Flying home

I’m just waiting to be able to get online.  I thought I could have access to wi-fi while on the plane, but they aren’t set up for it yet.  So I’m writing it now and will attempt to send it later.  :o)  We still have about three hours before we land, I think.  Right now I’m just listening to a movie. 

I am SO ready to be home and back with my family and friends.  Mark is picking me up at the airport, for which I am thankful.   But I ‘ll be sad to say goodbye to the team.  :o(   They have become such a part of my heart and soul.  I love them dearly!

What I've found is that I didn’t mind being gone as long as we were helping people, especially since I loved being with the people from Baia Mari.     However, once we were no longer working with the Romanian team & friends, I just wanted to be back home.  My eyes are burning and I probably need to sleep a little bit more, but at this point I think it might be best to just stay awake until tonight.   I believe I’ll be closer to getting back on our time zone faster that way.  I’m hoping I won’t have jet lag too bad.  :o)   One thing I have to say though, the travel is very difficult.  

We had such a nice day yesterday.  Pastor Radu and a deacon from his church, also named daniel, drove us around Bucharest.  I must say that their driving was a bit nerve wracking!  LOL  They drive fast and crazy.   Pat said she thought Daniel drove like he was playing a video game.     After a while, I just decided to trust Pastor Radu and GOD and just not worry about it.  Pastor Radu had borrowed his dad’s car to drive us around because he doesn't own one.  We went to one of the local malls and most things were really expensive.  I was able to find a shirt for Izaak though.  Then he took us to tour The Palace.  It used to belong to the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and now belongs to the people and serves as meeting rooms for their parliament, as well as their president.  It is really quite beautiful, but was built at the cost of starving the people for many, many years.  Most of what we saw was made entirely of marble.  In fact, marble is used all over the place in Romania.  I guess that’s because they have it there and it is relatively easy to get.  Anyway, Pastor Radu said that when he was growing up they were only allowed very small rations of food.  The incredibly amount was so small.  A 12 or 16 inch link of salami was to last the whole family for a month.  They could only have a little bit of bread a day.  Like 18 eggs a month.  That kind of thing.  Pastor Radu seemed to truly resent all that the palace represents.  There was only one room that he cared for and I think that was because it was finished after they executed Ceausescu and his wife by firing squad.  It was finished with wood and plaster, not marble.  They worked on the building for 5 years and were a year from finishing it when Ceausescu was killed.  I asked how on earth were they able to get so much done in such a small amount of time and Pastor Radu said, “Much can be accomplished when you have tens of thousands of workers.”  I said, “ Ah… good point.”   

Afterwards we went to see his church.  It is beautiful.  I took some pictures there and will try to post one or two somehow.  Pastor Radu said that people take public transportation in from all over the city.  He himself has to ride the bus or trollys an hour to get to it.  Wild, huh?  Then he took us to eat at one of his favorite restaurants.  It was an itallian one.  It was really good to!  I had the veil scalopinni.  (or something like that)  Yes, I know what veil is… I just tried to not think about it.  I was SO tired.  I just couldn’t think straight, so I just ordered something.  Thank goodness it tasted good.  :o)  Then it was back to the hotel.  All in all, it was a rather nice day.  For once I went straight to bed.  :o) 

Okay, so now I think we have about an hour maybe to get to Minneapolis.  Sigh… time is going by so slow right now…  I think I’ll just take a nap.  :o)  I love you all so much.  I feel so blessed to have been able to have gone on this trip.  What a privilege it is to serve our Lord! 

I feel kind of bad though… I’m afraid I may have seemed obnoxious to the men who have had to sit next to me.  I’m messy, my gadgets have tons of wires, I'm fidgety, have to go to the bathroom a lot, and I constantly having to get something out of my bag in the overhead…  Ugh… I even spilled some soda onto Dave Watson’s seat and some onto a few of his things. (He’s the poor unfortunate soul who is currently sitting next to me.)  I shouldn’t ever have any drink that doesn’t have a lid!  While on our flight to Bucharest early on in the trip I fell asleep and dumped an entire cup of water on my lap.  My pants were drenched and it looked like I had wet my pants.  Sigh.  Thank goodness it was water!  Anyway, he’s been very nice and rather uncomplaining about it all.  :o)  It's just that I know how I can be.  sigh.

Alright.  Enough.  We must be getting close to Minnesota so I’m going to start putting things away.  Take care!

All for the glory of GOD

Anna