seeking a goat

Last week a friend of ours here asked us to come over because she wanted to talk to us about a phone call she had got the night before.  She said he had received a call about her husband’s brother’s family.   Apparently, her husband as 8 brothers and I think he is the only one that is a Christian.  Many of the other siblings have real problems including problems with the law and alcoholism.  Our friend had learned that the brother has taken off and left his wife and three kids ages 9, 2 and 9 months.  She talked about how they were really poor and he was not working and now he left and they are all alone without someone to take care of them.  We decided we wanted to go visit them and bring them some items.  The talked about the best way to help the family.  The wife attends church and is a Christian, but I guess the husband that ran away does not attend and always says I will Sunday, but when Sunday comes he will not go.  Our friend teared up talking about how blessed she is to have what she has.  Last fall all her chickens died and she said she believes it was because she did not give enough to people in need last year.  She is very generous. 

 Eli suggested we buy them some chickens so they could get eggs frequently and have some meat occasionally.  Then next suggestion was to buy them a goat so they could have milk for the kids.  The next step was finding chickens or a goat.  Our friend knew someone who sells chickens for a good price, but they live about 45 minutes away.  We decided to look for a goat.  The family lives near a hill and forest and the goat could graze for most of its food.  You see lots of shepherds in Romania year round with their herds in the grassy fields.  We made plans to go visit the family in two days and started collecting items to bring.  Our friend called her husband who works on farm in another town and asks him to ask about a goat while she called and asked everyone she knew that has goats if we could buy one.  We found one person who would sell us all of his herd, around 15, but not just one.   The morning we were going to go we still had not found a goat.  Our friend had talked to someone who lives in the same town as the family and they had a goat that was not yet producing milk that they would sell.  We left this as an option and headed to another nearby town that has a large farmer’s market type sale with animals to look.  When we got there we quickly found out that we had came on the wrong day.  There was no sale that morning so we headed back to Babadag and asked a couple other neighbors if they would sell one of their goats.  I guess this is the birthing period of the goats, and they are easy to care for so no one wanted to sell one.   Who knew that in a county full of goats it would be so hard to buy one.  We decided we would just buy the young goat in the town; eventually it will produce milk.    

We loaded the car with clothes, canned and bought foods, school supplies, blankets, flour, a chicken that our friend gave them and a bag of corn for the goat.  We got lost very shortly in the town looking for the house, but soon found it.  It was a two-room house with no electricity or indoor water.  Only about 50% of people in Romania have indoor plumbing I’ve heard.   The husband was there so I guess he come back.  We unloaded the car and when we got in the house I think the first thing our friend asked him was, “why don’t you go to church?” Romanians are very direct.  We played with the kids a bit then headed to get the goat.  The person selling the goat lived about 2 blocks away so it was a quick walk over.  The family selling the goat was a Christian family with probably 5 young cute kids.  We stayed and talked with them a bit then paid for the goat and left.   Back at the house we stayed for probably an hour playing, talking and encouraging the family.  Our friend talked to them about reading the Bible and the importance of getting a job and caring for the family.  The oldest boy is in second grade and has not learned to read yet.  I guess he does not always go to school for different reasons. 

We were happy to help out this family and hope to continue to visit them, helping and encouraging them as needed.   We pray for God to also show us more families that we can help out.  

Cookies

It all started with a cookie recipe.

Back in June of 2010 Eli and I worked at Camp of the Good Shepherd in Louisville, NE before we moved to Romania.  Penny Burkum was the cook for a couple of the camps and I helped her.  She had this amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe that made one of the most amazing homemade cookies I had ever had. Now I have baked a lot of cookies of all flavors in my life, but they never seem to turn out good.  They always are flat and get crunchy very quickly…please help if you got any solutions for this.  After making this amazing recipe a few times I am convinced that it is not recipe that makes the cookies amazing, but the person baking them.  There is just something about Penny and the love she put in them that was just amazing. 

Happy Birthday (in English) A birthday cake for one the kids. 

Anyways, I have always enjoyed baking and wanted to make the amazing cookies in Romania as well.  I remember the first time we went to the store here and I looked at the baking section with all the different supplies and different names; I almost cried.  It was not going to be as easy as it was the US where I could read the packages and knew what each product did.  It didn’t take too long though to figure out things and I was baking up a storm.  The mixes of all sorts are not common here either, so everything is from scratch.  I miss my cake mixes whenever I want.  Last year I had many people bring me some and it was so nice.  I have found some good from scratch cake recipes thought that turn out good.  It seemed like everything made the first time here turned out bad, but somehow I think I have the hang of it and am having good results.  The new oven last year helped out a lot as well.

The first time we had a team from the US come over was after we had lived here just two weeks if I remember right.  I wanted to try my hand at the amazing chocolate chip cookies. They turned out ok, but again I have never been a great cookie baker and although I’ve had more experience from when I was a kid baking I still do not produce amazing bakery quality products. Cookies that are as common as hamburgers and apple pie in America are not common here.  You can now find cookies to buy at the store that are a lot like chips ahoy, but finding soft bakery style cookies is rare.  Every time I bake “normal American” baked items I get tons of comments about how they are so good or if I invented them.   Many Romanians think I am this amazing baker; let me tell you it is a real boost for the self-esteem!   After that first time I think I gave out the recipe to two of the Romanian translators that were here with the team.   Maybe a month later I made the cookies again for a family and they wanted the recipe.  A simple chocolate chip cookie recipe is all new here!  I have given out this recipe many times as well as others.  Oreo brownies are a favorite as well…just brownies with crumbled Oreos in the batter and scattered on top.

Each week we go visit two orphanages and we bring them some kind of dessert treat each time.  We also have a youth group at the house once a week that I try to make treats for as well.  I make a variety of treats: all sorts of cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats, cupcakes, muffins, etc.  They love it and I enjoy doing it, sometimes they even fight over who got the most cookies.  The kids are very thin, so we like to try to fatten them up a bit.  At one of the orphanages we bring them milk as well to eat with their treats each week.  This year I’ve added making birthday cakes for the kids.  They usually do not get a cake at the orphanage.  This might mean a lot of cakes because we work with a lot of kids, maybe just one a month for those who have a birthday that month.    I’ve made several pies for friends and neighbors as well.  They have something they call a pie, but it is nothing like our pies.  Just rolled up dough with filling more like a tortilla or crape with filling.    One reason I think the different treats are liked so much is the amount of sugar in them.  Their desserts generally do not seem to be as sweet and who doesn’t like more sugar!

For months I’ve thought off and on that it would be neat to come up with some kind of devotion or something to give out with a recipe when people ask, then ask them to pass it along as well if they give the recipe to someone else.  I know one gal that has given the chocolate chip recipe to her neighbor.   If you have any ideas please let me know.