Romanian Easter

For many of you, Easter was about a month ago. As I mentioned earlier, in Romania, we follow the Eastern Orthodox calendar. Thus, this past weekend we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. Unlike the States, where Christmas is by far the biggest holiday, in Romania, Easter is much bigger. Everyone at stores, and even the journalists on TV all say "Christ is Risen" in Romanian. This is the greeting on the street (Now keep in mind, that for many, it is simply a ritual). It's neat to see. We had a busy weekend at church, and I was able to spend time with my Romanian family. It is such a blessing to be able to spend the holidays in the fellowship of a close family.

The Eastern Orthodox tradition on the night before Easter is to light candles and go marching through the city. This is to represent that Jesus is the light of the world...the candles represent the light going out into the world. It's one of the traditions that I really love.

Another tradition in Romania is decorating eggs--which can be quite intricate. Families often dye eggs and try to crack one another's eggs saying "Hristos a inviat" (Christ is Risen), while the other person holding his/her egg replies "Adevarat a inviat" (He is risen indeed). Whoever's egg doesn't crack is the winner.

The Bridge

This was a video some friends sent in youth group here in Bucureşti recently sent me.

Taste of Bucharest: Ateneul Român

The Romanian Athenaeum is a concert hall in the center of Bucureşti and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's main concert hall and home of the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and of the George Enescu annual international music festival held each September that brings in the world's best classical musicians each year. The concert hall is cited in many books as having the best acoustics of any concert hall in Europe, and perhaps the world. I was in western Europe on a tour of another opera house once when they said that the Bucharest Ateneul has the best acoustics. I, of course, was quite proud! The building itself is stunning, especially the history of Romania, which is painted on the wall of the semi-rotunda in the main hall. By design, the concert hall does not seat that many people. The intention was to create a more intimate feeling where the sound would just vibrate. Tickets to see a performance are still pretty reasonable for the average Romanian ($5-$15) and music students get in free to all performances (if seats are available). It truly is a special place to see a performance.

Romania's famous composer George Enescu, famous for his Romanian rhapsody

The atrium





The main concert hall

Notice the "History of Romania Painting"

New to Bucharest

Burger King and Quiznos have opened in a new mall on the northern edge of the city

Flowers in Bucharest

We are enjoying nice spring weather in Bucharest, and after a lot of rain, everything is nice, lush, and green! Just take a look at some of the flowers in Cişmigiu Park in the city center:

Josh McDowell Conference

World-renowned Christian speaker/writer/evangelist Josh McDowell held a conference in Bucharest this weekend. He is known for writing such books as the national best-seller Why You Should Wait. On Saturday, we took our youth group to hear Josh McDowell speak at Sala Palatului (the very hall where the communists in Romania used to denounce the name of the Lord...what a blessing that now Christians hold conferences there) about "Sex: Myths and the Truth." It was very interesting. Josh McDowell is an engaging speaker with a somewhat "in-your-face" presentation (but effective). He has quite the testimony. He actually was writing a book to refute the claims of the Bible, and realized he couldn't. In the process, he ended up becoming a Christian. Here are some of the highlights of his speech:

• There are currently 39 STD's known in the world
• The newest discovered STD is called HPV (google it) and kills more people annually than HIV or AIDS. The virus HPV has been found in many cancer patients and is known to not show any symptoms for up to 8 years. Lots more I could say about this...but wow!
• When the U.S. government was reporting on the number of pregnancies women had, despite using a condom, they did NOT factor in the millions of abortions occurring in the U.S. annually. Why? The abortions were calculated as "success" stories for the effectiveness of condoms--since no baby was born (having been aborted), the abortions did not count as a condom deficiency. This has since been reversed, and the U.S. government has now required the condom companies to go back and recalculate, factoring in all of the abortions as far back as 1988.
• Josh McDowell reminded us how VERY few people realized when the condom companies switched their slogan from Safe Sex: Use a condom to SafER Sex: use a condom. Interesting isn't it? He said the companies were trying to save themselves from a lawsuit.
• Josh said the Center for Disease Control has confirmed that the reported 4-6 percent failure rate of condom use is a complete and utter fallacy---it is WAY higher (see above) ---especially in light of the new virus HPV that has been discovered---it is deadly and has no cure.
• The current Surgeon General of the United States has routinely called Josh McDowell and thanked him for preaching abstinence and has asked him to be even MORE direct

Anyway, it made for an interesting evening. Many, many non-Christians were in attendance--which was great! It is very rare for someone to talk about sex to Romanian youth, especially the Christian perspective. McDowell also engaged us in a dialogue about the definition of "love", saying that it is extremely rare for someone to be able to define it. He said 1 Corinthians 13 is not the definition of love, but the function of love, or rather, what love does (not what it is). According to McDowell, the clearest definition of love found in the Bible is Ephesians 5:29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the Church. McDowell states that in this verse we have hate and love juxtaposed, and that after the word "but", love is clearly defined. Love is nourishing and cherishing. McDowell would say that all of the Lord's commands center on these two principles. Because God is love, He protects and nourishes. Again, lots more I could say about this. Something to think about I guess. It was refreshing to hear a Biblical perspective and even better that many non-Christians were in attendance. Afterwards, a local music group "Proconsul" held a concert---many of their members are Christian.

