Our first day with the Gypsies

Thursday, December 30, 2004:

Well, we have just completed day three in Romania. Today was the day we hit the ground running. After a wonderful breakfast consisting of tasty Romanian fruit, Hungarian cornflakes and milk straight from the cow (it was very good!), we went straight to work. The vans arrived after breakfast full of packages of flour, sugar, oil, rice and cookies. Though the weather outside was frightful, our assembly line was quite effective. Nearly 300 bags were assembled in 45 minutes! We took 50 of those bags, along with 50 loaves of bread to the people in the village of Ciezer. What a sight that was! We walked up a muddy, frozen ramp to meet a group of about 70 gypsies who were waiting to meet us and receive their supply bags. Before we gave them their bags though, they were more than happy to share their praise songs with us in their language. We then sang praise songs in our language and Becky, Shannon and Gilbert shared their testimony. Tarl then shared his testimony and gave the message of salvation. Not knowing what to expect we were moved, some to tears, when we saw over 15 people raise their hands that accepted Jesus Christ. The families then lined up and received the bags we had prepared for them. We also gave the children bags of toys and toiletries and lollipops. We had a wonderful time handing out these much-needed supplies to the village. Not only did we get to meet Romanian gypsies, but also we got to witness a real pig fight. Some (Gilbert) felt the need to slap the pigs (yes, real ones) as others videotaped. It sounds a little odd, but it was pretty funny. When all the bags had been handed out we headed to the town of Zalau to pick up a few souvenirs and eat some authentic Romanian pizza. We spent an average of 600,000 Romanian lei at this souvenir shop!!! Don’t we sound rich? By this point we were starving, so we went to Amigo’s (not the American chain restaurant) and ate Romanian pizza dunked in sweet ketchup. YUM J we are now back at Tony’s house kicking back and planning another busy day! So now it’s my turn to go relax and get a good night’s rest. Please continue praying for us as we continue to visit the gypsy villages and bless the Romanian people. Hope all is well at home. I have attached a list of personal messages from everyone here. We love you guys!

Random thoughts of the day:

1. Ketchup on pizza is delicious!
2. It’s really hard to play the guitar with gloves and a thick winter coat
3. Amigo’s was an Italian food-serving place with a Spanish name and northwestern décor
4. There are officially potholes on EVERY road
5. Cheap, late Christmas gifts coming soon
6. It is fun to see real pigs fight and even more fun to slap them
7. Milk straight from cow is best
8. We just received 300 jackets and 300 boots to hand out
9. We also just received awesome Siberian-style hats that we will use on a regular basis at home because they make us look 10 times better.

Personal Messages:

Tarl: “I’m not coming home.”
Julia: “Hi mom if you can open the link ;)”
Heather: “Thanks for paying the bill, dad!”
Everyone: Josh, Mama are fundu mare!

A big thank you to Julia who did today's entry for me (Amy)! She did a great job and shed light from a different perspective.

---

---