Visiting Romania

Romania takes me back to childhood when we worked our small Kentucky farm with horses, milked cows, kept chickens and pigs and grew most of our food in our garden. This week, Jen Lotter took us to see one of the tourist spots near here - The Bear Cave in Ciscau. The cave was discovered in an excavation project about 30 years ago and has been developed into a tourist spot. By comparison it can't hold a candle to Kentucky's world famous Mammoth Cave, but it was impressive with lots of beautiful formations. It is called Bear Cave because it was a den for the now extinct cave bears of Europe. The cave was strewn with the bones, one complete skeleton that looked like the bear lay down to sleep and did not wake up.
The north part of Romania is an extension of the Hungarian plains with miles of flat fields. Unfortunately many of the fields still lie fallow after the fall of the Communist regime. Many people have reclaimed their smaller holdings of private land, but do not have money to buy modern farm machinery. So they can only cultivate and plant small strips of land using what they have. The fortunate ones have a horse or two and can farm small plots. We saw corn being picked by hand and tied into shocks and people digging potatoes with a hoe.
Jenny Lotter and Kelly James are our missionaries here. Jen is a physical therapist and works with handicapped children in several facilities that have a place she can work and then out in the villages among the Roma Gypsy people. Kelly James is still in language school but will work in a school for Gypsy children. The ultimate plan is to establish churches among the Roma people and train local leaders for the churches. Team Expansion works in partnership with Remember the Children and People to People, agencies that are working with orphaned and abandoned children. They also have been trying to help the Gypsy communities start churches and build schools. They asked for our help in the church planting work. Here Jen is talking with a Gypse lady confined to a wheel chair, trying to help her with some simple tasks. The language is still a challenge, so we need to pray for Jen as she tries to minister to these people.