Proconsul

Mentoring Future Romanian Missionaries

This past week I spoke about the importance of having a good mentor when preparing for the missions field to a group of young Romanians who are either in preparation to serve cross-culturally in missions, or at least are praying about it and seeking the Lord's guidance. I enjoy interacting with this group and offering what little I do know to help them in their pursuit of missions. It gives me "Holy Goosebumps" to see young Romanians mobilizing for missions. At times you have to look back and see how much the Lord moves--it wasn't long ago that secret churches were being held in the deep forests of Romania's Transylvanian region in order to escape persecution. And now, that underground church movement is already sending Romanians into the ends of the earth to preach the most important message of all time: the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Slavă Domnului (Praise the Lord)! I'm here to tell you that you really need to be praying for groups like these. I wholeheartedly think the youth of Romania have been blessed to be a blessing to others and that they have been given the awesome responsibility to respond to their calling to reach Europe for Christ. I will continue to meet with this group, study with them, answer their questions, and pray with them. Please pray for this group along with me!

Volleyball in the Park

On Saturday, our youth group went out in the park to play some volleyball, easily my favorite sport. It was a nice day and lots of fun. Plus, we had a good turnout.

We also sang some songs

Going for the block

Romanian TV coverage of Bush's arrival in Bucuresti

For those of you who like an international flavor...Romanian news coverage of President Bush's initial arrival. Later he went to the Black Sea to meet with Romanian President Traian Basescu and on their return, the more formal reception with soldiers was held.

NATO Summit in Bucureşti

This week Bucharest is hosting the NATO summit, meaning that over 26 foreign dignitaries have descended upon our city for important negotiations relating to the War on Terrorism, troops in Afghanistan, Visa issues, trade, and other pressing international issues. The summit is a big deal for Romania, as the government seeks to bring attention to this part of the world and demonstrate that Romania is more than capable of hosting an event of such stature. Security is extremely tight and traffic a nightmare (many of the main boulevards have been closed to traffic). All students have been dismissed from school and many businesses have given their workers the days off in hopes that people will leave the city, heading to the mountains or the Black Sea. President Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and many more are in Bucureşti this week. During the last visit of President Bush to Bucharest in 2002, he spoke before one of the largest international audiences of his presidency and while he spoke, a rainbow appeared over the square.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives and is greeted by Romanian President Trăian Băsescu
Air Force One
President Bush arrives with fanfare

And, of course, the TRAFFIC!

The Romanian Gypsies

Many of you have asked me about the gypsy minority in Romania. It is a large population in Romania, and I have read that even UNICEF says they have no idea how many gypsies are in Romania, because they often do not register with the government. A small gypsy home may have 10 people living it. They are a people group facing much oppression and prejudice in Romania, and conequently, there are very strong opinions about the gypsy minority in Romania. I just want to qualify it by stating that they too are God's children. Those that have reached out to the gypsy community will tell you that they certainly have their own values, ideals, culture, and worldview that often conflicts with ethnic Romanians. Gypsy churches often struggle with the tension of staying true to Biblical values and being Christ-centered, while still being culturally relevant to the gypsy community. I cannot totally describe the Gypsy/Roma minority to you here, but the following article is a good start:

( "Europe's Beggars: Romania's Roma" by Marius Dragomir. Central Europe Review <http://www.ce-review.org/00/41/dragomir41.html)

Romania has the largest Roma minority in Europe. According to the last official census, roughly two million Roma, representing ten percent of the population, are living in Romania today. They are considered to be "the most disruptive" minority; an opinion supported by statistics from the Romanian police that reveal a high proportion of crimes are committed by Roma.
Representatives of the Romanian Roma Party argue that this is due to the grim medieval poverty Roma face today. They also claim that Romanians are prejudiced, blaming the Roma minority for all the troubles in Romania. According to the Party, Romani people cannot work, even if they want to, because the Romanian employers are reluctant to hire them. Roma party leaders also complain about the indifference of the government and their lack of effort in securing the social integration of the Roma minority.

Facing cruel poverty (living in houses without electricity and running water), the Roma are trying to survive by begging in the street. In the past ten years, many have moved to Central Europe where they can earn more money from begging.

In turn, Romania has had to bear the prejudices of Central and Western European countries that associate Romania with beggars. Instead of working on the domestic economic situation which can change the standard of life for its people, the Romanian state has focused on improving "the image of the country abroad," by trying to keep its Roma at home, with the help of those Central European countries that have sent many of the Romanian Roma packing, declaring themselves "sick of Romanian Gypsies." It continues to be a pressing issue for Romania within the European Union community.

Some Roma are quite wealthy. This is an example of a "Roma mansion" with ornate roofs that you see often in Romania.