Hi Everyone, Below is our report for October. Again it became long, but we have had many adventures and more are happening as I write this. Fall is in full gear there – leaves are turning color and falling. The city street sweepers and their stick brooms are busy raking them up. We wish you all the blessings of God as we approach Thanksgiving. We are going to prepare a full thanksgiving dinner for our friends here – we found sweet potatoes in Real in Timisoara yesterday – imported from the US – we bought them all. No cranberries yet though. Blessings and love to you all Tamara & Randy

October Stories and Adventures in Romania

My opening picture is of the Iron Bridge (1902) at night. There was a big (for Lugoj) fall festival going on – you can see the smoke from the BBQ shops and some of the booth roofs. I have one picture of the meat offerings which were available – YUM. There was live entertainment, clowns for the kids and much fun.

4 Legged Chicken

When you buy a chicken in Romania, you never quite know what you're going to get. Take a look at the first picture and see what I got. This chicken has four legs. I have gotten chickens with heads, feet and all sorts of other chicken parts but never have I seen a four-legged chicken. I bet it could really run.

Gypsy Street Fighting

I was walking home from going out to pay bills and as I neared our apartment building I heard yelling and shouting. As I came around the building I saw people in the middle of the street -- men and women arguing very loudly over something. Sometimes it is a blessing to not understand Romanian, because I'm sure they were cursing at each other. There are two Gypsy families near our apartment – we can see their houses out our back windows and it seemed they were outside arguing over something. I have been told that Gypsy families occasionally have wars between them and in these, they sometimes engage in swordfights during their arguments. As I watched what was happening, I fully expected someone to charge out from one of the houses and threaten the other ones with a sword. Fortunately it did not happen, but I watched while walking to avoid being noticed too much.

Apple Picking & Processing
We were invited to go apple picking. Daniel owns a number of acres of old communist apple orchards. These orchards have not been tended since 1990, the time of the revolution, so the ground is very rough and has lots of weeds and prickers around the trees. But, we went out with Daniel and Gigel and their families, along with some orphans who Magda was overseeing. We picked one tub of apples -- see the picture after we brought it home. They picked dozens of boxes of apples – some for themselves, some for Harul School where Tamara volunteers, some for Surduc, and some for the orphanage - their boxes filled two vans. Having gotten these apples, now the question is what to do with them. I made applesauce out of some of them but quickly realized there is only so much applesauce that we can eat. So I looked on the Internet and found a recipe for preserving apples. I tried it out and it was wonderful – it was hard to not eat them right from the pot. So, I went into production (see the picture) preserving the whole box and taking bags of sliced apples down to the freezer for use during the winter in pies or just eating.

A Fisherman Prepares for a Catch

There are many fishermen who fish in the river right outside our window. This fisherman (see the picture) struck me as an interesting example of how we should be as we walk with God through life. He fully expected to catch fish because he had a net set up in the river to hold them. We should be the same -- always expecting, every day, to have God working in us and through us to produce a catch for His kingdom. We need to always be ready to talk about the faith that is in us. We never now how many days the person has left.

Machines of the City

As I walk or drive around Lugoj I often see machines that to me are very interesting -- machines that have no equivalent in America at all. I have pictures of two of them attached to the e-mail. The first one is a knife sharpener who sets up his station near the open-air market which is near to where we live. If you have a knife that needs sharpening he will use his foot powered grinding wheel to help you out.

The other machine is a very interesting one. Many people in Lugoj heat their homes with wood – the smoke is a strong haze and smell in the city. It is by far the cheapest heat -- much cheaper than gas. To do this they need to obtain a supply of wood for the winter. Many times this comes in a truck that dumps it at their doorstep -- in pieces which are 3 feet long. This is way too big for the stoves that most people use. And so, it needs to be cut into 1 foot pieces and then split. They will call a man with a portable saw -- not a chainsaw (I do see those) -- but a saw which is driven to the site where the wood is -- he changes the belts on the engine from the drive wheels to the saw blade -- and then saws the wood using this huge blade.

I happened upon this machine as I was driving into the city, so I stopped and in my little Romanian asked if I could take their picture. The man on the left is the saw owner and operator -- the man on the right is the owner of the wood. If you look closely you can see that the owner of the saw has a file in his hand which he was using to sharpen the blade before starting his work. It is amazing to me that he has all his fingers still attached to his body.

