The one I was in is white.

I hate starting a note with 'it's been a while'.  As if the recipient of the message didn't know. So I wont start out that way.  The truth is it has been awhile because seemly not much is going on.  Then it hit me like a communist made Dacia.  In Romania the everyday ordinary details of life are so unusual to me.  I don't know maybe it is the beginning of cultural shock or the 'honeymoon'  is wearing off.  I really don't know if you are interested in spending the five minutes to read about our ordinary life that is so very unusual.

What will God do with our ordinary life here?  For example it was not unusual for Sheena and I to visit our neighbor in Auburn.   This morning I went to the neighbors house and ended up going to several stores in town looking for olives.  Okay that sounds ordinary.  I have taken many of youth group kids on excursions through Auburn.  Here are the unusual details.  The car is a communists era Dacia.  Anyone that owns a Dacia quickly becomes a great mechanic.  It is a lot of fun to ride around town speaking in broken Romanian.  The markets are made up of several shops that basically all sell the same thing.  We arrived at one to market to see several Gypsies running around with 1leu (money about .30 cents) in there hand trying to buy a snack. These kids are filthy, with wild hair.  It is like watching a movie play out in real life.  In the middle of the market is a shop that sells fresh milk.  The milk is in old bottles that have been repurposed.  Don't ask me where they get the bottles from.  I bought some fresh milk. I heard that the cream is delicious.  To my utter disappointment the milk I bought had no cream in it.  I think they had already removed the cream.  I was so excited to have cream that I tried my hand at cream puffs.  The puffs did not puff that is fine anyway because I didn't have cream.  Two disappointments in one day. The unpuffed puffs made a nice cookie.

We started attending a very small church downtown.  It looks like we will be getting involved with working with the students.  I think the pastor Paul is somewhat burned out and is looking forward to our help.  I am looking forward to helping out.  We met an older lady of the congregation. She is a very sweet lady.  She invited us into her home after church.  It reminds me of several people in Auburn that were always quick to invite a visitor to pizza hut after church.  Sounds ordinary well it is a bit unusual. Her home is very modest the front door is padlocked.  The front room has several doors and a quick search for a key opens the second padlock to her living/dining/bedroom.  I started to feel really uncomfortable when the lady hand my son a 8 inch knife to give to us.  He walked across the room in perfect form no one was killed or injured.  Our new friend went to her backyard to collect some grapes and tomatoes for us to eat add some bread and that is a great afternoon meal.  She was very insistent that Kale eat a mixture of milk and crackers.  The pot the milk resided in was not clean and the milk had probably been in there since it was cleaned last.  We didn't force Kale to partake of the meal.  Our friend lives in a very small mud brick house with many cracks in the walls.  We plan on getting her house shored up for winter.

Our new friend.  

I feel a little evil about it but last Sunday we told her that we could not make it to her house after church. It is a true statement.  I was hoping to be back in time to speak with my parents on Skype.  She insisted we come to her house again she would make us a Romanian treat to eat.  We convinced her that we had to go home.  An hour or two later a knock at our door.  There stood our friend with the plate full of treats.  She walked a long way up hill while carrying the treats in one hand and her cane in the other hand.  She kept telling us it from God.  She also informed us to eat the treats and do not feed them to the dogs.  We are starting to understand a little Romanian but she talks to us like we know it all.  It is a little frustrating.

There are some boys that hangout at the end of our block.  They speak english pretty well. One day I see them looking on the ground like they lost something.  I investigated and found they lost a plastic bb for their gun.  It must have been the only one. We try to speak with them often. When I find a bottle of bb's I am going to buy and give it too them.  

I could go on. Like just right now, no kidding, I saw a car towing a pickup with a very small rope up our hill. One of my favorites is working outside then hearing the Islam mosque give the call to prayer.  It is a bit surreal.

I don't know what God is going to do with our early relationship here in Babadag. I do know that our energy is not wasted on meeting and investing in people.   Please continue to pray for the relationships that are forming.  I will have more updates on our ordinary life in an unusual way.  I believe God uses our ordinary lives in extraordinary ways.  Trouble is we may never know how.