week one

I haven't updated in the passed week because I came down with some sort of bug on Thursday and have been flu-like ever since.. but thank God because I'm on the upswing now!

Monday we headed out of Timisoara to another city, Arad, and stopped at a friend of the Pouncey's. Adina and her brother Danny graciously invited us into their home for the afternoon. I was immediately struck by the stone work in the apartment - so typically Eastern European, the apartment is one delightfully welcoming room after another. Alannah and I spent some time photographing the place. As is customary, Adina and Danny's mother, Maria, made lunch for us and we spent the afternoon stuffing ourselves with homemade sausages, coffee and pastries. Weight watchers immediately fell by the wayside.

After our stop in Arad, we headed on to the village of Safronia where another missionary the Pouncey's know has been living. Jackie moved around 12 years ago to Romania and has been working in missions ever since.

Jackie's mission is different from anything else I've ever seen - she calls it "touching the untouched". We went with her to deliver food to elderly people she's built relationships with, attended a bible study with another missions team from the UK and visited a mental instituion.

More than any of the things we helped Jackie do over the week though, I was really touched by the family that's staying with her. The Toon's are missionaries in Slovakia, and recently came to Romania while they wait for their visa to be approved. I have never met a kinder, more down to earth family. Their two children are an absolute blessing to everyone around them. I felt like I was spending a week with the kind of family I'd never been allowed to be apart of. (below is Dave with the Toon's son being tickled by Jackie's two granddaughters.)

We spent a wonderful week in Safronia, and despite all of us getting sick I feel blessed for having learned as much as we did while we were there. We were able to visit a Gypsy church and hear Andreea's (our translator) testimony, I learned more about forgiveness than I ever have and Alannah and I got baptized.


So I guess for all the complaining we've done this week over being sick, it really was a wonderful week. God has already touched us in ways I could have never imagined.


30 days left.