Ministry at Baptist Bible School & Trip Back

Near the end of October, I was invited to go to Timisoara and teach in the Baptist Bible School there. It was an honor for me to do this and prior to the invitation, I did not even know that such a school existed. It is similar to the series of Institutes at Surduc which Tamara and I graduated from. I was given the address and thanks to my GPS, I arrived just a bit early. There were eight students and my translator – Catalin. I had prepared four - 50 minute lessons to teach them -- about attitudes -- two bad attitudes -- complaining and criticizing -- and two good attitudes that would replace those -- thankfulness and love. The students seemed interested in the topic, took copious notes and I enjoyed teaching them. One young woman asked about a personal problem she was having and I was able to take the material I had just taught and give her some ideas to help. Application is the KEY. At the end of four hours we parted ways and I started home. I decided to go a different way -- a way through Buzias, which should have much less traffic and would be more scenic than the normal road between Lugoj and Timisoara. The first part of the trip was uneventful and delightful, no cars, no trucks -- a drive through the countryside. But, I missed a detour sign about a bridge being out ahead because I did not understand enough Romanian. I was following another car and together we came to the bridge which was being worked on – no way across. The driver ahead of me spoke with a woman on a bicycle and then he did a left turn down a narrow concrete road. I figured that he knew where he was going, so I followed him. We were on an ancient, broken-in-the-middle, one car wide, bushes on each side concrete road where I was riding the ridges of the concrete to avoid tearing out the bottom of the car. After a few hundred yards, this turned into a dirt road which was mud because of the rain which had fallen all day. Fortunately I had just had new winter tires put on the car, so I had good traction. As I drove through this mud these are some of these thoughts passed through my mind.    This car thinks it is a Jeep in 4WD    Ride the ridges – ride the ridges    watch out for the big puddles – don’t get stuck – no AAA here.    don't follow too closely    I’m sliding sideways down into the puddle – cant stay out of it    now I’m sliding sideways down the road    correct, correct, but not too much or I’ll fishtail    SUV coming -- get over to the right    he hit the puddle -- now my car is completely covered with mud and I can see nothing    wipers work, but the side windows are opaque    follow the Dacia    rain is washing the mud off – whew – now I can see out the side windows    hill coming – keep the speed up    keep going – keep going The GPS had no idea what road I was on – later I found this path on Google Maps -- actually I was out in the middle of the fields on tractor roads. After about 2 miles of going through the mud, we came to a real road -- the Dacia going one way and I went the other. Now the GPS knew where I was and in just a few minutes I made it back home, but it was an interesting adventure in driving the Romanian roads. God watches out for me all the time

Ministry with Mondial

Our ministry at the Bread of Life Church at Mondial continues in very interesting ways. Tamara has begun a Bible study with three of the women from the Mondial project. They come to our apartment and gathered together to study Abraham. One of the women is pretty good in English, another knows some, but the third knows none, so the study is a mix of English and Romanian (as Tamara knows) or translated Romanian by Manuela. She has a computer with Google Translate handy – it is not perfect, but pretty good. The women really seem to like the study -- they especially enjoy a woman of maturity like Tamara who can add many thoughts and applications to the text that they are working with. I continue to preach through the book of James. We are going slowly because I want to share basically one truth at the time with the people. These are believers who have been so for a short time -- they're new at this walking by faith business and I want to give them small pieces of meat to chew on. James is a wonderful book to work with because it deals with problems that people of faith encounter every day. These people have trials just living life one day at a time (as we do too) and so this book is helpful to encourage them on how to think and respond in a faith way. The people in the time of James were the same as people are now and James shows the difficulties of walking by faith very well.

The new building is busily being worked on.

Several of the men from Mondial are being supervised by a man, Mihai, who is skilled in construction and is a pastor of a Pentecostal church in a nearby village. He is very friendly and always greets me with a smile and an outstretched hand when I come to visit to take pictures of the project. The first task that needed to be done was to remove the old roof and repair the wood that was underneath. They also had to do some new brick and concrete work to make rooms in areas where they were needed. This is all done now and what is being worked on currently is supporting roof structures for these new areas. What all this is finished, the roofing company will come and put the new roofing tiles onto the structure. Thanks be to God that the roof is paid for completely through a generous donation from a friend of Daniel. Once the roof is on, the inside work can be done throughout the winter.

One picture is of Sandu – one of the initial group of believers at Mondial who were baptized in June 2010. He is a dear man, faithfully coming to church and greets me with a smile and handshake when I see him in town. He has been ill and in the hospital of late, but showed up for work when he was better. These jobs are important to the men of Mondial.

The next construction need after the roof is for the main outside windows and doors. We, Tamara and Randy, have not made an appeal for funds for ourselves previously, as God is supplying our needs. But, there is a need for funds for doors and windows for our building.

If you have any interest in helping financially with this project, please send me an and I can give you a more detailed picture of the project and the needs involved.      A window costs between $250 and $350 depending on size.    A door costs between $400 and $600, again depending on size. If you have an interest in donating, send it to: Nelson Romania Mission Berean Mission Alliance PO Box 452 Grover, MO 63040-0452 This building was built in the 1920s as a community center for the people of Mondial. It fell into disrepair many years ago, but now we are renovating it and expanding it so that it can be a community center again as well as a church for this area.    It will have running hot water showers for men and women – they don’t exist there now.    It will have a kitchen and dining area for meals for old and young who have no money for food. Bread is very cheap here – many meals are just that, with perhaps some pork-lard spread on it.    It will have a room to make clothing donations available.    It will be our Bread of Life Church, rooms for kid’s ministry, a room for prayer and meetings, a small apartment for a pastor and his family and a sanctuary with baptistery and pastor’s study.    The newest idea is for it is to serve as a funeral parlor. Funerals in Romania are home affairs, the family prepares the body and it is held in their home until the burial. Funeral stores sell only caskets and flowers (plastic or real) for decoration at the services. Mondial homes have NO space for a body, let alone the family and friends who come for the services. We have a perfect room to hold these events and even have the traditional meal afterwards. It is exciting for us to see the renovation of this structure which will be such a help to the community AND a beacon of light in a dark corner of Lugoj