Romania Needs God

Was very moved by this video. Both the words of the song by Alin Garlea and the images communicate powerfully Romania’s need for God.

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Want to Be a Rocket Scientist?

I thought it would be a good thing from time to time to give you little glimpses of Romanian life as seen through the eyes of Romanian journalists, instead of from my biased American viewpoint. Today I read an article (by Andreea Ofiteru, Adevarul, 11 August 2008),  which I found ironic, considering that everyone here complains about corruption but blames it on everyone else, and usually young people are the ones who complain the most. But this article was actually targetting the younger generation and more specifically corrupt university students, and it wasn’t just talking about cheat sheets up your sleeve during exams. It was talking about something more basic: whether or not students were actually learning their chosen field of study, for example medicine, or law. And it cited a recent study which showed that one third of university students have never ever visited the public library.

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Glimpses of the Battle

Angi came over this morning and was telling us about an encounter she and John had had last night in the park with an “Orthodox” young man. He had already told her that he didn’t believe in God, (his father’s fault, he said) but as the conversation went on he must have gotten a little worried. So he asked Angi, who he believed was Orthodox, “Don’t you think that since God sees the fact that I’m not going to change my church, I’ll be saved?”

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Snippets of life in Romania #1

Today Daniela was trying to tell 3-year-old Debora* why she loves Jesus. Just to give you the background, Debora is a Gypsy little girl whose family attends our church. They live in an overcrowded, impoverished, sin-ravaged neighborhood where drunkenness, ignorance, immorality and all forms of abuse thrive and where conflicts can escalate into armed battles between families. Sometimes a car will pull up loaded with stones, people will jump out and begin hurling them at their victim in revenge for some insult or offense. Sometimes the police van pulls up and takes all the adults away. Children witness it all.

But today Debora was at church and Daniela was telling her,  “I love Jesus because he died for my sins.” Debora accepted the information and let it compute together with what she had learned of life up to now. Her reply: “Did they call the police?”

*Name changed to protect privacy

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