Posts filed under ‘Summer 2008’
Transylvania and LST
Dan reads with Jozef in our apartment
Eniko, Red Cross Office Mgr, Ildiko, Village School Teacher & Dan read in our apartment
LST Readers Past and Present
Reka Papp, Teacher & Marriage and Family Therapist
Adolf Papp Reads with Dan
Reka Kovacs, School Psychologist, and Anne
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Every day brings a blessing in Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania
A great place to play and eat
Storks like Romanian Summers
Rodica & Anne Share a Common Love
Istvan Directed Boy Scout Camp This Week
We Break for Lunch at Agape Workday
Marioara, Sebastian & Dan Enjoy Sandwiches at Agape
Anne Enjoys Shopping at Trident Supermarket, July 11, '08
Attila, Zsuzsa joined us for dinner at an outdoor restaurant
Istvan Reads with Dan
Every Day Has a Blessing for Us in Transylvania
Some Highlights from the Past Seven Days
Saturday Visit to Ancient Church and Fortress
Tea with Attila and Zsuzsa
Rosemarie Visits the Farm
Anne Begins 20 Hour Training Course at Pro Nobis Counseling Center
LST Party Was Like Family Reunion
First Hungarian lesson
Dinner with Alpar and Reka, Little Anne and Sara
Practicing Conversational English Over Lunch
Last Saturday, June 28 We Visited Ancient Church and Fortress – Just a 20 minute drive from here is a beautiful church built in 1223 A.D. (Yes, we drove the dreaded Blue Van!) During the 1500’s, the villagers built a huge fortress around it with rooms for all the villagers during times of attack.
Having been completely restored in recent years, it is a delight to visit. The museum area has a number of rooms with clothing, furniture, weaving and farm implements. You can tour the inside of the fort, look out the holes where hot oil was poured down on the attackers, and imagine what life must have been like.
Before Columbus discovered American, Saxon (German) people were worshipping God in that church building. A small group of Lutherans still worship there today. There would be more, but during Communist rule, the Romanian Government sold large numbers of the Saxon descendants to East Germany. The people had no choice. They were shipped to a country where their ancestors had come from in the 1200’s. Even so, the village of Prejmer is a thriving little community with several restaurants where you can have delicious fresh rainbow trout!
To Get to Attila and Zsuzsa’s House, Go One Block South from the church on the Main Street. As soon as we phoned on our cell phone to announce our arrival, Attila hurried to open the gates so we could park the van inside their huge fence. (Most of the houses have tall fences in front as well as on the sides and back.)
For tea, we sat outside on their large covered patio that is attached to the house. We were served delicious Hungarian dumpling soup, creamed spinach fresh from the garden, and two fried eggs with wonderful potato bread. To drink, we could choose from 100% orange juice, bottled pure sparkling mineral water from one of Romanians 2,200 natural springs, coffee, or fruit tea. But the best part was the long, deep discussions that we had.
Having grown up on a large farm in Germany, Rosemarie particularly enjoyed visiting Reka Papp’s uncle’s farm with us. Nestled up against the graceful foothills of the Carpathian Mountains (the Romanian Alps), Uncle Dezu farms the land his father, and grandfather before him farmed. The main difference is that Dezu cuts his hay with a scythe, and rakes it with a large wooden rake while his father had modern farm equipment which was “donated” by the Communist Regime to the many farm communes they created by not only taking the tractors and all the equipment…but by taking the land too. Most of the farmers have never recovered from that devastation. When most of their land was returned by the government after Communism fell here, no one replaced their equipment.
Adolf grilled center cup pork chops and mitz (a special Hungarian sausage) for our dinner. Reka added fresh tomato, cabbage, and onion salad, and boiled potatoes. There was that marvelous Hungarian potato bread too! For dessert, we had ice cream sundaes already prepared with the strawberry syrup and whipped cream frozen in the container with the ice cream!
Anne Begins 20 Hour Training Course at Pro Nobis Counseling Center – we do work on the weekdays by the way! Dan and Rosemarie read 5 days a week with a total of 20 LST individual Readers between them. Wednesday this week, I began classes for the psychologists using an excellent book, Parenting From the Inside Out. Andrea did advance translating to get all the scientific and psychological terms translated into Hungarian. She is a gift from God. All of my students (degreed psychologists, social workers, teachers) are gifts from God to us. They are intelligent, kind, love God, and are dedicated to making Romania a better land by helping one person at a time grow.
The LST Party Wednesday Evening Was Like a Family Reunion. We have come to love the Readers. They all sat around and talked sharing our stories like old friends until after 10 a.m. We sang, ate wonderful Hungarian salads and desserts which they brought to go along with our Texas chili. (Some had already made chili themselves as soon as they had the ingredients and recipe.) They were really sad to see Rosemarie return to Texas…and so were we. We miss you, Rosemarie!
Our First Hungarian Lesson was delayed until last Friday – we had to wait until the end of June for the teacher to finish her school year. Kati is a cheerful, intelligent, patient, excellent teacher. Dan learned many words – being a Linguist, he loves languages and learns easily. I began to understand the alphabet (only 48 letters!) and learned a few words. Kati is going to come every weekday morning for an hour. She gives us assignments using our Hungarian CD’s and book set. We are focusing on learning to converse. I’m not making any predictions about my success in learning it, but with God’s help, we’ll both be able one day to communicate with those who do not speak English!
