Romania - Day 10

On Friday we arrived at the airport in Budapest at about five in the morning. There was a long line at the luggage check-in. The flight to Paris was uneventful. We all slept most of the way. On the way to Philadelphia we had the same kind of plane we had going to Paris. We had a window seat and our seats were not as far back in the plane. This is a picture of the plane:


Stephen got bored and started to take pictures of himself. It took a long time to land in Philadelphia and we had to re-check our baggage. When we went to get tickets everybody said to go to someone else. We were confused because where we landed was on the wrong side of the airport. The plane going to North Carolina was so small that we boarded it from the ground. We bought some Stromboli in Philadelphia for what seemed to us dinner(it was really lunch time.) The flight was supposed to be 2 hours but it seemed a lot shorter. When we got home from the airport we had dinner, even though we weren't hungry. We were very tired and glad to be home. We went to bed at about 8:30.

Romania - Day 9

We got up in the morning, and then showered and ate breakfast at the person's house that we stayed at. It was a good breakfast. Here is a picture of us with the wife. The rest of the family were at school or work:

Then the wife called a taxi to take us to the missionary house. She went with us, so we did not get lost! We arrived there safely, and then got in the car and started on our drive to Bacau. It was a pretty drive through the mountains. We stopped twice. The first time, we got some food. First there was some good sausages. Then we got a kind of dessert. It was dough that was cooked for a few minutes until it was just a little brown, and then had sugar sprinked on it. Here is a picture of some cooking:

Here is a mountain:

After this food, we got back in the car, and drove to another stop. This was in a big pass through the mountains. It had a river, and cliffs on either side. It was really pretty. There we bought some things to bring home. All of the boys (David, Stephen Breagy, Stephen Horn and I) bought pocket knives, I bought a ship, and Daddy got Rachel a box that has a secret way to open it. Daddy got Mommy a honey pot and a tea cup. We only stayed for about 15 minutes, so we had to be quick.

Then we got back in the car and drove to Bacau. We arrived just before the service. Daddy and Mr. Breagy spoke in church. Afterwards we had pizza. Then Mr. Breagy, Stephen Breagy, Daddy, Stephen and I got in a van to drive to the airport. Mr. Brown, David and Max were staying for a few more days. So we got in the van, and drove to the airport. We got there really early in the morning, so we tried to sleep in the van for a few hours. We did not get much sleep.

Romania - Day 7

On Tuesday all we had to do was drive to a church, have a meeting, and then go to bed. But it was a long day because we had about a 6 hour drive and it was over the mountains. We are not going to go back to Emmanuel University the entire trip so we had to pack up our stuff. After we packed, we got in the car and drove. David fell asleep and snored in the back. For lunch, we stopped at a gas station and got sandwiches and drinks. The drive over the mountains was really nice. Here are some pictures:

When we got there, we were a little late. We drove to a hotel, where we met the pastor of the church. He led us to a church, which was interesting. It had two floors. The bottom one had a big room for church, and a kitchen. The upper floor was not finished, but the plan is to have a big room for church, with big glass windows that overlook the city. It was really nice. We had dinner in the kitchen. We had soup, vegetables, bread, meat and potatoes. It was good. These were the first vegetables besides cucumbers and tomatoes that we had.

Then we had to do the conference. We did what was going to become the norm. Mr. Brown did a short introduction, then Daddy did a speech on Ephesians 5 about how the father is a prophet, priest and king of his house. The Mr. Breagy did a talk on Psalm 127. I almost fell asleep during this speech because I was really tired. Then Mr. Brown finished up with a speech on not conforming to the world, and the history of the philosophy of age-separated discipleship. Then there was a time for questions. Here are some pictures:

After the meeting, we went to a lady's apartment to sleep. We got a entire apartment to ourselves. She and her mother-in-law stayed downstairs in another apartment. Stephen, Daddy and I shared a bed. It was nice of her to let us stay in her house.

