Șiria Fortress And Cookout With Friends

Team at the top of an arch in the ruins

The team was invited to a great day of adventure and fellowship.  We drove out into Arad County near the ruins of the Șiria Fortress and then we had a wonderful cookout with some of our friends from Betel Baptist in Arad.

The picture above is of our team on top of an arch in the ruins.  It is amazing to be that close to a building that is that old.  If you continue with this post you will see some stunning pictures of the hike up - and I mean UP!  As well as more of our time with our friends.

This is the wonderful group of friends
that have kept us well fed.  We love you!

We want to thank George and Aurelia for their hospitality at their wonderful cabin and for George’s great cooking.  We also thank Florica and Florica for being so faithful in helping to cook and serve us so many wonderful meals.

This is probably also a really good place to thank our hosts and friends the Zaharia family.  Pastor John and his wife Mariana and Cristian and Alina!  We are so happy God has brought us all together.




Here are a few pictures from our hike, exploration and visitation!

Tabitha finds a friend

George answering plant questions

On The Road Again!

Travel here in Romania takes a bit longer than at home in the United States.  But we have good scenery, good friends, good fun, and . . . well . . . good sleep!  At least some of us get to sleep.

This is a video and a select group of photos from our time driving.  Enjoy!

Daphne and Bethany looking at Plants

The others sitting at the breakfast table

Looking at best way to get to the monasteries

Tyler and Oliver playing tennis before breakfast

Crossing the Danube on a ferry

Painted Monasteries

Our team had the opportunity to see three of the many “Painted Monasteries”: Voronet, Putna, and Sucevita.  It was a long drive with very beautiful scenery.  I am including just a few of the monastery photos here.  We will post scenery/travel pictures soon.

These monasteries are said to be built on the sites of Stephen the Great’s military victories over the Tartars in the 1400’s and 1500’s. They are painted on the inside and many, like the one immediately below, on the outside as well.  The paintings are of saints, Biblical and historical events.

Burial Place of Stephen the Great

We had a very helpful Orthodox Priest give us a tour in English!
He did a wonderful job.  Thanks Gherasim!

We were told that this is the oldest church building in Romania 
and the oldest wooden church in Europe. 
It looked like it was in pretty good shape to us.

This is the cave of Daniel the Hermit who was a contemporary 
to Stephen the Great and Stephen’s spiritual mentor.  
The following pictures are our tour of the cave.
Daniel lived in this cave for at least twenty years!

Daniel’s bed.  They are not sure if he had padding of any kind.

We really appreciated Gherasim’s time.

Oliver showing his agility in exiting a very short doorway.

Singing, Fun, and Fellowship with our Friends

Bethany and Denisa looking at the Bible

We had a lot of fun with our friends.  The team sang, made strange noises into a microphone (better known as beat boxing) and played games.  We also had time to talk and share.

Tyler explaining Dutch Blitz

   We can’t wait until we can do this 
   again some time.     
   
   Hope you enjoy the video below as
   as much as we did with all the 
   singing, talking, laughing and 
   game playing!

Walking In The Light

Tyler Stoltzfus meeting the pastor

We would like to share three short videos with you.  The first is Tabitha Mabus with a message about honesty within the body of Christ.  The second is Oliver Alexander challenging us to bring our all secrets into the light and repent and be freed from them.  

These first two are very powerful talks that go well together and have blessed and challenged many of us.

The third is a short clip from a song that was performed by a church youth choir.  We enjoyed listening to them and thought we would share a bit of it with you as well!

We pray you are also blessed and challenged by these videos!