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.