Public Transport
Apparently the price of a ticket must have been a little pricey...
This sign says that horses and wagons are not permitted in the city
A modern-day lift I guess
I can't explain this one--maybe to make more room to park cars
The mayor's office in Târgu Mureş
The Palace of Culture (where I have sang before)
The main orthodox cathedral in the city-center with a catholic church to the side
On the way back to Bucureşti, I was able to see the Piatra Craiului mountain pass full of snow: beautiful!
With some friends from Târgu Mureş, we drove out to Salina Praidului to visit a salt mine. It was pretty neat. This is the entrance to the cave, where a bus drove us down some 15 minutes inside the cave
And after climbing down 344 stairs, (after the bus went down into the mine....I don't know how far underground we were, but pretty far) this is what awaited us: long, winding, carved salt caves.
I live directly across the street from the National Stadium Lia Manoliu in Bucureşti. Thus, if there is a footbal (soccer) match going on, it sounds like a rock concert outside--people gathering 4 hours before the match, waving flags, chanting, etc. Tonight the Romanian National Football Team defeated Albania 6-1 and qualified top of their class for the European Championships in 2008--which are a HUGE deal in Europe. Think of how people follow the NFL in America, and multiply that exponentially and well, you get the idea of the craziness. The best Romanian player is Adrian Mutu (pictured above, standing to the right). I enjoy opening up my windows and watching the fireworks go off, but don't get too excited about the police sirens and violence. Here's hoping we can whoop-up on everyone in the championships next year. Go Romania!
In many areas of Romania, it has been raining "cats and dogs" continuously for several days, thus several counties in Romania are suffering from severe floods and the snow on the way isn't going to help anything. Please pray for the many people who are losing homes and life savings with each raindrop.
For the past several weeks the youth leaders at my church in Bucharest have been making a concerted effort to sit down and talk with every youth one-on-one. I have enjoyed the one-on-one conversations and there really is something to the adage that some people just can't talk in large groups, but sure open-up in smaller/more intimate settings. I have learned a lot by just sitting down and listening to each child/teen explain what is going on in his life, what he's excited about, and what he's worried about. It's amazing what is on the hearts of Romania's youth! We are just trying to share life together and invest in their lives. It's all about establishing that relationship, making the effort, and listening.
I am in the process of developing a mentorship program for my church, where each child, adolescent, and youth would be paired with an adult in order to build better communication and understanding between the different generations. Often I hear from youth that adults just don't understand them, or I hear from adults that today's youth generation is disrespectful and out of control. Thus, it is time to feed better communication. A mentorship program is my attempt. The idea is that each youth/mentor would spend time together one-on-one talking, working together on a project, studying, attending a soccer match together (football here in Europe), etc. There will never be good communication or understanding if we don't spend time together. I personally benefited greatly by having a mentor growing up and I hope it will have a positive impact as well on the Church in Romania. Hopefully this is something I can present to other youth programs in our leadership network.
The main piaţa in Braşov Romania
For some of you, I know that snow is a dirty word, but I love snow. And it has been coming in droves in some areas of Romania, especially up in the mountains. The youth I work with can hardly wait for us to take the train up to Predeal to go sledding, skiing, etc.
On Sunday evenings, a group of youth from a baptist church in Bucureşti has been going to sing and talk to people in the subway station at Piaţa Unirii in the center of the city. They do this after the Sunday evening service for around 1-2 hours in the evening. Last Sunday, youth from my church joined them in singing praise songs and talking one-on-one to people, sharing the Gospel. It was incredible to me to see the amount of people who came up to sing with us (we had song-sheets) and the amount of personal conversations that were had. It was not rare for someone to let 5-6 subway trains go by before they got on, because they were having personal conversations with people about the Gospel. If nothing else, we provided some nice music in the metrou for a change of pace. I have really been amazed by how open Romanians are to people talking with them one-on-one about the Gospel--they are certainly more open than the many people in the West who just put up their hands and walk away. Many of the youth on Sunday were able to sit down on a bench, share the Gospel, swap phone numbers/online messaging ID's, and even share hugs with people in the subway---pretty cool! I'm looking forward to singing again and can't wait for caroling this Christmas!
The cascading waterfalls
Beginning the climb
Looking down across the highway pass
The cars beginning the climb
Just beautiful
The snow peaks
The waterfalls
Still climbing
And the snow begins
And the ice
White Out!
This is the ice church at Balea Lac in the TransFagaraşan Mountain pass in central Romania, at an elevation of over 2000 meters 
Pretty neat!
The altar
You can also stay on a bed of ice if you want....
The Balea Lac Hotel....it's not the Crowne Plaza....but certainly 5-star quality :) 