Dinner with Alpar and Reka, Panna (Little Anne) and Sara Thursday evening was a good send-off for Rosemarie. They have bought a lovely 100+ year old house, completely restored and modernized it almost completely by themselves. Alpar is amazing. He is a computer consultant in business for himself, and can do almost anything. Their garden (the side and back yard) has a large place for the girls to play, flowers (lots of roses), fruit trees, vegetable garden, with a huge grape vine covering one entire side of the house.
For dinner, we had a special eggplant spread on that good bread with fresh tomatoes for salad, and fresh peaches and a sort of jelly roll with a chocolate covering for dessert. We could choose from sparkling mineral water, juice, and coffee. Alpar and Reka were some of Dan’s first LST Readers two years ago.
Attila and Zsuzsa’s English has improved 100% since we first met 5 years ago. Given their work hours, we have to meet on the weekends. He owns a large-business machines company and internet company. She is a Clinical Psychologist who works with autistic children, and families. Today, sitting in a large garden restaurant with giant trees providing a canopy over our heads, we enjoyed excellent food and more deep conversations.
Dan’s leg is doing very well. He walks fine. We both are well. We thank God that we are able to serve Him in such a beautiful area with all the conveniences of life, and good friends who enjoy learning with us. We miss our friends and family, but we would not miss God’s call to serve Him here at this stage in our life. Thank you for sharing in this work by your prayers, and financial support. Our friends here still find it awesome that some of you care about their needs enough to help us be in St. George.
Tonight, God gave me this scripture to share with you – “…be made new in the attitude of your minds; and put on the new self, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness….In our anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the Devil a foothold.” Eph. 4:23, 24, 26 & 27. (We praise God that He is helping us to achieve this goal that He has set for all of us.) — Anne and Dan
True Stories from Transylvania
TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK – (See details below list.)
Rie Vali, Professional Web Page Designer Donates Web Page for God’s Children
Rosemarie Hitesman Makes Donation to God’s Children in Memory of Charmion DeVed
Anne Learns How to Blog on gods-children.org
Many Obstacles Overcome to Apply for Long Term Visa
A BIG THANK YOU goes to Rie and Peter Vali, Lewisville, TX, dear friends for many years and now longtime supporters of our work in Romania. Rie, a professional web site designer, created the beautiful web site for our new non profit organization, God’s Children! Take a look at gods-children.org to see how talented she is AND read about the benevolent works God has led us to help support. Peter and Rie were the first to make a cash donation to God’s Children. Ed and Judy Duncan were the first to make a donation on line. Aren’t they smart!
Rosemarie Hitesman, LST Team member 2 years in a row, is the first to make a donation ($500) in memory of a dear friend, Charmion DeVed. Being here 6 weeks, Rosemarie’s heart was touched by the medical needs of the children here. We’re can’t wait to see Dr. K’s face when God’s Children presents her with funds to help the children she so faithfully serves.
Anne and Rie spent 2 hours on Skype while Rie trained Anne how to use the blog for God’s Children. If stretching the brain keeps one healthy, my brain ought to be the healthiest 73.5 year old brain on earth!
Applying for a long stay visa seemed impossible. The list of requirements was unbelievable, but we worked hard to get everything we could while in the U.S. We’d been here 8 days when the list was shortened! All we lacked was a Romanian Dr’s. statement that we have no diseases that pose a threat to the citizens of Romania. Well, that should be simple enough to get…or so we thought.
But no…we had to apply for National Health Insurance, and once approved, we could choose our Dr. THEN, she could write that letter. I predicted, “When we apply, they are going to tell us that we have to first have the long stay visa!” Sure enough, the government insurance rep said we had to have the long stay visa to apply for health insurance! But, Adolf read all the laws pertaining to foreigners and Romanian Health Insurance. After he had that straightened out, we were ready to go again to the Immigration Office to attempt to give them all the papers to formally apply.
Are you falling asleep yet? Hastening to the conclusion, 2 more forms had to be filled out again because we’d dated them on the day we filled in the form! Taxes had to be paid at 3 offices, and, at last, our applications were accepted! They have 30 days in which to reply. Depending on who is assigned to our case, we may get a 5 year, or a 4 year, or a 1 year visa. It’s all in how one reads the laws. ; > )
Stay tuned for the rest of the story. We lead a very interesting life here surrounded by friends who want to help, study with us, be kind to us. As Blanka said with amazement at the LST party last night, “There are people all over the world who need help…and God sent you to our little city!”
Sherrie Hammond, RN, and wise friend explained it when she wrote, “Jesus says, “Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and obeys them is like a man building a house. He digs down deep and builds his house on solid rock. Then, the floods come, and the water tries washing the house away. But the flood can not move the house, because the house is built well (Luke 6:47,48-SEB).”….Building our lives on Christ’s Solid Rock foundation requires that we “dig down deep into our soul.” We go deep into the core of our being until we reach that “solid rock” purpose upon which everything makes sense.” We pray that God will help you also reach that “solid rock” purpose for your life. — Anne and Dan
God's Children Blog 
