Signed up last summer to go on a mission trip to Romania. Just got back from the 10 day trip. I have been attending a church here in Tuscaloosa since I arrived 5 years ago. It is a non-denominational, gospel preaching, mission oriented gathering of mostly college students. Our pastor is Jeremy Burrage, a relatively young man himself. Originally, he was to come along with us but schedule didn't work out and by the time we left, we had just made the cut for group classification with only one other church member, Tony Meggs, going on the journey. Wherever two or more are gathered. . . .
     Tony and I took the ten hour flight to Vienna and then another two to Budapest . We we met at the airport by Peter and Sylvia Miklosvaryy. They would be our hosts for the 10 days. We drove about 4 hours into Romania from there. We went there with the purpose of working on the construction of a new church building going up in the small countryside village of Millat. When we arrived, most of the basic structure of the church was up already and the red tiled roof was 98% complete. There were 8 holes in the roof, however, and I had the privelage of installing the eight operable skylights. The work was all done from inside, as these units were able to take out the glass part and assemble all of the frame and metal flashing from the inside. Once the flashing was installed, two local workers cut in the last of the roof tiles around the skylights to finish the roof.
     We also dug a trench from the street up to the front of the church and ran the new water line through the sleeve they had left when they poured the concrete up and into the room that would become a bathroom.
     We also did a lot of site cleanup .
     I was hoping that I would have been able to work on the installation of the roof tiles and had brought one of our fall protection harnesses, but alas, the local guys beat me to it.
     I always feel when I am working with Habitat that God is in control, sending just the right people at just the right time and I have to say that this was the case in Romania as well. Since there were only two of us from the states, it felt like there was just enough work for Tony and I. We also were met in Romania by another couple, Kurt and Carrie Smalley, who are both missionaries and have been working there for three years. Both seemed to be pretty proficient in conversational Hungarian (which is the main language spoken in the area of Romania that we were in.
      We stayed at Stephen and Rosie's house and had our meals at Micki and Ibolya Szilagyi's home. Micki seemed like he was acting as the general contractor for the construction of the church. He is a landowner and farmer also.   While we were there for lunch one day, one of his workers arrived with a wagon load of freshly harvested cabbages . We helped unload them and that evening, I asked if I could tag along with him when he took the cabbages to the market in Arat. Kurt and I got up at 3:30 and went along. It was a big open parking lot where all of the trucks paid for a space and people showed up and bought all of the extremely fresh produce. Most of the cabbage heads were pack in bags of 10 or twelve, but he also had shaved a bunch into coleslaw or sauerkraut size shavings and sold large bags of that as well. Had a good day and the market, because we came home empty.
      The last two days of the trip we did some awesome sightseeing in the city of Budapest, Hungary. Our hotel overlooked the Danube river, which divides Buda from Pest., and from our hotel window had a perfect view of the Parliament building. We saw the Buda castle and St. Mathias church with its brightly colored clay tile roof. the facades of the majority of the buildings in Budapest are highly ornate., with the exception of the later ones that were built under the communist era, and those were mostly dull and grey and crumbling as well .
      Our last treat was a visit to a hot spring fed spa with numerous pools to soak in, saunas, steam rooms and cold tubs. Most of the pool rooms were naturally lit with glass skylights above and beautiful tiles mosaic floors and walls.
      I would have to say that the most enjoyable part of the trip was meeting new friends and seeing the way that these families loved God and loved each other. The meal times at Micki and Ibolyas home was something that I don't often see in the USA. These people love each others company and fellowship..
      We arrived back home in the US Friday night and it was back to work Saturday. Great trip with great people. That's all for now.