The Potato Patch

The potato patch

This time I'm staying in the village of Lupoaia which is a few kilometres north east of Zalau.  Mircea has been slowly developing a smallholding (about 225m x 12 m including the land on which the house sits) on which he grows vegetables (potato, aubergine, peppers, squash, sweetcorn, beans, tomatoes); some fruit (raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears and grapes) and raises two pigs, about seven turkeys (they keep moving so I didn't spend a lot of time counting) and chickens. Add to that Lexi, the German Shepherd, and three cats, and it is rarely quiet around here.

This week Mircea spent a couple of days harvesting his potato crop (by hand) and today he and some friends headed up into the hills to bring home the bee hives from which his family get delicious acacia honey.  The original plan was for me to spend the day with him, but I had a really poor night's sleep which (on top of a very short night the previous night) led me to decide to stay at the house and concentrate on being prepared and a bit more rested ahead of Sunday.  In retrospect it was a wise choice as Mircea and his friends were arriving back at the house in the pouring rain about 21:30.

So with Emi & Dina I went for a walk in the village, visiting the local Pentecostal Church (where there was preparation for a baptism tomorrow), to the spring, where they pick up their drinking water, and then back to the house via the small local store where we picked up ice creams and a soft drink each.

A little later I was taken down to the river (at which point I found out I needed to cross it - different shoes next time) and sat down on a gravel bank on the inside of a river bend and had a Bible study and chat together.

Everyone will sit under their own vine

As we finished the tour of the 'estate' yesterday, Mircea received  phone call. As I sat opposite him I noticed the grapes growing above him, and was reminded of Micah 4:4 Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.

Tomorrow I'm due to preach at two churches, Stupini in the morning and Sanpetru in the evening.  My Romanian vocabulary (which was limited to a few words anyway), has a distinct iron oxide tinge (rusty) so I'm listening to the locals converse and picking up some of the pronunciation rules again.  Thankfully there will be translators.

On Monday morning we'll head south west to the conference centre in the mountains.

Flying and Flip Charts

Yesterday I flew back to Cluj-Napoca in the Transilvania region on Northern Romania. there is only one daily flight from the south of England, so it necessitated a 4:30 am departure from home to get to Luton Airport in sufficient time to catch the  Wizz Air flight.

My previous visit was as much a discovery trip as an opportunity to speak and teach, whereas this occasion is with the specific objective of initiating a training and encouragement partnership with pastors and other leaders of small churches in villages in the area around Zalau.

Transilvania, Romania

On Monday a group of guys are joining together for a three day residential conference (finishing soon after lunch on Thursday) where a number of the leaders  of the local mission will be, with me, sharing something of our vision, and I'll be teaching on a variety of subjects to equip them with skills to nurture their own congregations and communities. The costs of the conference have been met by a generous gift from my church back in the UK, as in this very rural region the benefits of a post communist free enterprise system  (and EU funding) have not yet been as apparent as in other places. 

As a professional trainer I like to provide materials and an 'ambience' that sets the tone. (The last course I delivered, a week ago, was to staff from a big multinational in the Jeddah Hilton). So balanced with the need to 'cut the coat according to your cloth' I was a bit concerned about finding a source of flip chart paper, folders and notepads as the only stuff I'd been able to obtain last time were a mixed set of ring binders in a budget supermarket.  So this time, knowing that once I got to Zalau options would be limited, I persuaded my host (aided by his son) to find a supplier in Cluj before we headed north. Braving a cross city early afternoon rush hour, they took me to a mall,on the west of the city where we had lunch in the food court, I changed my currency, and then we went to a stationery supplier.  I was in trainer heaven!

Two flip chart pads, a ream of A3, some folders, A4 notepads and a few other items later (plus a text from our driver who thought that we'd disappeared into a black hole in the mall) we emerged equipped for the conference and comfortable in the knowledge that I don't have to carry as many bits and pieces with me next time I come out here.

But the relative wealth and availability of goods in Cluj did have the effect of driving home the variance in the economy as we headed north-west to the Zalau area.  And it made me wonder what could be done - perhaps micro businesses - in this more rural area to help people in the village communities raise their standard of living.

But that's a secondary thought.  Not at this stage what I'm here for, but something to ponder.