Romania - Day 6

On Monday the day was pretty free. We slept until about 10:00. The men went to a meeting about what they should talk about. The boys stayed in there room and played with paper airplanes. Then we ran around in the field in front of the university for a little bit. Then we ate lunch with Sebastian, Marius, and Cornielius, a student who rode around with us. At 3:30 we left for the church we had gone to last night. We got there about 5:30 and the conference started at 6:30. I was videotaping some of the time and watching the timer some of the time.

First David did an Introduction. Then Daddy spoke on Ephesians 5:

Then Mr. Breagy spoke on psalm 127:

Then Max Parish spoke about relationships (courtship). Then Mr. Brown spoke on Romans 12:

Then we had Pizza for dinner.

Romania - Day 5

On Sunday, Mr. Brown, Mr. Breagy and Daddy each went to a different church. The church that Daddy, Stephen and I went to was in Pistis. It was called Pistis church. It was only about five minutes away from Holy Trinity Church. We got up, and got in a car with the Breagys. We drove to the church the Breagys were going to, droped them off, and then the one we were going to. When we got there, they put us in the pastor's office, because they were doing congregation only prayer. Here is how most churches in Romania do their service:

1. They have 1 hour of prayer.
2. They have another hour of singing and praying.
3. They have an hour long sermon.

When Daddy preached, the church we went to was doing a church mission trip that afternoon, so the sermon was only 45 minutes. Our translator's name was Gabriel. He used to be a professional translator, and is a student at the Emanuel University. He was a really good translator and he was really quick. He was the best translator we had, except for one that we had later, which I will talk about then. Daddy preached on Ephesians 5, about how the relationship of a husband and wife reflects the relationship between Christ and the church. He also spoke on how a father is a prophet, priest and king in his household from that passage. I liked the sermon. He had never done that sermon before.

At that church, there was a band of horns and trumpets, etc., but they did not play when the church sang. They played their own concert during church. When we were done with church, we drove back to Holy Trinity Church. When Mr. Brown was done, (we had to wait because our service finished about 15 minutes earlier) we went to a house to eat lunch. The group split up for lunch. We ate with the brother of the man who we ate lunch with the previous day. Here is a picture of us with his family:

The meal was very good. We first had soup, which is always the first course in Romania. So far, we have had it as the first course in every meal except breakfast and McDonald's. Then we had mashed-potatoes and chicken. The rest of the group went to the family's house we had eaten with the day before. We had to leave by 1:30 to drive to Arad to go to a church service. It was a 3 hour drive. David Brown, my brother, Titus a Romanian boy, and I sat in the back of the van. We had fun. When we first got in the car, Stephen Horn, David, the boy we ate with, his father, Titus and me were all in the back. But after five minutes some of them got in another van.

When we got there, we dived right into church. There was singing and praying, and then Mr. Brown preached on Psalm 127. I do not remember much of it, because it was so hot in that building I fell asleep. When the church service finished, we ran out of the building, and got in the car and drove to another church. Here is a picture of Mr. Brown preaching.





(left to right Scott Brown, the pastor of the next church)


The next church was really big. First they sang, and prayed. Then Mr. Brown preached on Psalm 127 again. It was very similar to what we had just heard. The next night we were going to do a conference at that church. I did not like this church because it was so big, and it was like another church we used to go to. After church, we had pizza at the church. Then we drove back to Emmanuel. The drive was 1 1/2 - 2 hours long. Here is the church:
I could not understand any of the church service except the preaching, because it was in Romanian. The pastor at the last church translated for both of the evening services. He was really good, even better then Gabriel. He would even imitate the tone of voice and hand motions.

Romania - Day 4

On Saturday, we were all tired when we got up. We had to get up at about 8:00 o'clock. We ate breakfast and then we had to leave. We went to the Holy Trinity Batist Church of Alejd to do a short conference. First, Daddy did a talk on Deuteronomy 6:

Afterwards Mr. Brown spoke on home schooling:

Then there was a time for Q&A. Then, Marius asked the boys to come up and answer some questions. All of the boys spoke except Stephen Horn. After the Q&A we went to someones house to eat lunch. There were 3 courses. Then we went back to the church. Mr. Breagy did a talk on Psalm 127:Then, Max Parish did a talk on courtship:Then there was a Q&A. Then Mr. Brown did a talk. Then we left for the University. We stopped at a McDonalds for dinner. When we got home, we called Mommy on Skype.

