories is the bottom of the mine that was flooded.  Here tourists can rent rowboats to take out on the salty lake.

The air in the mine is said to be good for the lungs, so people with diseases and weaknesses of the lungs come to spend time here as therapy.  There are even places to stay for a week or ten days at a time with special treatments available.

It was great to get away for a day and visit such an interesting place.  The best part, though, was being with our friends.