There is something special about knowing who your family is and where they are from. Each family has a wonderfully unique story and it’s so important that we pass it down to our children to preserve and maintain the legacy. There is a strong sense of pride that comes up in me when I think of the story my parents have told. To give you an idea, my Dad grew up in communist Romania as a Hungarian. He describes his family’s economic situation as being “the poorest of the poor”. He always dreamed of escaping and finding a better way for his family. When he was twenty, his second escape attempt was successful and he got away to Austria where he found odd jobs to send money home to his widowed mom, sister, and twin brothers. That’s where he met my Mom, an American missionary serving the refugees. Everybody said she was crazy for falling in love with him and told her he was only trying to get to the States. But, his love was real and they were married within a few months of meeting. They spent a little time yet in Austria, but after having me, realized it was time to move home. They took up residence here in Illinois where Mom’s family is. Dad’s dream of getting his family to safety in the United States was finally realized exactly twenty years and month from when he escaped when his sister and her family were able to immigrate over.
In 2003-2004, my parents had come to a fork in the road of their lives and made the decision to take us to see and experience Romania for ourselves. We were home schooled anyway and my Dad was in between jobs, so they bought a small cabin in the mountains near the town where Dad’s sister lived (this was before they immigrated), and we packed everything up (including the dog) and made the big move.
While we lived there, my Mom kept a diary and sent it home to her parents. I’d like to share our experiences from that very important time of our life here. Due to the length of the diary, its going to come as a series, with new posts every weekend. You’ll probably figure this out, but some names you’ll come across are: Ruth (my Mom), Fedi (Dad), Rebekah (me), Anni (sister), Ryan and Steven (brothers), and Gino (our dalmatian).
October 3, 2003
Yesterday Leventa and two guys showed up to help Fedi, then this fellow from Hungary, Hueni came. Hueni is staying for 3 days. He is a young guy. His family raises rabbits. He brought one (alive) with him for supper. I put it in a box. When I served them supper he asked where is the rabbit. I think I was supposed to butcher it and cook it up. Fedi said they would do it the next day.
We let the kids have a baby kitten. She is darling. She just fell in the dog’s water dish. Earlier we got the camcorder because she crawled up on Gino and fell asleep. Gino looked very uncomfortable with the situation but didn’t move.
Anyway the extra help is encouraging. Hueni was the first to sleep on the new couch. Fedi thinks Saturday we’ll try to hook up the waterpower.
October 4, 2003
Saturday-no school, which means more relaxing and time to catch up with laundry and cleaning. It’s raining on and off which might hold up Fedi’s work .
Yesterday evening Fedi dropped me off at Heidi and Eddy’s apartment while he went evangelizing. I had a chance to use their internet for some e-mailing. It is always rushed, though, as I didn’t want to be rude and Rebekah was waiting her turn. She (Heidi) talked to me again about having a kids program for kids in the city. I think I will go for it. The hesitation comes from my lack of energy. I don’t want the kids, school, or the house work to go downhill. I see where this could be a great open door for a single girl. I’ve had several people tell me that kids ministries are effective here. We would have room to keep someone or maybe there is a Romanian girl in the church here.
Fedi’s door-to-door evangelism is interesting. He said they counted 15 houses where they were happy to receive the audiotapes of the Jesus film. They gave them in 3 parts, only handing out the 2nd and 3rd when they had listened to the previous one. The one house that stuck in his mind, though, was the one where the guy, his wife, and his daughter all scolded Fedi’s group for being useless and not knowing what work is, and doing something that was not worth anything. People are hard at work harvesting in the fields now and they are tired. You see big groups of people in the fields harvesting potatoes. It was a bit hard for Fedi as he grew up with a value put so high on physical labor.
We have had so much help setting up the waterpower. People are generous with their labor. Some we have paid, others we will find other ways to thank. I never get the feeling that people are helping us because they want something in return. I always feel it is friendship they want, which is great with us. There are some ways we can repay all the kindnesses we have received. Transporting people around is very valuable. Plus, we have our couch now for anyone who needs a place to stay. We have some other thoughts that we will see if they work out.
Fedi gave the guy from Hungary $100 from the donation money to buy lice shampoo for the prisoners. He is going back to Hungary where it is available to buy.
I also plan to use some to start the kids ministry, maybe around $200. I’m not sure yet what I need for material and to rent a place. That would bring the total used to $1,310.
We haven’t yet given the guy with the prison ministry any money, as we haven’t seen him. Fedi really wants to finish this waterpower before it gets cold.
One great testimony of God’s grace to the saved and unsaved, Fedi’s brother-in-law Jozsef was being shipped out for a month to another city to work. He hates going away from his family like that. He tried to find another job and stewed around for a week or so. He wanted to quit but was afraid to. This job pays $150 a month. He asked Fedi if he should quit and Fedi told him to talk to the director. Fedi also told him that he wouldn’t go out on a limb like that himself unless he had God to help him. Jozsef is not yet a Christian. Csilla (Jozsef’s wife) on the morning he was to go pleaded with him to talk to the director. She prayed with him first. I guess this guy can be hard. Anyway Jozsef talked to him and the results were so good that he acknowledged that the prayer must have helped. They let him stay in his own city, dropped his hours from 10 to 8 a day and gave him a raise. Praise the Lord!
October 7, 2003
Hueni is still here. We found out he is 20 years old and knows something about electricity because his father is an electrician. Anyway he has been a valuable help to Fedi and an easy houseguest. He and Fedi have been running up and down hooking up the waterpower and doing wiring.
Below is a picture of the dam they built in order to build up enough water to run through the big orange tube…
…into this shed where the generator was.
The first results were disappointing. It was a measly 9 volts, not even close to enough. Fedi went to town and got a taller tub with a lid for the pipeline to drain in. This put more pressure on the turbine and whizzed out about 50 volts. This is still low power but acceptable. Soon though a new problem developed. Leaves clogged the input filter on the other end of the pipe. So Fedi lowered the overflow of the dam to help the floating leaves to find their way out and made a better wire mesh filter. The next morning guess what? We had about 10 unhappy frogs stuck to the filter. For some reason we have a lot of frogs. Now Fedi is eyeing my laundry basket as a possible solution. It is tall and might make a larger filtered area so the water will keep flowing through the pipe even if it gets partially clogged.
School is going well. The kids have been cooperative and have given it good effort. I think the lack of TV and toys has them actually enjoying school. The girls and I cook together and do dishes together. It’s nice.
Today my refrigerator is working good. That means it is cool outside. We have 3 windows with big ledges that face the North downstairs. They open like a door with hinges on the sides. So I open the window, grab the milk & shut the window. It works great in the winter.
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