Romania - Day 3

On Friday we woke up at 10:00 in the morning because we had got back very late the night before. Then we got showered and ate some breakfast, and went to a store called Selgros. It is kind of like Costco. We changed our money, and then bought some stuff. Here is a picture of the store:

Then we went back to our room and then we went down and meet the Browns and Max Parish for lunch. They had just flown in that day. Sebastian, who is the administrator of Emmanuel Collage also came. Two other people came. Marius Cruchero, who is the pastor of a church in Romania came. First we had soup, then pasta and bread. Here is a picture of us after the lunch:Here is Stephen in front of the building we slept in:Then we went to the place in the building where you could get on the Internet. We talked to Mommy on Skype. Here is Stephen talking: We went to a conference that afternoon in Holy Trinity Baptist in Alejd. First Daddy spoke on how marriage reflects the relationship between Christ and his church for 15 minutes. It was a pretty good speech. Then Mr. Breagy spoke for 15 minutes on the sufficiency of scripture. Then Max Parish, David, Me, Stephen Breagy, and Stephen Horn spoke for about 5 minutes. I spoke on sons going to work with their fathers. Then Mr. Brown gave an introduction to the conference that we were going to do on Saturday. Then we went back to our rooms, and went to sleep.

Romania - Day 2

On Day 2, first, we landed in Paris in the morning. We were all tired because the time was different in Paris then in America. When we landed in Paris, our luggage was supposed to go to Budapest, but it came out on the luggage return. The person at the desk in Philadelphia said it would, but we went to the luggage return anyway. For a while we looked around the airport for the place to check our bags, but we couldn't find it. We were going to rent a car to go to a meeting with Daddy's customer, but there was long lines at the places where we could and by the time Daddy got to the end of the line all of the cars were gone. We went to get a taxi but we had to wait along time to get a taxi because there were only 5-seaters with a driver. Finally we found a mini-van to take us. It took along time to get there because we had to drop someone off in the middle of Paris. This is a picture of the Arch de Triumph in Paris: Daddy thought that the meeting went badly, because he couldn't convince him not to come to North Carolina. On the way back to the airport, it was much quicker. Daddy didn't have any euros, so he had to get some to pay the driver. After we ate dinner, we found where to check our bags. We had to go through security to get on the plane. On the way from Paris to Budapest, Stephen Horn & Breagy were sleeping. Stephen Horn spilled apple juice on his seat. Stephen Breagy was asleep when the waiter came. His Dad ordered him water and put it on his tray, but then the water fell on his lap and woke him up. We flew over some beautiful mountains. We took some pictures. Here is one of them:

When we got to Budapest, it was in the late afternoon but if felt really late because of the time change. It was a three hour drive to Emanuel University, where we were staying. We were all tired. We tried to Skype Mommy but we could not get on line.

Romania - Day 1

Right now Daddy, Stephen and I (Joshua) are on a plane. We are traveling to Romania. We are going there with two of the Breagys, Mr. Brown and his son, Mr. Parrish and Mr. Dohm.We are going there so we can talk to the people in Romania about Family Integrated Churches, Homeschooling, and Entreprenurship. Emmanuel University asked us to come.

We and the Breagys are flying today, the Browns tomorrow, and then Mr. Dohm a few days before we leave. We will be gone ten days. Today, first we are flying to Philedelphia from RDU, then to Paris, then finally to Romania. We are going to get the Pennsylvania today at 5:00, Paris at 8:30 a.m, and then we are leaving Paris in the afternoon so we can get to Romania tomorrow night.

We will try to do a blog post for each day, but we might not be able to.